The culture of silence By Tombong Saidy Dec 28, 2004, 06:55 I have been contemplating for a while about the dormant and indifferent attitude of Gambians, especially our elites and intellectuals. There is this culture of silence in The Gambia, a situation that is difficult to figure out whether it is good or bad. A situation one of my high school teachers used to call "silent agony". This culture of silence and indifference runs across all sectors of the society, from the family setting to public life. It is one thing to respect one’s elders and not to talk bad at them, but it is something else to keep quite and accept the status quo in the midst of injustice, whether within the family, classroom, and office or wherever it may be. One case in point is the current economic quagmire of the country. We have many economists and other professionals, but one does not hear any of them come out publicly with opinions. However, when one meets them in the bars, vous and other informal settings, they profer all sorts of solutions to our economic problems. Why the silence and indifference? The Gambia belongs to all of us and I believe we owe it to our children to do whatever it takes to make life bearable for them. The Gambian intellects are failing us. It does not matter whether you are an APRC or opposition sympathiser, if we do not change our attitude and indifference to what is happening around us, Vision 2020 would just be a dream that will never be realised. I consider myself an APRC supporter, one of the originals. We supported Chairman Jammeh and the Council from day one, even though at the time some of us were not in the country. I believed then and I still believe that the July 22 coup was the only way change could have been brought into the country. Thank God that Yahya Jammeh and members of the Council had the guts to overthrow Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara. President Jammeh has been in power for ten years now and it is time Gambians take stock of this ten years. There are a lot of success stories, but there are also some failures, which we should assess with a view of making things better in the future. Actually, there are more successes than failures, none the less, the failures are easily visible and usually blown out of proportion. There have been recorded successes in the education, health, information and communication, infrastructure and agriculture sectors. The university, high schools and the mushrooming of tertiary institutions all over are highly appreciated. However, there has been less than desirable progress in good governance, human rights and the energy sector, the black spots in the record. Nawec has been a cancer in the development of the country for decades now, from the days of Jawara to Jammeh. Despite all the name changes, from Gambia Utility Corporation (GUC) to Nawec, the problem remains the same: constant darkness. Vision 2020 cannot be, and will never be, achieved if the problem of energy in the country is not solved once and for all. There cannot be development without a reliable supply of energy. Now the problem is not only electricity but also water supply, which I believe is also related to the supply of electricity. It has been a challenge for the Jawara government and it is even a bigger challenge for President Jammeh because the energy portfolio is under him. Recently, we have witnessed a tumultuous economic and political turbulence characterised by ‘Operation No Compromise’. We have seen what happened to Baba Jobe and former SoS Yankuba Touray. These two cases along with many others are not small and ordinary happenings. I am glad that now we have a university and I hope the political science and other social sciences students are discussing these issues, but we should discuss them in public as well. Discussing these matters will enable us to nurture our young democracy. I do personally believe that both men were more of assets than liabilities to the APRC government, but this is a matter for a future article. I remember Neneh MacDoll hosting several discussion on the depreciation of the Dalasi on her television programme, In-depth. The amazing thing about those series of discussions was that only few of the participants were courageous enough to take the bull by the horn. And if my memory serves me right, it was only Hatib Janneh who spoke his mind. Some intellectuals would not venture into speaking their mind even if given the chance. ‘Operation No Compromise’ has resulted in the banning of the parallel market, arresting of money changers, raiding the businesses of some prominent Gambian and foreign businessmen and seizure of some foreign currencies. As much as these moves might have seemed to have some positive impact of temporarily stabilising the Dalasi, these were not the solutions to the problem. The main reason why the Dalasi was depreciating were many, however two main reasons were the activities at the Central Bank (which has been checked since) and high government expenditures. As soon as ‘Operation No Compromise’ reached the Central Bank, the Dalasi stabilised. Issues like theseneed to be debated loudly and clearly with a view to rectifying the situation and avoiding a recurrence. Escalating government expenditure and ever-rising national debt are other facts to be looked into. There are instances when junior officials would carry out orders or instructions knowing fully well that they are wrong instructions. In private they would show beyond any reasonable doubt that what they have been asked to do is wrong, but for some reasons they would not tell their immediate bosses. For The Gambia to get where we want it, we have to change our attitude completely. The Gambia belongs to all of us and it does not matter which political party one belongs to. Just recently, when three new Secretary of State, Bai Mass Taal, Sulayman Mboob and Fatou Faye were being sworn-in, President Jammeh said among other things, that anyone who knows that he or she cannot deliver should simply resign. This should not be limited to civil servants alone, but to the private sector. When one feels that he or she cannot work with President Jammeh, the person should resign, but most would rather stay and not only give bad advice with grave consequences, but they would go further into being sycophants to hide their incompetencies. They would turn into liars and hypocrites making the lives of the productive few very miserable. Why? It is completely unfair to the President for those who are close to him to be silent and give bad advice or concur with him on matters they know beyond all reasonable doubt are wrong and unjust. The silence that followed the gruesome murder of Deyda Hydara is deafening and scary. The murder of Deyda Hydara is extremely wrong anyway one looks at it. The act is barbaric and "unGambian". What are next, political assasinations? I just hope this is not the beginning of a culture of senseless killings and no Gambian should rest until his gruesome murder is solved. Such incidents could create vigilante groups and individuals and would serve no good to this country. If we really want to live the dreams of Vision 2020 and nurture our young democracy, we should kill this culture of silence and work together in the interest of The Gambia, FOR THE GAMBIA OUR HOMELAND. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤