BY PA NDERRY M'BAI Gambia's president Yahya Jammeh had time and time championed himself as the country's leading and must enterprising farmer in living memory. Yearly harvest derived from his Kanilai farm are usually given extensive media coverage by the state owned media GRTS. JAMMEH POINTING AT THE NEW TAIWANESE FARMING TOOLS, AS FORMER ENVOY AND SACKED BLAISE JAGNE WATCH BY!!!!! Jammeh's engagement in farming is being seen as something extraordinary by his supporters. TV camera men closely monitored the dictator's movements when he toured his farm. He uses such forums to vilify Gambian farmers for being "lazy" and not committed to work. Jammeh believes that he is the best farmer in The Gambia. To some extent he might be right, since he is using our parents for cheep labour. None of the people working at his farm are compensated for their labour. These hard working Gambians are made to work for long hours without any payment. Some Ruling party big wigs including Jammeh will argue that as far these individuals, are not forced to work there is nothing wrong with such a gesture. They will also tell you that every Department of state should extend helping hands to the head of state to realise his dream to make The Gambia food sufficient. What's evident is that, most of these people working at the president's farm are not doing it at their own free will. Civil servants are taking part because they don't want to be fired. Talking to them in private they will tell you"It's only Jammeh who can subject me to such farming exercise." Soldiers are also taking part in the exercise. Contingent upon contingent are sent to the president's farm to work. They dance and chant Jammeh slogans though out the time they spent at his Kanilai farm. The military is expected to be neutral and stay away from active politics. But this is not the case in The Gambia. We are not opposed to Jammeh's farming activities. Our contention is the nature he used Gambians for cheap labour. Call it forced labour you make no mistake. Call it civilised slavery, you make no mistake. Proceeds derived from his farm are usually sold back to the same people who extended helping hand to Jammeh. We are living witnesses to Jammeh's business activities. We have seen his Kanilai harvest being sold out at the Albert Market in Banjul, in the name of trying to cub inflation? Jammeh himself will use such occasions to accuse certain businessmen of economic sabotage. He brags time and time that his intention is to stabilise the ailing economy. But the situation is still getting from bad to worst. Opposition leader Ousainou Darboe was very right, when he branded Jammeh as a businessman in one of his press briefings. What we have in The Gambia today is a commercial president. He wants to engage in all business ventures to realise his dream of being a world billionaire. Already his is ranked as Africa's richest president. Now his dream is to top the world list of billionaires. Jammeh's engagement in active farming came into being when the Taiwanes government donated fleets of tractors to poverty stricken Gambian farmers. These tractors were meant for the Gambia's farming community. Guess what? As soon as he received the gift, he took it as his personal property. In fact, he went on air announcing that the tractors were brought in the country by his government. As usual, GRTS reported that "the president had donated tractors to farmers in a bid make The Gambia food sufficient." Interestingly, the tractors that were meant to help farmers, were used by Jammeh for commercial purposes. Farmers who could not afford to rent these tractors were denied access to the farming tools. Perceived opposition sympathisers were also not allowed to use the tractors. Is our president really committed in his dream of making The Gambia, food sufficient or a food exporting nation.? With these politics of exclusion, discrimination and exploitation, there is no way that The Gambia will be food sufficient under Jammeh's rule. Thanks to the opposition, Gambians were informed about the source of the much talked about tractors gift. Following a pressure from the opposition MPS, former majority leader Tamsir Jallow, unveiled that the tractors were donated to The Gambian government by the Taiwanese government. At the time, a delegation of Taiwanese government officials had a meeting with our members of parliament. This perceived "embarrassing revelation by Tamsir Jallow" prompted the NIA to pick Jallow for questioning. There is hopelessness among the farming community. For the past four years, Jammeh's government could not market our farmers produce. Farmers sell their produce on credit. They sat for months without being paid for their hard earned money. As a result of this low morale affecting the farming community, some have totally abandoned active farming. This is adversely affecting our nation's GDP. The country ceased to export groundnut, cooking oil and other farming needs for sometime now. All these could be attributed to Jammeh's reckless agricultural policies. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/ いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい 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] いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい