I posted a small welcome message for the new party in Gambia's political scheme. Some writers are of the opinion that, at this juncture in the Gambia's history, more parties are not wha is needed. But one person left this comment about Mai Fatty which i commented on.
Have a read:
Anonymous said...
"mr mai fatti,leader of this new party, will face a courtcase as soon he arrives in the gambia, this so said in justice believing person, buys goods without paying them, to be continued....31 January 2009 12:04"
My response to the above comments.
Thanks for your comment. I don't know Mai fatty and certainly cannot comment on his private dealings. I have the opinion that, any citizen of the Gambia who intends to assume public office should first be vetted and scrutinised by an independent authority for past frauds, crimes and moral conducts. But this is when the country has
independent bodies that can act neutral and objective but in our case that is not so.I intend to write about the old forms of leader selection God-willing. But we live in a modern world, people can put themselves forward to be elected as future presidents and other lower public offices. This i believe is self-defeating. Mai Fatty is said to be a man of strong personality and a strong negotiator. Also he is said to stand up for the student members of Muslim high school during his head boys days and that he defended folks from rural areas who were intimidated by some city boys. Another news i heard of him was an encounter he had with his lecturer in Foray Bay college Sierra Leon. The story is that, Mai kept attending the court proceeding of his lecturer in law but the Lecturer warn him to stop attending his sitings, which Mai refuse to do. Later he had a problem with the university authorities. Do the Gambia needs a Strong headed leader at this juncture?
This is debatable. There have been many sad and bad things that occurred in our tiny country. A charismatic and steady person who is intelligent and having a good foresight is thus a suitable person we need to put the country together again. If anyone argue that the Gambia is not divided today, then that person don't understand the underlying problems brewing under the surface. Yahya has thrive on dividing the population and using heavy handed methods in silencing and cowing the decent citizens of the Gambia. To bring peace and reconciliation, a united opposition is needed for the first five year after Yahya. This will bring us together and help set up several committees to investigate past crimes and deal with them professionally and dignifiable.The future of the Gambian union is in the hands of level headed Gambians. Mai seems to be a level headed person, but will his personal dealings haunt him? I don't know. God is the best judge. One thing politics
do, is uncover people's personal lives. I hope Mai can handle all the issues that will now come to be associated with him. If indeed he has issues to sort of with people, then i advise him to do that now and move on.
Masoud, i admire season Gambians, and that include you even though as your uncle, you call me with 'ni'. The writer Lamin sanneh took a strong view of LJ's observation. LJ is known and well respected. I agree we can strongly disagree with each and sometimes our disagreements may take emotional twists. I don't know many things legal in the technical sense. The Gambia has many intelligent folks with law degrees, but i hardly read or hear anyone voluntarily decoding or explaining issues of national importance in terms of law and legal issues. yet LJ try his best here and the G-Post to explain legal issues in ways that even laymen like myself can comprehend delicate legal matters. I don't understand why some may have a problem with brothers utilising their expertise in a public forum. I wonder sometimes if our country is stagnant or moving
forward.
LJ's take on Mai's speech can be view from different angles, depending on ones understanding of the content of the speech. From the little i heard of the records of LJ during his stint as Magistrate, it was one of professionalism and efficiency. it is said that he was effective, down to earth and approachable by all and sundry. the high profile case he handled involving my mbadin Imam Karamo Touray of Brikama and Lamin Waa Juwara was a test case at the time. It was LJ who acquitted those gentle men and set them free. Only a man with serious respect for the human rights of Gambians could have handled such a case. Magistrate LJ is indeed a big lose to the Gambia's legal profession for now. I hope peer jealousy don't get in the way of intellectual discussions. Mai will regardless of what LJ commented about have his share of supporters. people now make their minds base on several observations.
From: Haruna Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: some interesting comments about Mai Fatty on my blog
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, 2 February, 2009, 10:22 PM
Suntouni,
I like your take here. The only thing I would add is that the onerous nature of Gambia's "judiciary" ought not deter Hon.
Fatty from defending allegations against his person or the new Congress Party. The story about Hon. Fatty's activities vis-a-vis Fourah Bay College are both immaterial and insignificant in efforts to detract Hon. Fatty or the Congress party unless if it goes to the personal integrity of Hon. Fatty. Yoiu may discover that the lecturer at the college is found wanting in discernments and you will be left with a gaping mouth. Flies hovering over it.
Haruna. I love you men. There will always be detractors. I don't know what Gambia needs now or in the past. One thing I am certain of is that Hon. Fatty has intrinsic human rights. Gambia or no Gambia.
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 22:02:38 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: some interesting comments about Mai Fatty on my blog
To: [log in to unmask]
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www.suntoumana.blogspot.com
Sunday, 1 February 2009
2 comments:
For too long, people's voice have been crushed, and I believe that it is fair for Gambians and the larger public to discuss about him, to determine his eligibility as a public figure, his strengths, weaknesses and even idio-syncricies. Mr. Fatty should be very enthusiastic to engage and to encourage the public on this debate on him, and The Gambia Moral Congress, as I know him to be open minded. I ask that we make our country our passion like Mai himself had said, and in doing so, those like him who volunteer to steer public affairs must be ready to take both heat and praise with modesty.
Like all of us, especially those criticising him, Mai Fatty is not a saint, and certainly not perfect. He may have his weaknesses as a human being, and like every one else, the difference makes as to his acknowledgment of his frailties, amend them and his alacrity to move on. Even some of the best rightly Guided Caliphs started on very unimpressive footing, public figures who later shaped human history as well. I accept that like all of you, and them, Mai also must have made his own fair share of mistakes, and its nothing to be proud of. We all wished the contrary, but human progress is about learning from experiences, attorn, and move on, on a higher level. Mai is entitled to claim this human phenomenon, and its a process he stated earlier that he aspires, and to do his best to pursure.
Mai Fatty in forming GMC does not offer to participate in a contest of perfection. No one could claim to be without blemish, and this is not a justification for either me, him or any of you. If he offends any one, he said that he was truly sorry in his interview with Freedom newspaper last year, but I wish to draw attention to the over 70 percent of cases in his Chambers all of which are free legal service to poor Gambians. This excludes days and hours of police, NIA harassment, detention and arrest for his human rights activities, and a consistent record of twenty eight years for defending human rights and political plurality from teen student days, etc. Unlike most of you, Mai experienced the nauseating smell of the walls and floors of police cells, as a student activist to mature professional legal life, slept in mosquito infested cells of NIA for defending Gambians, experienced torture, intimidation, and family harassment, all for standing up to be counted. Mai did not run away or go under ground like some of us criticising him. He faced the brunt of the oppression inside the country without expectation of rewards, and rejected bribes of high profile government jobs in exchange for his silence. I have never heard him regreted abandoning the luxury of his bed to sleep on the bare floor of a cold, nasty police cell, or the bitter fangs of hunger under NIA detention, or see an in-mate piss next to his nose in confinement.
Its so easy to attack from comfortable refuge in the U.S or Europe, and what have some of you done for the struggle back home? This is the cruial question...what have you sacrificed for Gambia, to free Gambians under Yaya Jammeh?
Mai said publicly that he isnt proud of few things he may have done in the past, especially after he was failed by a lecturer at FBC and kicked out of school, when he almost lost his mind. In the wrong frame of mind, and almost lacking any sense of direction due to psycholigical, he may have done few things that are out of character. He was my school mate and I remember how he was put in jail for two weeks for fighting for Gambian students, and he never gave up on us. How many of you are courageous enough to publicly admit your faults and apologise for it? Why should we judge him by one standard and ourselves by a different standard? How fair is this? That was then, and I do not justify or glorify any mistake like he admitted as well.
Mai never gave up on us under torture or intimidation. This is not the time to give up on him. Let us treat each other fairly as Gambians. Mai took leadership role and suffered for us as a student without demanding much from us, and he proved his strength of personality as a leader. He went to prison to defend and protect us, and never chose the confortably out, like some us might do.
By forming GMC, Mai is forward looking, and his commitment to our people have assumed center stage in his life for long. This is undeniable. Even those who criticise him respect that about him. Lets join Mai on the journey of sacrifice, even if you are not ready to put yourself publicly on the line like him. Let us make The Gambia our passion like he said, and join forces to change the situation on the ground. If we continue to fight each other, the prize will elude us. Those who express caution with GMC, please put something pratical on the table that has practical national relevance on the ground in The Gambia, not just making fanciful theoretical assumptions thousands of miles away. Start doing something practical to back your fiery rhetoric and criticism!
Meanwhile farmers are starving, poverty is relentless, the economy is in ruins, education is on the rapid decline, infrustructure is in decay, parliament and courts are under tyrannical siege, and indegenous enterprise is dead. What is your plan for these, among others? Do you think its just simply enough for you to criticise those who set out to do something practical about these on the ground like Mai? Let us be realistic!!!
Hassan Jagne - [log in to unmask]
The whole construction of the provision principally falls on "ordinarily resident". This to any person, including any judge means one's normal place of residence. I know that judges do not interprete provisions in vacuum. They do so in relation to factual circumstances befor them to accord life and meaning to words or expressions as used in particular contexts.
Whether one uses the literal, purposive or any other meaning of a word or expression, it will make no sense if it cannot be tied down to facts being determined. Jurists are agreed on the contention that when a word or expression is clear, the ordinary dictionary meaning will be preferable to any other canon of legal interpretation. This is clearly the case as regards to "ordinarily resident". Even Lamin darbo, the self appointed legal luminary on the Gambian net will agree with me.
I will try to examine the factual context within which the expression "ordinarily resident" applies. Facts show that Mai Fatty has been ordinarily resident in The Gambia. A year ago, he sustained severe injuries in a car accident, injuries that were said to be life threatening and could not be treated in The Gambia, his normal place of residence. Consequently he was flown out of the country to receive specific medical treatment not available to him in his ordinary place of residence. Without such evacuation, it is highly likely that Mai Fatty may not survive. He therefore left his ordinary place of residence temporaily purposely for that treatment.
Fact also shows that Mai Fatty left to stay at hospital for care and treatment, which place certainly is no one's home and cannot be accepted as a place of residence, because it is a temporary place to stay until he gets better and permitted to return to his normal residence. The law does not care about how and why Mai Fatty came by his injuries, and thats why I failed to understand what Lamin Darboe meant by saying the cause of the injuries matter. The concept of causation has no bearing to this situation, except in his fanciful thinking. Unless there is preponderating evidence that Mai has conclusively disconnected himself from his known ordinary abode being Gambia, to another location outside The Gambia, it is too soon, and irresponsibly speculative to make the conclusions that Lamin darbo did. So far, Mai is known to be treating his injuries outside, no matter how long it takes.
Further, I find the inquiry as to where Mai "issued" his Speech petty, irrelevant, and redundant, requiring no technical spliting of legal hairs. The important thing is the contents of the speech, and it is addressed to Gambians. Mai started the speech with "Fellow Gambians", and was addressing Gambians generally. I fail to see the importance of his location in relation to the message contained in his speech or the merits of his values as he epoused them in that speech. Lamin Darbo refused to acknowledge that Mai's speech was also captioned "Global Press Release". It is intended for Gambian audiences worldwide, not just in the country, and as I read it, it was probably meant to be read from within The Gambia. However, that is besides the point unless Lamin Darbo can prove that Mai's message could be rendered diminutive by virture thereof.
Therefore, the two issues that were raised by Lamin Darboe have no merit. They have no relevance to the vitality of the message from Fatty, and his interpretation of the law is woefully wrong. He assumed an almost dogmatic position by asserting that the courts can only take his untenable version of judicial construction. That borders on pseudo-intellectual arrogance. His flamboyant journey into multiple approaches to legal construction of words and phrases is symptomatic of his seeming self-adulation and demonstration of his vain legal prowess. That wasnt necessary, and am appalled at his last sentence accusing of Mai ofusing the dictatorship to "hustle" on other Gambians. This guy is just jealous, because like a lawyer that he is, he should know Mai's record of sacrifice and commitment to Gambians for decades. While he was enjoying himself, Mai spent his student life suffering to make conditions better for Gambian students. We would like to know his own contributions to the struggle in The Gambia. We know that he was a Magistrate, and a very unsuccessful one at that. No wonder he ran away or was he dismissed by Yaya Jammeh?
Lamin Sanneh, Bristol, UK