Editor:
Please I am not Lamin J. Darboe the eminent Laywer as you surmised. He always sign Lamin J. Darboe and prescribe his lawyer title. I live in Leicester and Lamin J. darboe live in London. His power of language and prose would have more scintillating than the layman style of mine. He is not a man who is ever afraid to reveal identity. Please apologise to him.
I have no rancour or indignation in me toward you as you suggest. Why should I. This is only exchange of perpectives. I am a regular reader of you medium and have seen how you portray yourself as champions for freedom of speech, human right, democracy and all its segular manifestations. Yet you pick and choose which article to publish.
That is wrong especially in the light of the issues raised by Samsideen Sarr. Mr sarr's article was potentially divisive and wittingly seem to tard every mandigo with the same brush of tribal intolerance.
I sent an article rebuffing the incendiary issues posited by Mr. Sarr and you refused to publish it. You didn't even have the courtesy replying to explain the reasons why you choose not to publish it. I could sense double standard unless you can explain that was not the case. However you chose to keep quiet. The same tactic was meted to Suntou Touray. I would not defend him for the sake of defending, but for the sake of truth. Your paper never failed to castigate the gambia government or anyone else; when ever you felt freedom of speech is being threatened or subjugated. We also felt you were exactly doing the same. You should live by your standards, your jounalistic standards; that's how real men earn respect; not by brushing aside people with different perspective on matters of national interest.
Look you refuse to publish Touray's piece but Freedom paper did publish it; how does that tell on you. You maybe right that its was the so called educated people who have been messing us through out the last decades of our nationhood but there were quite a number of those has made tremendous impact. And you in person have done very well so far.
Please we are all brother's in nationhood and in deen. We could have divergent views as grains of sand on the beach but we should all by the end of day converge on instrumentalising our competences for national good. I cannot end this article without quoting the holy Quran (sura nissa 3:135), O you who believe, stand out firmly for justice, as witness to Allah; even though it be against yourselves. or your parents; or your kin; be he rich or poor. Alah is better a protector to both. so follow not th lust of (your hearts) lest your avoid justice; and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, Allah is ever well acquainted with what you do.
Thank
Lamin darboe
Leicester. UK
Mr. Sankareh:
Many thanks for your press release on the saga with Suntou.
I know that as a master of the English language, it could not escape you that the readership of The Gambia Echo may still entertain the erroneous view that I am the Lamin Darboe fighting for Suntou.
I would be grateful if you could please clarify my non-involvement in this matter, that I have written to that effect, and may be even publish my short letter. I have no wish to be remotely associated with irrelevant ethnic quarrels. A full and frank disclosure of what transpired only makes you a better Editor!
I count on your professional integrity to do the right thing.
Regards and best wishes.
LJDarbo
Mr. Sankareh:
This is a follow-up mail to the one I sent after our mistaken identity conversation last night.
I thought we both understood the necessity for a clear statement from The Gambia Echo clarifying to its readership that Lamin J Darbo (not Darboe), London, never wrote on the 'tribal' debate sparked by Samsudeen Sarr.
Clearly, I was particularly injured by being erroneously associated with Suntou's issues with The Echo, and a general apology to your readers does nothing to resolve my specific concerns. Although happy to contribute periodic articles to your publication, any such relationship would be meaningless if this critical matter is not adequately resolved.
I hope you appreciate the logic in restricting this matter to your reputable Echo medium
Regards,
LJDarbo
Editor E Sangareh:
Allow me to express my part in the reconciliation process to highlight that , i never doubted your credibility as an editor. In fact , i have drum-up publicity for the Gambia Echo news paper to many of my friends and i have regularly posted your news items on different Gambian forums ,notable among them is the exchanges between brother Suwaibou and Mathew k Jallow.
In my part ,i agree that we should move on from the potential unhealthy exchanges, The Gambia is for us all. I did not receive any message sent to me from your end ,it may have been mistakenly sent some were but i accept your word for it. If I hard received any further information from your end ,i would not have choose to deliberately move the medium of debate to freedom news paper. The debate was taking place in your paper .I waited for two weeks before sending my reply to the Freedom newspaper.
I don't have the energy to engineer any media war. I respect you and hold you in high esteem ,you are an indefatigable journalist. The readership of the Gambia on line news papers must realise the cost and time involve in making a good news piece ,it is not easy at all. Coming from a finance and accountancy background ,i can sense the amount of overhead cost involve in maintaining a quality editorial and publications. I commend the whole band of editors out there. I will await the response from Uncle Samsideen ,we can carry the debate as health as should be. I never aim to smear your character.
Suntou Touray, UK
Suntou:
Thank you for forwarding Lamin Darboe of Leicester's effort in clarifying matters of identity with Sankareh.
Please refer (below) to one of three emails I sent to Sankareh regarding his attack (migrated to the Mighty by Mr. Sanneh) in The Gambia Echo on the mistaken assumption that I was the Lamin Darboe at the centre of his 'dialogue' with you.
I am yet to be honoured with an acknowledgement to any of my mails, and needless to say, Lamin Darbo of Leicester's clarification was also ignored by Sankareh. In any case, please refer to Sankareh's Press Release after my phone conversation with him, and decide whether it effectively cured the front-page assault forwarded to the Mighty.
I am pleased that Sankareh expeditiously expunged the offending piece from The Echo, but the haphazard apology and the attempt to cover his error raises issues of fundamental concern regarding the ethics and management of his paper.
If The Echo is a company, it has a distinct legal personality and must not be routinely used as a personal instrument of attack. This benefits the paper from the perspective of professionalism, as well as avoid potential liability for the defamatory tort of libel. Sankareh was under a professional obligation to run a correction once he was made aware of an identity mix-up by Lamin Darboe of Leicester.
In my view, the essential rationale underlying the usefulness of the on-line papers centres on the permanent blackout of vital news in the Gambia, and as such, papers like the Echo must resist the temptation of becoming tactical apprentices of the dictatorship.
I am willing to accept what happened in this saga was a simple error that Sankareh should have confronted squarely by issuing an effectively apology, rather than attempt a cover-up that raises quite uncomfortable questions about a good outlet.
LJDarbo.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Like I said in the press release the other day, I will not comment on any of these exchanges. I have also decided to publish all letters without editing, adding or omiting a letter from the original texts. To Lamin J. darbo The Gambia Echo says Sorry for the mischaracterization- Lamin Sabarri!! You may also be curious to note that The Echo commentary addressed a lawyer Lamin Darboe and now that we are told that he is different from Lamin J. Darbo it should be noted that Lamin Darboe without the middle initial J and without the letter E on the last name could not necessarily be Lamin J. Darbo, the grand advocate in the UK. If this does not suffice we can run a full page ad to say that Lamin J. Darbo and Lamin Darboe are two different individuals.
Amazingly however, we noticed that the Lamin Darboe who wrote the angry letter to the Echo has a sharper literary tang than the one who wrote the rejoinder asking us to apologise to Lamin J. Darbo. This is an English student's nightmare.
To Suntou Touray I say Ajarama and please continue to write and whenever you get angry drop the pen and have Ataya. To Lamin Darboe of leicester thank you for the clarification and Enimbara. To all of you good luck and best wishes.