Echo Analysis

The Gambia: Terrorism and Economic Looting

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

Yahya Jammeh & friend, Lamin Sabi Sanyang

The recent revelations, in The Gambia Echo, of massive transfers of cash to one Lamin (Sabi) Sanyang, a so-called employee of The Gambian Embassy in Washington, D.C, does not even begin to characterize the surreal corruption in which Yahya Jammeh and his regime are engaged. The facts and numbers presented in these stories are not made up; they are very real, however hard to believe as they may seem to some. The Gambia Echo wishes the stories were not true, but sadly, that is not the case. Throughout his reign of terror, Jammeh has consistently engaged in a web of deceit and lies; for while telling the Gambian people one thing, he is preoccupying himself in the rape and loot of our country’s meager wealth. The larger-than-life persona that Jammeh is still manufacturing for himself, has made it possible for him to remain unchallenged, largely out of fear; but in spite of the unprecedented orgy of corruption and terrorism that he has unleashed on our countrymen. An objective autopsy of Yahya Jammeh’s regime will reveal the dark forces of an evil underworld, which manifests itself in the cruel, savage and barbaric way he has chosen to rule over our people. Jammeh finds in his traditional Jola culture, a potent living force that propels his superstitious beliefs and the subjective way he reacts to the most innocuous things that people he perceives as enemies, say or do. In this never land world of superstition in which Yahya Jammeh’s mind resides, there are mortal enemies lurking in every corner; accounting for his erratic behavior and the cruelty that has now become the hallmark of his regime. Instead of science and logic, Jammeh has relied exclusively on soothsayers and fortune-tellers to steer his shallow brain, and it is this lack of scientific curiosity and intellectual depth, that has become the bane of the Gambian people and the godless curse of Yahya Jammeh. For him, the transcendent issue is not development of our country, but rather, his own political survival, this, despite the very horrendous living conditions our countrymen are faced with. Jammeh is operating under a climate laced with his vitriolic hatred and distrust of anyone he sees as a potential threat to his regime’s survival, and as history has shown, any challenge to him will be turned in a matter of life and death. As the revelations of the ongoing brutal murders, tortures and disappearances of Gambians indicate, the savagery, which is associated with him, and his regime, is matched only by the epidemic corruption that is strangling our country.

As in previous years, Transparency International Inc. has this year, ranked The Gambia at the very bottom of the heap; among the most corrupt countries in the world. Transparency International, which resources its findings from such globally renowned institutions as The World Bank, African Development Bank, The Bertelsmann Foundation and The World Economic Forum among others, has for 2008, classified The Gambia as the 158^th most corrupt country out of the 180 countries surveyed. The Gambia’s distinction as one of the most corrupt countries in the world in 2008 follows a steady trend of decline in the ratings since 2004. In 2004, The Gambia was the 90^th most corrupt out of the145 countries that were surveyed; in 2005, the country profile fell to 103^rd most corrupt in the world; in 2006, the decline continued, placing The Gambia as 121^st most corrupt; and in 2007 it declined further again to the 143^rd most corrupt. In the space of just five years, The Gambia has rapidly declined from a moderately corrupt to among bottom eight places as the most corrupt nations on earth. In this unenviable role, The Gambia is now in the league of such countries as Zimbabwe, Guinea Bissau and a few others with regimes as rotten as The Gambia’s. This is not surprising since Jammeh controls The Central Bank, and his business interests extend to every revenue-generating institution of government; from Gamtel /Gamcel, to Ports Authority and to Livestock Marketing to name just a few. As our country swims in debt that we can never be able to pay, Jammeh is wasting our money on members of his family as well as to satisfy his narcissism. It is evident that the sub-text of Jammeh’s criminal disregard of our nation’s interest, his lackadaisical attitude to accountability, and the recklessness, with which he is spending our country’s wealth, speaks to our collective impotence to challenge and much less to remove him from power. Today, the welfare of our people is in a precarious state, as the country’s bureaucracy is teetering on the brink administrative disintegration. With unquestionably the highest turnover rate of any bureaucracy in the world, frustration, disillusionment and marginalisation have left our bewildered bureaucracy in a state of morbid disinterest. The way in which the regime is managing our country, is, even as we speak, precipitating new social paradigms, which until the past ten years were foreign to the stability of our country. This year alone, there were more civilian-to-civilian murders in the country than during the entire thirty years of Jawara’s successive governments. In every crime category; from murders to rapes and armed robberies, the crime rate in the country has escalated to intolerably high levels; to victimize our once laid back and peaceful countrymen. This is not accidental given the access to hardcore drugs which were unknown in the country less than a decade ago, but which today, are wreaking havoc on our youth. Yahya Jammeh is known to contribute in exacerbating the drug use problem that is ruining our youth by allowing and personally involving, as a willing accomplice, in the trafficking and trans-shipment of hardcore drugs like cocaine through The Port of Banjul. Some years ago, Interpol intercepted a vessel around Mauritania laden with cocaine bound for Banjul. The said cocaine was marked as fertilizer for the Gambian Department of Agriculture. Recently, some elected members of Jammeh’s political party, the APRC, were caught trafficking in drugs, just as Yahya Jammeh has been doing over the past decade. Yet, they are the only ones being prosecuted for their crimes, but not Yahya Jammeh, who, with prayer beads and the Holy Koran as his constant companion, is deceptively trying to market himself as a paragon of virtue. The proclivity to violent tendencies that are seeping among segments of our youth is a reflection of the social decadence that has become a fact of life in the country, but which the regime is unwilling or unable to acknowledge. As a statement of frustration and due to the scarcity of opportunities, the youth are expressing themselves in ways that are alien to our culture of accommodation and peaceful co-existence. The regime’s naiveté and uncaring attitude is percolating in many negative ways as a mark of defiance among our youth, and the unsavory behavior of the youth speaks unequivocally to dreams broken and hope surrendered to calamitous despair. Similarly, the dereliction of responsibility by Jammeh and his maggots, the lack of probity in his regime, the absence of political accommodation and the perennial witch-hunting that has turned the Jammeh regime into a nemesis of the people, has only heightened the compunction with which the regime is regarded. The Gambia today is at a crossroads, and the question facing us all is whether we will swim or sink with this regime, and whether will continue to be dragged into and held hostage in the impiety that has characterized this regime’s insipid fourteen year autocratic reign. As The Gambia Echo and other online papers have echoed consistently over time, at some point, we Gambians must learn to jettison our malleability and paucity of courage and take on a regime that is figuratively and literally leaving in its wake utter carnage and the skeletons of despair and anguish. The army and our security services must get serious in reflection and self-assessment and look at the facts on the ground; the murders and the carnage over these years, the ongoing tortures, the instability and utter confusion in the civil service, the disappearances of fellow citizens, the hunger and filth at Mile II Prisons where decent Gambians are warehoused and left to rot in cramped and stinking mosquito infested prison cells, the endless hiring and firings, the terror and fear in the hearts of our fellow citizens, the debacle of Jammeh’s wasteful use of our country’s limited wealth, to name just a few. We have stood by for far too long consumed by our fear and unburdened by the depraved manner our country is being run by the leaches at State House. On this day, at this time, in this moment, The Gambia is the only country in Africa that does not have a free and independent media to boast about. It is disgraceful that our citizens have to depend on exiled newspaper outlets such as this online paper to inform them about things that are happening right under their noses. A totally free and independent media is the fourth estate of government, and no country can achieve any level of meaningful development without an educated and informed population empowered through education and information to make the right political choices. Moreover, most of Gambia’s best and brightest minds and educated elite have fled the country out of fear for their lives, all for the sake of one person; Yahya Jammeh. Those that remain are either out of jobs and wasting away the education our country spent so much time, energy, and resources to give them, in the hope they would return to help move the country forward. Today, mediocrity has largely taken over as Jammeh fills the ranks of the Civil Service with his half-educated fellow Jola tribesmen and others willing to surrender their prides and dignities to slave under his regime. Now even as Gambian children are rummaging for food along the seaside tourism belt, and the youth are following tourists for a few pennies to take home, while school-age girls drop out and turning to prostitution to help feed their families, and muggings and strong-armed robberies escalate, Yahya Jammeh continues to throw massive parties and festivities to celebrate himself. Enough is enough, and together we must find a way to get rid of the monster, Yahya Jammeh, and restore dignity and civility to our country. Our people have suffered enough already. They deserve a humane and caring government to usher in an era of reconciliation and reconstruction, which will move our country into this new 21^st century. We deserve our place among the civilized nations of the world from which we have been ostracized for the past fourteen long years. And as The Gambia Echo’s new contributor from home opined, the time is NOW. Waato Seeta! WaktuoYottima! Wahtube Jotna!