The Condescension of Self-Serving Megalomaniacs
By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor
For the better part of last week, I found myself deluged with, and pondering about a lot of pressing issues that demand my attention, but when I finally made up my mind, I decided to stick with the pernicious stories of two social renegades implicated in two separate, but characteristically similar incidences that caught my attention and infuriated me in a big way. The two, by a dint of fate, share stridently similar moral and ethical mores, which pit them against the social demands of projecting soberness, reasoned judgment and the good character we expect of people of their statute in our society.
Did I say, “expect of them”? Well, excuse my bad.
We can expect nothing from two buffoons whose shrill parochialism is at variance with the standard behavior of decency and class. I am talking, of course, about that pathetic hustler attorney, the blusterous juggernaut of legal inefficiency, that putrid attorney, Mr. Edward (Edu) Gomez. The second person who got on my nerves is the irreverent Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay, whose lack of grace projects the greed and banality that represents the morbid and withering failure of a regime that has impelled us to recognize the cowardly swagger and debauchery that now define Yahya Jammeh. Of course, there is more than compelling reason to employ venal language that does not speak so kindly in their favor, but the motivation to be measured and charitable in this instance, is a function of my very absolute desire and obligation to choose civility and the higher ground.
Power projection is one of Africa’s sickening banes and everyone who has ever sat inside a classroom, to receive western education, has found someone on whose feet they chose to step; almost always with malice, often willing, but again, often, unwittingly too, yet by force of habit.
Last week, Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay and Edward Gomez, both took center stage in separate political dramas that typically characterize the arrogance of Africans with crushing power to project against the weak and unsophisticated. Although the two emerged from different shades of shadow on the same spectrum, their motivations were different, their objectives similar, and the results they hope for, the same. FJC and Edu share a ringing endorsement of the murderous regime of Yahya Jammeh, despite Jammeh’s rancorous abuse of power and the insidious reign of terror that has characterized his desponding rule. It is of course, very hard to argue against the Darwinian concept self-preservation as primal motivator in our individual pursuit of happiness, but the existentialism of self-preservation is balanced out by morals that are equally defined by a primordial belief in a higher power. It is this power that compels us to exercise self-restraint and deny ourselves the most basic of our existential inclinations.
Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay and Edward Gomez could not be more different, yet are similar in many ways. One is highly educated, while the other is a functional illiterate; while one is Jammeh’s ultimate lapdog, and the other is an aspiring Jammeh bulldog; one has done nothing of significance for our country, but the other had done nothing, whatsoever, for anybody; one is consumed by the power inherent in politics, and the other is consumed by the power residing in the few privileged in our class society; one sees everything in life through the shady prism of politics, while the other is dying for a recognition through the murky prism of politics; one is the narcissistic representation of that pliant and often un-seductive millennial generation, while the other sprung from the idealistic baby-boomer generation, which gave us the reverend and stately Stokely Carmichael, Steve Biko and the immaculate Black Panther, Angela Davis. The explicit greed and nefarious personality of one, has earned her a coveted place on the right-hand of butcher, Yahya Jammeh; a Rasputin with a twist, but the other is still holding out hope that some day, Yahya Jammeh might just look his direction and satisfy his fifteen years carving for a position in that devil’s corrupt regime.
Last week, the two political transients managed to crowd out everyone from the story headlines, but their arrogant dabbling in power-play and in showcasing their mettle and their worth, served only to circumvent from the path to glory they sought, landing them instead smack into the fog of popular disfavor. Of course there is dichotomy to speak of; the dichotomy of corruption and greed, apt definitions of a regime upon whose sly and slippery wings both cling to. Edu Gomez has proven to be a shifty mercenary practitioner of law; a definition of everything unethical that is unlimited or unrestrained by morality and human conscience. For Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay, her given feminine nimbleness has been overtaken and overridden by the cruel machismo of Machiavellian insensitivity and the guerilla caricature of that human being that is defined by her stolid politics.
When FJC, by the power vested on her by her master, Yahya Jammeh, decided she could by her own volition, slam the door on an elected representative, she was cashing her agile ability to hunker down on the side of Jammeh; despite the adversarial chatter and natters she could expect from those of us who have not surreptitiously become the gatekeepers of The Gambia, but who have earned the mantle by the force of our craft. One does not shed tears when our National Assembly is dysfunctional, because when truth is told, nothing is accomplished there by the objective glory of a democratic consensus; rather, the despotic predetermination of policy has become the death sentence of the democratic dispensation process. On the other side of this story line, Edu Gomez, had the fetid audacity to demand the arrest and detention of Gambians who did no wrong and who broke no law. By what legal authority did Edward Gomez have the nerve to command police officers to illegally arrest and detain Gambians from their jobs? For flaunting the law of the land and creating pain and suffering, he should be sued for all he is worth. This putatively nifty practitioner of law must learn his lesson that we are sick of the supercilious attitudes of any Gambian who impinges upon our rights. This illegal and seemingly intractable usurpation of power must stop, and now.
The behaviors of FJC and Edu Gomez are a poignant reminder of the challenges that face our country. The two miscreants are the metaphors of lawlessness, representing those in our society detached from reality, and frighteningly dispassionate about the welfare of their fellow citizens. The two share the common desire to benefit from Yahya Jammeh’s largesse and magnanimity, and are uncensored and unburdened by the fact that it is our collective national resources that is being squandered for their benefit. Gambians must expect a level of gravitas and dignity from those who serve our public interest, and to be rewarded with anything less, is to accept the diminution of those sanctifying social values upon which the foundation of our collective goodness reside. We cannot do that. But more importantly, we must never allow this attitude of condescension, which is a catalyst in the creation of a class society, to continue in The Gambia. FJC, to her credit denied she suspended Babanding K. Daffeh, U.D.P. Kiang Central representative from the National Assembly, claiming tacit knowledge of the limitations of her Constitutional power, yet the language of admonition that she frivolously employed to deny him the right to freely express himself, does not improve her image and standing one iota. Bad is bad. And that is the bottom line. And as for the actions of Edu Gomez, his serial meddling in the affairs of organizations and individuals, tantamount to legal malpractice, and this is unacceptable conduct. City Limit Radio’s Moses Ndene and Kebba Yero Manneh ought to not only sue him, but also terminate their services with him.
The self-serving and boisterous attitude characterized by an age-old phrase “do you know who I am,” is a contemptuous defense mechanism that privileged Africans have used to protect them from the law and provide them with priorities and rewards that they neither deserve nor are entitled to. I cannot speak for other African countries, but in The Gambia, everyone deserves to be protected by the Constitution and the law of the land. Nothing less is acceptable.
And everyone must obey the law. No exception. No excuse. And even if you are Edward Gomez or Fatou Jahumpa-Ceesay, know this; we don’t care. Get it?
Associate Editor Mathew K. Jallow