By Mathew K Jallow, Madison Wisconsin

Mathew K. Jallow

Recently, the metaphorically dour and dank pages of The Daily Observer carried yet one more of those ridiculous propaganda letters praising Yahya Jammeh for his U.N. speech. But, what Mariama Jallow, the ghost letter writer, did not know, was that Jammeh’s lame speech, impassionate, and characteristically bereft of ideas and substance, was delivered in an empty U.N. Conference chamber. The twenty long minutes his speech lasted, were unremarkably arduous, inglorious, and comically absurd; for anyone who thought the rest of the world leaders and their delegations had the gumption to listen to nonentities such as Jammeh, must be out of their minds. But, as the boisterously opulent décor of the hall obscured Yahya Jammeh’s perverted gratification, the echo of his words, in the gracious and magnificently palatial hall, oddly became an exemplification of the iconic success of the world body, as well as its tragic failures; the failures embodied in the nebulous and misanthropic personalities of a few of its recent stage actors, notably; Momar Ghadaffi, Iran’s Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez and their narcissistic disciple Yahya Jammeh.

Momar Ghadaffi as usual, was entertaining, more by his caricaturist sarcasm and impolite antics than anything else. His act, a sharp contrast to Yahya Jammeh’s, was an amusing display of buffoonery, political brinkmanship and brilliant salesmanship which turned his political grandstanding into the comedic acts that got him interviews on major networks and raving criticisms in others. It was a brilliant messaging technique in an unreal world, but we are in a real world, and his clowning efforts at clouding our collective minds to the barbarity he represents, should not be allowed to succeed. As an exporter of terror to the black African countries, Col. Ghadaffi does not deserve the adulation he generates among a small number of cynical African youth, but more importantly, African Union body, must be impelled to confront him for training the terrorists that dictators like Yahya Jammeh unleash in our cities, towns and countryside to create the mayhem that continues to aggregate the suffering of people around our country and beyond. Momar Ghadaffi’s growing influence in black Africa is solicited by regimes committed to stifling all popular efforts at enforcing term limits and good governance, all in the perpetuation of their own dictatorship designs.

Before he left for New York, however, Jammeh’s rush of paranoia, as usual, compelled him to threaten to kill dissenters and human right activities in our country. His threat was in part idle, preemptive posturing, designed to scare would-be coup contemplators, but what Yahya Jammeh was really trying to do was to regain some lost momentum in the fight for the lost soul of our country. The fact that now, opposition parties can convene political rallies as mandated by our Constitution, in defiance of the illegal and arbitrary efforts at muzzling of the rights of political institutions, and papers like Point Newspaper and Foroyaa can so audaciously carry stories they self-censured just a few short weeks ago, embodies the courage of an emerging new political dynamic, and the hardening of the anti-regime momentum generated in our country and around the world. It is this new development that Jammeh is trying to reverse, with the hope of returning our country to those dark days a few short months ago, when mortifying fear paralyzed us into silence. Yahya Jammeh’s punitive policies of the past have become counterproductive in light of the vocalization of our disgust over what his regime has turned our country into.

But, the tragic situation our country finds itself in was in the full glare of the public yet again last week as emperor Jammeh affected a sweeping display of his colorfully callous bravado and vindictive, sadist disdain. In a brief moment of mental degeneration, Yahya Jammeh precipitously fired dozens of Gambians from their jobs, without any reason, and as if that act alone was not stretching his luck, Jammeh fired his army’s so-called general;  Lang Tombong Tamba. Of particular concern here is not Lang Tombong’s fate per se; for we don’t give a shit about him and all his fake and meaningless general badges, rather his case is mentioned only as an illustration of Jammeh’s obfuscation and the dysfunctional chaos of his regime. His so-called government is in a state of permanent administrative paralysis, and the perennial circumvention of employee legal and Constitutional rights are the causes of the ubiquitous anxiety and fear over job losses that pervades every level of the bureaucracy. The military and security personnel that Jammeh recently fired, may hopefully begin to come to terms with the devil they served with slavish fervor, yet their experiences will come no closer to previous military and security personnel who fell in disfavor with Jammeh and endured horrendous acts of violence.

Yet, it came as surprise to all that the clown Lang Tombong Tamba, who received three “meritorious” promotions within the year, was fired for incompetence before he knew it. It says more about Jammeh’s own failures than about the erstwhile general, yet in firing so many non Jola senior military officers, Jammeh opened up an opportunity to position more Jolas under senior replacements; and it is these Jolas who wield the real power and have direct access to Yahya Jammeh. This issue of Jammeh’s tribalism took center-stage once again two weeks ago when Mendy B’s first article hit the pages of Allgambian.net. It was such a compelling revelation that I forwarded it to all the other online papers, but surprisingly, the online papers did no amplify Mendy B’s article as I had hoped. “The Ring of Steel” revelation is one of the most important policy insights into the workings of the Jammeh regime. It is now evident that Yahya Jammeh has always used tribalism as his pathway to maintain power and create divisions amongst our tribal groupings. The writer, Mendy B’s disclosure about the way Jammeh has targeted Fulas, Mandinkas and Wollofs, and often victimized them through allegations based on nothing, is disturbing to say the least and beyond our ability to rationalize. The questions this raises are plentiful; have people died based on false accusations? Are people sitting in prison on the basis of made-up charges? A lot of questions need to be answered to clear the air, and restore the trust we shared with Jammeh’s preferred tribes. For now, our question to the Manjakos, Karoninkas and Jola brothers serving Yahya Jammeh who Mendy B is trying to bring to the side of Gambians is; what have the Fulas, Mandinkas and Wollofs done to deserve this barbarous treatment from you and Yahya Jammeh?

Like Mendy B, Kemo Cham’s contributions too have significantly illuminated aspects of the inner workings of the Jammeh regime and it ancillary appendages such as The Daily Observer. The recently fired military and security officers will learn the hard way that Jammeh lacks moral affinity to anyone and anything other than his self interest. It may seem paradoxical that whatever Yahya Jammeh does in furtherance of his self-interest, becomes his undoing, but that is exactly how dictatorships have develop into their own worst enemies. And just like other long gone regimes, divine providence or the accident of nature has charted a path for Jammeh to follow. It is a path to his downfall, and like cancer, it is terminal; for nothing can ever prevent it from happening. Yahya Jammeh’s overreach and strategic blunders will make sure of that; hopefully soon rather than later.