Karamba reacts to Maatong’s corruption commentary, clarifies letter on taxation
Dear Editor,
I wish to address the short reference Mr. Maatong
made in his long diatribe against a laundry list of individuals aboutthe recent article I wrote in which I tried to discuss the currentonerous taxation regime and its consequences on individuals andbusinesses. In writing the oped I endeavored to support my argumentswith a historical context coupled with substantive and verifiabledata so that the reader is not left with hollow generalities.
The thrust of my argument was that the first Republic and Sir Dawda who as President, bear ultimate responsibility, kept taxes moderate and demonstrated greater fiscal discipline. They tried to do that by limiting the scope and reach of gov't . I was not trying to construct a narrative aimed at portraying Sir Dawda or the folks who worked for
him as being the best thing that ever happened to Gambia or that there weren't wrong doers. But I am convinced that our first President and the overwhelming majority of the folks who helped him run the gov't had the commitment, temperament and ability to run a reasonably effective administration. None of us should hold brief for demonstrably corrupt or ineffective individuals of responsibility at anytime and the passage of time should not absolve anyone who has wronged the Gambian people. As a result, if Mr Maartong or any similarly inclined Gambian can present persuasive and properly sourced cases of corruption, incompetence or violation of fiduciary
responsibilities to the Gambian people, we should all be eager to see and evaluate those allegations and appropriately judge them. The standard has to be the simple pursuit of the truth and the best route to that conclusion is verifiable data, with references to time, names, amounts, actions related to alleged conduct and so on. It is not enough to say 'oh well we've always believed O.J was corrupt, Assan Musa was corrupt this department head was corrupt' I would like a coherent description of any said allegation meet a minimum standard of believability because this is the only way to ferret out truth from fiction. The temptation to cast wide aspersions on individuals or
groups of people based entirely on conjecture is strong especially with regard to people that are prominent because often times, people want to confirm their worst instincts about these folks. A modest three bedroom house in Fajara or Pipeline and car in itself is hardly evidence of official misconduct especially, considering the fact nearly
all of these officials would have spent lifetimes spanning decades in their chosen vocations. I think the reason the rage is amplified in the case of Alieu Mboge has a lot to do with how he seems to have no consideration for the Gambia or its people by cavorting the murderous tyrant Yahya Jammeh in pursuit of favors. As a card carrying member of
the permanent ' Siboru ' class, Mr Mboge is in league with the likes of Efery Mbye, politicised religious leaders and corrupt business folks looking for easy money. For this reason alone, Mr Mboge and his likes ought to be justifiably condemned for being shameless cheerleaders and enablers of a regime drenched in the blood of their countrymen.
The same can't be said of O. J, Assan Musa and many others mentioned by Mr. Maartong. O.J has consistently and honorably opposed Yahya Jammeh from 1994 to date and has repeatedly challenged Yahya himself to publish the findings of the Kangaroo courts convened after 1994 with the ostensible mandate of looking into PPP era corruption. It has been a 15-year wait and we are yet to determine what O.J is supposed to have done.
It is my belief we should be discriminating in our indictment of a whole category of people in the absence of at least a preponderance of the facts to avoid confusing the firefighters with the arsonists.
Sincerely,
Karamba Touray.