“WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?” - I DARE ASK.

By Omar Saidy-Khan, Louisville, Kentucky

A day or two ago I was heartened by Jambang's outstanding demand that his colleague Sankanu explain his article which I criticized afore. However; Abdoulie Saine’s succinct and lucid question, "Where did we gone wrong...?"Woke me up. Abdoulie, I wonder over and over again. What I have been reading, hearing, I am at a lost where the source of the ability to foster coupled with the ability to inflict such cruelty on another human comes from. While in The Gambia I encountered unjustified, and unmitigated violent attacks from complete strangers who heard me say how I felt about the conditions prevailing in The Gambia. I was shocked by the ferocity of the confrontation, however; I came to realize how pervasive this kind of violence was. I often boasted that I knew someone in most villages in The Gambia, or some one who knew someone in every village in The Gambia, just to express how we are one big family, by the many possible connections like inter-marriages, and inter-cultural intercourses that are prevalent in the entire Gambian people. Tribal reasons cannot explain the pervasive arrogance and ethical bankruptcy and sheer ignorance being displayed by a significant number of the population. This may explain why we have an APRC regime. The 1994 treasonous clique and their sympathizers have failed to give us the reason for engaging in an unconstitutional endeavor. We will not accept the results as a matter of principle, because we believe in the Rule of Law. I challenge every soldier to show me where their commission gives them the right to violently take over power for any reason, especially because the government is corrupt. It is our right and power to vote them out, not some automatic toting goon to use weapons we bought. The present govt. is illegal and criminal. Having a vantage view of our relations with Senegal at the time of the Kukoi coup, I thought it was a knee-jerk reaction to our dismal and disgraceful security vulnerabilities. The PPP govt. with little or no serious assessments or analysis of our security requirements embarked on commissioning an army, ignoring the notoriety of African armies' to usurp power unconstitutionally. I must confess that the popular sentiment at the time called for undue caution. This found fertile ground in the thinking of a govt. that was trying to prove their manhood and resorted to narrow mindedness and unsophisticated anti-Senegalese stand. So instead of engaging the Senegalese in intelligent negotiations to secure both countries they sought for every reason to portray our unjustified suspicion of Senegalese of having ulterior motives. We needed to overcome our inferiority and achieve a security arrangement beneficial to both countries. Only folks infused with foolish pride would ignore the reality of our geo-political reality to know we are within Senegal and our security requirements are linked. A mature look would show that our most significant external threat could only come through Senegal, except for the short Atlantic coast. The government failed to think and lead as expected and thus are sold into slavery and sycophancy. As expected, the pervasive arrogance is portrayed in the coup of 1994. We must however treat the coupist as traitors and criminals and not heroes. Any atrocity committed in their endeavor must be condemned and they must be held responsible fully and completely. I wish to express my revulsion at the arrogance displayed by Sana Sabally. I do not know any of the criminals but if one can go by the furor his tribute to his co-coupist engendered he needs to beg for forgiveness first. The atrocities aside, their treason has consequences they must answer for. The Gambian suffering deserves an apology before a tribute to a criminal. They have yet to convince me that it is justified to over throw the Gambian people’s choice by violence. Even the slightest attempt to condone this criminal and treasonous act is nonsensical until these arrogant ex-soldiers sincerely repent. Hate is not a motivating factor here. It is past time that fools with a gun learn their lesson. They took an oath to the Constitution and must answer to the provisions so stipulated in those articles in that sacred document.