I CRY FREEDOM 

                By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor–in-Chief

           There is an after dinner narrative that was famous during the bi-polar struggle when the United States and the defunct Soviet Union were in the height of the struggle for ideological dominance. The narrative goes thus: there lived two dogs; one in Holland and the other in Poland. Each Christmas, the Hollander   would go to Poland and bark fiercely but the Polish dog never paid attention. After doing this for successive Christmas dinners, the Polish dog became abrasive and decided to speak its mind. “My friend, we do not have enough meat to share with you. So you might as well go home and stop this silly barking” said the apparently irritated Polish dog. The Hollander responded calmly “Yes my good friend that you do not have enough meat is understood. My people in Holland have abundance of meat. I am not barking for food but for the freedom deficit, I am barking for democracy and human rights that are almost always absent here. I bark every Christmas to help you enjoy the bounties and inherent good in freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”

Mrs.Bush, Walensa& Bush Snr.( Lech Walensa is 1st. democratically elected president of Poland)

That was then in the height of the cold war, but as a student of contemporary history and politics, the invocation above is more fitting to Africa and The Gambia than ever before. Like the Hollander dog that protested the excesses of the communist establishment in neighboring Poland, we too have to stand steadfast to expose the freedom deficit in Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia: the killings, the disappearances, the abductions and the torture chambers in the hands of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

            The hiring and firing of civil servants and ministers almost at fever pitch, is an eloquent testimony to a nation at the precipice of disaster. The new trend that after they are fired all officials have to visit Mile Two; that infamous penitentiary is to say the least, sickening. If any thing, this new phenomenon in Gambia’s body politics reveals that Yahya Jammeh’s long predicted paranoia have methestasized and our dear nation and its people need us abroad to speak up loud for the world to recognize their sorry state of affairs.

            I had e-mail the other day that requested that I call a certain phone number. Lo and behold when I called, the person was an APRC insider who was among other things a National Assembly Member (NAM). Prior to this solicitation, a writer from Raleigh, NC had intimated that “the overtures have begun. That very soon I will be another Omar Faye, Manlafi Jarju, Dr. Amadou S. Janneh etc.” He concluded by way of admonishing me “not to be an idiot” but to heed to the dictates of the situation. After an hour long phone conversation, I think I have convinced the subtle diplomat that I am not in the United States out of frustration nor do I want to return only to be a Minister or Permanent Secretary. Among other things, I have expressed my desire to one-day witness the trial of Yahya Jammeh and his cronies before a competent tribunal. I also told my good brother that “bygones cannot be bygones” when the killers of Deyda Hydara and the over dozen schoolchildren on April 10-1,1 2000, walk the streets of Banjul scot-free. I reminded him of the attempted assassination of lawyer Ousman Sillah, the death of Finance Minister Ousman Koro Ceesay and the execution of Lt. Almamo Manneh and Dumbuya among numerous other extra-judicial executions. I finally told him quite bluntly “call me a dog if ever I take a job from your government.” According to my good conversationalist, The Echo could have served the country better if it were migrated to Banjul. That it could be an avenue to broaden the creative potential of the Gambian youth who are thirsty for knowledge etc, etc. I said that that was not tenable because Yahya Jammeh has no regards for human rights that what led to Deyda Hydara’s death couldn’t spare The Echo and its staff. In a nutshell, it will not, cannot, can never be and must never happen; Period!!! We will be civil and leave it at that for now.

            Back to brass tasks, I want to make it abundantly clear that I have no personal animosity against Yahya Jammeh because prior to the July 1994 coup, he was an unknown political quantity with no gravitas whatsoever. My qualms with him began soon after he started his wholesale plan to emasculate the entire press corps and threaten to send his peers six feet deep. For the past twelve years Gambians have seen so much blood and wickedness that one wonders if this is the Smiling Coast that one was born in. I remember with great nostalgia the latitude of freedom that the Jawara government accorded all and sundry. I remember for instance, the critical reports that Peter Gomez and I made on Radio Gambia during our Saturday Magazine program Weekend Spectrum. I remember for instance, my report that led to the closure of the Brikama Abattoir. But Yahya Jammeh is no Sir Dawda Jawara and Sir Dawda likewise. Whatever his troubles with the Gambian people were to endorse his overthrow by the brutal dictator masqueraded in a savior’s regalia; Sir Dawda is an angel; a political rara avis compared to Jammeh. Yahya Jammeh believes in the divine rights of kings and takes The Gambia as Africa’s newest found fiefdom.

Yahya Jammeh may be a reincarnation of the megalomaniac French king, Louis Philip who was so drunk with power that he concluded thus: “Le’tat se moi” (the state is mine). To Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia is he and he is The Gambia such that he cannot just cater to dissent. He hires and fires as he deems fit and owes no one an explanation. He also has the right to muzzle the press and kill or send to jail any citizen as he deems fit. Whereas in a Constitutional democracy all are equal before the law, in Yahya Jammeh’s kakistocracy some are more equal than the others. Like the ancient Greek philosopher Anacharsis Jammeh thinks that laws are like cobwebs: strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong. He determines equality before the law and sanctions the law as he deems fit. Those who think otherwise are not patriotic and deserve Mile Two (Africa’s Hell on Earth) or death like Deyda Hydara who fittingly captured this legal nonsense thus “Thought Tribunal.” Deyda’s praxis of a Thought Tribunal is further galvanized by the synthesis of bad laws promulgated on a daily basis by a spineless National Assembly. Some of its membership cannot clearly explain the difference between a Bill and an Act, a legislature and a political party let alone understand the complex dynamics of such an important chamber. This is so important a place that Alexander Hamilton one of the founders of the modern day United States once told a visiting foreign dignitary who was amazed at the noise in Congress that “Sir, there, the people govern.” I look forward with hopeful anticipation to the day when our people, all of them, would say with overwhelming thoroughness and conviction that “there, the people govern.” For now though, “there, “Yahya Jammeh dictates” This brings us back to our role as journalists. Metaphorical speaking, we are to society what lubricants are to mechanical devices. Good and responsible reporting protects society from corrosion, over heat and rust. This is why Yahya Jammeh hates us because The Gambia under this iron–fisted tyrant has seen what was never conceivable in this once oasis of democracy, human rights and rule of law. This is why we should keep up the momentum and cry freedom like the old dog from Holland. Therefore, until the day when we go to the National Assembly convinced that “there, the people govern” I cry freedom.