THIS IS OUR WAY   

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

The disappearance and whereabouts of Yahya Dampha has been the subject of public concern and debate for over two weeks. Since the provocative arrest and the subsequent release of Yahya Dampha’s two Amnesty International traveling companions, Yahya himself has not been seen in public. Speculations are rife that the government’s notorious NIA criminal agency may have him in their custody at one of their many torture chambers dotted around the country. The case of Yahya Dampha has specifically attracted international attention, since he was arrested with two Amnesty International employees as they were traveling up country to investigate another disappearance a year ago involving an opposition politician from Bakau, Ousman Rambo Jatta. It is quite clear that a government in distress will do everything to stay alive, but commonsense dictates that this is a regime clinging to life even as it is dying a certain death. Even as the Gambian public is wondering what happened to the Foroyaa reporter Yahya Dampha, the whereabouts of former Daily Observer journalist, Chief Ebrima Manneh, who was detained by the NIA more than a year ago, remains a mystery. The last time Chief Manneh was spotted at the Royal Victoria Hospital five months ago, he was reported to be in extremely poor health, emaciated and barely able to walk on his own. Eye witnesses who saw him, say he was a tragic sight to see, especially because no one could say or do anything to help his situation for fear of reprisals from Jammeh’s NIA thugs. This is the tragedy of Yahya Jammeh’s Gambia; a dictatorship that has no tolerance for dissention and a killing machine that clearly has instilled fear in the hearts of Gambians. Nonetheless, Gambians are demanding the unconditional release of all political prisoners, which includes journalists Chief Manneh and Yahya Dampha. What is certain is that Yahya Jammeh’s regime is a sinking ship with its occupants clinging to floating straw.

The verdict in the case of the rightful and still legal Lord Mayor of Banjul, Pa Sallah Jeng, has dealt a blow to the regime, which brought frivolous charges against him. This regime, however, has a history of bringing new trumped-up charges against individuals who the justice system clearly found not guilty and subsequently released. It can be recalled that Pa Sallah Jeng’s case has been dragging in the court system for nearly two years, prompting some newspapers to evoke the famous phrase, “justice delayed is justice denied.” Now that Mr. Jeng is free, he should pursue the Banjul municipality and government for compensation for wages and any other legal remedy that will result to his recovery of earnings over the two-year period his case has dragged in the courts. Mr. Jeng’s case reminds us of Fatou Jaw-Manneh, whose case is still languishing in the courts, and no one there seems to have the courage to throw it out for lack of merit. The judiciary is impotent to act in the interest of our citizens, instead allowing Yahya Jammeh to dictate the outcomes of court proceedings in which his regime has specific interest. Since the beginning of the arrival of judges from Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone some years ago, countries renowned for endemic corruption, our courts have become useless parodies of justice that are riddled with inefficiency and unimaginable corruption. Just two weeks ago, Yahya Jammeh was said to give a Mercedes Benz to the Chief Justice Abdou-Karim Savage among others, as reward and a bribe for the Chief Justice’s slavish obedience to him. The fleets of vehicles, which belong to the Gambian people, are used by Jammeh to promote his own agenda, behaving as if he owns the country and any property that belongs to our government. The Benzes ought to have been sold and the proceeds used to bring clean drinking water to our rural communities. Coming back to the case of Pa Sallah Jeng, we hope the good people of Banjul will stand behind him and continue to support him as they did before this regime brought the malicious and coercive charges against him.

The reportage last week dealing with people who are wanted by Yahya Jammeh, and includes nurses was revealing. But, what it tells us more than anything is that Yahya Jammeh will stop at nothing in his quest to reign supreme in our country. If Jammeh is now targeting nurses, our womenfolk, it is evident he is drunken by his power. Threats made to nurses, however, will not prevent them from leaving the wasteland that The Gambia has become. At this time period, both Europe and the United States have an insatiable demand for trained nurses, and my suggestion to all trained nurses is to go to the nearest United States or European Embassy to apply for a visa out of the country. There are literally millions of nursing jobs here just waiting for the asking, and better still, the salaries for a qualified nurse are more than what Yahya Jammeh your President earns monthly. The reporter of the story in The Echo about the nurses also hinted that the number of students who were massacred by the regime in 2000, was actually far more than the twelve, the regime reported to the media. The Gambian media is encouraging RVH nurses who know the actual body count of the murdered students to disclose it to them for the interest of our country. Meanwhile, all the nurses are encouraged to try and secure visas from the U.S or European Embassies for jobs that are waiting for them here. We need to leave the country to Yahya Jammeh so he can fetch nurses from the Fonis and Cassamance to staff the hospitals and health centers with his tribesmen as he has done with every senior position in his regime.

Last week, Yahya Jammeh and his Secretary General made the rounds visiting government agencies, but that was not the news. The real news was why then and why now? Last week, a press release from a mysterious group calling it self the Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) revealed that the heavy-handed tactics of Yahya Jammeh has caused widespread consternation in the Civil Service, and everyone wants to see him overthrown by whatever means necessary. As in the case of Tanzania attacking Uganda to remove Idi Amin with international support, or Ethiopia’s overthrowing of Yahya Jammeh’s friend in Somalia with U.S. and European backing, and Mauritania’s General Val’s removal of Yahya Jammeh’s mentor; dictator Ould Taya and restoring democracy in that country, there is now a worldwide consensus that certain governments can be forcibly removed without injuring democracy. Such an action will be predicated on saving peoples’ lives and restoring good governance through the institution of democracy and democratic ideals. In order to save our democracy and restore the human dignity of our people, the forcible removal of Yahya Jammeh’s regime in order to contain and repair the damage he has brought on our people, is imperative. Left unchecked, Yahya Jammeh’s continued dictatorial rule will most certainly lead to bloodshed at some future date and there is no way anyone can stop that from happening. But, last week’s Jammeh visit to government offices where he saw first hand the decrepit and gloomy environments civil servants labor under, only exposed more of his own failures as the head of a government. Jammeh’s approach to solving the malaise surrounding the civil servants fraternity is to throw dalasis at the problem. He is convinced that throwing money around will solve all his failings and his regime’s problems. However, throwing money at a problem, no matter how much will only provide a temporary solution. The real problem lies deep within the minds and souls of the people, in their thoughts and their feelings towards the government. It is not always a money issue for most people; it is their injured pride, their lost self-worth, their damaged self-esteem and fractured humanity, which no amount of money can ever restore to their personalities. The famous quote, “give me freedom or give me death,” is really what it is all about. Money does not buy happiness, but freedom by itself gives happiness. Gambians demand freedom to read, write, and say what they want about the government that is there supposedly to work for them, not against them. But, as Jammeh made the rounds giving and promising money to civil service employees, one is left to wonder whatever happened to government’s budgets from where government agencies drew their expenditure funds. Why has everything to come from Yahya Jammeh’s big pockets? Is this the way our governments is supposed to function, with Yahya Jammeh walking around with all the governments money in his pockets, rather than safely and securely in the banks? Interestingly, the so-called Secretary General, certainly at the orders of Yahya Jammeh, also visited some agencies, where he discovered, as did his boss, the appalling working conditions civil servants find themselves in, but he too must be reminded that money alone is not the solution to the problems. These problems are deep, endemic and appear intractable, and include the naked tribalism Jammeh has entrenched in our country, the lack of job security that pervades every level of the civil service, and the corruption that is gnawing away at the little stability left in our country.

The series of articles by a patriotic Gambian about the pending demise of GPTC is both revealing and illuminating. The infighting that epitomizes and encapsulates the way our government agencies function and are run in our country, this time the GPTC, is simply put, an uncharacteristic Gambian attitude. To me, Mr. Houma is an unknown quantity, but Jagne is a different matter, yet clearly a surprise disappointment to say the least. Jagne, who is my age, came across as idealistic, selfless, and knowledgeable individual, who seemed like the incorruptible decent man I had put in the same pedestal as my good friends Sajo Jallow, Nana Grey-Johnson, Fakebba Juwara, Adama Bah and Swaebou Touray. But, navigating through the twists and turns of the article, I could not avoid analyzing and critiquing it to find meaning in the carnage that has become the story of the bankrupt GPTC. In this exercise, it is like trudging familiar territory, unafraid and inhibited to hone my skills and showcase some latent talents or their lack of. The writer’s narrative reads like a novel complete with evil characters caught in a bitter but purposeless struggle for dominance in a chamber of horrors. The article brings the characters to life as the story moves in time and space from one bizarre moment in time that captures Houma’s reign, to the uneven transition from him to another protagonist, Jagne. The spectacle of jealousies and greed, that unfolded, secured a firm grip around the lifeline of the Corporation, gradually choking it to its predictable death. What was left was the skeleton of a once prized possession of our erstwhile government, now inherited by an evilly enigmatic regime that is as clueless as it is anachronistic. In the end, the esoteric saga of GPTC, displayed the main characters playing skillful deceit, as their fawning and incompetence eulogized a floundering and ephemeral Corporation, which once in its brief life, possessed all the promises of success.  Sadly, there was no one with the wisdom and fortitude to mitigate the obvious, and the prevarication and perfidious actions of GPTC’s evil geniuses, Houma and Jagne, eventually led to its tortuous demise. The GPTC depot now looks like an abandoned cattle kraal, with pieces of mangled metal piled up in one corner, as dead engines of M.A.N busses wait for salvation that is never going to come. This too is a narrative of failure written in stone, representing the caustic styles and storied tales of mismanagement that will remain etched in our collective memory and our consciences. In the big book about mankind and humanity, we represent the saddest chapter that reveals the unsalvageable worst in human history. For this is the way we live, and the way we will die. This is our way.