Lies, damn lies and revolutionaries- 27 questions for Dida Halake
I read with keen interest an article written by Dida Halake. In it Mr. Halake made a naration of how he met a former Gambian minister, who he described as a stupid, greedy, ignorant tribalist. In the preamble, Mr. Halake wrote,"There are lies, damn lies, being spewed about The Man, a great leader for The Gambia, Africa and the Third World. But let me explain first how the lies began and how I met one of those original liars at a time when The Man was just an unknown soldier." A cursory look at this thesis, so to speak, suggest that, after reading this article, one would be told about lies that are being spread around by Gambians as well as get a clear picture of what they mean in the context of contemporary Gambian socio political discourses. Far from it! What Mr. Halake has done, however, is to give a tunnel-view of events in the Gambia since 1994, and frame one man as an embodiment of an unpopular anti-jammeism. But lets just leave that for a moment.
It is not out of greed or sheer zeal for being opponents that make many Gambians stand tall against the current state of affairsin the Gambia. Rather it is out of a concerted effort by Gambians both within and outside the country to bring to the fore the forbidden acts of a country that has been taking a downward slope in terms of everything that matters to Gambians. This is what people like Mr. Halake fail understand.
To compare Yahay Jammeh with Thomas Sankara is like comparing an elephant to a grasshopper. In the Thomas Sankara Burkina Faso, the ideal of an African rennaisance not only lived but gave hope to Burkinabes that the future holds nothing but positives. His revolutionary ideologies included fighting corruption, improving education, agriculture, and the status of women. Thomas Sanakara lived a life of an ordinary, prefering bicycles to flambouyant cars. He understood politics as a tool to enhance the welfare of people rather than use it to heap mystery on opposing views. When he fought corruption, he ensured that his own record was clean. As indicated by the resignation from his ministarial post in 1982, he was a man of principle not a man obssessed with the greed of power. Yahya Jammeh on the other hand, is not only a complex character but also a fallacious, unpredicatble one. Yes, he started fighting curruption in 1994. To his credit he succeded in doing so for a short spell. He built schools and hospitals. The difference in their revolutionary tactics is that, while Thomas Sanakara lived a life in the low, Yahaya Jammeh prefer the life of the bigtime. Talk of his personal jet, talk of the numerous personal assets(the zoo, the airline, the hotels just ot name but few). For a man who came to power as a near pauper, Yahya Jammeh's emergence to monetary power is an issue that does not raises more questons than answers. Legitimate questions for that matter! The increase in the number of schools does not tally with the reality. The results of the Gambian students have been getting worse every academic year. There are not enough qualified teacher because the incentives for teaching are not lucrative. The Gambian healthcare system is no better than it used to be if patients from Fatoto hospital are given prescription to buy paracetamol from retail pharmacies. In spite of his lip-service about improvment of agriculture, Gambian farmers cannot sell their groundnuts these days. And if they do, they sell them below fair market value. So to compare Yahya Jammeh to Thomas Sankara is to distort history, for their records are not similar in any sense. Unlike Thomas Sankara, Yahya Jammeh regards himself as the solution to the Gambian problems, even though he only put more Gambians below poverty line, creating fear among the populace. Under his eyes, Gambians have come to accept tyrany as a form of reality. Thomas Sankara was a soldier with a difference. Although Yahya Jammeh claims the same rhetoric, he is many miles behind the man who came to symbolize military humulity and dignity. While we as Gambians are not stupid enough to reject progress, most of us dont want to use imaginary eyes to see what is in our backyards. True, Mr. Halake may have an extensive knowledge about the Gambia or revolutionary Africans, yet his caracterization of opposing views to a tyranical Jammeh regime leave much to be desired. Like many readers, i am in a suspense as to what Mr. Halake know about the Gambia that we don't know, that makes him regard Yahya Jammeh as a true revolutionarist. It would be great if he would write an article to fulfil what is expected of the preamble he gave. In the mean time, i have few questions for him.
1. Does the Gambia have a reliable security system in place that provides peace of mind for the citizenry?
2. If the above answer is yes, then where are the killers of Ousman Koro Cessay?
3. Where are the killer of the 12 innocent students who were killed for excersicing their democratic rights?
4. Where are the killers of Almamo Manneh, or the killer of Captain Dumbuya?
5. When would captain Landing Sanneh have his justice, be it imprisonment for a determined period or aquital?
6. Where are the killers of Deyda Hydara, a true Gambian revolutionary?
7. Where is the story of the mysterious disappearance of Daba Marena and the other alledged coupist whose car was alledge to have summersaulted?
8. Where are the killers of the 44 Ghanians who were killed near the Gambian side of the Atlantic ocean?
9. Where are the people who burned down the Independent newspaper one too many?
10. Where are the people who burned down the house of Ebrima Sillah, a BBC journalist?
11. Where are the people who killed Modou Lamin Sillah, a prominent lawyer who was defending an alledged Yahya Jammeh enemy?
12. Where are the killers of the numerous Gambians who were brutally murdered last year in varous parts of the country?
13. Is the Gambian a land that every Gambian can call home? If so when would Gambians be given the right to speak without harrastment?
14. When is the independent media going to have their say in our social and political debates without being subjected to torture?
15. When is the Independent newspaper going to be allowed to operate without closure or interference?
16. When is Lamin Fatty, a freelance journalist with the indepenent, going to have his day in a fair court?
17. When are the Gambian students going to be given the same opportunities affoded the children of the super rich, or the politically connected?
18. Should Yahya Jammeh have declare himslf rich for life?
19. Is Yahay Jammeh right when he said, "Any journalist who write a false statement about me would be buried six-feet deep."
20. Should he have declare that not even his immediate descendants would be poor again?
21. How did he become such a rich person so fast?
22. Where does the money used to create a zoo come from?
23.What is Yahya Jammeh's monthly salary?
24. Where is the money of the Nigerian crude oil?
25. When are the Gambian farmers going to have their groundnuts bought with a fair market value?
26. How can you tell a Gambian man to be the last to be killed for the sake of a revolution?
27. How long can a Gambian village woman be contented with her status as a dedicated farmer whose harvest cannot be sold in time?
Unlike what you consider as tragedy-the unnecessary opposition to Yahya Jammeh, the real tragedy is one man hijacking a nation, holding the populace at ransom. A real tragedy happens when citizens of a nation go to bed unsure of what the next day holds in terms of peace and security. If you canot have a butut in your pocket, have a job after graduation, provide normal food for your family, then you live in a tragedy. That is the true story of the current Gambia that you call, revolutionary Gambia. A real tragedy happens when a person who is supposed to rescue you become an enemy, when an anti-corruption president becomes unimaginably corrupt. Thats what should be call tragic.
It is the Gambians of today, the hungry, the poor, the unemployed, and the politically decapitated who are suffering from the brunt edge of Yahya Jammeh's anormal rule. To call this situation revolutionary as we see it, is to underestimate the suffering that Gambians have to go through just to make ends meet. While i wait for your answers, i remain positive.