By Associate Editor Muhammed Jawara, New York,
A venomous postal system:
Why The Gambia postal system is a joke
There is nothing new about this topic. Nothing!
Over the years Gambians have registered their disappointments at the way materials going in and out of the country are handled by our postal system. In editorials, opinion columns, and letters to editors sections, our newspapers have been filled with one complaint after the other about how people seldom receive their letters and parcels unscathed. This sickening phenomenon has been given little or no attention by the relevant authorities, who either by design or default provides nothing to show that this will stop anytime soon.
A friend of mine sent me three packages within a space of one year and I am yet to receive any of them. The latest package was sent to me two months ago after verifying both the sender and the receiver addresses to my friend numerous times. Yet, as in the past, my packages remain unaccounted for, and they are not returned to the sender either.
Recently, I have made calls to the Gambia post office to make inquiries about my mails. I have talked to a staff who promised that she would do everything possible to help me find out what might have happened to my mails. I called her few days after my initial conversation with her. She told me that the information she gathered is that maybe my address could be faulty and that there is no trace of any mails sent to me from the sender. I put it to her that unless I need a separate mailing address for mails coming from the Gambia, my address in reality is correct. I then asked her as to whether by the rules of The Gambia Post Office games, undelivered mails are often sent to their senders. Her answer was affirmative. "Then why are my mails not sent back to the sender," I queried. "I don't know," she replied. I figure that this particular person may not be the real culprit but only happens to be part of a system that loves to do dirty tricks to search for whatever they can lay hands on.
I am writing from experience which makes my views express herein a lot more personal. I could not care less.
As Gambians most of us know for sure that the monthly salaries given to our civil servants can barely support them, let alone their families. Many people argue that because of that unfortunate reality, civil servants either beg people in need of their services or take advantage of situations to get that extra money for survival. Luckily for the Post Office employees who fall into this category of monetary scavengers, they can do their dirty works behind the curtains of their offices.
There is no doubt that people holding that myopic view have a point, albeit ethically wrong. Certainly civil servants need more money to maintain decent lives. However, to feed on innocent Gambians by tearing their parcels and packages as in the case of the Gambia Post Office, is to say the least, unjustifiable.
The repercussions of such dastardly and morally unacceptable acts by greedy postal officers have many negative repercussions. First there is an issue of the right to property. Then there is the right to privacy. And, more importantly, what these "bad people" at the Post office do could determine where the very future of our country lies.
As a country that is theoretically democratic and capitalist, Gambians have the right to own their properties and use them the ways they chose. When a person's package or parcel is tampered with, that person's right to property is violated. Also, Gambians have rights to privacy. Traditionally, snail mails contain essential elements of information. This is the case until today. Any material sent in a mailing system should not be seen by an unauthorized person. Violating a person's privacy is a grave crime punishable by the law, because violation of privacy can lead to dissatisfaction of the affected person in a negative way.
Arguably, the most important lesson from this bizarre and unfortunate phenomenon is that it does not bode well for the future of our country. As small as it maybe, the Post Office is a significant portion of the Gambian government establishment. A generically corrupt postal system would only help infect other areas of the establishment, since some of those corrupt thieves can change jobs and carry with them their bad habits to other places, thus infecting them with their virus. The result is a web of thieves in the Gambia who make innocent people cry for their shortcomings. For the future of the Gambia, that is not a good sign!
It is important for us to look for solutions for this issue as it continues to get out of hand.
It is time we consider solutions for this problem.
Our postal system needs an urgent reform. Employees of the post office should be trained in such a way that they would be contented with what they own and leave the belongings of others solely for them. They need to be taught that it is their choice to work at the post office and such choices must not be based on any expectations of fortunes from packages and parcels. There should be guidelines for employees that would provide more openness, responsibility and accountability in the work environment. These guidelines should set out separation of duties, and also allow final accounting of items before they are finally sent out to their destinations. In addition, employees should be told that there is no place for thieves at such an important place like the post office. There should be punishments laid out for offenders and all employees at the post office should be aware of these punishments.
Weekly staff meetings can be arranged where discussions would center on integrity, privacy and honesty. And, as costly as it may be, security cameras should be introduced in the offices so that internal activities would be recorded. These and many others can only do more good to our postal system.
It's up to us as Gambians to either change our postal system or remain quite while this dangerous phenomenon exists in our country unchallenged. If we choose to change the postal system for good, we would be rewarded with what belongs to us; our properties. If as it seems, we continue to ignore this reality, we risk being victims of our own makings, having many of our hearts broken and hopes dashed by the very people we entrust with our properties. As it stands now, our postal system is sick, disappointing, ethically low, morally corrupt and venomous in nature. The choice is entirely ours.