Breaking News: The Big Interview: Lamin Waa Juwara Speaks! Part Two!!
Breaking News: The Big Interview: Lamin Waa Juwara Speaks! Part Two!!
“But Pa,  I have been Jammeh’s critic more than them and I’m here.  Am I not here?  The fact that you are interviewing me, means that I’m free.  Is Saihou Sabally more critical of   this government than I do?   Is Sabally more critical of this government than I do?  Let them come back. This is their country.  You don’t have to run away from your family.  What have they committed?   What have they committed? They are free to come home. I’m here. Why can’t they be here? They are just running from their past status.” said  lamin Waa Juwara. In this part two of the interview, Mr.Juwara explains how he managed to  live for 13 years without a job. Although, he refuses to reveal his source of income to feed his family. “For 13 years, I have not been working.  For 13 years, I didn’t sign a voucher for a salary.  For 13 years, I didn’t have a job. For 13 years, I take everything for the Gambian people. Is that not commendable? : How  many people would have been able to do that every time? How many Gambians who are prepared to do that sacrifice when I have other alternatives? I had  offers of job overseas. I have all these other things, I could have gone like any other person. I have suffered for 13 years. Is that not true. I’m telling didn’t I suffered for 13 years? Why don’t you send me a $100 dollars?” Juwara asked Editor M’Bai. While it’s very easy to be homeless in abroad, in the case of Waa Juwara lack of job never affected his living. Missing a month pay check could render some families in the streets. Juwara has his own house in  the town of Brikama, but without a full time job. For Juwara  to live for 13 years without a job beats  the imagination of many. Though, Juwara admits that he indeed suffered due to lack of job, but notwithstanding life  still goes on. Below is  part two of the interview. Please read on…
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Freedom Newspaper: What are you going to do as a senior statesman to contribute to the nation’s ailing democratization process?

Lamin Waa Juwara: I’m doing that every day. 

Freedom Newspaper: By advising Yahya Jammeh?

Lamin Waa Juwara: Of course advising him. It’s not a question of advising him.  It’s question of fundamental right of the Gambian people.  I told you we went through an elections that has international observers. I was involved in it from hamlet to hamlet.  Gambians voted for Yahya Jammeh.

Freedom Newspaper: Will you call this government as a credible government?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Of course yes. What should I say? People voted for him. Why I  should not  accept it? Let us be democratic.  Anything Jammeh does that is not correct, I will say it.  I’m not an apologist. I’m not a flatter.  I own my own mind.  Once he does something correct, I will say it’s correct.

Freedom Newspaper: Now that you have recognize this government as legitimate, will you accept any job offered to you in the spirit of nation building?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  You see, most Gambians think that the only way you can collaborate with this government is to work with them.  Pa, I have been here for 13 years, living like everybody. Did I get a job? Ha ha ha… I don’t own a dime.  You knew that.  I don’t succumb to anybody.  I went to America and came back.  I went there and then I  came back.  If I wanted to stay I could have done that.  Is that not true?

Freedom Newspaper: But Mr.Juwara, how do you feed yourself and your family when you don’t have any job?  You don’t have a job to keep you living. How do you managed  to live over the years without any job? Do you receive remittances from the APRC here and there?

Lamin Waa Juwara:   I have suffered for 13 years. Is that not true. I’m telling didn’t I suffered for 13 years? Why don’t you send me a $100 dollars?  Haha ha  Editor M’Bai laughed….

Freedom Newspaper: But my question is: How do you managed to take care of yourself and your family when you are not working?  Do you rely from subvention from the government or what?

Lamin Waa Juwara:   Laughter… Ha ha ha ha ha…It’s interesting. It’s very interesting.  The interview is very interesting.  I hope it would come out correctly. 

Freedom Newspaper: Of course, the interview is going to be run very objectively Mr.Juwara. I can assure you that. But my question is: How do you managed to survive all these years when you are not working? What’s your source of income?

Lamin Waa Juwara:   For 13 years, I have not been working.  For 13 years, I didn’t sign a voucher for a salary.  For 13 years, I didn’t have a job. For 13 years, I take everything for the Gambian people.  Is that not commendable?

Freedom Newspaper: Indeed, it’s commendable. But who is taking care of your bills?

Lamin Waa Juwara: How  many people would have been able to do that every time? How many Gambians who are prepared to do that sacrifice when I have other alternatives? I had  offers of job overseas. I have all these other things, I could have gone like any othe r person.  I went to jail, through different cells.  We have a true democracy now.  We have a free and fair elections.  I congratulated  myself. We voted in free and fair elections. 

Freedom Newspaper: If you have the chance of meeting President Yahya Jammeh, what are you going to tell him?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Well, I tell him to improve the situation. There is nothing ideal any where in the world.  But what we need to…. We are a small country, I think we  have done quiet a lot.  Our interest should be our own interest and we should live by  that.  I said it before. I was concerned about agriculture.  I begin to see that the groundnut trade has been liberalized.  I would like to see how that would operate.  I think we could be self sufficient in food production.  I have seen the irrigated rice fields, which I supported. These are all areas where we can do. 

And there are a lot of reconciliation going on.  Once Sir Dawda is back in the country…. he is here. That’s a big thing for Gambians. That’s very commendable. 

Freedom Newspaper: So you are saying that President Jammeh is not a bad man as he is widely perceived by some people?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Situations changes. You see when they took over what they said  we would do and what they are doing now are  completely different.  Is Sir Dawda not in The Gambia?  Is that not reconciliation? 

Freedom Newspaper: Yes, Sir Dawda is in The Gambia, but Saihou Sabally is not in The Gambia.  Mr.Sarra Jangha former Head of The Civil Service is not in The Gambia, Bakary Bunja Darboe is not in The Gambia.  Sir Dawada alone and his family is not enough as a gesture for reconciliation.

Lamin Waa Juwara: I’m telling them to come back to the Gambia.  They are running from their status.  Nothing will happen to them.  They can come back.  Let them take the risk like some of  us who are here. 

Freedom Newspaper: Mr.Juwara, are you going to assure their security.  Knowing how hostile this government is, you are extending an invitation for these people to be harmed.

Lamin Waa Juwara: But Pa,  I have been Jammeh’s critic more than them and I’m here.  Am I not here?  The fact that you are interviewing me, means that I’m free.  Is Saihou Sabally more critical of   this government than I do?   Is Sabally more critical of this government than I do?  Let them come back. This is their country.  You don’t have to run away from your family.  What have they committed?   What have they committed?

Freedom Newspaper: You are making an interesting call. But they might turn around and say who is Waa Juwara to give us blanket amnesty without the approval of President Jammeh?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  They are free to come home. I’m here. Why can’t they be here? They are just running from their past status. What is stopping them from coming back home?

Freedom Newspaper: So you are saying that they are doing disservice to the Gambia by going on self imposed exile?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I’m not saying that they are doing a disservice to this country.   I’m saying that if they choose to stay, they have a right to stay.  But if they want to come back, they can come back.  I don’t see anything wrong by being coming back to their country. 

Freedom Newspaper: What would happen if President Jammeh should arrest them and throw them in jail or even harm them?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I have been arrested on several times and you. Arrested for what? Is that why you are also staying there?  Ha ha ha..Editor M’Bai laughed.. Do you fear arrest?   Do you fear arrest? Ha? M’Bai ran into laughter again….

Freedom Newspaper: The situation is not  conducive for us to stay in the country. Journalist Deyda Hydara was killed. Many journalists jailed and forced into exile. There are people on the ground hounding on government opponents.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  And you are in that condition and you are still castigating us, the people  who are outside. Is that fair? 

Freedom Newspaper:  What are you trying to imply Mr.Juwara? Are you saying that Gambians in the Diaspora are not fair with the system, the government  of the Gambia? 

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I’m far from saying that really. I’m saying… if you say it’s not conducive, but we are here.   Are we not here?  But why don’t you come?  If it’s not conducive for you, it’s not conducive for us.  But we are still here.  Who is more patriotic?

Freedom Newspaper: But some critics  might argue that Jawara being your uncle, he might mend fences here and there so that the government can accept you. 

Lamin Waa Juwara:  That makes me laugh.  It makes me laugh.  Jawara has always been very honest. He has never negotiated between me and this government.  You know him.  He has never mediated between me and the government. That I can tell you. 

Freedom Newspaper:  Some years back you said that  Gambians have good cause to apply for asylum because the government in The Gambia is repressive to quote your interview with the Independent. Now if you said that Saihou Sabally, Pa Nderry and others should come back home how would you  reconcile your past statement and today?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Whatever statement  I made I can reconcile it.  I said we have democracy in place with free and fair elections.

Freedom Newspaper:  No, I’m not talking about the last elections. Prior to the 2006  elections, you made a comment supporting Gambians fleeing from government persecution.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  No, no, no, that is where you have demarcations.

Freedom Newspaper: So there is no dictatorship in the Gambia as we speak?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Pa Nderry, lets be objective.  If you agree that the elections in the Gambia was free and fair…You are a Gambian was the elections not free and fair? I’m asking you? 

Freedom Newspaper: As a journalist, I should remain neural. That’s up to the readers to say if it is free and fair.  Notwithstanding, I’m a political being.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  As a better Observer… You are a better observer than I’m. The election was free and fair. 

Freedom Newspaper: Mr.Juwara on the issue of Rambo, Kanyiba and Reporter Chief Manneh, the Point quoted you as saying that the detainees were not very important. That the government should release them. Are you not trying to offend the opposition by ridiculing these people?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  What did I say?

Freedom Newspaper:  You said that they are not important. They are not relevant as far as you are concerned. That the government should not spoil its name by keeping them. That if it is true that these people are in government custody they should be released.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I’m not saying that.  I said they should be released if they are under state custody.  And the state should do everything to make sure that those who are holding these people are free.  I said politically they are not important.  Politically they are not important and I don’t see any reason why they should keep them.

Freedom Newspaper:  Coming back to your call on  Saihou Sabally, Sarra Jangha and others to come back home, if you have the chance of meeting Jammeh will you take up this issue with him?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Self exile is different from being forced into exile.  If I were them the day Jawara comes here I would come back.  Jawara is accorded amnesty. He is back in this country.  There is nothing wrong with him.  Why don’t they come?  Once you  grant Jawara amnesty, that’s granting all of them amnesty.  I cannot understand why they should be in exile.  May be, the reasons  are not known to me. 

Freedom Newspaper: The internal Index reported that the Gambia is a fail state.  Most of its intellectuals are out of the country and as a result there is a big intellectual gap in the country. Do you agree that the Gambia is a failed state? 

Lamin Waa Juwara: Which journal reported that?

Freedom Newspaper:  This was documented by the International Human Index. They normally monitor governments that are failing in Africa and elsewhere. They reported that the Gambia was classified as a failed state. Do you agree with that ?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I don’t believe in these so called professionals who knows nothing about African issues.  When Europe was at war was Germany a fail state?  What happened to France?  Was the European countries  fail states? The Gambia a fail state? I don’t agree with the said report.

Freedom Newspaper: So what is Gambia, in your own view?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Of course we are not a fail state really.  I don’t think that analysis is correct.  Look at what happened in Liberia, what happened in Sierra Leone? What is happening in Ivory Coast?  You talking about the Gambia being a failed state.

Freedom Newspaper: But the absence of war is not   sufficient reason for proper judgment or indication of peace in a particular country.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I said that there is no room for complacency. I do not agree with anybody describing the Gambia a fail state.  That’s absolute nonsense. 

Freedom Newspaper: But  people are starving to death. No food in the country. Cost of living is high. Basic freedoms are being restricted. Will you call that a promising state?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Is that what you call a fail state?

Freedom Newspaper: Well, from their own perception that what they used as an argument. That there is no development in the country.  People’s rights are being infringed. And the economy is not moving.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Pa,  you should  know better than I do.  You know what is happening.  Then you talking about the whole third world being failed.  All the third world countries. Is that what we are saying?  Anybody who is a third world, in the third world is a fail state. I think that is too strong a word, you know….We have our difficulties, but that doesn’t mean that we are a fail state.  Where there is anarchy, there is no rule of law, there is no control, there is no authority, that’s what you call a fail state.  Are you getting me.

Freedom Newspaper: In the case of the Gambia, you are implying that everything is normal.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  I cannot say that everything is normal.  How can I say everything is normal. Is everything normal in America? Is everything normal in America?

Freedom Newspaper: Of course, in America, I can criticize President Bush and go to bed without being hounded by the NIA.  But in The Gambia, if I criticize Yahya Jammeh, the next minute they would come for me.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Just criticizing somebody doesn’t mean that everything is  not normal.  I have been doing that for the last 13 years.

Freedom Newspaper: And what happened? You have been arrested and tortured.

Lamin Waa Juwara:  And so what?  How do you claim your right in order to become sovereign?  You want me to run away?  Do you want me to run away? 

Freedom Newspaper: I’m not saying that you should run away.  But the truth be told….

Lamin Waa Juwara:  That’s what’s you are implying.  That’s what you are implying. That if you are tortured you have to run away.  Then how can you get your liberty?

Freedom Newspaper: Do you think that you are going to succeed in liberating Gambians?

Lamin Waa Juwara:  Ha ha ha . The Gambia is a fail state,  so we should all stay away?  That’s ridiculous.

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Posted on Friday, July 27, 2007 (Archive on Tuesday, August 28, 2007)
Posted by PNMBAI  Contributed by PNMBAI
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