By Hammadi Maasinah.
I have always been telling Gambians and friends of The Gambia that Yahya Jammeh is a huge monkey shaking the thorny tree. This tree has no sweet fruits,it only drops thorny branches on people's heads. You know the whole scene here reminds one of Charles Dickon's title "Great Expectations".
The stories may not exactly be the same, however,the title can be used or misused here. I would deliberately choose to misuse the title on purpose! The title when used in the context herein can befit Yahya's craziness. Or at the end will expose the uselessness of a fool's protocol. Now let us work along deliberate edges while attempting to misuse the essence of Charle's title because it is only irrationality that can fit the scalp of Yahya Jammeh.
We have high expectations within the limits of a fool's protocol,right? Therefore my good old friends why should we expect anything great here? The same Yahya insulted Linda Chalker few months after he took over power from former President Jawara. Yahya came home so angry because Linda told him in the face in Coppenhagen that him Yahya should relinquish power as a military coupist! She was warning him against all odds. Aren't these odds raining on us today over and over? Why didn't he retort back to her on site? Because he is loud coward. Yahya the shameless used that,calling Linda a "colonialist"? Which "colonialist"? Look Britain cannot be and should not be called "colonialists" anymore as far as Gambian history is concerned. Calling them that name means reducing The Gambia. Calling them that name means insulting the essence of 1970 in our country's political history. Calling them that name means we as Gambians are still accepting the celebration of Empire days on our soil then. Yahya is uncut,uneducated and a fool in paradise. He throws stones to flies and crickets. He fires shots at silhouettes and shadows,this means he is unstable. He is far from being a brave soul. This is a fool's world of fairy tales.
The same Yahya said the following to a former Gambian foreign minister..."If the Queen's people do not want to work with me,they will all end up eating meat affected by that mad cow disease!" Certainly the minister is no longer within the ring but he knows this is a fact.
The same Yahya has been sending different insults via his High Commissioners on Kessington Street every time. These Gambian diplomats cannot be transmitting such messages to the home office verbatim but they all know what their president wants them to be sending over the fences of fine-tuned international protocol. Him Yahya being the loud coward he is prefers using emissaries as scape goats. For sure Yahya will not dare talk to Gordon Brown that way if they were to meet at any other place. He plays with the minds of people. He uses disciplined or professional diplomats during such sessions to provoke reactions because he knows diplomacy is meant to be more tolerant than tolerance itself. Yahya provokes such men and women and then sends his intelligence unit to observe,listen and report back anything they hear from these professionals. This is the same way he followed former Deputy British High Commissioner Barat Joshi. If Yahya was not following Joshi as we say in The Gambia "foot-to-foot".....How could he frame Joshi and accuse him of attending a UPD meeting at the time? This was the most blatant lie a country has ever advanced against a foreign diplomat on its soil. The same thread of rumours cost former SOS Dr Sedat Jobe his position. The latter may deny that but he knows this is a fact! Dr Jobe showed how much he did not appreciate what Yahya did against Joshi,finally Jobe was frustrated to the edge. His great expectations were shattered like a broken jug. After all Yahya was wrong. He later realised the side effects of his crazy results,when it was too late. Yahya uses such occasions to pose himself as a daring fool. He thinks picking on the British,American,French diplomats makes him an African hero? A hero? No! He is a fool using foolhardy approaches. When Barat Joshi was sent packing,The Gambia's diplomat in the name of Fatou AK Njie was also expelled in retaliation. Lest we forget about the term "reciprocity". Yahya Jammeh has to understand that conventions were signed and kept to serve as legal landmarks in this fine tradition called diplomacy. This is why emissaries are covered by the word "immunity". Even if the British High commissioner insults Yahya back,he cannot arrest him,he can only send him packing as a perona non grata. Let Yahya look back and see who has been losing? Him or Britain? The Gambia or The United Kingdom? Lets be honest and see reality here. We cannot undo the history that ties us with England. We can only undo the methods of approach after the colonial era but never can The Gambia ever remove England's name from its history neither can England ever do so either.
Everything in life has the positive or negative sides of the coin.
When we revisit the past England can certainly stay there as an old friend to work with The Gambia. The Gambia can also stay as an old friend of England in the African market thus help build bridges in our continent. This is the power of positive thinking. England before is not England now. How many British subjects are descendants of Jamaicans? How many are sons,daughters,grandsons and granddaughters of parents orginating from Pakistan,India and other parts of the world including our own beloved country The Gambia? Does Yahya watch the Sky News? Does he look at the faces of the news reporters? The relationship between The Gambia and England is not about White vs Black! This is about nations coming together to build the future for a coming generation.
Would Yahya hate the British so much so that he will one day annex MRC-Medical Rsearch Council therefore add it to his ZOO? Will he? This hold pastry of raw bread from this fool's bakery is very sticky.
Let the British High Commissioner stay focused. Yahya's is a fool's protocol.