By Mr Muhammed Lamin Njie (UK)
Editor,
Can you please allow me space in your widely read and respected line news paper to utterly reject Samsideen Sarr’s bigoted outburst against the Mandingo tribe and his continuous attempts to defend his position.
Samsideen Sarr is a calculating, dangerous and tribalist bigot who should never be allowed to succeed in his calculating schemes, which is a deluded and selfish scheme of ‘positioning’ himself for a political stake in The Gambia after Jammeh. I believe the unanimous rejection from all section of the Gambian society, of his bigoted diatribes against the Mandingo tribe is a reflection of our shared values of tolerance and progress. One only have to look at the pattern, content and context of his articles ever since he started writing to the online newspaper, to know that this is a bitter, failed and power hungry bigot who has this deluded claim to ‘intellectual wisdom’, all aimed at positioning himself as a alternative for post Jammeh. In as much as this man tries to rewrite or redefine his failed association with the Jammeh administration, history will be the judge and one thing he should realize and soon, is that
Gambians have learned enough from both the Jawara and Jammeh era to know that people like him are the past and not the future. More so, in as much as people are pointing out Jammeh blatant tribal disposition, Samsideen Sarr has shown that he is made of the same, if not worse bigoted fabric even worse than Jammeh, as he cannot help but openly manifested this for the whole country to see.
His continuous arrogant attempts to defend his position, more exposes his shallow intellectual capacity, for a man of his age and experience who claims to know Gambian history, as shown in his articles. His inability to understand that the ‘modern generation’ of Gambians see beyond tribal background, shows that he doesn’t have what it takes for an intellectual let alone a political stake in a future Gambia. Even wise older generations, celebrated the tribal diversity of the Gambian society, as one can only look at old-age comic programmes like ‘fan sung jamano’ as a testament to this. This is inherently a Mandingo programme but the tribal background of the cast is deliberately selected to reflect the tribal diversity of our society. Even the name of the programme is a combination of Mandingo and Wolof phrases Therefore his claim of personal experience with one or two people and his subsequent attempt to tarnish the Mandingo society as tribalist not only show his bigotry but his shallow intellectual capacity.
One thing is certain, Gambian are too intelligent to understand that his scheming attempt to write the history of the Gambia will not be history unless it is independently corroborated by trusted individuals who are known to be part of the process and until such happens we reject his subjective self-serving schemes of repositioning and attempts at political redemption. He will never tell people what atrocities he committed or was part of when he was part of the Junta but he will schemingly recast himself as the wise, all knowing old angel who was the only doer of good in the then junta.
I thought that our overwhelming rejection of his bigoted outburst will send a message to him that Gambians see our collective self as Gambians, not the Mandingo, Wolof or Jola tribes. At a personal level, I am sick of his continuous attempts to somehow defend his outburst and his childish and shallow sparring with people on the web.
We reject your schemes in its entirety, we reject your bigoted and arrogant outbursts and we will totally reject you in your schemes for a stake in the political future of the Gambia because you have shown that you are the very opposite of what The Gambia needs. And I hope modern generations of Gambians understand that it is unthinkable for people like yourself, to have any significant say in our future direction. YOU ARE SIMPLY THE PAST AND NOT THE CALIBRE OF PEOPLE WE NEED TO MOVE THE GAMBIA FORWARD.
