Gambian Journalists meet government to make peace state house daily paper calls them Western Stooges-VP Njie Saidy ridiculed!

 
By Hammadi Maasinah

In our country we have a senseless failure of an Ethiopian-terrorist using the state-owned media to promote his agenda. All this is being done  under the watch of President Jammeh who is searching for every possible means to blame his failures on others!
Gambian journalists who have been victims of a deadly state-sponsored security machine decided to at least stay “versatile” therefore opened the doors of dialogue. These responsible patriots started by meeting the APRC government’s security council supervised by the VP Isatou Njie Saidy. During that very meeting the VP herself made very responsible comments by accepting the fact that there has indeed been friction between government and journalists for a long while now(read foroyaa’s piece on this same meeting). We will give her credit on this one for the sake of impartiality. The permanent secretary who also attended the supported the VP’s stand point. What was wrong in identifying where the friction exists between the current government and journalists then trying  “lubricating” it within a professional culture? What on earth is wrong in what Ndey Tapha Sosseh and team did? In fact the best part of it was that she was in there surrounded by veterans like Alhaji Swaebou Conateh,Sam Sarr and others.
But no! Instead meeting while representing the secretary of state Didi Halake daily observer’s MD went in like what Americans call a bull in china shop. He went on the rampage mixing his tirades with an  affectionate way of trying to eulogise Fatim Badjie,c calling her a victim of Gambian journalists? Fatim Badjie a victim? Isn’t Halake a new pimp!?
These are people who can teach Dide Halake for decades before he finally understands what decent journalism entails! Does anyone think these learned people would have wasted their time going with Ndey Tapha to meet VP Isatou Njie Saidy if it was not meant for the interest of the country? Afterwards what did Didi Halake the MD of the daily observer do for The Gambia before he was received as asylee-beggar? We did not even the last name he bears exists on the African continent! This shameless beggar of an unwanted asylee from Ethiopia used the occasion to spread his useless and aimless words of a failure towards others. He decided to spread his attacks in a more irresponsible way. Trying to “wriggle” through like worm. A Managing Director who has one of the  the worst show cases one can ever see on earth if compared to any other in the world. A man like him is the best candidate to serve under Yahya Jammeh. Just read his article the “Observer In Shock”, then see “blinded-arrogance” in this man’s head. His types are the ones who think they are tigers when in actual fact they are smelling squirrels, jumping from one tree’s branch to another making so much noise for nothing. The same MD went to the extent of adding cases of Guantanamo Bay detainees on what he calls an editorial against journalists in The Gambia? Categorizing the print media journalists(save his own paper of eulogies) and online ones as agents being sponsored by the West to destabilize Jammeh’s regime? To the extend that he directly confronted the US Ambassador? Posing as  a challenger to those who issue visas? Does the state house know how much damage the observer is doing to the country? If they really do then our country has been hijacked by foreigners. This reconfirms the position  of some skeptics as far as Yahya Jammeh’s citizenship is concerned? Skeptics who have always questioned if President Jammeh is indeed a true Gambian? I always took that at face value but after seeing to what extent he can go only to promote his personal agenda against that of the nation I think it is high time we got our country back. This further reconfirms what has been said before by other respectable authors on this same subject. Like the case where  it is visualized as  Jammeh versus the future of The Gambia? This is getting out of hand and so worrisome! Am getting more and more worried. In fact isn’t the daily observer itself DIGGING the APRC’s own grave? Isn’t this paper itself the one causing and flaming the feelings of anti government and anti Jammeh? Even if journalists come to their knees trying to make peace, this government calls them agents of the west?
Anyway we at the freedomnewspaper are so glad again because we have been proven right once again beyond any reasonable doubt. So many have been asking for a “softer” or a more “versatile” position with the Jammeh government but we refused, knowing very well it does not understand that. Some people went to the extent of saying we never see anything positive towards what Jammeh does. That is not the case! We know to what degree this system hates freedom of expression because it feeds on banditry. Ndey Tapha met VP Isatou Njie Saidy and team at the security council of the APRC. VP said so many “nice” things. Are these “niceties” not a baits? Yes they really are! Let the GPU not take the daily observer’s reaction at face value. Those are the exact words from the Jammeh  government!. That is their actual reply. The daily observer would never dare write something like that without President Jammeh’s approval. In fact the paper has been serving as the state house’s spoke person all this while.  The MD in his lengthy letter of ranting from a failure who was dawdling the streets all the way from Adis Ababa (where he is a rejected son) via England (where he is beggar asylee with so many wills),finally reached Banjul a good destination for such characters these days. Is Halake the one to is to defend Fatim Badjie in a country where she was  born? An Ethiopian bandit of class A type? Calling himself a  defender of African revolutions? Oh God.
The same man is using country to promote the remnants of an Ethiopian sour legacy? A man castigates the west for being anti Islamic but would at the same time promoted the agenda of an Ethiopian government(current) while its soldiers are battling Somali extremists in the streets of Mogadishu ? These type of characters are just so dangerous. The reason why people write about Halake it because he blows the trumpet for a desperate Jammeh. Otherwise none I mean none would ever waste his or her time on an Ethiopian-beggar in Banjul trying to serve as an anti western parrot. In fact where would Halake get the feelings of calling Foroyaa/PDOIS the party of 2% votes if he was not being supported by Jammeh? Hear him say they(foroyaa) wished to go to mile two? No Halake you are being warned that many who came before you ended up in Mile two. You deliberately ignore the useful sermon because you are serpent. Serpents do you hear sermons!
This very letter that Halake penned shows a bad omen for VP Isatou Njie Saidy. She may as well deny but lets wait and see.
 
See hereunder what the MD of a shameless government-sponsored paper had to say against Gambian journalists, the west while supported terrorism in the name of Islam. Islam MUST and WILL  dissociate itself from such characters. Halake and people like him are the real enemies of Islam. How can someone who runs brothels in Kotu and area in TDA-Tourism Development Area claim to be representing Islam? We will set an example on this man so that his likes will stop insulting our decent religion. Halake the one insulting the west does he know how many mosques there are in Washington DC ? Does this cultural-stigma Halake know how many mosques we have in Minnesota,Texas,Detroit,St Louis all major cities in the USA? Does he know that? We will reveal more in this vein to show the whole world he is a retarded soul being used by a despot. This is exactly why beggars like Halake can be easily recruited to wreak havoc on people without knowing it. He is a hate-monger who is alongside a coward.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Africa » Gambia
Monday, May 12, 2008
Here is the letter Mr. Conateh needs to answer instead of hurling abuse
Ms. Ndey Tapha Sosseh

Dear Madam,

Thank you for your letter informing us of your activities, which will be graced, you say, by the Secretary of State. Thank you also for referring to us at the Daily Observer as your "partners".

As far as the Hon. Secretary of State is concerned, you will recall that while your "partners" in the internet media fraternity were disgracefully attacking her honour and integrity, we at the Daily Observer came out in her defence. The abusers, or "journalists", then turned against us with unbridled venom. You, Ms. Ndey Tapha Sosseh, have done interview after interview since you replaced your boss Madi Ceesay as GPU President. Can I ask if you are on record, in any interview or letter-to-the-editor, condemning the disgraceful manner in which so-called Gambian "journalists" attacked the Hon. SoS, a decent and respectable woman like yourself, simply because she had been appointed to serve in President Jammeh’s cabinet?

Secondly, I have been personally vilified and attacked simply because I was appointed as MD & Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Observer. Did you, and your honourable journalism "partners", at any point put pen to paper in defence of journalistic decency? No. You are, on the contrary, on record for attacking the Daily Observer, as they do, in your speech at the GPU congress in March 2008. Why? Because, according to you, we have not said anything about certain matters which have to do with state security! With respect, Ms. Ndey Tapha Sosseh, naivety of these so-called journalists is shocking! Journalists in USA and UK are also restricted on matters to do with state security. Our government is criticised by your lot because security agents give evidence in camera. Again this is standard practice in USA and UK where state security agents do regularly give evidence in camera. And what about the Muslims who have been locked up for 5 years in Guantanamo Bay and British prisons, without trial, for being security threats? With no evidence whatsoever being given to their lawyers or any court?

You want us to be your "partners" so that we practice your kind of naïve journalism to de-stabilise a hard-working and progressive African government for purely political reasons? Inspite of CNN and BBC propaganda, what is the difference between the 2000 elections in the USA and those in Zimbabwe and Kenya recently? The only difference is that Africans die rioting because they believe the propaganda - thanks to “journalists” like your lot. The first duty of any government anywhere is the security of the state. While this is accepted for Western countries, even at the expense of so-called "human-rights", why are African states undermined and weakened, as in Zimbabwe ’s, case to the point of collapse? No, madam, we will never be your partners in what we consider to be treason against the development of Africa and the cause of Pan-Africanism. Call it "journalism" if you wish, but look for other "partners", not us.

Ms. Ndey Tapha Sosseh, what are we "partners" in/for? As you recall, many journalists asked that the three GPU top people during Madi Ceesay’s reign, i.e. Madi Ceesay, his no.2 Ndey Tapha Sosseh and his no. 3 Emile Touray, should resign to allow for an enquiry and fresh-start for the GPU. Instead a so-called election was engineered in which no. 1 resigned to be replaced by his loyal no.2 (your good self), while no. 3 moved up to no.2. And what was the first decision you, madam, made as no. 1? No enquiry into what went on at the GPU during the last 3 years! Surprise, surprise, it is a cover-up! So I ask you again: what do you want us to be "partners" in? At the recent GPU congress, you made sure that the two seasoned and senior Daily Observer journalists who went for GPU positions, Ebrima Jaw-Manneh and Lamin M Dibba, did not get elected. Instead you co-opted a Daily Observer free-lancer whose name I forget. Of course, I fired the free-lancer on the spot for disloyalty to his senior colleagues – just as my uncle Sheriff Bojang fired you, madam, from the Daily Observer a couple of years ago. As for your "partners" at FOROYAA, they even penned an editorial in which they visualised me in Mile 2 prison – I presume after "democratic" Mr. 2% comes to power!

Or do you want us to be your "partners" in your constant attack against President Jammeh’s hard working government, simply because the other lot happen to be your uncles, cousins, nephews and school-mates? No, as far as we are concerned, the GPU stands for Gambia Political Union and you are an opposition political party under the guise of "journalism". Of course, you are also funded from abroad by the same people who fund the MDC in Zimbabwe , under the guise of "journalism training" and "civil society empowerment" (The British and USA governments are stopping Saudi Arabia and other countries from doing exactly this in USA and UK by seizing such funds under the Anti-Terrorism Act! Books and videos on Islam and Hadith also get seized!). We say good luck to you. We don’t want any of your "journalism training" money and we don’t want your ready-made visas either.

Funny isn’t it – Daily Observer’s Ebrima Jaw-Manneh has honourably returned to work after four weeks in USA, while one of your lot has absconded after the US Embassy funded all his expenses to cover the US election campaign! Of course, we at the Daily Observer are enjoying the irony immensely, and I am sure the American Ambassador is none too pleased – but then again we could have told him about all these so-called "journalists". Mr. Ambassador, I will bet my compound that if, for example, Daily Observer’s Lamin M Dibba, is given a visa to the USA and asked to cover the US elections, he will return to The Gambia as agreed. But I digress.

Finally madam, if you want us to be partners with GPU, let the three top people under Madi Ceesay’s reign resign. Madi Ceesay has resigned. Ndey Tapha-Sossey and Emile Touray should also resign. Then hold an election in which bona-fide journalists are not barred from voting because "the GPU does not know who Ebrima Jaw-Manneh is"!! Then the GPU may become a Press Union, rather than the political opposition union that it is today. Otherwise? Otherwise we wish you well in your anti-government political activities (please stop calling yourself "journalists"!).

Your most respectful non-partner,

Dida Halake.

MD & Editor-in-Chief,

Daily Observer.

Post Scriptum: As you know, after your firing from the Daily Observer, you never visited until I became MD. As a Gambian and a respected lady, I say to you here that you are most welcome to visit the Daily Observer, and even share our Sunday Lunch with the staff (2p.m approx). But you are not welcome as President of the Gambia Political Union (GPU) for we are not "partners" with GPU as it is currently set-up.

DO