PK JARJU GOT IT ALL

WRONG!!!!

By Gibriel Jagne

I am compelled to respond to PK Jarju´s commentary in defense of Yaya Jammeh and his marauding tribal inclinations. I have utmost respect for PK Jarju, for his principled stance and reasoned arguments on matters of national import. This time, the inconvenient truth being revealed regarding the fierce and virulent rise of Jola tribalism championed by Yaya Jammeh and aggressively supported by a new Jola elite gang, succeeded in rousing him from his ditch of apparent of sanity, thrusting him into the plane of pathetic emotion and sentiment evoked purely out of affinity. Although PK attempted to lace his arguments with citations from respected sources, he failed flat in concealing the totality of his inner thinking.
 
I believe PK read too much into the crystal ball where there was none. The contention being peddled is not a campaign against Jola as a tribe. Rather, it is the effort to jolanise the government system in our country by Yaya Jammeh which is being attacked. The reports never alluded that appointing jolas to psitions of authority as Gambians was wrong, if it is based on merit. PK need to understand that there is a clear dichotomy between attacking the instituting of a jola dominated or influenced civil service as an emerging systemic policy perpetrated by Jammeh AND a wholesale attack on jolas as a separate ethnic identity. Pa Ndery has not attck a single jola, rather as a responsible journalist who is trying to avert a Rwanda syndrome, he is allerting Gambians to a dangerous situation that is creeping with potentially devastating far reaching ramifications. Unfortunately, precipated by ethnic affinity, PK misconstrued the principle and saw nothing else beyong the word "jola".
 
The crusade is against the policy of over raising the decibel of tribal tone by the conspicuos favouring of jolas. This policy include awarding more scholarships to jolas overwhelmingly and in some instances without regard to academic merit - this can be proven because we have the names, origins and qualifications of students sent to Cuba, Venezuela, Taiwan and other destinations. The records are matters of public access in the government system. We have have records of the massive registration of jolas accross the border, including evidence of a secret immigration unit, equipped with technology to spread Gambian national documents to jolas from Cassamance. The idea behind this sinister policy is to swell the population of jolas as a plan hatched by Yaya to institute his permanent rule. This explains why Western region continues to record exponential population growth and in such a manner that KMC votes are  totally now jola controlled. Yaya wants to control the metropolis because he knows that the hinterland cannot be so blatantly manipulated by the infusion of his Cassamamcais kinsmen. As Pa Nderry tries to show, this is grossly unfair to Gambians. It is treasonable.
 
The perpetuation of this criminal enterprise can only be sustained through inserting jolas into positions that would assure the efficacy of this diabolical nonesense. PK, this explains why the security services is now a jola charter, and why Sambou is enlisted to pollute the population mix, to control municipal councils and land matters. We have our eyes open, and we are also Gambians in the service. Should this trend continue, it will inevitably intensify tribal animosity against the Jolas who are only innocent pawns in one man´s grand design for megalomania. Therefore, Pa Nderry is correct to pint out this dangerous emerging force as it rapidly assumes ferocious policy consistency. The case needs to be made that it is not Jolas who are to blame, but rather Jammeh who through his intentional acts of tribal hegemony, is potentially putting them in a situation that may explode some day against them. That makes jolas victims of Jammeh´s machinations as much as any other Gambian tribe.
 
The other day I was talking to a Station Officer in one of the Kombo regions. He laments quite with watery eyes that when a case involves a jola and another ethnic group, they are careful not to hurt the jola person´s feelings for fear of reprimand which comes in many concealed forms. This is a grave situation, when police of other tribes have to be so circumspect. My conversation among others reveal a disturbing trend of similar facts, and among the NIA, it is even worst. PK noted the Rwandan example: what he failed to admit that in Rwanda, the population resorted to crime as the exclusive reaction to the repressive control and minupaltion of state security apparatus, as is being actively practised by Jammeh and his close kinsmen. The objective, like in Rwanda, was to propagate ethnic hegemony. Unlike Pa Nderry, the Press in Rwanda was so cowed as to expose the exercise, just like they dare not expose this trend from within The Gambia. The sad fact which PK need to accept is that the jolanisation of the government system is a known phenomenon. However, I am not prpared to concede that jola as a tribal entity is not involved in this fire play as an organised process. The truth remains that Yaya Jammeh is a dreamer who sees greater Gambia extending to the extreme limits of Cassamance. No wonder he told the British High Commissioner to explain why the elephant in the 14th century has now been reduced to a meandering snake. 
 
Let me stress that PK has earned his reputation on principle, and the fact that he misconstrued and falters this time around doesnt diminish his shadow. We all make mistakes, and PK is entitled to his own.
 
I can be reached on gibijagne@hotmail.com