Activist colleagues of Mr. Falai Baldeh have expressed disappointment over his defection to the ruling Alliance for Patriotic, Re-orientation and Construction of President Yahya Jammeh.
The fierce critic of the Gambia government’s policies reportedly jumped ship during a meeting involving officials of the government and APRC in New York last week. Mr. Baldeh used the meeting to apologise to both President Jammeh and Momodou Tangara, the Gambia’s Ambassador to the United Nations for wronging them. During a brawl Baldeh had physically assaulted Mr. Tangara, a development the former said was regrettable.
Mr. Falai Baldeh, who has since been mocked on social media for acting like Judas, is yet to deny or confirm his defection to the government that continues to make life unbearable for Gambians. Kairo News could not get Falai Baldeh on the phone to hear his own side of the story.
In a press release below, Mr. Baldeh’s colleagues of the Gambia Consultative Council expressed their frustration and regret about the development.
It is with regret that the Gambia Consultative Council (GCC) expresses deep disappointment in the recent defection to the APRC of dictator and murderer, Yahya Jammeh, of one of its executives members, Mr. Falai Baldeh, in charge of Protests and Demonstrations. GCC was clearly blindsided by Mr. Baldeh’s actions particularly at a time when nothing, whatsoever, has changed in the political situation at home.
While GCC clearly disagrees with the actions taken by Falai Baldeh, until recently one of the most vociferous critics of the Gambian regime under Yahya Jammeh, each member of the GCC executive enjoys the freewill to make decisions that are in their best personal interest. GCC, therefore, wishes Mr. Falai Baldeh well as a member of a regime that continues to wreak so much havoc on Gambian society.
Finally, GCC has nothing further to add to this unfortunate transfer of allegiance from the interest of the suffering Gambian people to Yahya Jammeh, the source of all that suffering. All further clarification on this matter can we addressed directly to Mr Falai Baldeh himself.
The GCC executive
December 14, 2014
Ends
Thank you GCC for distancing yourself from a lone wolf in sheep clothing. Falai Baldeh just joined the wrong ship that is about to sink. Joining the bandwagon of the sycopaths and opportunists will not make life easier for you and Yaya the dictator will love to teach him a lesson. Farewell Falai. By next year we will talking about your case.
Thank you GCC for distancing the organization from Mr. Falai Baldeh. The ship is sinking and Falai jumped on it just in time. Dictator Jammeh doesn’t forgive or forget just ask Ousman Badgie.
Ha, ha, ha, Lafia. Luntango is a Marabout! Did I not say here ten days ago that GCC stands for Gambia Coconut Corporation? Ha, ha ha!
He is broke let him join jammeh. That man talks too much, the struggle doesn’t need people like Falai…
Mr Baldeh’s mouth is liability to information leakage. ..I meet this old man in less than an hour he almost finish a book of information. Jammeh having him is gona make more harm to his Administration.
The greedy sheep in wolves clothes shall expose themselves one after another, like in most & many struggles before ours, for they aren’t honest to themselves in first place neither to their families nor to the Gambia homeland…. We are actually better off without the self-centred hypocrites in the struggle who’s motivation is driven by pure sheer greed & nothing else…. These hypocrites have their eyes on our meagre state resources for personal gains which are being dished out to them by the kanilai murderer to buy their support; for the truth is they aren’t loyal to themselves & their birth rights & country in the first place… I’m just dumb founded by the so-called Imam in the centre facilitating the hypocrisy using his status in religion, perpetuating the dishonesty, travesty & murdering in our homeland….. Hottest part of Hell is reserved for those who use & or hide behind religion & God to aid & abet the oppression of fellow human beings…… Surely God is watching over our deeds….. Allah bless Gambia; Ameen.
The case of Falai is a sad testament to all. It means that, urgency need to be apply in having a closure to the madness. America is great and powerful country, however, it does not insulate vulnerable members of society like certain European countries.
Falai is not educated to any high level and if he has any skills, it is not helping him. In which case, people who are growing older and cannot see an end to the madness, may have to chose either to accept things the way they are and join the system. But the dangers remains the same, Jammeh is a crocodile, he will eat just anything. Sam Sarr is said to be in the Gambia, and he may be preparing the grounds for more would be apologist.
Jammeh must be taken out. If not dignities will be lost. I feel seriously sorry for Falai. He is not here, nor there, But Modou Njai is the brain child undermining vulnerable people.
Thank you Suntou for hitting the nail on the head. I met Falai Baldeh in New York few times and seeing his emails he send me, I was very confused that his grammar was very poor with many misspelling errors. I agreed that we need to do something to help the situation quickly.
The prescription to our situation will only be solve through unity of many Gambians and trying alternative methods to get rid of the dictator. Yaya Jammeh’s regime is very vulnerable because he is only person who make all decisions and others are there simply for their selfish ends. Time is not waiting for us and our country need us.
Suntou Touray , you are right about falie not having high education or skills and he is looking for opportunity to better himself . I think it is about high time we look into big picture and find out those who are simply looking for fame such as Modou njai and those who are genuine,and want to see real change in The Gambia . our problem is bigger than dictator Jammeh and I think Gambians needs to look into themselves to find out how honest we are and what do we believe or stand for . We have seen many of falie’s before and the question is , are we going to allow them to fool and mislead us for Sometimes and then they move to the side of the enemy ? We need self evaluation and each organization needs to evaluate their executive members before entrusting them responsibility . People like falie who cannot even keep up a job here in seattle when he moved and then had to move back to New York , I wonder why they gave him executive position in GCC. He is an example of noisy makers and we have plenty of them in this struggle . Let us all start to evaluate ourselves .
It is rather unfortunate that individuals who lacked no passion or commitment, at the beginning of the struggle to effect change in the Gambia, are suddenly changing heart and “crawling back on their knees,” to seek reconciliation with Yaya Jammeh…
But even more unfortunate is the attitude that some of us adopt to dismiss these individuals, off hand, as being “this” or “that”, without reflecting on the possible reasons for these difficult and humiliating decisions (for them) and the possible consequences for their actions….I know many will.not want to hear this, but I think we should move away from this easy and quite frankly, simplistic way of viewing things…And unless we can seriously try to unravel the reasons why these people choose to “reconcile and dine” with the heartless dictator, rather than stick with this “headless chicken” of a struggle, we shouldn’t be surprised if more people change heart…The problem may be within the diaspora, rather than anything else…It’s just too convenient to conclude that these people are hungry for positions because they are suffering abroad and have no hope for their future…
What we.might find, if we care to look inward, is that many are becoming disillusioned by this struggle because of its disorganised nature, it’s multifaceted interests groupings, the prominence of certain uncultured and ignorant people through talk shows and the un-Gambian approach that these characters manifest in some of their discussions, etc..
Personally, I believe that the attitude of some segments of the diaspora struggle, particularly in the US, have turned them into unwitting allies and helpers of Jammeh and a big obstacle, if not the biggest, to opposition efforts to effect change through the polls, the only realistic route for now…I do not wish to take away anyone’s wishes to effect change through military force but, as far as I can see, that wish is the least realistic route at the.moment..
But rather than use their medium/media to end voter apathy and urge people to come out en masse and vote against Jammeh, they actually encourage voter apathy by dismissing elections as pointless under the regime, even though statistics say otherwise…No wonder, Jammeh polled over 70% of the votes cast last time because the people most likely to be affected by this endless anti – vote campaign is the non APRC voters, rather than the APRC voters..
So rather than.blame others, we must look.at ourselves first, with a view to rationalising and organising this struggle…
Please forgive me.if I annoy you because I know.my in-law worries about my “thought processes” sometimes..
@Bax: “…Please forgive me.if I annoy you because I know.my in-law worries about my “thought processes” sometimes..”
Ha, ha, ha! But on this one your “thought process” is totally faultless my in-law! – in fact I could send you a PhD certificate if you post D500 my way!
Frankly Bax, the NADD shenanigans and Diaspora involvement in that mess in 2006 saw off the last serious challenge to Jammeh. One can’t really blame Falai Baldeh and Sam Sarr (with their advanced years) for choosing to go home. (PS: compared to them I am still a Spring chicken!)