Fourth Rejoinder: Debunking Sarr And Jammeh

By Ebou Gaye

Brother Samsudeen Sarr, I wholeheartedly accept your apology for the delay in reacting to my previous rejoinder. Better late than never! I am highly indebted to you for reviewing my theory and giving me your feedback, though the feedback is negative as expected.

Mr Sarr, it is a pity that you are behaving like those the glorious Qur’an has described as deaf, dumb and blind. Instead of addressing issues accordingly, you have resorted to your customary digressions, mystifying, glorifying and aggrandizing your master, while – the same time – flaying my Imam and the US government as usual. You have proven to be a dangerous, undesirable element that should be edified more, or filtered out like germs in water. It seems you are walking on your head. If so, I appeal to you to stand up and walk on your feet, and reason with me.

Your dismissal of my formula as “un-mathematical” doesn’t bother me the least. The formula is meant to illustrate the predictable aspect of Jammeh’s character, and I believe itiferves the purpose well. It is gratifying that you have not disputed the attributes of betrayal and bully which I have said are inherent in Jammeh. This strongly suggests that you agree with me on this point, or that you know deep in your heart that Jammeh is a betrayer and a bully, even though you lack the sincerity and courage to say it.

You have branded your anonymous critics cowards, challenging them to come in the open. Mr Sarr, you are not morally justified in labelling those people as cowards for concealing their identities. It is common knowledge that you have written prolifically lambasting Jammeh under the pen name Ebou Colley. Were you a coward then? When have you become a “hero”? What is the source of your “bravery”? As I have said in one of my recent write-ups, people have different reasons for using pseudonyms. I have never used pseudonyms, but I respect the position of those who have chosen to use them. The message conveyed by a writer is more important than his/her identity. If you think that those anonymous critics are not talking sense, you are free to go ahead and refute or disprove what they say about you and your master, just as people used to do with you when you were writing pseudonymously as Ebou Colley.

Given the manner in which your master treats his associates, your job as a diplomat is not as lucrative and enviable as you consider it to be. Therefore, it is utterly wrong for you to believe that people begrudge you the opportunity to get appointed to that post by your master. I mentioned luxurious, flamboyant lifestyles as the motivating-factor factor of your reconciliation with your master. This was in response to your description of my Imam as an “eminent loser”. Put in crude terms, I believe it is better to live and die with dignity as a loser (poor person) than to live as a liar- like you- with the aim of leading a luxurious (expensive/lavish), flamboyant lifestyle like your master. No one is convinced that your reconciliation with your master is genuine. The general belief is that you have mortgaged your dignity- if at all you initially had any- and lent yourself to the services of the despot in order to better your situation, and not to serve the interest of your country as you want to fool us into believing. As I told you earlier, Jammeh is not as foolish as you think. He understands you very well. He is just playing his cards, as you are doing. He always says “Once a soldier always a soldier.” Thus, he knows that once a liar always a liar. I very much doubt whether you will be able to outwit or outsmart him as intended. It is foolhardy for you to think that you can. I have the conviction that your master will ultimately triumph over you, not the other way round. To me, your best deal will be a win-win situation, which I rule out in its totality. As we all know, partnering with your master as an individual rarely lasts long, and he emerges victorious in most cases. Partnering with him is comparable to caressing a porcupine, as anybody who does that is bound to get pierced and hurt by the sharp quills on its body.

It is heart-breaking that you are trying to downplay the seriousness of the heinous crime of massacring 14 youths and 54 foreign nationals in 2000 and 2005 respectively, under your master’s watch. You have maintained your position that your master is a security genius, claiming that the killing of the 14 youths would not happen if he was present in the country at the time of the riot. If your master was a security genius as you have claimed, he would be able to put in place a good security apparatus to make sure that such a catastrophe is averted, regardless of whether he was in or outside the country. Besides, he would communicate with the security forces on the ground and advise them to take good measures that could help them to avoid killing. If your master was communicating with the security forces while abroad, it can be concluded that the command to kill the youths emanated from him as many people have alleged. This allegation is supported by the fact that he indemnified the killers rather than punishing them as expected of him. Your master’s decision to indemnify the killers can be interpreted as giving the security forces the licence to kill protesters as a way of suppressing demonstrations and quelling riots. Evidently, your master is not a conscientious security genius, if at all he is one. Your assertion that your master has compensated the families of the victims and that they are “genuinely satisfied” is disputable. How have you reached that conclusion? Have you interviewed them? For your information, Mr Sarr, some of the survivors of the calamity are still on wheelchair, and your master is not doing anything to help assuage or attenuate their plights, in spite of the fact that he is always dishing out astronomical sums of money to wrestlers, artists and dancers. Hence, his generosity – which you have highlighted in your rebuttal – is gravely misplaced. What is the logic, if at all there is any, behind showing generosity to the latter while ignoring the former who had been maimed by his security forces? Is this a way of telling them that he his angry with them and thus want to see them suffer for the rest of their lives? You have claimed that Gambian students, after the brutal killing and mutilation of their colleagues, organized a solidarity march to manifest their love and support for your master. Mr Sarr, stop treating Gambians as credulous fools. We all know that such so-called solidarity marches are not voluntary. They are state-managed through mobilization by APRC bigwigs. Your claim that the students were instigated by the opposition for the purpose of destabilizing the country and eventually seizing power is unfounded. You are seeking to please your master by re-echoing what he and his marionettes have already said. The students were protesting the murder and rape of their colleagues by officers of the Fire and Ambulance Services and the security forces. Therefore, their cause was genuine. The security forces should have escorted them and use tear gas or rubber bullets to control them during the riot rather than shooting them with live bullets. It doesn’t take one to be a security genius or guru to know these basic security measures. Mr Sarr, be fair, honest and sincerely with Gambians and stop blaming your master’s multifarious wrongs and misdeeds on them all the time. No wonder, you have denied the killing of 54 foreign nationals, asking for evidence and a list of the names of the victims. The evidence is that your master had reached a deal with the Ghana Government and paid compensation to the families of the victims. This was reported widely by the Ghanaian press (print and online), and The Gambia Government never denied it, although they chose to keep Gambians in the dark as usual by refraining from reporting it as expected of them. According to vibeghana.com (11 November 2011 edition), US$ 500,000 was paid by the Gambia Government. Why would your master pay compensation if no Ghanaian was killed as you have claimed? Paying compensation simply means confession. In fact, independent investigators were sent to The Gambia prior to that. Mr Sarr, I cannot believe that you are not aware of the investigation and compensation. Besides, a survivor called Martin Kyere has narrated his ordeal on Joy FM (myjoyonline.com) in Ghana. What more proof do you want? Mr Sarr, you have transformed yourself into a clown through your denials of the obvious. Even your master and the APRC praise-singers and puppets you are trying to impress know fully well that you are not talking sense. Like your master, you have turned yourself to an object of ridicule and a laughing stock globally. Additionally, you have incurred the wrath of all right-thinking people through your behaviour. This is the price of sycophancy and opportunism.

In your silly, senseless and vain attempt to justify your master’s atrocities, you have drawn my attention to the recent bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan by an American fighter aircraft, resulting in a mass killing of civilians. That is deplorable, and I condemn it with the strongest possible terms. However, you should note that this incident cannot, in any way, justify the killing of 14 armless, harmless youths by the Gambian security forces. Two wrongs cannot make a right. If you are so concerned about this incident, I see no reason why you should play down the killing of 14 youths in your native country. Your hypocrisy and insincerity are conspicuous, and have proven to be beyond dispute and measure.

You are still insisting that my Imam should have limited his sermons to religious issues and refrained from talking about politics. Yet, have told us that you can endorse your master as a head of a secular state as well as a religious state. If you can draw a clear demarcation line between religion and politics for my Imam, why can’t you do the same thing for your master? Jammeh has meddled in religion to the extent of decreeing for Muslims when to perform Eid prayers. He has persecuted and prosecuted a religious leader for disobeying his orders in this regard. If you believe that a religious leader should not meddle in politics, it is logical for you to also believe that a political leader should not interfere in religious matters as your master does on a daily basis. Now, would you tell Jammeh to limit himself to political issues and stop meddling in religion? Mr Sarr, sermons are meant to address issues affecting people. Be those issues religious, political, social, cultural, and otherwise. Given the importance of politics and the fact that Islam is a way of life, it doesn’t make any sense for you to suggest that no sermon should touch on political issues. Put that into your head!

You have portrayed Jammeh as the saviour of our dear Motherland. There is nothing further from the reality than this portrayal of your master. This is insulting to the intelligence of Gambians, to say the least. The Gambia is no longer the Smiling Coast it used to be. It can aptly be called the Frowning Coast or the Weeping Coast under Jammeh. I am talking about a situation where people live constantly in a state of fear due to repression and oppression. Mysterious killings and disappearances without trace have become the order of the day. Prices of commodities and utility tariffs are sky-rocketing, coupled with economic slump evidenced by the rapid depreciation of our currency. Poverty and youth unemployment are on the rise, forcing our youths to risk their precious lives to travel overseas by all means in search of greener pastures. We have been categorized as a Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC). Despite our heavy, neck-breaking debt burden, our government continues to borrow and never hesitates to ratify loan agreements, no matter what conditions are attached. For this reason, we have now reached a point of insolvency, and our only hope of salvation is debt relief. To better understand our financial/economic situation as a country, Mr Sarr, you can read the recent IMF report if you have not already done so. But don’t try to rubbish it as you have done with the Human Rights Watch report. Your master has, on several occasions, promised to transform our country into an economic super power and a donor country, claiming that it would soon outstrip Singapore and the United Arab Emirates in terms of development. As I always say, Mr Sarr, it is good to aim high, but it is folly to set lofty, unachievable goals. That is daydreaming and fantasizing, or building castles in the air, as others would put it. Mr Sarr, people are not gullible to extent of believing your master’s endless empty promises and your unsubstantiated claims of better living conditions under him as a leader. The era of hoodwinking people is past and gone. The fact of the matter is that Jammeh is more interested in enriching himself than in alleviating the poverty bedevilling our country and enhancing the wellbeing of its citizens. That Jammeh can donate vehicles and equipment to government departments and has the guts to tell his compatriots publicly that he has accumulated enough wealth to cater for the needs of his great grandchildren has said it all. He has become richer than the state overnight. This is more than yabaateh and heibaateh combined, Mr Sarr. In summary, Jammeh is not a saviour as you have tried to project him. He is a plunderer and squanderer, a betrayer and a bully. Pure and simple!

Ends

2 Comments

  1. Anta Diop

    Leave him before you bury him. He is so annoying that one cannot ignore him. What a jackass!

  2. Once a liar, always a liar. Jammeh knew him very well. We are watching.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*