Letter to My Brother from another Mother

by PK Jarju, Birmingham, UK

My dear brother from another mother, greetings in the name of the most Beneficent, Merciful and Gracious Lord, our Cherisher and Sustainer, Who has created man out of a clot and has taught [man] the use of the pen.
It’s been a while since I last wrote to you as I have been very busy thousands of miles away in a foreign land. Yeah, the place I moved to in order to escape your brutal regime, which has no regards to the rights and freedoms of the Gambian people.

My brother from another mother, when you took over the reigns of power in July 1994, many Gambians gave you their blessings. They stood by you in those difficult years thereby enabling you to attain some of your objectives. But sadly today, many of them have lost confidence and trust in you. They have been betrayed, lied to and failed by the revolution which was supposed to change their lives and country for the better.

The revolution instead of alleviating their sufferings brought nothing but more miseries, hardships and retrogression. While you and your associates are getting rich and richer, a large percentage of the Gambian people live far below the poverty ladder. And as a result, many Gambians are today cannot afford to acquire a decent meal for the day.

You and your associates have highjacked the country and is wrecking the lives and dreams of many Gambians, especially the young generation. Despite 14 years of promises, the Gambian people are yet to break free from the shackles of poverty.
The prices of basic commodities are increasing left right centre everyday beyond the reach of many Gambian families. The Gambian people continue to be born in poverty, grow up in poverty and die in poverty.

My brother from another mother, becoming president of our little country is too good to be true for you. You have become so intoxicated with power and despite being in power for 14 years; you still never want to give it up. Your government have lost its sense of direction and have no interest in the welfare of the people at heart. You are ruling the country as though it is your private estate and property, to do with as you choose. You have created a dictatorship and neglected your duties as president.

You gave yourself so much power making you the most powerful Gambian the country has ever seen. You are now more powerful than a king and you talk to people the way you want, do things the way you want for you are untouchable.

My brother from another mother, the situation in our country has over the years being going from bad to worst and the Gambian people are crying everyday in their homes, bantabas, farms and rice fields about the shameful misdeeds of your government. They cry every day about the increasing level of poverty, sufferings, arrest and detention without charge, torture and the incompetence of your brutal regime. But instead of listening to their cries, you employ bullying and intimidation techniques to silence them.

You and your government are scared of the truth and as a result you are doing all within your powers to extinguish it. You want to spread ignorance among the Gambian people by keeping them uninformed and living a life of complete denial.

Those who speak the truth are whisked away in the middle of the night from their families never to be seen again. They are branded enemies of the Gambia, undesirable elements and illegitimate sons and daughters of Africa, who deserves nothing better than the gas chambers.

My brother from another mother, as a man who carry the holy book of Almighty Allah everywhere you go and hymn His praises 24 hours a day, seven days a week 365 days a year, permit me to draw your attention to the story of Luqman, the wise, who has a surah named after him in the Qur'an.

When Allah asked Luqman whether he liked to be king and justly rule over the people. He submitted: "O my Lord, if it is a command from You, I must obey; for in that case, I shall be assisted by You. But if I am granted the choice to accept or to decline, I would rather be excused; I do not like to undertake this onerous responsibility. A ruler is always in a difficult situation. Tyranny and other evils surround him on all sides and everything depends upon whether he is divinely aided or not. If he rules justly, he can attain to salvation, if not; he is led astray from the path leading to Jannah. And, it is far better to lead a humble life rather than to live an easy life in this world and do harm to one's life in the Hereafter. He who prefers this world to the Hereafter suffers double loss: this world forsakes him, sooner or later, and he has no value in the Hereafter."

Don't misjudge me, I am not asking you to be Luqman; all I ask of you is to govern the people base on the principles of democracy and the rule of the law.

My brother from another mother, it is true that you are president of 1.5 million people so what? You are nothing special in the eyes of wise men but a mere human being. Remember that no matter how powerful thou may be, no matter how much wealth you gather and no matter how long thou may live, thou shall one day be laid down in the pit of the grave for your abode and men you used to look low upon; men you bullied and mistreated will throw dust upon you from all sides to cover you.

My brother from another mother, as president, you were elected to represent the welfare of the Gambian people. But instead you have gone further to own the country and everything in it. You have killed, tortured, jailed and exiled anyone who refuses to bend his knee for you. This has resulted in a situation of fear an uncertainty.

Your security officers are armed and given the license to arrest, torture and even kill anyone who does not agree with your dictatorial policies. In your name, they have orphaned many Gambian children. In you name they have widowed many Gambian women and in your name they have made many parents childless. Also in your name my dear brother, they have torned many closed Gambian families apart.

My dear brother from another mother, you need to remember that no matter how big and powerful you are; you cannot be bigger than the Gambia. The Gambia was born centuries before you and will always continue to exist till the end of time. The Gambia does not belong to you and you do not love it more than anyone of us. The Gambian people have a right to speak out against the brutality and mismanagement of your government.

My brother from another mother, you have to learn from the lessons of past dictators like Idi Amin, Samuel Doe, Hussein Habre, Charles Taylor, Saddam Hussein and others. You have to put down your sword and start listening to the views of the people especially your opponents and critics. These people are Gambians like you. They love and cared for their country and it is ridiculous to hear you branding them as anti-development just because they choose to speak the truth. You are the cause of the Gambia's problems and you have to be honest with the people.

Continuing your policies of brutality and savagery is not the best way forward. You have to bury your pride and stop dividing and ruling the people base on party politics.

My brother from another mother, you have to realise that no act of brutality against your opponents will stop them from speaking out against your government.
The more you torture and kill them, the more you will see them rise again. The more laws you create to suppress them, the more they would break them. For they are a people who want to see the full restoration of democracy and the respect of human rights in the country.

While you may succeed in silencing some of them through force, yet their desire, their instinct to oppose brutality and repress freedom of thought will never be quenched. Of course it can be forced to keep quiet at times, when the repression gets worse. But instinct remains, and will always remain and when the circumstances becomes a little bit favourable, it will raise its head again. The desire to be free is one of the fundamental human desires.

Have a good day my dear brother from another mother, Eid Mubarak.
For comments write to papak196@yahoo.co.uk or info@allgambian.net