At his mercy

by PK Jarju, Birmingham UK

It is often said that moving houses is one of the hardest things to do in the UK. Since posting my last article, I moved into an empty house that does not even have a phone line. Typical of British Council Housing. Not even a carpet or flooring was in the house and I have to spend every hour in the past three weeks trying to put the bit and pieces together.

I will therefore like to apologise to my esteem readers for my long absence. I am yet to get the my phone line sorted and as a result I may not be able to contribute regularly as before. So like we say in Jollof, Balal lem ma

Whenever I take a serious look at the Gambia, the more worried I get concerning the political situation of the country. The country is fast sinking and nothing is being done to save it. It is sinking not because the general population is unaware, but because they feel they cannot do anything to stop it.

The Gambia looks like a hijacked ship being flown to an unknown destination. For the past 14 years, a man who many Gambians don't want as their head of state is holding a gun to the captain's head and the passengers and the rest of the crew are all too terrified to say a word or stop him.

The principles that were supposed to make you and me safe in our own land of birth and protect us from such political madness have been badly tampered with to favour the head of state. He is given full control of our land of birth and is empowered to do whatever he wants, anytime, anyhow and to anyone.

He is applauded for anything he does or say whether good or bad. The head of state is said to love our country so much so that anything he does or says is seen as in our best interest. He is seen as a messiah, puritan and reformer hand picked by Almighty God Himself to make the Gambia a prosperous country and a giant of the sub-region.

As a country of true believers, we believe in anything we are told by our head of state even when he told us without any prove that he have discovered a cure for HIV/Aids. Despite him being the richest Gambian, we contributed millions of our hard earned taxes towards his HIV treatment programme.

Patriotism to our head of state, is defined by how much you love and support him. He comes first and the country second. You cannot claim to love the country without loving him. Be the most qualified Gambian but there is no job for you in any government department if you don't worship the head of state.

Our head of state is the heart of all government organs. They operate round him and him alone. The executive dance to his tune and the National Assembly smoothens his path. Every bill he drafted is quickly enacted into law. The judiciary feared him and follows every order he barks.

Anything which is against the head of state is seen as an enemy. And enemy that should be destroyed in the national interest. Criticisms are never welcome. Try telling the head of state how to govern the people and life will be made difficult for you. So difficult that you wish you were never born.

Journalists get bullets put through their heads, their houses and printing machines set on fire, arrested, tortured and media houses closed down on bogus charges. Political opponents are always hunted down, arrested, tortured, jailed or buried six feet deep.

Gambians don't trust each other any more. We cannot talk freely to each other without looking at our backs. Political discussions are out of the way. Talk about the head of state and you risk spending months in a secret detention centre, where you will be tortured and subjected to all sort of inhumane treatment.

Once you are arrested, forget about getting a lawyer. Many of the top lawyers will simply say no to your request as they don't want to upset the head of state. Our legal practitioners according to the London based International Bar Association are "operating under challenging conditions due to the existence of ongoing incidents of harassment and intimidation, which have created a climate of fear in the profession.

It added that government exhibits hostility and suspicion in its dealings with the legal profession which it perceives as an oppositional force, and there is currently an atmosphere of fear amongst lawyers, emanating from the attempted murder of a lawyer and several other incidents of harassment and intimidation of lawyers, that they may face serious adverse consequences as a result of their acceptance of certain causes on behalf of their clients.

The name of our head of state's is sacred. He is worshipped like Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter series and disobedience is regarded as the worst crime.

In The Gambia today, an accused person is presumed guilty even before being tried in court. Get arrested by our security officers and you risk losing all your friends. You become stigmatised and people become even too scared to get close to you. Fall out with the head of state and no company will dream of even employing you as a cleaner. Ask former KMC mayor, Abdoulie Conteh, for Imam of Banjul International Airport to name just a few and they will tell you.

It may be easy to convince yourself that because you have good personal relations with senior people in the Gambian government you Will be protected in someway if things go wrong. Maybe if you are a close family member of the head of state. If you are an ordinary Gambian then you are on your own.

Your highly placed friends will deny ever knowing you for they have their own careers, their own lives to protect.

What a tragic demise of democracy in a country that shelters the headquarter of African Centre for Human Rights studies? God help us.


Rest in peace Alex
It was shocking to read the news of Alexandre Djiba's death. I first met Mr Djiba in 2000 at the former Atlantic Hotel in Banjul during peace talks between the MFDC and the Senegalese government. I saw him as a smart fella who was the voice of the MFDC and had interviewed him on many occasions for The Independent Newspaper.

The last time I interviewed him was in 2001 after Jean Marie Biague renamed himself as MFDC secretary general some few weeks after his resignation. Months later he rang to informed me that he was travelling out of the Gambia. I was later to hear rumours that he was kicked out of the Atlantic Hotel.

While he was at the Atlantic Hotel, it was rumoured that the Gambia government was footing his hotel bills although DJiba himself neither denied nor confirmed it in the many interviews I had with him.

During his stay in Banjul, Alexandre spread MFDC propaganda in Gambian and the international media as well as keep in touch with other MFDC figures in France.

In late 2000, he was arrested in Guinea Bissau but later claimed upon his returned to Banjul that he escaped from custody.

Alexandre may have gone but many Gambian journalists who have had the opportunity to meet him will always remember the stocky, beared and big eye fella, who have always defended the cause of the MFDC.