YAHYA'S GAMBIA .

Should the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh be using force on his People?......By Suntou Touray, United Arab Emirates (UAE) ..................Posted June 28th, 2007As we ponder daily over the apparent mistreatment of our fellow country men/women, thousands of miles away, we wonder and we ask, is it necessary for a legitimate elected President with over sixty percent (60%) of votes be using force in ruling a peaceful populace of just over one million people? We ask again, if truly our President Yahya Jammeh won the election through the clean modern democratic system, why the brutal dictatorship? I can't find any answers to these legitimate and simple questions. We are told that in a democratic society people are ruled according to their will. It is the will of the majority that voted in the government, but what happens if that government turn against its electorates? Gambians have read from newspapers published far from our shores about the undemocratic norms prevalent in the daily lives of the average Gambian, yet our state department pass these allegations as mere unpatriotic and a rife in blame culture. Who is really saying the truth? Are we just labelling false accusations against a government we oppose or are they in reality strangling the democratic culture the Gambia have known for over three decades? Wherever one stands on the issue of Yahya's style of governing, there are legitimate questions to be answered. What cannot be denied is the use of force and torture to humiliate peaceful and toothless Gambians. The Gambia, a small country where every one is nearly related was a poor but stable country until Yahya came to power .The poverty still remains but the peaceful side has nearly vanished. Gambians used to pride themselves on the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christian and the respect for their respective religion, but now all that is gone through the artificial window created by a young military officer Yahya Jammeh. Over the period of his twelve-year rule, Gambians have transformed from non-brutal human beings to the beast that is ever bloodthirsty. Many Gambian can now kill for Yahya with impunity and walk the streets of Banjul and Serrekunda without feeling any remorse for the crime he/she has perpetrated against innocent and defenceless citizens. Now we can laugh at each other's tragedy so easily. Every single complaint against Yahya's narrow-minded leadership is deemed as tribal opposition. What happen to us? Did we allow our so-called Islamic and Christian beliefs to escape without a single fight? Or was it that we were always the beasts inside but we did not have the means to let it out until a young officer gave us the opportunity? I have seen in Sierra Leon where the natives use to labour so hard for foreigners, one wonder where the self-respect is after Foday Sanko open the Hell Gate who ran through it? All decent journalists in our small paradise either stopped practicing their profession or seek refuge in a foreign country while the rest of the Gambians are sitting doing nothing. Shall we say all complaint be stopped against Yahya and his cronies until we are ready to take action. Our opposition parties are under funded and have no militants. What options do we have to correct the injustices taking place daily? Many Gambians are quiet as usual thinking to themselves what can they do about the current hardship? For now let us tell Yahya, you don't need to criminalize us and rule us with an iron fist. We are a peaceful and obedient people and please stop harassing us. Let the free media do their job and you too can let your media do their role of writing only good stuff about you .We can read the news that is realistic and accurate. You see Yahya, you don't need to be tyrannical to spend another fifty years in power .For now all Gambians should be saying is President, why the harsh rule, the arresting and jailing, the insulting and hatred? Why creating hostility between our sister country Senegal and us? It is we Gambians who will pay the price for any eventual confrontation between Gambia and Senegal. There is no need to be tyrannical for us to sing Jilanka every morning and before we go to bed. Mr President, give us our freedom back or else we will demand it back by any means necessary.