Updated
May 26, 2003
Letter from
the Editor Desmond Davies
(In
The 4363rd West Africa issue, focusing on the 38th anniversary of Gambian
Independence)
Jammeh defends Jawara decision
As promised last week. I did ask Gambian President Yahya Jammeh why he had returned to the former President. Sir Dawda Jawara, his properties seized by the military regime, which Jammeh led between 1994 and 1996. First of all, he replied: 'Thev were not seized." He added that they were confiscated after a proper commission of inquiry.
So. why did the government return the properties? "This is Africa. We show compassion for older people. It was a humanitarian gesture."
Aha! Will the other members of the People's Progressive Party, whose properties were also confiscated, get them hack? "No," was the short and sharp reply.
On the issue of showing compassion to older people, Jammeh was contradicting himself. He does not want to have any truck with some of the older politicians who are now challenging him for power. In fact he says that they are irrelevant.
One thing that struck me was that Jammeh does not want to do anything that he feels would bolster the profile of the opposition in the eves of the general public. If you shut them out then their irrelevance will become even more pronounced.
The same goes for journalists. They are not in Jammeh's good books. But despite all this, the Gambian leader turned out to he Strong on the issue of pan-Africanism and the need for the Continent to be economically independent - that is, to stop depending on handouts.
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