Save The Gambia Democracy Project (STGDP) held a retreat in Frankfort, KY last month to find a way forward and to explore political opportunities for 2011. The weekend retreat was held by the entire Executive of STGDP and was also seen by the organization as an opportunity to revisit the role of STGDP in the 2006 elections, in terms of missed opportunities and what could have been done to see the whole coalition process end successfully

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The Gambia’s “Elected Autocrat Poverty, Peripherality, & Political Instability,” 1994–2006

A Political Economy Assessment

By Professor Abdoulaye Saine, Miami University, Oxford OH.

This article assesses “democratization” under military and quasimilitary regimes in The Gambia following the 1994 coup d’état until 2006. The “transition” program back to “civilian” rule in 1996, the 2001 and 2006 presidential elections, and the aftermath of deepening authoritarianism and economic crisis are also evaluated. The formation of a five–political party coalition, the National Alliance for Democracy and Development, in 2005 raised expectations for a new political dispensation.

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Tamsir Jallow Reports to Work At Gambian Embassy in Washington, DC

Now that erstwhile Tourism Secretary Susan Waffa Ogoo has been appointed as Gambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, the new Gambian Ambassador to The United States, Tamsir Jallow has also finally reported to work.

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Damning Allegations of Corruption at Gambia’s Central Bank

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The Gambia Armed Forces Bill 2008: A Cold, Cruel Calculated Recipe for Disaster

BY MATHEW K. JALLOW, Associate Editor

In order to supposedly safeguard our national security, the Yahya Asombi Jammeh National Assembly, recently approved perhaps the most disgraceful Bill ever tabled and passed by our National Assembly; The Gambia Armed Forces Bill of 2008. Not surprisingly, our inarguably most corrupt and selfish woman, so-called, Dr. Isatou Njie-Saidy, presented The Bill to the docile and utterly useless Assembly for rapid rubber-stamping.

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Breaking News: Yaya Bajinka Released

By Modou Jonga

Exactly one year after he has been held incommunicado at the Mile II State Central Prison Yahya Bajinka, an intelligence officer with the National Intelligence Agency, was released unconditionally on the evening of Wednesday 16 April 2008. According to reliable sources, since his arrest on 16 April 2007, Bajinka was incarcerated at the maximum wing of Mile II Prisons.

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Hon. Suku Singhateh; Gambia’s Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves

BY TIJAN NIMAGA, Bronx New York

After reading The Gambia Echo’s exclusive news and the wonderful journalistic work demonstrated by editors Ebrima G. Sankareh and Mathew K. Jallow on the Honourable Suku Singhateh saga, I was reminded of one prominent business tycoon in the late 1970s, who bought and loaned groundnuts to Gambian farmers in the Kombos. Seyfo Sanjali Bojang was a very rich businessman whose economic power was well known throughout the country. For the interest of

Hon. Suku Singhateh& President Jammeh

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An Open Letter To His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, President of The Republic of Sierra Leone

RE: Sir, You Are In Bad Company

By **Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

It seems ungentlemanly to criticize a host while the guests are still in the house, yet this is exactly what I have chosen to do. Because, you are a newly elected Head of State of an ECOWAS member country, I feel honored and compelled to share with you some information that embodies the real emotions behind the shadows of what you will see and hear during yourfew days stay in our impoverished country.

PRESIDENT KOROMA & YAHYA JAMMEH

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Is Cherno Baba Pompous or Jealous?

By Sidia Drammeh

Johnson & Wales University

I wish to point out something with regard to an essay written by Cherno Baba Jallow on the Gainako online forum. Usually, I don't bother immersing myself in such arguments but this one particularly caught my attention simply because of the nomenclature of its setting and, of course subject.

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Fatim Badjie Betrays Memories of April 10th &11th

By Lamin Jatta

As we remember the 14 young men gunned down in an orgy of gunfire by the trigger happy security forces of our country, we should put in perspective that the 25-year-old new Information Secretary Ms. Fatim Badjie was a student at The Gambia Senior Secondary School during the time of the demonstration and the probability is that she too, participated in that incident. As a student at the time, there

SOS Fatim Badjie (photo: courtesy of The Point Newspaper)

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Global Democracy Project’s Chief Praises Mathew K. Jallow’s Editorial On Tyranny

Dear Editor:

I read Mr. Jallow's editorial "Overthrowing Jammeh: The Inherent Weakness of a Dictatorship" with great interest and appreciation. Mr. Jallow laid bare the trifling mediocrity of Dictatorships in general and Yahya's in particular, likening them to schoolyard bullies who are themselves failures in life but wish for company in their journeys to nothingness. Mr. Jallow has diagnosed the pompous malaise inherent in socio-paths and in so doing has all but unleashed the intrinsic power and value of the oppressed citizenry 

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The Verdict

Another April 10^th Anniversary; Still No Justice In Sight

By Adama Hawa

It has been eight long years since the Gambian security forces opened fire and killed more than 14 innocent Gambian school children, whose only crime was to peacefully demonstrate against certain grievances they had against the regime.

Soldiers of The Gambia National Army slew Journalist Omar Barrow on bloody April

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Overthrowing Jammeh: The Inherent Weakness of a Dictatorship

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

As a country, much of what shapes the politics we observe is not based on reality, but on the flawed way our brains process what we see around us. We draw conclusions that rely on limited information, which often result to a myopic representation of the reality. In my experience living in and learning about various totalitarian regimes, the one constant is their inherent administrative weaknesses and fragility.

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News Just In: NIA Hunts Omar Bensuda & Walcott Valta

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Editors:

First, I must tell you that I read all Gambian papers every day of the week to stay in touch with events happening back home. Thank you and keep up the good work! No doubts, SoS Fatim were a smart and industrious young woman, but given the fact that she only graduated from Gambia High in 2001, and did further studies in the US before returning to The Gambia, gives me the impression that the young lady must have finished her studies between 2005 and 2007 (at least for a bachelors' degree).

SOS Fatim Badjie (photo: courtesy of The Point Newspaper)

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Government & Organized Crime-A History of Co-existence?

By Ivan Simic, Belgrade, Serbia

A government is the organization, which is the governing authority of a political unit, also the ruling power in a political society, and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority. Government has the authority to make laws, to arbitrate disputes, to issue administrative decisions, and a monopoly in authorizing force.  A State, depending on its size can have local, regional and national government.  There are many

Ivan Simic, Belgrade, Serbia

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How Hon. Suku Singhateh Swindles Farmers of 8.4 Million Dalasis

-The Evidence, Echo Exclusive 

     By Mathew K. Jallow & Ebrima G. Sankareh

Unimpeachable sources in Banjul have disclosed to this paper the criminal and shadowy activities of one of the most powerful APRC National Assembly Members, Hon. Abdoulie Suku Singhateh. Mr. Singhateh, the new Baba Jobe wannabe, is according to independent reports, in the process of consolidating power very similar to the levels and excesses of Baba Jobe, of recent memory.

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A Prayer for the Devil Himself

By Mathew K Jallow, Associate Editor

The mini public announcement in the APRC’s propaganda newspaper, The Gambia’s Daily Observer looks innocent enough, but its implications seem to be very powerful  indeed. The combined efforts of the Independence Drive and King Faqad mosques to organize a special Koranic prayer for this coward, this devil, this evil man, this killer, this man of no consequence, this internationally certified fool, is beyond the comprehension of ordinary Gambians who are at the receiving end of Yahya Jammeh’s brutality.

A President or A Devil?

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PRIME TIME WITH AJJ – DEMONS ON THE LOOSE

By Abdoulie Jallow (Bamba Laye)

Another day in New Gambia at the GRTS studios…

As HE Alhaji Dr. MMB AJJ walks into the studio, a raucous applause greets him.

TV presenter Dibba opens the show with these words: Calm down! Calm down please! I know you’re very excited to see HE back on the program, but I am too. Calm down please…as you all know, for the past week or so, we have all been living on the edge. Since HE announced that his Protective Officer demons are on the loose, I don’t know about you but I go to bed at 7:30.

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The Gambia Co-operative Union & Other Economic Issues- Where are We Really Headed?

BY TIJAN NIMAGA, Bronx New York

Many issues have been debated concerning The Gambia’s ailing economy, but we must not forget the agricultural element. In the past decade, since President Yaya Jammeh came to power, The Gambia’s life blood- Agriculture has become a complete failure particularly in the production and sale of groundnuts, the country’s main cash crop. 

Hon. Suku Singhateh& President Jammeh

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State House Cook Reported Missing

By Fabakary B. Ceesay

Reports have it that one Ebou Jarju, a native of Kombo Darsilami, who is also a cook at State House, has gone missing for almost two weeks now. According to family sources, Mr. Jarju did not return home almost two weeks ago when he reported to work at State House. The family members said that they were surprised to see his wife and belongings put in a military truck and taken back to his home village of Darsilami. They said Mr. Jarju and his family lived in a government house prior to his disappearance.

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News Just In: President Jammeh to Go for Overseas Treatment

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

Unassailable sources close to the President’s office report that Gambian Head of State Yahya Jammeh is poised to visit France for overseas treatment. Although our highly competent sources could not tell the precise nature of his ailment, and when he departs, they were quick to caution that it has nothing to do with his mental or psychological state of mind.

President Yahya Jammeh, reportedly ill 

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