Jammeh’s Latest Ploy, and some Thoughts on the Freedom Newspaper

Assalamu alaikum, this is coming from the Freedom Newspaper, which imho, I take any news coming from them with a grain of salt, or maybe I should say, a huge bar of salt, although, as much as I hate to admit it, a lot of the time, they end up being right, although they also publish tabloid-esque, sensational accounts of people’s private lives, as well. And while a lot of this kind of sensational journalism is in regard to members currently serving in Jammeh’s government, I still think that the standard should be upheld that people’s private lives, who they marry, divorce, etc., should be off limits. I think that the sign of a great leader, pbulication, etc., is not how they treat the people they like and agree with, but how they deal with those they don’t necessarily like and agree with. Because it’s all well and good to talk about democracy, and good governance, journalistic principles, etc., when you agree with the people you’re talking to. However, when you descend into backbiting, name-calling, mud-slinging, dirt-digging, etc., with those you don’t agree with, simply and only because you don’t agree with them, or you think that they’re wrong, and while at the same time you talk of how you stand for all of the laudable principles I just spoke of a few words back, that just seems hypocritical to me. And anyway, I’m digressing.

I only mentioned Freedom Newspaper’s, what I consider to be, a bit questionable journalistic ethic, to segway into an article they published this morning, entitled, “Breaking News:President Jammeh threatens to seize compounds of polygamous men!!!!”.

The gist of the story seems to be that polygamous men are lazy, spending time at the “bantaba” (which is rather like a public square, where men sit and chat and drink ataya), the stereotype is that the men sit and drink ataya all day, while their wives, and other women folk, slave all day, cooking, cleaning, tending crops, etc., and the men sit around trying to catch their next girlfriend/wife. And Jammeh, trying to be the saviour of all womenfolk in The Gambia, are going to save them from this, by going after polygamous men, and seizing their compounds if they’re found to be “lazy”. This is coming from the same man who said he’d divorce some wives and give them better husbands if their husbands were forcing them to support a party (anything but the APRC, ostensibly), that they didn’t want to support, or something like that. I’ll have to see if I can dig that article up, because that happened a few years ago.

I’m guessing that perhaps Jammeh has given up the “witch-hunting”, now that according to some sources, his own aunt has gotten caught up in the fray, and now that the international media has once again made Jammeh and The Gambia a world laughing-stock. So he has to come up with ever new and ingenious ways to oppress the Gambian people.

And I’m ever so tempted to say that these people need to fight, that they need to stand up for themselves, etc. But I stop, because it’s easy for me to say that, I’m not living in fear of my life. However, at the same time, you can’t just let people step on you either! I’ts really a hard one to call, though if you let people keep bullying you, it’ll keep getting worse and worse and worse, until you stand up to them.

Anyway, I hesitate in quoting or linking to anything from Freedom Newspaper, because I don’t think their articles are normally of good quality, as I said before, and I’m also not sure whether or not to believe them. Not only this, I have this nagging feeling that any time anyone gives Freedom any kind of credit, it’s kinda like the saying, you give someone an inch, they take a mile, and the next thing you know, they’ll be screaming headlines to the affect of “FREEDOM NEWSPAPER VINDICATED” or something to that affect.

The thing is, this has nothing to do, imho, with the misuse of polygamy, etc., I’m not even going there, though I do think that polygamy, in many places, is mis-practiced. However, for jammeh to personally get involved in the private lives of families and determine for himself that these men are “lazy”, obviouslly is a breach of privacy, as well as Gambian law and custom, etc. Not that that ever stopped jammeh before, but… I’m sure that like everything else, Jammeh will play around with this for a few weeks, until he gets tired, and then try something else.