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Momodou
Denmark
11744 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Oct 2007 : 17:26:29
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Foroyaa Editorial
DETERIORATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE INCENTIVES
THE PRESIDENT SHOULD CONSIDER THE INTRODUCTION OF TWO TERM LIMIT
The president claims to be shocked by the dilapidated state of government offices. He should also visit the classes and toilets of the long established schools like Serrekunda Lower Basic School.
Mr. President, this is the country the APRC has built for the past 13 years. The country has no admirable past and no admirable present. It deserves an admirable future which only a sovereign people can bring; a sovereign people who no longer allows leaders or parties to own them but would take ownership of leaders and parties on the basis of the liberty and prosperity they can give guarantee to, to enlarge or be denied even a second mandate.
Foroyaa has been shouting from roof tops that there is no vibrant private or public sector in this country. There is just pomp and privileges propagated by a television which focuses on fanfare and some achievements while downplaying the poverty of the people, that is, the poor civil servants, farmers, workers and the army of the unemployed.
Foroyaa has raised alarm regarding the remuneration and low level of absorptive capacity of the private and public sectors in terms of employment.
For example, employment in the public sector remained at about 15,000 employees throughout the 1990s.
It has not grown much in the 2000s.
It is also indicated that the public sector is the main employer. One can therefore clearly see that Gambia is a poor underdeveloped country. The problem of the country is not simply one of management. Removing one form of government to replace it with another without overhauling production systems and methods of administration will do nothing to eradicate the suffering of the people. What is needed now is not to follow personalities but to follow programmes. The APRC has already shown what it can do in 13 years. It has only been able to replace a dilapidated and shrinking public service heading towards privatisation and retrenchment of workers with another dilapidated and shrinking public service heading towards privatisation and retrenchment of workers. The battle between the past, present and the future shall be determined by the nature of the programmes that parties intend to implement to enlarge liberty, and prosperity.
Foroyaa is not just out to publish news. It is out to enlighten and liberate the people. It is not one of your umpire newspapers engaged in umpire journalism to promote good governance, enlighten and entertain. It is committed to the establishment of a country where the sovereignty of the people becomes supreme.
In this coming year, Foroyaa will engage the APRC regime in every aspect of national life. Just as we have done with the dalasi, we shall analyse every aspect of Gambian society to give an alternative way forward.
We also call on the readers to challenge all those who wish to change this country to do the same. They must not only read but must spread what they are reading otherwise people who cannot read may not know who are genuinely determined to work for their liberation.
Take the case of the detainees. Foroyaa is the only institution in the Gambia which followed the movement of detainees and reported its findings without fear or favour affection or ill will. However, many pick up these reports from Foroyaa and spread them like wild fire without referring to their source because of their desire to suppress Foroyaa’s role as a consistent and fearless defender of justice. Foroyaa has made it very clear that in a developing country without a strong private or public sector which can generate employment, the informal sector usually constitutes the bulwark for income generation. Foroyaa had indicated that under such circumstances policy makers cannot be rigid about public and private enterprise development but must give support to every productive venture which can have multiplying effect in income generation and spreading to address the problems of poverty. We have shown how the public sector should be managed to ensure growth in investment, earnings and employment. We have also shown how the banks should be linked to the productive base of the private sector to expand production. We have shown how the informal sector could be strengthened through the association of small scale enterprises to form cooperatives which is the basis of the whole housing industry in most European countries, especially Ireland where the level of deprivation during the earlier days was the highest. Foroyaa has analysed issues like the dalasi to throw clarity on the subject. This goes for all issues of national life. Yet some people will quote these things and just mention casually that they came from a local paper in order to hide the truth to their readers so as to find it easier to accuse the Foroyaa editors later to be barren of ideas or is advocating for ideals that are not grounded in reality. Those who are reading Foroyaa and are ready to be part of the solution should maintain archives of what they read and post it to any media establishment which aims to distort what we have been saying to people.
The people should no longer accept labelling, branding or stigmatising of personalities or newspapers. For example, before Foroyaa started publication, many people in high offices did not know what a constitution was. It is Foroyaa which took the 1970 constitution from the shelves collecting dust and tried to make it known to the people. Those behind Foroyaa have always refused to support or participate in government establishment by unconstitutional means, yet there are people who try to prejudice the minds of the people to think that others are the genuine advocates of democracy.
In the coming years therefore, the real democrats who advocate for the total sovereignty of the people will be separated from the formal democrats who establish instruments, institutions and structures but do nothing to make knowledge a property of the people so that they become so empowered that no leader will dear appear before them like a demigod. It is then and only then that society will give its back at impunity, oligarchies and autocracies.
The battle for transparency, accountability, clarity and assertion of sovereignty of the people is taking a new dimension.
Even President Jammeh could not avoid exposing the inadequacies of his administration. The future of our country does not lie in the stars or horoscopes to reveal. The future lies in the brains and hands of the sovereign people. Our children will inherit the type of society we dare to build with our minds and hands. Those with negative thinking will always have nothing to contribute but contempt. Those with positive thinking will always find means of strengthening the people to become their own liberators.
Source: Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue
Issue No. 126/2007, 26 – 28 October 2007
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A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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