Sword vs the Pen
The pen someone once opine is mightier than the sword. Ideas will always beat brawn in the long run. Intimidation, torture and murder will never stop the flow of ideas. Information is born to be free... inadvertenly making freedom of the press a key component to the development of a society. How do the political climate in the Gambia stood up to this scenario today? like everything else since yaya took over... dreary.
But recent events has escalated the whole notion of harrassing journalist to murderous acts. Arson attacks and death threats from pseudo vigilantee groups against journalist is on the rise. Mansa Yaya according to this thugs is always right. He is not to be spoken ill off. Like the fictional character in animal farm (napoleone). The members of the fourth estate has stood up to this thuggery for years and most of them have paid dearly for their rights to report. Their bravery in the face of brutally is patriotic in the greatest sense of the word. However they should watch their backs. These thugs are deadly. They have no respect for human life. The murder of Koro, the cowardly shooting of lawyer sillah, the arson attacks on radio one , the independent, on ebrima sillah's house and other atrocities should serve as notice to all involved.
How is it that a peaceful nation like the Gambia a few years ago mired in so much depair today? The answer is simple... the unsavory characters parading as leaders who have no idea what it is like running a household more or less a country prior to 1994. They have no idea that human history is influence more by the written word than warfare. Social development doesn't come through intimidation and suppression of ideas contrary to one's own. But trying getting that through the thick skull of Yaya and his cohorts. Their reply will come through a firebomb in the dead of night or you could end up six feet under like the hundreds of Gambians who pay the ultimate price since he came to power.
With all the gloomy news coming out of the Gambia today, the reaction, determination and steadfastness of independent journalists is encouraging. It brings solace to those of us in the diaspora that all is not lost. making me a believer in the old civil rights song "we shall over come".