Popular Gambian analyst, Musa Jeng, has reacted to comments on National Assembly Members (NAMs) acquiring brand new vehicles.
Jeng said such reactions are hypocritical as most of those condemning the assembly members would have acted the same way. He added that Gambians are not interested in electing to parliament people with honesty and integrity but rather corrupt individuals that lack the necessary skills to represent them in parliament.
“This is nothing more than hypocrisy 101; in fact, most of us are just like the NAMS and would have acted the same way. We voted for these NAMS, and if elections were to be held tomorrow, most of them would be sent back to the Assembly. Bu len nyu sonal. We are not interested in sending honest representation to the people’s house. We like to send people that are just like us: corrupt, no integrity and lack the necessary skills to be a law maker,” analyst Jeng explains.
He named former lawmakers whom he said would not have been part of acquiring the vehicles; but reiterated that many Gambians don’t prefer such representation.
“Reading DA Jawo’s piece this morning, highlighting that if Halifa Sallah, Sedia Jatta and Ousman Sillah were in the Assembly, it is certain that they would not be part of this scandal. Interestingly, there is not a single Gambian who doesn’t know that. But, we are not interested in that kind of representation. We would like people like us, lack integrity, serious character flaw and not even have the capacity or competence as law makers. We all have our own rationalization why we voted for these folks, but clearly character, competence and ultimately the interest of the Gambian people were not the criteria used when we had to make a choice,” he narrated.
Jeng went further to question the electoral choice of the people of Wuli rejecting Sedia Jatta for someone he called “that fellow” and also the people of Banjul North voting against Ousman Sillah whom he said had always been in the Assembly working for in the interest of the people of Banjul North.
He noted that the decision making for representation in the country is still driven by “patronage, party affiliation, ethnicity, and less on finding the best representation”.
“To borrow from Alh Saidy Barrow, “dictator is us”, I would say our problem is us. And again, hiding behind political awareness or lack thereof has nothing to do with it. Vote for the right representation and we will not be dealing with these kind of problems,” Jeng concluded.
