Kalilu,

The way you started your memorandum indicates very clearly that you are a
very intelligent person. You wrote: "I am almost sure based on past
experience you will not respond to intellectually inferior subjects such as
myself, but I dare ask you regardless."

I know that you know that you are not a subject to anyone. I am quite sure
that you know that you are not intellectually inferior. However, both of us
know that not all of us are fully aware of what it means to be a sovereign
person. That is exactly the message that should be put across. No one needs
to teach an oppressed person that he or she is oppressed. The fundamental
lesson that is common knowledge to our people is what poverty means. What
needs to be taught is how to get rid of oppression and poverty.

You have acknowledged that there is nothing to teach Gambians about Yahya's
activities. What then is the problem? You wrote: "Many Gambians will testify
that they are disgusted with Yaya but that they are terrified what he may do
to them should they use their constitutional rights to try to remove him
from their highest office."

According to you, fear is the problem. How then does one deal with fear? Our
position is that, once the people know that power belongs to them; once they
are enlightened and organised, no one can subjugate them under any form of
despotism. No mature and dignified person can cower before his or her fellow
human being.

The lesson, therefore, is to give more enlightenment and bring the people
together all the more so that they can overcome fear. This is exactly what
should be done. This is what we are proposing. Now, what is your own
solution?

According to you, "What Gambians need is a leader who commands enough
attention to lead an all out boycott and civil disobedience massive enough
to overwhelm and suffocate Yaya's activities. That's what they lack!"

Kalilu, it is obvious that what is much easier for a people whom you
classify as terrified is to give enough attention to leaders who call upon
them to exercise their constitutional rights to remove Jammeh from office
than to follow such leaders to engage in all out boycott and civil
disobedience.

In fact, what is more common is for the people to engage in all out boycott
and civil disobedience when they exercise their constitutional rights to
vote for leaders of their choice only to be confronted by losers who try to
use the might of the State to retain power.

Clearly, Kalilu, boycotts, civil disobediences, riots do not automatically
lead to change of leaders. If your theory is that it is leaders who make
people brave to engage in civil disobedience, what about when those leaders
are arrested during civil disobediences? Would the people become terrified
and sank back to their condescension?

What should become clear is that boycotts, civil disobediences and other
forms of struggle are usually dictated by circumstances, and they can even
take place without agitation from those who are usually identified as
leaders. What is also abundantly clear is that such methods do not
automatically determine who should govern society if a leader finds it
difficult to govern. In many cases, leaders who are confronted by such
massive disobedience either open up democratically, accept national
conferences and make certain adjustments such as seen in Togo and many other
countries, in order to create the base for more political accommodation, as
well as prolonging their stay in power.

In other cases, they become more fascistic, like the Samuel Doe's and
Menghistus, until a guerrilla force or a coup d'etat comes by to remove
them, and when that happens the new saviours also see the masses as weak and
terrified and they the so-called saviours as the heroes who sacrificed their
lives to save them.

Are we not tired of these, Kalilu? Is this not the moment that we should
seize to teach our people that they are the architects of their own destiny;
that power belongs to them; that they can exercise this power to liberate
themselves only if they overcome their divisions and become one people? Is
it not necessary to have precisely that leadership which can inspire that
confidence in the people and foster their unity?

I agree with you that we cannot say that we have created a sovereign people
who are fully conscious of their authority as masters and mistresses of
their country. We still have a leadership which is trying to prove that it
is capable of winning the support of the vast majority of our sovereign
people by playing a part in all aspects of their lives, and proving to the
people, through practice, that they deserve their confidence. However, no
one can deny that the process is on. All are doing it in the way they best
know how. The future will tell how committed each leadership is to the
affairs of the people. The country is facing more and more challenges
demanding greater initiative from its leadership.

As far as we are concerned, Gambia, Africa can never ever be free from
oppression and poverty unless the people are enlightened and organised. Each
one of us must become a sovereign person; a person who is conscious of one's
power and one's inherent right to have a say in how the affairs of each
country is to be managed. We must all become so conscious of this that we
refuse to surrender that power to anyone because of inducement or
intimidation. That is the education that is required.

If you claim that this education has already been conducted and everyone is
enlightened, then I must ask again, why then are the people terrified,
according to you, to the point of surrendering their constitutional rights?

Greetings.

Halifa.



----- Original Message -----
From: kalilu camara <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 5:02 AM
Subject: Re: To Halifa Re: Exactly what?


> Dear Halifa,
> Iam almost sure based on past experience you will not respond to
> intelectually inferior subjects such as myself,but i dare ask you
> regardless

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface
----------------------------------------------------------------------------