Mr.Gassa:

I just cannot tell you how happy I am. You really
have embraced Mr. Gomez's enlightened posting.  I
am proud to say that with this new direction, we will
be able to forward our agendas appropriately.

I again want to thank you.  Please keep your head up.
Tolerance will help in search of truth.

Naphiyo,

Comrade ML Jassey-Conteh
Greensboro,NC/Kombo East Constituency
-----Original Message-----
From:         Jungle Sunrise <[log in to unmask]>
Date:         Mon, 14 Jan 2002 13:43:00 +0000
To:           [log in to unmask]
Subject:      Re: FINAL PART III


> Michael Ba Banutu-Gomez wrote:
>
> "Sisters and brothers, I believe there are three factors that suppresses
> sustainable democracy in our society and can hinder the successful growth of
> positive exchange in The Gambia: 1) failure to treat those we disagree with
> as potential allies instead of enemies, 2) ignoring the need to understand
> the world from others' unique points of view and 3) our lack of awareness
> about our own interaction style. I say to you today that to achieve this, it
> requires maturity to: a) Be aware of the needs of an ally, b) seek mutual
> benefit only, c) not use that knowledge and power to manipulate them in
> order to further one's own aims.  I am convinced that this will help us in
> nurturing and sustaining democracy for the 21st Century Gambia that we all
> can be proud of. Unfortunately, those of us who consider ourselves
> professionals, advocates, activist, religious leaders or political leaders
> are sometimes not good examples to follow because we usually stubbornly
> stickto our own ideas because we are so sure we hold a monopoly on "truth"."
>
> Mr. Gomez, in the above paragraph that I have quoted, you have basically
> summed up most of my feelings about our society. This attitude of ours that
> seem to make us believe, and quite erroneously too, that there are no other
> alternatives to our ideas or understanding of our problems is a major cause
> of our misunderstandings/predicament. If I may add anything to your post it
> would be the need for tolerance and the willingness to show appreciation
> when one does something worthy of praise. Constant critism without offering
> any concrete ideas as to how things could have been done different or better
> is the zenith of hypocrisy. Many a times people are not unwilling to accept
> the fact that what the other person is saying may actually have some merit.
> Such people, and there are many among us, would not budge from any possition
> they take while expecting others to change their every idea/stand to
> accomodate them. This is not possible! Take the recent presidential
> elections for example. Some are still to come to terms with the events of
> the past few months and are deluding themselves thinking that they are the
> only ones who are concious of what ought to have been the outcome. While the
> Gambian electorate took up their civic duty to re-elect the president in a
> manner described by most people as the free-est, fairest and most
> transparent elections ever held here, there are some who are saying no to
> that. Some have advanced rediculous claims of vote rigging alledging, in one
> instance, that up to 30,000 people from Cassamance were encamped at the
> Brikama college in order to vote for the APRC. Imagine 30,000 people, the
> equivalent of more than 500 bus loads of adults camped in a small campus
> such as Brikama college for up to five days and nobody seems to notice.
> Imagine how the limited toilets will cope with so much s*** that would be
> produced during those. Even if one was allowed only one Kg of the stuff, we
> are talking about 30 tonnes of it.
>
> Again a few weeks back when the UDP coalition gave an ultimatum to the IEC
> demanding to see the head register of voters and went on to announce that
> they were going to boycot the forthcoming National Assembly and local
> government elections, alleging that the IEC was coniving with the government
> and transfering votes "in their thousands" in order to steal the elections,
> several people on this list went berserk shouting, from the rooftops, their
> total agreement with the UDP move. At the time I tried to caution people not
> to come to such hasty conclusions based on just the UDP allegations. I made
> it clear that they, the UDP coalition, made a tactical error by taking such
> a drastic move based on hearsay alone. A few days later, I was vindicated as
> the updated list certainly did not show the massive transfer of votes "in
> their thousands" from one constituency to another in order to influence the
> outcome of the elections. This hasty decision of the UDP coalition has given
> the APRC an absolute majority in the National assembly even without going to
> the polls. Already, they have 33 of the 48 seats unopposed and the president
> is empowered to nominate another 5 NAMs. Who do we now blame if the APRC
> dissects the entire constitution to their advantage? Which of the existing
> candidates can seriously tell us that they are capable of winning the
> nessary majority that would be required to undo any constitutional
> ammendments that the government may introduce?
>
> Those who are also questioning whether Jammeh's recent reaching out to all
> Gambians should be believed are equally deluding themselves. They may whin
> and whinge all they want but they wouldn't be able to do zilch about it. The
> Amnesty to ex-president Jawara has been welcomed by most Gambians, the PPP
> party, Jawara himself, his family and the international community. In fact
> as I am writing this piece, Jawara's two sons are in the Gambian arranging
> for the return of the old man. It is reported in the papers that David
> Jawara jr. and Kawsu Jawara arrived in the country last Tuesday, were
> treated to a reception and are holding talks with senior government
> officials concerning the logistics for Sir Dawda's return.
>
> Finally I would like to thank you for posting the speech you gave on the L
> at this point in time. I hope others who have read it would also give their
> opinions about it so that we can all understand the advantages of tolerance
> and peaceful engagement and dialogue. It is high time that we all understand
> that nobody has a monopoly of the truth or solutions to our problems. We
> must brainstorm and formulate strategies that will take us forward. The
> constant bickering over trivial things, name calling etc, will not take us
> anywhere. It will only drag us backwards and create enemity or hatred
> between us. Once again, thank you for a brilliant piece.
>
> Have a good day, Gassa.
>
>
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