Folks
Indeed the meeting was well-attended although I did not count how many. My sincere thanks to the organizers including the Gambian Society in New York for the shelter, heat and refreshments. 

Overall the meeting went well. I wished the chair let OJ speak first and the rest of the time to questions and discussions. That would have given OJ an opportunity to gauge how people feel about the prospects of resurrecting PPP.

OJ's speech was well articulated, well presented.  He tried to summarize Yahya's rule in what seems like 90 minutes (never timed him). A formal summary from the organizers will help fill some of the gaps. 

Some of the key points: 
Failure of military rule in the Gambia and Africa as a whole. That the military governments had never and will never solve Africa's problem. High time we root them out of Gambian body politic.

Human right abuses (including illegal detention of the opposition the independent press; extra-judiciary execution of soldiers in the Nov 1995 counter-coup incident; April 10-11 killings of school kids and the decision to indemnify the perpetrators).

Constant doctoring of the constitution to help keep Yahya in power. Cited recent changes to the constitution that: allow lower courts (magistrates) to handle traditionally High Court cases; refuse bail to those charged with murder and treason (no matter who charged them); gives the President the power to appoint village and district heads (a way for Jammeh to control the masses). 

Institutionalized corruption in the form of an Oligarchy. He mentioned that Gambia is now run by 5 people (did not mention names). Identified Baba Jobe's (the president's special aide and current majority leader and head of government business in the APRC government) link to Liberia/Sierra Leone blood diamond and arm's trade. That Baba is now the country's largest importer of rice and a philanthropist giving every APRC NAM D100,000 to buy a personal transport. He mentioned Jammeh's personal jet, City, zoo, among many of this properties. He mentioned President Jammeh's own account on National TV of helping to lower commodity prices by slaughtering hundred bulls from his personal herd or supplying women vendors vegetables in order to flood the market and keep inflation in check. 

Touched on PPP's short comings. Identified their role in keeping Sir Dawda as party leader (when he said he would retire) as the gravest mistake in PPP's history. Went on to say that indeed, without the PPP's short-comings, the Gambia may not be in the mess it is in today. 

On Sir Dawda's home-coming. Went short of criticizing him for negotiating his return behind their (the rest of the PPP government) back. This was after he (OJ) personally advised Sir Dawda not to negotiate with Jammeh without the rest. He went to say that Sir Dawda's contribution to PPP and the Gambia cannot be overstated. Said that the PPP or the Gambia should be bigger that any one person. That the PPP and the Gambia must move on without Sir Dawda. That the future lies in the people's ability to learn from the mistakes of the pasts (PPP) and the present (APRC). 


Finally he called for a united front against a common enemy. Called for Diasporans to become active in affairs of the Gambia. Defended their decision to boycott 2002 elections although he conceded that they failed to articulate reasons to the people.

My take. He is certainly a preacher with clear knowledge of his facts and statistics. I would definitely travel to the Gambia to watch a televised debate between Yahya and OJ. Well, that is if he survives the daunting task of uniting the opposition!   


Malanding


-----Original Message-----
From: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ams Jallow
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 12:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: OJ addressed a crowd of about 250 Gambians in New York

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