Mr. Small,

Regardless of your interpretation of the Gambian political process,
the stubborn fact still remains that President Jammeh won the
elections, and he is granted a legitimate mandate to run a
government.  I am not saying at all that your observations are wrong;
and I am glad that you have read some of my poems prior to the AFPRC.
 I guess you can figure that I will definitely concur with you on
some issues- Public accountability is a litmus test for good
governance.  It breeds a conducive atmosphere for trust to thrive
between the rulers and the ruled.  However, there is a fundamental
conditionality that seems overlooked by most of us here on the G-l.
I recalled once reading Pindar, a classical Greek poet who wrote:

“But human excellence grows like a vine tree, fed by the green dew,
raised up, among wise men and just, to the liquid sky”

I believe what Pindar was trying to teach us here is that for human
virtues to reach its apotheosis, “wise and just” men and women have
to create the conducive environment for these virtues to grow because
human nature is laden with foibles; all of us are very fragile when
our morality is but the test.   We are all sinners!

Now here is the relevance of Pindar to our concurrent problem:
President Jammeh proffered an olive branch to everyone who disagrees
with him- you, me and the entire Gambian population.  A symbolic
gesture of peace without which no justice, civil liberties nor rights
are possible- the very stuff that this G-L has been dreaming ever
since.  A wise and just respond from us would certainly consist of a
strategic reconciliation with him and not the unnecessary insults and
futile sanctions. This respond serves neither to endorse or
contradict but to lay the very foundation that shall consolidate
justice and social virtues in the future.

What is done can never be undone without a price, and I believe the
road that most of our colleagues on the G-L are heading shall lead to
the nadir of depravity.  Vengeance is not a virtue.

Thanks again my good friend.




=====
Ebou Jallow
Georgetown University
Washington, DC

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