Hamjatta, I thank both you and Mr. Sanneh for highlighting this important
victory for the Opposition in Ivory Coast. Gbagbo is no different from Yaya.
They both used dubious means to steal power. This victory is an important
vindication for Ouattarra. This shows that with a level playing field, he is
no match to Gbagbo. It was important that you linked this victory to the
victory of the Opposition in Senegal. These victories together with what
happened in Ghana recently, should give our Opposition parties back home
some hope. If they take Yaya's despicable record to the Gambian people in an
effective manner, there is no way Yaya can win a free and fair election in
The Gambia. Gambians also want what Ivorians, Ghanaians and Senegalese want.
We want to be led by people with ideas that can move the country forward. We
want people that can reduce (and not increase) the poverty in the country.

I look forward to your promised series. Maybe nonentities like Famara Jatta
can learn a thing or two from your wisdom.
KB



>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: On Ivory Coast's Tortured Political Transition: In Defence of
>         Ouattara
>Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2001 11:15:43 EST
>
>I saw it reported in today's Financial Times - and in an earlier posting
>from
>Sidi yesterday - that the Rally of Republicans [RDR] of Alassane Ouattara
>has
>managed, through the first free and fair elections since the transition
>from
>military rule to civilian gov't started last year with the flawed and
>fraud-laden presidential elections of last year, to win the Municipality
>elections.
>This is a very important development. To the extent that this is important,
>is itself in the relative free and fair manner in the way the poll
>reportedly
>went and how the RDR rode to victory - albeit not resoundingly. How and
>where
>Ivory Coast moves from here remains to be seen. But if Gbagbo's psychology
>and history is anything to go by, one can presage a situation where when
>cornered, he will resort to his ethnic and xenephobic bigotry to retain
>control of the presidency. Gbagbo shares more with Milosevic than many of
>his
>left-wing allies/fans allow: the irrelevant post-cold war socialist
>politician with bankrupt ideas who uses xenophobia, ethnic sentiments and
>political impropriety to sneakily gain control of the levers of power. By
>sidelining Ouattara for such flimsy and silly reasons i.e, whether his
>parents are Ivorian or Bukinabe, Ivory Coast might have missed out on her
>best opportunity yet to embrace liberal moderation and what it entails in
>liberating reforms. By his inclinations, Ouattara was [is still, one hopes]
>another Wade in the making. Yet, thanks to the usual leftist smears [being
>a
>former premier under Boigny and a former IMF top official] and the silly
>and
>illegal ban that ruled him out of the presidential and parliamentary races,
>his future in Ivorian politics looks bleak and uncertain. Ouattara along
>with
>Wade are perhaps amongst the very few African intellectuals-cum-public
>figures who truly believe in capitalism, liberal bourgoisie moderation
>without which Afica will always be in the throes of instability. Their
>faith
>in the capitalist order is not only political and economical, but moral.
>They
>strongly believe that tempered to the point where it has a human face,
>there
>is no credible or viable alternative to capitalism. Under Ouattara's watch
>as
>premier, he not only embarked on reforms that seek to promulgate such
>capitalistic norms and values as the need to trim the state, end
>state/political corruption[which to an extent is responsible for his recent
>political problems], encourage not only private capital holding but such
>civic virtues as individual liberty and responsiblity - central to the
>liberal credo. I notice how he shares with Wade the tendency not to tout
>themselves as egalitarians at all cost or insist on material equality, an
>ideal incongruent with liberalism.
>Because of the sheer weight of my responsibilities these days, i will break
>this here. Perhaps late next week or in two weeks time - when i expect to
>be
>freer - i will begin a series of postings that will restate the capitalist
>case in Africa. The first of such series would be called: Capitalism and
>Human Freedom in Africa. My thanks to Sidi - who perhaps he had shrewdly
>discerned the continued importance of Ivorty Coast's economic renewal and
>sense of orientation again after the recent political conflagration to that
>sub-region of ours - continues to flag articles of importance on the
>subject
>of Ivory Coast's political transition.
>Hamjatta - Kanteh
>[log in to unmask]
>[log in to unmask]
>URL: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/hamzakanteh/myhomepage/newsletter.html
>
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