Thanks Demba for the clarification. Still, what puzzle me is the fact that, the junta outsmart and outwit the likes of Halifa who were allowed to operate as a party after the normal political service was resume. Why didn't Halifa and co, at that time refuse to accept such changes in our constitution and demand that, the consultative committees final appraisals stays that way. Of course i know the iron fist of the Junta was at play, they can easily eliminate anyone who stands on their way to power, but at least Gambians would know from day one that, the old system that Yahya adequately castigate and chastise is the same system he hypocritically wish to maintain and continue. If the 1996 election was seen by PDOIS as their biggest opportunity to bring back real democracy, which made them naive as to the plots of Yahya and his intellectual agents of destruction, PDOID should have boycotted the subsequent elections in 2000 on grounds of a flawed
 constitution.
HAlifa and PDOIS knew very well that it is the national assembly that can ratify and/or amend certain sections of the constitution, when will that happen? since Yahya and his APRC will always sweep the floor clean in all elections no doubt. The only option left for our POLITICIANS is for them to refuse to participate in all fourth coming elections until Yahya steps dowm. An interim government be set-up to supervise the elections. If Halifa, Darboe, Hamat still persist and agree to partake in the political process in the Gambia, then Yahya is smarter than them. He is using them, Our opposition are playing yahya's game, and they will never win him at his own created game.
Halifa and co should stop underrating Yahya and acknowledge the man graft and skills in manipulations the Gambians political land scape. I have a huge admiration for Halifa, Darboe, Hamat etc. But that will never be a reason not to question their judgement in matters of national interest, no one is bigger our common scrutiny, unless we wish to create many more Yahya's. If anyone view my opinions as disrespecting Halifa's person, then you need waking up to global political realities. 
We as humans are not infallible neither are we even in complete CONTROL of minds. Our emotions change according to different circumstances. A man's philosophy is as good  as his thought on a given day.
Yahya was underrated by many. The man is a professor in deceptions. Yahya knows how to pitch sections of Gambia's complicated petty divided society. He plays his game well. All that is left for the opposition is refuse to play all his funny games and bring international attention to the stalemate.
Long live The Gambia, and her people.
suntou
--- On Sat, 17/1/09, Demba Baldeh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Demba Baldeh <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Africa Going through ...Halifa
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Saturday, 17 January, 2009, 8:10 PM



Suntou wrote:
 
"To the best of my young and humble knowledge, i thought Halifa was part of the constitutional consultative committee that made us accept the current outdated constitution. correct me if i am wrong. But Sallah did his level best to make Gambians accept the current constitution, so crying over it's lack of term limit now is fruitless"
 
Point of correction Mr. Suntou; The 1997 constitution as was approved by the Gambian people in a referandum contained the two term Presidential term limit. That constitution contains very important provisions that gurantees our path to a strong Democracy.  It had the term limit as I said; established an independent electoral commission etc. Many credible independent Gambians among them academics and technocrats helped put that constitution together.
 
However, Jammeh and his power greedy folks with their secret agenda of staying in power removed those important provisions. In fact there was another provision for the junta to hand over to a provisional civilian government even before the two years the junta wanted. Many Gambians believe that the former VP Sana Sabally and Sadibou Hydara were arrested because of their disagreement among themselves on how to proceed with the constitutional amendment.
 
Jammeh also changed a lot of other good laws in the constitution once he had majority in the house of representatives. So Jammeh ought to shoulder the blame in changing our constitution to suit his power greed.
 
So it is important to know the history and the facts of the constitution before we jump into putting blame on people who worked hard to put in a credible document.  
 
Just wanted to set the record straight for the readers..

Thanks
 
Demba


2009/1/17 Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]>

Uncle Suntou,

Like you, I also thank the Point Newspaper for the news article.

First, let me emphasize that things that are factual in commentary
must be taken seriously no matter who says them, regardless if the
person is walking with a sin or not. It didn't come to my notice that
he (Halifa) is an architect of Jammeh's perpetual rule. As far as I
followed, he is a great panafricanist and a devoted educator who've
been so consistent with his message.  I also acknowledge or heard like
you noted that he was part of the committee that reviewed the
constitution. I do not know the role he played in it, but also
followed forwarding on Bantaba where he (Halifa) explained his take at
the time. You are welcome to undertake this task of reaching out to
the man through an e-mail or phone to share it here. This could be a
whole debate…you know.

Until then, the matter he discussed as far as I am concerned should be
taken seriously.

Thanks always,
Yj






On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 5:01 AM, SUNTOU TOURAY <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks Yero for the forward. To the best of my young and humble knowledge, i
> thought Halifa was part of the constitutional consultative committee that
> made us accept the current outdated constitution.
> correct me if i am wrong. But Sallah did his level best to make Gambians
> accept the current constitution, so crying over it's lack of term limit now
> is fruitless.
> The constitution shouldn't have been accepted in the first place and the
> opposition should not allow themselves to be used by Yahya. They should
> boycott partaking in all elections unless the constitution stipulated a two
> term limit.
> No amount of coalition efforts will uproot Yahya and his cronies. NADD or
> whatever Alliance out there must stay away from accepting that constitution,
> it is useless.
> For Sallah's comments to be taken seriously, He has to appoligise for the
> misinformation that resulted in Gambians finding themselves in Yahya
> perpectual rule. The year 2020 is yahya target, so let's all take a
> comfortable seat.
> Suntou.
>
> --- On Fri, 16/1/09, Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Africa Going through ...Halifa
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Friday, 16 January, 2009, 9:19 PM



>
> http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/africa-going-through-transition-halifa
> The home to Nkrumah has truly done it once again for other Africans to
> learn a lesson from.
> In all honesty, the lack of term limits from most African countries,
> has led to Overthrows and a lot of other problems.
> Any Gov't that wants to be serious with leadership must amend its
> constitution to meet term limits. That is the number one problem. I
> sincerely believe that Halifa did a good job by his commentary on it.
> Infact to completely root out overthrows and rebellions, people need
> not to explore too far. Put in place oversight institutions and term
> limits -that indeed will be a good healing mechanism to the creeping
> problem.
> It is truly a good read.
> --
> yj
> There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web
> interface
> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
> To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to:
> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> [log in to unmask]
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
>
> ���������������������������������������������������������¤ To

> unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web
> interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
>
> To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to:
> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the
> List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> [log in to unmask]
> ����������������������������������������������������������



--

yj

There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His messenger.

���������������������������������������������������������¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
���������������������������������������������������������¤


¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤