Mr. Jassey-Conteh, please allow me to quote a couple of paragraphs from Mr.
Malik Kah's response calling for restraint and sensible engagement before
commenting on your piece. In Mr. Kah’s post, he wrote:

"We must reconcile to the fact that Jammeh has been duly elected and this
was accepted in good faith by all the opposition parties as well as the
eminent observers. To dwell on his legitimacy or question the judgment of
the people is a complete waste of time.

What we must endeavor to do as opposition at this point in time is to take
Jammeh to task by exposing the flaws and weaknesses of the policy programmes
of the APRC, as well as its human rights record, this way we could play a
fundamental role in shaping the destiny of our country. For Jammeh cannot
afford to ignore serious minded people who have earned and commanded respect
in the Diaspora, in fact his actions and judgment will always be mindful of
what our reaction will be, this must be despite whatever the pretence".

In my honest opinion these two paragraphs, on their own, speak volumes about
what a responsible opposition is. People have to be honest with themselves
and ask whether some of the tactics used on this forum really do work. In my
honest opinion some of the rhetoric is making more harm to the cause of the
honest opposition members in the Diaspora than good. I know this because of
the response you get from some of the people living out here, when mention
to them some names. Some would shrug and say ‘well so and so has to say that
to continue to qualify for asylum’. On the other hand, some who may be in a
position to influence policy changes will not even want to hear what some of
you say.

I, personally, have come to know and respect quite a few of you based on
private exchanges that I have had with them. These people come across to me
as well educated and respectable people, who have achieved a lot for
themselves and are in a very good position to contribute positively to the
development of this country. This, in my opinion, is what should guide those
who oppose the government. Ranting and raving will not bring about some of
the changes that we all want to see in this country. You will not be taken
seriously if all you have to offer are insults and questioning the
legitimacy of the government of the day and instigating its demise. The
government will only take some of your criticisms seriously if it believes
that they are done in good faith and out of genuine concern for the good of
the country.

Coming back to Jassey-Conteh’s piece, I asked myself how many of you in the
Diaspora can really identify themselves with our problems. How many can
genuinely claim to know of what goes on here than I do. Fact of the matter
is that while some of you really care for the country, others are opposed to
the government for nothing other than lost opportunity. It is high time that
some of you in the Diaspora start visiting often enough to see for
yourselves what is happening to enable you make decisions that will be
meaningful both to yourselves and the country. I have in the past posted
information about some means of acquiring property through verifiable means
that will not lead to family problems as sometimes happen. One way I
suggested was through schemes such as Taf contruction’s housing scheme and
also through the social security and housing finance corporation. This way,
you are sure of getting what you want.

As for the brain drain, Gambia needs all the lawyers, engineers, Doctors,
politicians etc, etc. We cannot and should not allow the country to be run
by mediocre people while comfortably sitting in Europe or America and
criticizing their every move. The civil service will not implement
government policies efficiently if they are not very conversant with all the
issues about those policies. It is high time that Gambians undertake their
own consultancies rather than relying on foreign experts who know very
little about what the impact of those policies would be on our people. These
foreign consultants have absolutely no idea of our complex relations and how
these relations can impact on the success or otherwise of development
projects. I remember some 5 or 6 years ago when we had some interesting
encounter with some overseas consultants who came on behalf of a major
funding agency to assess some project proposals for the development of rural
communications. That revenue from those projects were not only coming from
our rural folks but also from some living in the urban areas and the
Diaspora, because many originally came from the rural areas, was something
they really found hard to believe. This local knowledge, foreign consultants
don’t have. But how can you convince these consultants that their model may
not be the best for us if you don’t have highly trained people to convince
them otherwise? I also remember around 1989/90 when Gamtel switching
engineers, where I was then, made representation with management to review
some bilateral technical assistance programme that Gamtel had with Alcatel.
At the time many of us felt that rather adding value to our development some
of these “experts” where actually using us to develop themselves. At the
time we felt so strongly about their presence that we refused to corporate
with and even went to the extent of humiliating them by pretending that the
repair of certain faults were beyond us and only solving them when it became
very clear that they could not solve those problems. But Gamtel may be an
exception in that Mr. B.K Njie had realized, from the inception of Gamtel,
that the future of company could only be assured by having a well-trained
workforce. He went about it by implementing a training policy that has so
far resulted in the training, to degree or master’s level, of not less that
250 staff. An added bonus of that policy is that these are young people who
have risen through the ranks. It is not like bringing new graduates from
outside of the company and putting them in charge. This has resulted in all
staff respecting the hierarchy we have. You may find a few disgruntled
people, but these are not that many.

To conclude, I hope people in the Diaspora will seriously consider what you
have written and see it as a challenge. I also hope that government would
review its policy of hiring and firing to encourage those in the Diaspora to
risk taking up jobs in the government or setting up businesses.

Have a good day, Gassa.



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