Mr. Sidibeh:

This is one piece of advice that evbery Gambian should take heed, and NADD in particular. Thanks for a sobering piece.

Musa JEng
>
> From: Momodou S Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 2005/12/15 Thu PM 07:37:58 EST
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: What Does NADD Want ??
>
> Brothers Jassey-Conteh, Mo Baldeh, Joe, Buharry, and All,
>
> One would have thought that even with Halifa, OJ, and Hamat Bah locked
> away, what NADD needed to do first was to deliver on Hon. Halifa
> Sallah's promise to impeach President Jammeh should he fail to apologise
> for his gross conjectures about the opposition's conspiracy to fan the
> flames of conflict with Senegal. This, of course should have followed a
> vehement denunciation of the police authorities for publicly coating
> Hon. Sallah, NADD coordinator, as a de facto fugitive. The state's
> disinformation tactic aimed tacitly to humiliate Halifa's person, was
> not simply desperately risible. It was repulsive and symptomatic of a
> government that has jettisoned all moral bearings in its ruthless
> exercise of power.
>
> NADD's failure to act on this initial committment left it without the
> necessary momentum to forge ahead with subsequent mass action during the
> weeks following the incaceration of the three leaders.
> Happily, we all should hope that the current order of things ought to
> bring definitive closure to that nightmare. Yet realistically, in a
> state where the rule of law has been under siege by those who are
> mandated to enforce it, hope itself becomes ephemeral. Hoping for a
> permanent truce between the adversarial political camps may be wishful
> thinking. What then should NADD do??
>
> Before venturing any opinion on that, allow me to lay bare our weighty
> dilemma. Thanks partly to globalisation there are fairly sizeable
> commuinities of us (i.e Gambians and their friends) across the world
> gradually growing in intellectual, economic, and political influence in
> our country of origin. It is only natural that in time we shall
> particiapte ever more actively in the political life of our country, and
> so make demands for degrees of representation consummate with the
> collective influence we are able to wield. This influence so far, is
> most dramatically expressed economically. Without the remittances and
> investments from diasporan Gambians, scores of thousands of families
> will suffer untold misereis; many businesses will collapse throwing
> thousands into unemployment in  an environment bereft of social safety
> nets. Government's (tax) revenue base will shrink further as local
> consumption plummets.  In the long run price hikes will force even the
> godliest into the streets  perhaps peacefully but angrily demanding for
> bread and jobs. [In the late eighites, in the wake of the IMF's first
> wave of Structural Adjustment Programmes, there were food riots in many
> African countries. President Jawara, introduced it in Gambia, but not
> even a mouse openly squeaked about hunger!. I am inclined to think
> though, that the geography of hunger then and now are quite different].
> In short, brothers and sisters, we can create hell for the Jammeh
> regime, but at the cost of untold suffering of our people.
>  Added to that is the fact that most of us are sincerely or otherwise
> aligned with the opposition, which is a damn good thing given the
> circumstances. Placing demands on the opposition in view of our
> political and economic clout is not as tricky as it sounds. Not to speak
> up our minds about what we think is a tragic case of self-censure. We
> know there are people who will as swiftly caution us for inciting mass
> action from the cosy and plastic interiors of our European condos,
> thousands of kilometres away from the eye of the storm. True, it will
> sound morally decrepit to suggest action that may cause death or
> imprisonment. But we would also be welcome members of the African
> fraternity of coconut heads if we fail to tell ourselves that PROTEST
> must be used as a legitimate weapon in the struggle against tyranny. In
> the same vein, we must also uphold the view that as long as we remian
> sincere, the ethical foundations of criticism must remain robust even if
> we are not able to offer reasonable alternatives. Criticism and
> self-criticism are organisational instruments that must be welcome at
> all times. Better still if alternative courses of action can be offered.
> Solidarity within the oppositon must be strong enough to withstand
> introspection from within.
>
> By all means, Sidia Jatta's reasons for not holding a demonstration are
> defensive and defeatist. A massive peaceful demonstration needed to be
> organised on behalf of the detained trio for various reasons.
> Firstly, it should have been held to actively inform the regime that
> people have a rigth to protest and to challenge the regime to make sure
> there are "No Bullets And Soldiers In Our Streets". Of course, President
> Jammeh may be a severe case of schizophrenia and so may order shooting
> peaceful demonstratorsis six months away from the AU summit he has
> worked so hard to host.  In that case he may be Sani Abacha's redeemer.
> Secondly, a demonstration is perhaps the most effective method for
> public sensitisation. Imaginative slogans and songs often loudly say
> what most people think but are afraid to speak about. Capturing the
> public's imagination turns out to be more powerful than its deepest fears.
> In the third instance, a demonstration would have provided NADD the
> opportunity to wrest the political initiative from Jammeh's incontinent
> hands, and stop reacting to his violent paroxysm of unstatemanly natter.
> NADD must as of now take control of the political agenda and lay out a
> counter offensive toward the elections: rallies in chosen
> constituencies, public awareness campaigns on NADD's transitional
> agenda, workshops, seminars. It must put the APRC on the defensive by
> challenging it about its dismal record: unsolved murders, political
> assasinations, weeding out the green(!) boys, the continuous assault on
> the press and other media and journalists in particular. There are
> legions of issues: power supply, water, corruption, the presidential
> jet(!), infrastructure decay in the country-side, arbitrary dismissals,
> etc.
>
> Last year while most of us celebrated the orange revolution in Ukraine
> that brought Victor Yushchenko to power, I lamented that Gambia was an
> entierly different ball game. That reality has never been clearer than
> now. NADD's natural allies in the struggle for democratic rights and the
> reinstatement of the rule of law, Gambian workers and students seem
> completely oblivious of the tragedy being outplayed under their nose. To
> attend a university whose campuses are one of the worst equipped in the
> world while the president of our nation of just a million and half (with
> no oil) acquires a private jet and pretend that as absolutely normal is
> simply a historical aberration. That Gambian workers, professionals,
> civil servants and students should observe in solemn acquiescence the
> gradual escalation of repressive measures and abuse of rights and
> arbitrary dismissals without summoning the courage to organise
> autonomously against such humiliation vitiates the very history of
> student and worker militancy and protest of former decades. There is no
> point in wishing that we were as demonstration prone as South Koreans.
> But to wait till election day in order to vote out a regime that is
> monthly busy killing and jailing us, and refraining from publicly but
> peacefully exhibiting our anger at this indignity, is to have no use for
> all the intelligence and knowledge inside the world!
>
> As we endear NADD to act, those of us in the diaspora must help raise
> resources for the project of flushing the APRC from State House. Added
> to that, there is a moral obligation to recognise and respect ordinary
> people's legitimate sources of fear; and here we are dealing with a
> regime under whose watch Gambians have been killed and maimed without a
> "peanut being cracked"! While avoiding every tendency to classification
> into a "we" and "them" category, all of us as citizens must claim with
> one voice that these heavy layers of fear need to be systematically
> peeled away from the public subconscious. It can be done by scoring
> small victories one at a time, gradually persuading the fearful, that a
> bigger victory is possible if our numbers grow. One such small victory
> was the defeat of the APRC at local elections in August. NADD should
> build on the momentum produced by that victory by organising a peaceful
> protest in reaction to the illegal arrest of Hamat Bah, Omar Jallow
> (OJ), and Halifa Sallah.
>
> Finally, I hope NADD will strategise promptly and mobilise and
> reinvigorate its organisational structures so as to be able to
> effectively activate the membership and supporters.
>
> Many thanks to you all,
> Momodou S Sidibeh
>
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