Mr. Nyang,

Thanks for drawing our attention to Hon Mai Fatty's piece on Dr. Jobe and
the opposition... You might have noticed we did not publish it yet on
Gainako because the Hon has been avoiding us lately... It could be because
we requested an interview again or simply an oversight... Anyway, our mail
box still works editor@gainako.com...

On the substance of the article, I couldn't agree more with the Hon GMC
leader on most of the points he raised... I also took note of something
exceptional that he did..  acknowledge partial responsibility of some
failures on his side in the negotiations for unity which many other leaders
still fail to accept publicly...

Having said that... we all acknowledge the difficulty the opposition and
the media faces on the ground and against the APRC... Common sense dictates
that once you recognize what you are against and having suffered so many
arrest and harassment, that it was enough to convince the leaders that they
needed to take that commonality and forge a unity to oust the dictator or
at the very least present a formidable challenge against him... Crying foul
and narrating all the difficulties they have to go through and continue to
stick to their party ideologies and principles at the detriment of the
country is what some of us are critical off... And we will continue to be
critical as long as they aspire to lead our country...

You will agree with me that NADD days did generate a kind of enthusiasm
that we have never seen in Gambian politics... even people who had never
participated got involved because there was hope until everything crumbled
in the face of leadership and ideology... then fast forward to 2011...
unrealistic agenda's and call for processes that were only good for foot
notes of history simply did not reflect the very ordeal that the Hon
narrated on his story...

So again, it amounts to passing the blame when leaders who presented
themselves before the people fail in their efforts (difficult as it may be)
and then say to others.. "the road to Banjul is clear for anyone to take"..
We can all make that individual decision... but at the same time we have a
moral responsibility to critique those who pledge to lead us... As far as
lamenting poverty of the leaders... that worries me a lot... that tells me
that if leaders are that poor and publicly acknowledge it...once they taste
the power of money and abundance of resources.. they could turn into
something.... I could be wrong put history has proven me right as far as
many African leaders are concern going from rags to riches and turn from
advocates to oppressors... as for Dr. Jobe I would add... it is about
time!!!!

Thanks Nyang... am sure I will hear from you soon.. but this is my take for
now...

Demba

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 5:56 PM, Haruna <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Courtesy: Freedomnewspaper.com
>
> Haruna.
>
>
> ‘DR. JOBE WILL NEVER TAKE THE INITIATIVE TO RETURN TO HOME TO LEAD A CIVIL
> DISOBEDIENCE ,’ MAI FATTY
> ‘DR. JOBE WILL NEVER TAKE THE INITIATIVE TO RETURN TO HOME TO LEAD A
> CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE OR MASS PROTEST THAT HE IS PREACHING OUT OF FEAR FOR HIS
> OWN LIFE,’ MAI FATTY**
> *REJOINDER ON DR. SEDAT JOBE’S RADIO SPEECH – A PERSONAL OPINION*
> *Mai Ahmad Fatty*
> Thanks and Praises due to the Almighty God, Creator of the Universe, the
> Giver and the Taker of life, and in Whom my destiny resides.
> I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Sedat Jobe’s speech on Freedom
> Radio today the 7 January 2012, on a range of fundamental issues affecting
> our country. I commend Dr. Jobe for recently emerging from his eleven years
> of hibernation, during which period some of the worst horrific crimes
> against our people were being committed (excluding his brief political
> campaign in support of Yaya Jammeh) in the 2006 elections, when he is on
> record to have branded the opposition ‘ignorant’ and incapable of ruling.
> Dr. Jobe has a point on the difficult and sensitive issue of unity among
> the opposition parties. The issue of a united opposition is a complex one,
> and not as simple and facile as many would imagined. STGDP and others had
> worked on it for years even before GMC was born. Nonetheless, I acknowledge
> that more could be done, the failure of which I take partial
> responsibility. He averred that the opposition are not seriously ‘shocked’
> enough by the regime’s inhumanity to provoke them to set aside all of their
> differences, to come together and establish a united front. This is an
> unfair characterization and bemoans a clear misanalysis of the dynamics.
> Around the 2006 general elections, Yaya Jammeh ordered the arrest and
> prosecution of NADD opposition leaders. From their homes they were sent
> straight to Mile 2 Prisons where they languished in inhume conditions for
> over a week contrary to law. The government then publicly announced falsely
> declaring that Hon Halifa Sallah had disappeared and at large, when he was
> actually under their custody at the time. I volunteered with Lawyers
> Ousainou Darboe and Antouman Gaye to undertake the legal defence of the
> three NADD leaders without pay. Jammeh had previous to that imprisoned
> Lamin Waa Juwara, who was also one of the NADD leaders then. In effect he
> had four opposition leaders under custody at the same time just before 2006
> elections namely – Halifa Sallah, Hamat Bah, Omar J. Jallow and Lamin Waa
> Juwara.
> In the process of securing their release from unlawful custody through the
> courts, I had to personally go into Mile 2 Prisons to obtain the signatures
> of the unlawfully detained opposition leaders with a notary public for a
> bail application. Eventually the courts granted them bail on very difficult
> conditions. Before the next hearing date, Jammeh backed down in the face of
> stiff resistance from former President Obasanjo who came to intervene on
> behalf of the Commonwealth as a sitting President of the Federal Rep. of
> Nigeria. It was during that visit when President Obasanjo brokered an
> inter-party MoU between the ruling Party and the opposition parties,
> containing terms of fair-play and dispute resolution. The APRC had no
> original intention of honouring this Document.
> It is important to appreciate that Jammeh did all he could, utilizing all
> of the coercive powers of the State to destroy and to disintegrate NADD at
> a time when they were still actively working on selecting a consensus flag
> bearer. The arrests and subsequent trial of these leaders made national
> news for a while, and it could not have eluded Dr. Sedat Jobe’s attention,
> who had much earlier resigned from government. However, not only did Dr.
> Sedat Jobe campaigned for Jammeh in that same elections, he is also on
> record for having publicly branded the opposition at a Jammeh 2006 campaign
> rally as a bunch of ignoramus who were unfit to rule. This unprovoked
> diatribe attracted a written reaction from the opposition. Judging by his
> profuse moral pronouncements recently, one would have expected that Dr.
> Jobe would be restrained by his moral principles not only to campaign for
> Jammeh in that election, but also that his sense of moral propriety would
> have conditioned him to condemn the opposition leaders arrests, detention,
> and bogus trial at the time. What I meant is that Dr. Jobe should have been
> ‘sufficiently shocked’ by the clear injustice at the time and be motivated
> to speak and act against it. But alas, he was mute, and in fact campaigned
> to secure electoral victory for the perpetrator of crimes, after he had
> long resigned from government. Six years later, the opposition is still
> waiting for a statement from Dr. Sedat Jobe or on hind sight an apology
> without success. Therefore, when Sedat Jobe castigated the opposition as
> not being sufficiently ‘shocked’ by the inhumanity of the regime to compel
> them to come together, he came across as both disingenuous and pedantic.
> The opposition leaders have all been to jail at different times, and
> continue to face inequities. I was tortured under custody for merely acting
> as counsel in a certain criminal trial, while some of us faced
> assassination attempts. Most, if not all of us opposition leaders are dead
> broke or in debt because we invested every butut into domestic political
> programs. Being an opposition leader or opposition activist in The Gambia
> under current circumstances, amounts to a contract with poverty, and
> potential assassination or unlawful imprisonment at any time. It is
> phenomenal sacrifice.
> While we welcome Dr. Jobe into the struggle eleven years too early, we
> must never lose sight of the fact that we are not at the start of the
> struggle. Many people have paid with their lives, and others continue to go
> through hell on the ground for years. Not only the domestic opposition, but
> the online media and external civil society in both the UK and the U.S have
> been very active for many years. Their efforts are what we continue to
> consolidate upon today. Dr. Jobe is currently threading on the foot-steps
> of the opposition in his tour to Paris, London or Brussels, and during his
> consultations, he might have discovered that we had already been to those
> same places much earlier and met those same institutions on identical
> concerns. Sincerity demands that we acknowledge the truth but not disparage
> or be contemptuous of previous efforts by the opposition or others and
> proceed on the false impression that a new foundation is just being
> erected.
> It is easy for some to say; ‘well you have been outside since the
> election’. I have been much more effective with what I could do for my
> Party and people outside under current circumstances, and this is where my
> Party needs me most personally, for the meantime. AND yes GMC continues to
> work on the ground as a political party with limited resources, regardless.
> The ‘struggle’ is no one’s monopoly. If anyone feels you could do better,
> the road to The Gambia is open for you. What may be stopping many from
> venturing back home is the intrepid fear admitted by Dr. Sedat Jobe himself
> on radio, when he said that if he were to return home now, they would
> pounce on him. From his own utterances, it is clear that like many
> Gambians, Dr. Jobe will never take the initiative to return to home to lead
> a civil disobedience or mass protest that he is preaching out of fear for
> his own life. It is unfair for anyone to make specific demands for
> sacrifice of others that he/she is unwilling to make.
> This is not an indictment against anyone or advocating for anyone. The
> fact that Dr. Jobe recently decided to join the side of goodness is
> remarkable. I praise his call for us to speak and to act with one voice.
> Let us all work together to accelerate the end of tyranny. The opposition
> bashing is not the solution. The liberation of The Gambia is the
> responsibility of all Gambians. The Egyptians, Tunisians, Libyans, Syrians,
> etc taught us not to wait for politicians.  They did not wait for
> politicians to lead. Their populations by themselves without politicians
> did what they had to do, and I do not mean to assert that politicians
> should fold their arms and do nothing. Yaya Jammeh is a result of the
> collective failure of all Gambians. We must all take responsibility for the
> kind of political system and leadership we have in our country. We can put
> an end to this mess if are ready to do so as a people. The choice is ours,
> all of us together.
>
>
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