YJ
 
I commend your efforts as a "drum major" for a united opposition front against Professor Jammeh. Knowing your allergy to the term "President", I am sticking with the more humorous title of Professor. Just so you remember, we are not dealing with a sui generis claim among Africa's post-colonial rulers. Idi Amin Dada was a Professor of Geography!
 
I also support your call for a Federalist Papers type campaign for a united opposition electoral front in 2011, assuming we reach that destination in political terms. Our dilemma lies in the reality that you and I, and the rest of activist Diaspora, are mere soldiers. Our commanding officers, read that as party leaders, are in The Gambia, and without their honest cooperation and leadership, our efforts are dead in the water, a stillbirth, in other words. This is not to say we are insignificant, only that the current tapestry of opposition Gambia severely limits our options as non domicile Gambians. I am encouraged that the STGDP, and UDP New York, are in relevant, if rudimentary conversations with some party leaders on the ground. We should utilise the media in nudging them to a deal.
 
For the Diaspora to discharge its responsibility in the areas of funding, and technical support to the electoral effort, it is imperative the opposition parties reach a concrete deal on a united front by June 2010. This is the only way the Diaspora can put effective organisational structures in place. And considering the amounts necessary for a viable electoral challenge, and in light of the difficulties integral to raising those funds exclusively from Diaspora Gambia, we need ample time to research and source institutional support and funding. We are unlikely to be accorded due seriousness by potential institutional supporters if the prospect of a fragmented opposition for 2011 becomes the only realistic outcome from any objective analysis of the mix of variables available to an independent observer.
 
Notwithstanding my wholehearted commitment to your clarion call, I will not, as a free citizen of The Gambia, associate with any camp in a fragmented opposition for 2011. The excerpts below relate to a similar stance for the 2006 presidential elections.
 
 
 
 
LJDarbo
 
      
 
  
"... In similar vein, I reject the contention that reconstituting NADD remains your exclusive prerogative as party leaders, the so-called Executive Committee of the original entity. As stakeholders, the opposition’s supporters are entitled to a say on how the September elections ought to be contested. It is my view that, as the victims of tyranny, and the intended beneficiaries of dislodging APRC from our councils of state, any project in this regard is our enterprise. As party leaders, and clearly crucial to providing direction and momentum to the ultimate success of the enterprise, you are nevertheless mere trustees of a vital national project. As fiduciaries, your duty is to the people you intend to liberate from the clutches of tyranny. Your duty is to us, and we accordingly have standing to challenge your vision on the way forward!
 
 
How you fail to appreciate that the only empire likely to emerge out of APRC’s ruins is that of the people - sired and nurtured on promoting the rule of law and the dignity of the individual – is the extraordinary and eternal shame of NADD's disintegration. As I cannot envision a new dawn of kings and their legions of sycophantic courtiers, I reject any leadership that mirrors the natural inclination of dictatorships in personalizing political questions of national dimension. 
  
In the meantime, I urge that Gambians sympathetic to the opposition cause refrain from rewarding failure through the wastage of funds on either of the coalitions in their conclusively tentative and futile efforts against the APRC in the event of a three-way presidential contest. I appreciate we cannot require specific performance on a five-party NADD as originally conceived as long as you know not to count on principled and pragmatic Gambians to sponsor your fruitless journeys to nowhere".   (Summer 2006)
 
 
Lamin J Darbo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

--- On Wed, 13/5/09, Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:


From: Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [>-<] An Open letter to Gambians & Friends; Part 2
To: "aa1gambiapost mailing" <[log in to unmask]>, "aaa GPU" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, 13 May, 2009, 3:47 PM




#yiv547748047 .hmmessage P
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http://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=7436&#50197
 
 
 
Kind regards,
yj



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