Camara,
First, I responded to "Daffeh" because I got tired of reading all of the
twisted propaganda he and those who share his views on this issue have been
trying to feed us. I don't think you guys realize how much like the APRC you are
beginning to sound, trying to explain the unexplainable and twisting
information to suit your needs and you are doing exactly that again here.
I never said anything in my response about whether Darboe would have made a
good candidate or not had he been selected, but the key word here is "had he
been selected"
That is not the issue here, the issue is that he abandoned this alliance and
now, those who are trying to unashamedly market this idea that NADD should
now join those who have betrayed the ideals the alliance stood for and who
then went on to try to force the hand of others by devious tactics are the ones
right and reasonable.
There was a very democratic process in place for the selection of the
flagbearer and Darboe signed on to that agreement when the MOU was signed. He left
NADD when he realized that the selection procedure may not result in him
being chosen as the flag bearer, so he left with Hamat Bah in tow to go form his
own coalition in which he is flag bearer and anyone who joins him has to
agree to that fact.
So you don't like the democratic process, then bypass it and try to force
the hand of others to succumb to your wishes.
Is that what we are aspiring to in The Gambia and what is the difference
between that thinking and that of Yaya Jammeh who has operated along the same
lines for the past decade?
It is Darboe who abandoned the coalition and set about creating the
polarization you are trying to turn the tables and accuse others of doing. He did
this by holding rallies and criticizing his colleagues openly.
Is it important for an aspiring leader to keep his word and honor his
agreements? Is it OK to bypass a democratic process if you think the results will
not favor you? Is that really what we are looking for in our future leader?
Instead of trying to turn the tables and asking NADD to join the UDP/NRP
coalition that ran away from NADD when things would not go their way, you and
your associates need to expend your energies to persuade the UDP/NRP coalition
to go back and honor the agreement they entered into.That is what will
restore the hopes and dreams of the people if they are at all important in this
process.
That will also convince the Gambian people that Darboe and Bah put the
Gambia first instead of their own interests first and that they do respect and
abide by the democratic process which we the public must insist any aspiring
leader to abide by. So it is also a question of integrity in addition to being a
question of putting the people first.
I agree with you, a splintered coalition will not win against Yaya Jammeh
and the splintering was initiated by the UDP & NRP walking away and with all
the other defections going on all over the place, it looks like the pursuit of
self interest by politicians will once again leave the Gambian people at the
mercy of Yaya Jammeh and the blame falls on the shoulders of those who
initiated the betrayal of trust and it looks like every body else is following suit.
It is time for some truth and honesty and it is not hard to find in this
situation if that is what one is after.
Jabou Joh
In a message dated 3/3/2006 3:34:12 P.M. Central Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Jabou,
I read your mail after reading that of Daffeh through
Mr. Mballow. I could not find any good reason(s) why
Darboe would not have been a great candidate had he
been chosen as the flag-bearer for NADD. Daffeh
articulated very well why Darboe would be a better
candidate than Halipha. I like Halipha 100% and I
believe he would have been a great candidate with all
the opposition parties (I mean former NADD)behind him.
I also believe that Darboe would have been a superb
candidate had he been chosen as the NADD leader.
Can we all direct our efforts towards finding ways to
make the opposition unite again instead of further
polarizing the situation? I do not think either NADD
under Halipha (as it is now) or UDP/NRP under Darboe
can dislodge the dictator. A fragmented opposition has
a very slim chance. As long as Dartboe agrees to be
in power for only 5 years (and not to support any
party later), I see no reason why NADD should not join
the UDP/NRP coalition and revive a new NADD.
thanks,
Madi.
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
> In a message dated 3/2/2006 6:50:40 P.M. Central
> Standard Time, SS
> [log in to unmask]
> (mailto:[log in to unmask]) writes:
>
> In fact if the Brikama show down is anything to go
> by, Lawyer
> Ousainu Darboe is still a vote magnet. Mr
> Darboe’s
> electoral record is actually a good foundation for
> the
> opposition to build on. If the opposition is really
> serious about looking for a realistic option to
> dislodge APRC, they need to recognise this and
> rally
> behind the UDP/NRP Coalition in the interest of
> their
> ultimate common objective, which is to dislodge
> APRC.
> In the same way, NADD should drop the idea of
> Staging
> up Halifa Sallah as a candidate in the up coming
> presidential election. This man has being the face
> of
> PDOIS for decades and yet he never achieved
> anything
> more than 3% for that party. How on earth can
> anybody
> even dream of choosing such a man as President
> Jammeh’s challenger and expect Gambians to take
> you
> seriously?
> unquote
>
> Mr Mballow,
>
> Since you are the man behind the mask of SS Daffeh,
> please relay the
> following to him for me on behalf of the Gambian
> people.
> The point is not who is more sellable or who gained
> what percentage of votes
> in the past, but rather that as a strategy to enable
> them to garner enough
> votes to win against the APRC, all opposition
> parties had agreed to come
> together as one unit, NADD, and through a democratic
> process, choose one candidate
> to represent this one unit, NADD to face Jammeh in
> the next elections.
> The various leaders of these opposition parties
> were to then explain to
> their various supporters that this is a strategy
> that would enable them to
> remove the APRC regime and to give us our country
> back and that after this was
> accomplished, and followed by the prescribed 5 year
> term of an interim
> government, these parties who had come together
> would then be able to go back to
> their individual parties and can then be able to
> organize themselves and contest
> elections as individual parties. The people would
> have understood this and
> indeed, all indications are that they already did.
>
> All patriotic Gambians realize in their heart of
> hearts that it is high time
> to forge a mechanism to dislodge the Jammeh regime
> from power before they
> murder all our people and sink our country into an
> irreversible economic
> disaster.Our people live the hardship on a daily
> basis, regardless of which tribe
> they are, the suffering under the APRC regime knows
> no ethnic boundaries.
> The idea is that if forging this mechanism means
> having to set aside for the
> time being, all political, ideological or personal
> differences for the sake
> of our people and for the love of our dear country,
> then that is what would
> be done by all those who profess to believe in the
> democratic process and the
> love of our people and country.
> This was and is the hopes and dreams of the Gambian
> people who have taken
> all they can take from this brutal regime.
>
> What has transpired is that some of those who had
> subscribed to this
> magnificent ideal have decided that they did not
> like what the results of a
> democratic process to select the representative or
> flag bearer may bring, that this
> process may not result in things going the way they
> want it, and so they
> decided to break their word and abandon an agreement
> that they had made to the
> Gambian people in order to have their way. This
> makes them begin to resemble the
> dictator they claim to be trying to dislodge.This
> scares us because if
> anyone can think in those terms at this critical
> juncture in the history of our
> country, and to the extent of abandoning the promise
> of this alliance and the
> democratic process that was in place to select the
> flag bearer, then that
> sends a very negative message indeed that those
> individuals do not and will not
> respect the same democratic process tomorrow should
> they ever be in power, and
> that we will likely find ourselves in the clutches
> of another attempt to
> cling to power at all cost. This is the message
> that these actions convey
> unfortunately.
>
> So you see, it is totally irrelevant to talk about
> which party leader is
> more sellable because each party leader had
> subscribed to an ideal to pool their
> resources together, in this case, those resources
> being their support base
> and to implore that support base to vote for the
> flag bearer selected through a
> democratic process by the coalition executive in
> order to accomplish a well
> defined objective, to get a dictatorship off the
> backs of Gambians.
>
> Unfortunately, a decision was made by some people
> that their own aspirations
> were somehow superior to any effort to save our
> country and our people at
> their most urgent hour of need and history will not
> look kindly upon them if
> they persist in this senseless selfish endeavour.
>
> These are the facts plain and simple, and people
> need to save us from the
> endless rhetoric and spin which insists on making us
> stupid when we are nothing
> but stupid.
>
> It is also time to stop the accusations of tribalism
> by those whose actions
> speak louder than words that they are the ones who
> are the tribalists. it is,
> as our African American brothers and sisters say, a
> case of the pot calling
> the kettle black, or a cheap strategy of trying to
> beat your opponent to the
> punch by labeling them what you have manifested to
> be.
>
> Our country and our people are crying and dying from
> the untold brutality of
> this devious regime, and let those who truely love
> our country, and who say
> they subscribe to the democratic ideal keep their
> word and come back to the
> promise they made so that we can move our country
> forward. Their actions will
> then be remembered by the people and they will be
> able to not only hold their
> heads high tomorrow, but we will then know that they
> can be trusted as
> people we the people can also trust to lead us
> tomorrow.
>
> For the love of God, this is an interim government
> we are talking about, a
> temporary solution that will create the kind of
> atmosphere all political
> parties have been yearning for for forty years. Do
> not those who are so hell bent
> on derailing this process trust their abilities to
> win an election in a free
> and fair atmosphere after our constitution has been
> restored and coercion is
> not the order of the day anymore?
>
> Please also relay to "Mr Daffeh" that his cloak and
> dagger manner also tells
> us that he and whatever he represents must not be
> something he can hold his
> head up high for if he has to hide behind someone
> else to deliver his warped
> messages.
> And Mr Mballow, a word of advice if I may. If you
> are as objective as you
> profess to be, and if you are as sincere in
> supporting one unified coalition as
> your last posting implied, then it baffles me as to
> why you would agree to
> be the bag man for "Mr Daffeh" and his divisive
> messages.
> Jabou Joh
>
>
=== message truncated ===
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
|
