Joe,
     Thank you. The debate about PDOIS will soon begin  to take a new 
dimension. Those who have willingly accepted to take  ownership of the party, will 
try to bring clarity into the debate and enter  into a genuine dialogue with our 
Gambian contemporaries, so as not only to  defend the proud legacy of the 
party, but also to convince the Gambian people  that PDOIS is the only party that 
can help the country to create its rebirth. 
 
     The birth of PDOIS is not an accident. It was  a deliberate and 
conscious decision by a group of well meaning people, who  sacrificed a lot to respond 
to a question of immense national  ramification: What is a sovereign being? 
Secondly, and most  important, what role can they play to help the Gambian 
people regain their  sovereignty? This was a fundamental question that was 
necessary, given that the  whole dynamics of our political structure was based on an 
uneven and  exploitative relations between those who govern and the ones that 
they  governed.
 
    PDOIS started its mission from a simple premise: if the  people don't 
know what they own, and what belongs to them, they surely will not  be able to 
defend it. Hence in order for the people to defend what they own, to  defend 
their sovereignty, they need to be sufficiently orientated  to be able to 
determine their own destiny. This in a nutshell guides  the conceptual development of 
the programs and activities that the party has  been engaged in for the past 
two decades. 
 
     Should there be a genuine assessment of the  party and its activities, 
more so its shortcomings for the past two decades? Of  course, yes. The 
negative perceptions that has been ingrained in the minds of  many regarding the 
party, and which has no basis in the party's  overall objectives, are some of the 
contentious issues that has to be dealt  with. 
 
     Lets take the issue of socialism for example.  Many people are wont to 
say these people, PDOIS people are socialist and  communist.  But I can tell 
you this: I have listened to most of the  speeches of Halifa Sallah since the 
birth of PDOIS or even before; I have  read most of his writings since the birth 
of PDOIS or even before, but I  have never read or heard him say that he is a 
socialist except on one  occasion in the early days of the party when they 
have to define the  acronym PDOIS. There was also a phamplet to that effect. 
What does PDOIS'S  socialisms connotes? It is all about principles and programs. 
 
      Rene 



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