--- ebou colly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> MR. SALLAH
> To be frank with you Mr. Sallah, I hate hurting
> people's feelings for no good reason. Therefore for
> a
> while after reading your piece on me, highlighted by
> angry remarks from what you said was my distortion
> of
> the fact you presented in the Bronx a couple of
> weeks
> ago, I thought I should have simply written back few
> statements apologizing for what I thought was mere
> misunderstanding.  Anyway after a second review of
> your article I came to realize that I had nothing to
> apologize for after all.
> In the first place, Mr. Sallah, I still don't know
> how
> you missed it but my article was not in anyway
> written
> to report the cause or effect of the symposium held
> in
> the Bronx. I don't think there is a need for me to
> say
> it but I will still go ahead and state it anyway;
> that
> the central theme of my piece was the sixth part of
> the narrative I have been writing about on the 1994
> coup in The Gambia.
> My presence at that meeting was of minimal
> significance to what you have come to present about
> your party's doctrine in the USA. Anyway I'm glad
> that
> you mentioned Manding Darbo. He was one person who
> was
> aware of my presence at the meeting and could
> therefore bear me witness that I arrived there after
> 10:00 p.m. and left barely an hour later. As a
> result
> given the fact that that was the only session of
> yours
> I attended since your arrival, I could not have been
> in that position of authority in anyway to criticize
> your party's efforts to be better understood here.
> When I walked into that hall that day, I found Mr.
> Darbo on his feet addressing the audience
> From what I understood you had, by then, already
> given
> your keynote address. Perhaps that was the time when
> you presented that comprehensive breakdown of your
> party's economic strategies with regards to the
> damnable economic mismanagement that has rendered
> The
> Gambia chronically indebted and the solution you
> theoretically had for it. I only read about most of
> that in your piece written from an ill-conceived
> judgement. Without doubt when the coalition topic
> was
> raised you gave a protracted analysis of the
> important
> factors to be considered against the background of
> what you called a tactical instrument which was
> paramount in Senegal's last presidential election.
> Politically, in your discussion you certainly talked
> about the coalition format of the P.S., Gibo Kah's
> party and that of Niasse's all to, of course, to rub
> in your point that a coalition was better ventured
> into in the second and not first round of
> presidential
> election. Economically I also heard you talking
> about
> the disadvantage of capitalism when "11% of the
> labor
> force in The Gambia is employed by the formal sector
> comprising of the public, 'parastatals' and private
> sector". To buttress your public-run enterprises you
> briefly explained how a PDOI government would
> exploit
> the fishing industry by buying fishing trawlers and
> building fish-processing plants and hiring Gambians
> to
> work there. That was all I could account for in what
> you, Mr. Sallah, had said about the coalition
> agenda.
> I will come to that later.
> Anyway in that Bronx hall, after Mr. Darbo's speech,
> which he delivered in English and Mandinka, it was
> followed by the introduction of the executive
> members
> of the NY movement who made the meeting possible.
> And
> then came the question and answer time from the
> audience.
>  If I am not mistaken it was after one or two
> persons
> spoke that Mr. Saul Mbenga came up with the question
> of the controversial coalition. Roughly twenty
> minutes
> later I was on my way home especially after
> realizing
> to my great disappointment that the prospect of
> opposition-party coalition for The Gambia's
> presidential election, something I strongly desired,
> had little chance of materializing, thanks to PDOIS'
> intransigence.
> So you see Mr. Sallah, you could notice that I was
> not
> necessarily in tune with all the economic theories
> you
> highlighted apart from the ones you mentioned in
> that
> short period between when the coalition question was
> asked and when I left the hall for home. As I said
> earlier I did not hear all those grandiose economic
> theories you said you discussed or argued about from
> Washington to New York.
> Here I would again remind you that my article was
> far
> from a report of the Bronx meeting but the sixth
> part
> of my series on the coup in the Gambia with the
> limited mention of my experience in that hall that
> day. Evidently my focal subject was the APRC
> loyalist
> often disguised in our midst as typified by those
> two
> elements I surely resented so much.
> Anyway it certainly went beyond that when I also
> decided to discuss for mainly the consumption of the
> Lers what I understood to be a serious obstacle in
> this issue of opposition coalition that had been a
> critical subject of interest to most of them. From
> what I understand, it was the dream of most of us
> that
> the opposition parties in The Gambia will, come
> October, put all their differences apart, political,
> economic or philosophical and form a unified front
> to
> get rid of Yaya Jammeh. Just like you put it in your
> closing statements about the wrongs committed by
> Yaya
> to the Gambian nation, he is definitely the worst
> thing that has ever happened to our country and the
> need to wipe him out should be prioritized over any
> individual party's hopes or aspirations. It was
> therefore our belief in the Diaspora that the
> opposition parties coming together NOW would
> tremendously help in this effort. Anything
> otherwise,
> I personally feared would put the country in that
> hopeless situation where we might end up with Yaya
> defiantly persecuting one group of opposing forces
> to
> the other while some others frantically search for
> nonexistent answers in the prostituted constitution
> or
> in the useless office of the chief justice. I hope
> you
> could relate to what I am driving at.
> So Mr. Sallah, I hope you now got it clear that I
> was
> not trying to reduce all that you had said "to a
> defense of a state-controlled economic system. Nor
> was
> I showing my little respect for fact and
> objectivity.
> By referring to those two elements against the
> background of your statement that seemed to anger
> you
> so much might be inappropriate on my side, but
> certainly it did not mean that I had "little taste
> for
> facts and much taste for fiction". I think you were
> unnecessarily hard on me my friend.
> It is pitiful that your party spent over D20, 000.00
> for the long travel to the USA just for you to go
> back
> with only $500.00. And too bad still that some
> Washingtonians robbed you of more money by taking
> your
> party's paraphernalia without giving you a dime. If
> they really knew that the items were for your
> party's
> fund raising but chose to ignore that, then I think
> you have the right to call it a foul. But if they
> were
> not informed by anyone then the blame should be
> redirected to a different target. Anyway I don't
> know
> why me. By the way, was it that those who invited
> you
> to come gave you the impression that substantial
> amount of money was awaiting  you to receive after
> all
> that huge expense to come to the US? I could have
> never known.
> Anyhow Mr. Sallah let's move on. When I read your
> piece on me, I was surprised by the degree of
> sincerity you said guided your line of argument on
> the
> subject.  "I spoke with sincerity and fairness", you
> emphatically stated.  Then down the line after you
> said you argued about the critical issues
> surrounding
>
=== message truncated ===

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