Saiks, All,

I'll give you the background of what happened on Saturday at the ALD Forum
as I OBSERVED it. Of course I missed some things as there's only so much
that one can observe at any one time, especially if one isn't taking notes.
I wasn't. So, I hope others present will give us more of what I missed.

First, I extend a commendation to the Organizing Committee. It's obvious
that things could be a little better, but considering what the Organizers
had to deal with (Gambians,) they didn't do a particularly bad job. Truth
is, God made people, and made Africans. And we the Gambian sub-species are a
microcosm of the dysfunction that our people are. Hard to swallow, but
that's the truth. The program was supposed to start at 12:00 noon, and it
started around 3:00pm. Very Gambian. And it did mainly because Mr. Hamat Bah
threatened to leave for New York where we was scheduled to board a plane for
Abuja at 8:00pm. He told myself, Ous Bojang and ML Conteh that he WAS
leaving at 3:30pm sharp. Myself and Conteh had to go alert James Gomez about
Mr. Bah's position. The Hall (venue) was on lease to the Organizers until
5:00pm. Most of the audience came around 3pm. So, at that point, all we had
was two hours for any discussion. In order to accommodate Mr. Bah (so he can
stay beyond 3:30pm,) Latjor and James offered to buy him an air ticket to
NY. This is also very commendable, because as it turned out, Hamat Bah is
worth every dime that was spent on him.

On Mr. Conteh’s issues, these need not turn into another unnecessary rancor.
  I can understand why  Conteh would think that the whole event was a
Two-Man show. It seemed that way, unless one knew of the role of the Tijan
Ceesays in the background. There were in fact a few more people involved. I
think it's fair to say that Latjor and James were the most prominent as far
as the Symposium was concerned, but there were others.  On Dr. Nyang’s
absence, I agree with Mr. Conteh’s complaint in principle, because the good
Dr. wasn’t the only promised invitee who didn’t show up.  Fr. Joseph Gough
didn’t come, neither did Baba Galleh Jallow, one of the promised panelists.
Some of us were expecting to see these people, but nothing was said about
their absence.  A simple statement at the beginning of the program about
which invitees couldn’t make it, and why was all that was needed. So, I hope
the Organizers will take note of the negative impression non-communication
sometimes give observers. .  Not to talk about wild  speculation.  Also, a
less restrictive venue (in terms of time) should have been secured. It
doesn’t make much sense to have people come all the way from Gambia only to
be rushed to cut off their speech after 30 minutes. Both Hamat Bah and
Halifa Sallah had just warmed up when they were prompted to cut it short.
Personally, I’ll be more than willing to chip in next time, just so such
speakers can have ALL the time they  need to make their case, and interact
with the audience. You can tell both were disappointed, Mr. Sallah more so
than Mr. Bah. Now, on to the meeting proper.


It needs to be stated for the record that Joe Joof and his entourage lodged
at a hotel in Downtown DC, less than 10 minutes from Howard University where
the Symposium was held. Despite this, they were the last party to arrive.
Some people are already putting a spin on why he left, but the fact is, Joof
NEVER intended to answer any questions.  You’ll see why I believe this after
you’ve read what caused him to go away.  In the first place, to say that he
was nervous is an understatement.  From the moment the man sat down on the
dais, you could see his unease. He was looking at the audience, while doing
his best to avoid eye-contact with people. When Latjor Ndow introduced the
panel, he was slated to be the first speaker. Latjor made way for Joof at
the podium, and handed him the mike. And this was the beginning of the
now-famous three minutes “threat.” A member of the audience who was sitting
exactly FIVE ROWS away from the front, got up and said:
“Hey, you should sit down. You people are murderers. You murdered 14 little
kids, and denied them justice. How can you come here and talk to us about
justice. You need to sit down.” Then the brother switched to Wollof:
“Yen sah, den gen yab nit nyi.” (You must hold us in contempt.)
By this time, several people, notably: ML Conteh, Latjor, Karamba Touray
were appealing to the brother to calm down and let the man have his say. It
should be noted that the brother DID NOT make any move to approach Joof, nor
did he make any threatening gestures towards Joof. He stood EXACTLY where he
was sitting. And the whole incident took a little less than three minutes.

Joof got up, and spoke. The brother DID NOT utter a single word after that!
Probably due to his nervousness, Joof gave a very rambling speech: “Mr.
Fabakary Tombong Jatta will speak for the APRC party. I’ll speak for the
govt.  I’m glad to be here. When I heard about the theme of this symposium,
I was very happy that it’s ‘Building Bridges, Joining Hands.’ That is very
good. We need to listen to each other… Gambians go to the Internet to get
their news. That’s not a proper way to get news… We should be able to talk
to each other and agree or disagree…  In fact, His Excellency launched a web
site last Friday. Gambians will be able to get news and other information
there. We are doing many good things. We have built over a 150 schools. And
hospitals. And an airport. It’s not just a terminal, we have extended the
tarmac so that all types of planes can land there. Now we have all types of
Airlines coming to the Gambia. We have Sabena, Air Senegal Int. Ghana
Airways. We now have a Direct Flight between Wash DC and Banjul. And we are
working hard to have a Direct Flight to other cities like Atlanta, New York.
We have changed the Constitution to allow for Dual Citizenship. Many of you
have children here…” I have to say that I really didn’t pay much attention
to what he had to say, because I couldn't wait to ask him a question about
Civil Rights back home, or some other justice-related issue. I had an
internal dilemma going on: Should I ask him about Dumo and co first, or his
role in the bogus Commission of Inquiry into the Student Murder case. His
speech lasted less than ten minutes. He sat down.  (I’m trying to get the
video of the meeting to review his speech again, but this was the gist of
what the man said as I recalled it. Some of my quotations may not be
verbatim. Others are welcome to add to, modify it.)

When Latjor took over the mike, several people asked immediately if we could
ask Joof questions. Latjor relayed the message to Joof, and Joof indicated
by gesturing that he’ll take questions after the other panelists had given
their speeches. But surprise, surprise, even while Latjor was looking down
at the Secretary and saying into the mike that he “hope the honorable
Secretary would answer questions after…” the man picked up his leather
folder, got off the dais, stopped and stooped to whisper something into Mrs.
Lena Manga’s ear (sitting in the second row.) And before you could say
“1,2,3” he started working briskly towards the exit. It all happened so
fast, we were all caught unawares. Someone shouted that “the man is
leaving.” Several people called out “coward!” Some people queried Latjor
about why the man is leaving. I thought Latjor’s reply was very apt:
“there’s nothing you can do when the man wants to leave. You cannot force
him to stay. There’s nothing you can do…” Some of us followed him outside.
Myself and Pa Samba Jow came out and found Joof, Lena Manga, some Embassy
Security guard, and some two other fellows talking. Pa Samba had a video
camera, and when Joof saw us, he started walking towards a Mercedes that was
just pulling up. We both started talking, and Pa Samba managed to fire a
question: “Mr. Secretary, can you tell us why the killers of the students
were Idemnified?” Joof quickly pulled the car’s rear door and jumped in
shutting the door without answering Pa Samba’s question. The car made a
U-turn, and he was gone.  This was the sum of the “threat” that Joof faced.

When I turned around, there was Lena. I asked why her boy was running away?
“He’s going because they don’t want him.” I said, “who doesn’t want him? Who
are ‘they?’  It’s because of this punkish behavior that people don’t want
this govt.” Lena didn’t say a thing. At that point, Tombong Jatta also came
out to see what’s up. Joof’s car was gone. We walked back into the hall. No
one could believe that Joof had bolted.

Is this someone who felt threatened, or is this someone who used ONE
PERSON’s heckling as an EXCUSE to dodge tough questions. Joof is a sharp
fellow. And you can tell the man is cognizant of the predominant ill-will
towards their govt. among Gambians in the US, and DC in particular.  Tijan
Ceesay told me that they “had to go through the President to get them to
come.” I believe him. Only Yaya Jammeh can get Joof to venture into that
gathering. That guy was looking for an excuse –any excuse- to run away from
that gathering. He seized what he had, and bolted. Ramatulie is right, the
man didn’t even have the decency to say he was leaving. Tombong, his cohort
was as surprised as we all were.

Hamat Bah took over, and talked about virtually every section of our
national life. I fell in love with the man. This is one person, I won’t
hesitate voting for. I don’t have time to go into details, but he
de-constructed all the lies that the APRC keeps telling Gambians about our
recent past.  Halifa Sallah was vintage Halifa: very articulate, very well
prepared, and engaging. He stated his positions and dared us to challenge
him. It was a shame that there wasn’t time to allow us to engage him in a
thorough discourse.

Tombong Jatta, the other APRC speaker is an old family friend, so I don’t
want to elaborate much on him. Not that there’s much to say anyway, because
it’s fair to say that Koto Tombong was simply out of his league. To say that
he was incoherent is being very generous. Hamat Bah made a good point about
the American Constitution being Amended only 29 times in nearly 250 years,
while only four years on, the APRC-doctored Constitution has been Amended 39
times! To refute this, Tombong tried to walk us through versions of the Old
and New Constitutions.  It was a complete disaster. His entire presentation
turned comical at the end. He defended their Amendment giving Yaya Jammeh
the power to appoint Chiefs and Alkalolus. He said Chiefs are judges that’s
why they “really believe they should not be elected.” But then he shot
himself in the foot when he asked us “where in the world are judges
elected?”  America! Several of us shot back. “America? They elect judges in
America?” Yes, we said. He was taken aback. “Ok, where else?”  Someone said
“Florida!” He caught that one: “That’s in America” he said.  At that point,
we had to leave the Hall for another group.  There was an anticlimax to the
ending.

Outside, while we were talking to Mr. Njie, he bolted as soon as Pa Samba
asked him to answer some questions on camera: “I don’t talk to journalists.
That’s my right. Not so?” he said. Pa Samba asked why he won’t go on camera
if he’s sincere about what he was saying. No response there. While I was
talking to Tombong about some mutual friends and neighbors back home, Conteh
walked up and in his trade-mark high energy way, delivered a short sermon to
him: “Mr. Jatta, Mr. Jatta, Listen. I’ve known you a long time. Be careful!
Be very careful. If you continue doing this, some day you’ll really regret
this. You need to be very careful.” Funny thing was, Tombong kept nodding
his head while Conteh was preaching him. Quite out of touch the fellow is.
To hit that home, when I told the man that I’m glad they summoned the
courage to come at all as they don’t have any supporters here, he seemed to
be genuinely surprised by that statement. “Really?” he asked me. I just
shook my head. If he can’t tell such an open secret by people’s response to
them as compared to Hamat Bah and Halifa, then I won’t even bother. Mr. Njie
shouted for them to jump into a waiting car.

In passing, it was great to tie some more faces to names:
Dr. Jaiteh, who was looking for “the one with High Blood pressure” –me. He’s
an immaculate gentleman. I spent a while on Sunday evening listening to him
with Mr. Halifa Sallah give us some very good suggestions on how we can move
forward.  The talk was rudely interrupted by some fellow who decided he had
better things to ask Mr. Sallah. Things about his mission to “campaign” here
and “the good things he hears about him” for instance. I guess  Malanding
now knows why my blood pressure sometimes goes haywire. Some people behave
like donkeys!

MLJ Conteh aka “Dictator Jemus: Let My People Go” is as high-maintenance in
person as he is on the List. Conteh is simply the most determined opponent
of Jammeh I have ever met. His “Naphiyo” greetings is very appropriate
because he is every bit Serere in appearance. For a minute, I thought I was
looking at Hassan Joof, a good friend of mine.  Conteh is a real Comrade…

Musa Jeng: Fr. Mose is a lot more likable in person than he appears on the
List. I can see KB and Hamjatta Hi-Fiving the brother when they meet in real
life. He’s cool, nice, and very reasonable. He’s someone I can hang out with
any time. It’s good to meet Mose. As was Babucarr Sillah, though I don’t
remember the brother much from his contributions on the List.

Joe Sambou, Pa Samba and others, I’ve met before. The  biggest
disappointment to myself was not seeing Kebba Dampha. But, I guess there’s a
next time. And yes, UDP was the biggest loser.

I gotto go now. Saiks, I hope you’ll understand why I, or anyone else
couldn’t ask about your friend’s plight. Bye.

Saul.

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