Halifa,
    I can see you are now being bullied by certain members to throw your
towel in even though you've got more questions to answer than you 've
admitted answering. I t is expected that at some stage we will have to move
on. I'm at heart a realist. I understand this very much. after the storm
there must be a calm the old adage goes.
     What I couldn't get at is the stench of hypocrisy from certain members
who see it as a necessity to throw bucket loads at the present order/gov't
and process whilst completely ignorant of the basic tenets of the 1997
constitution. It has just occurred to them now that they've got to get their
copies of the document to know their bearings in today's nuances of Gambian
polity. one is left wondering whether they will have ever bothered reading it
had i adopted their positions of believing everything from the venerable
Halifa Sallah and not developing the need to inquire. i will bet you that 75%
of members on this forum have never bothered reading this document even
though they have bothered to take stances against or for it. This is a very
safe assumption considering the fact that a very active member who prowls the
corridors of this cyberspace community has just decided she has to buy and
read this document for herself and stop relying so much on hearsay. At least
on my part, I'm glad I helped pricked consciences towards that effort.
    From insinuations of being poodles of the new political class to sheer
hypocrisy for not questioning the new political class, all has been thrown in
my direction for daring to dissent and ask questions. Is this fair now that
they have gained so much from my subjecting you to a forensic scrutiny? I
don't believe i have intruded no-ones democratic space by asking you
questions I'm entitled to ask. i have never at any point in time ask anyone
to believe my reasoning nor have i tried to guzzle down the throat of anyone
my beliefs/position. do you honestly believe that there has been a
fundamental shift in independent thinking amongst the vast majority of us? i
think not. the vestiges of the old thinking is still extant amongst us
    It is only fair that I reserve the right to reply to my critics with the
most rigorous dressing down that befits them. I will get back to them soon as
I leave oxford this afternoon for home. to more important stuff.
    Again it seems historical disquisition always brings to the fore the most
bizarre stretching of imaginations possible. you contended/speculated that if
we had to go back to the drawing boards to draft a new constitution, it would
be under a new regime after a coup d'etat takes place and even if this
doesn't happen it would take ages and huge financial back up to come up with
the "ideal" constitution which would eventually tire all of us wouldn't win
support from anyone. Are you not stretching the argument to the extreme? i
didn't see the same hypothesis being displayed with the time table case that
i gave as an analogy. and you have yet to refute the timetable analogy's
consistency with that of the draft constitution
        Quite rightly you have wondered why the people didn't  reject the
constitution during the referendum and why there was never a backlash from
both internal and external forces. this is primarily because the general
misinformation that was left to permeate the milieu that governed the
referendum, the absence of a "no" campaign platform with the ground swollen
with only you and the AFPRC who campaigned for a "yes" vote and the
tyrannical covert threats/blackmails that people had to contend with from the
AfFPRC/July 22nd. Mov't. you yourself knows very well how unfair and
unlevelled the playing field was then as it was during the presidential
elections. you have admitted as much to unfairness of the presidential race
in your last posting which is very interesting considering that you've never
publicly uttered the unfair unlevelled playing field of the race which
rendered it virtually null and void.
    You have made much of a noise about the creation of a "democratic space"
that the 1997 constitution had ushered in. may I ask where and how far
reaching this new "democratic space" and how wider and enhanced is it from
pre 1994 Gambian polity? Clearly if it is as you portray it to be, Jammeh
would have been history.
    In conclusion may I remind you that you are within the your purview of
your rights to throw in your towel should you wish so. In the same vein I'm
entitled to making up my mind about the little information I have garnered
from our discussion which is not favourable to you: for you have yet to
answer most of my questions.
    Please remain informed that notwithstanding this academic exercise, I
believe I can still call you a friend for I hold no personal ill against you.
Good morning.
  Hamjatta Kanteh

hkanteh

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