Dialogue Or Politicking? Part Two

The Independent (Banjul)
OPINION
June 14, 2004
Posted to the web June 14, 2004
Banjul

As the wind of politic thwack in the countryside, many started to wonder
why President Jammeh has to dub the whole political foray with a different
diadem, "Dialogue with the people tour" only to bully people into doing
what he wants for another shaky term of office.

But as a matter-of-fact, the current tirade of economic shakiness,
political mediocrity and rancor, exacerbated by splintering leadership are
enough indication that the regime is short of maturity to deliver to the
Gambian populace, whose conditions have drastically gone beyond repair over
the last couple of years, as we continued to be living evidence to yet
another traumatic throes of ineptitude visited on all and sundries.

Yet Jammeh and his cohorts are yapping and snarling to have our lives
smothered for another five years! At a time when Jammeh should engage all
stakeholders in meaningful dialogue, to carve ways out of Gambia's woes, he
vaingloriously busied himself with the "so-called dialogue with the people"
only to jeer at his opponents, neglecting the main contending issues of the
day, such as the media commission stand off, economic downturn, the recent
arson attack on The Independent Newspaper, criminal thuggery, and lot more
sensitive national issues.

In traditional Gambian society, a presidential tour are not new to
Gambians, but is it dialogue-orientated as widely claimed, when
grandiloquent bluffs become the politic of the day, with new unfulfilled
projects being launched here and there to blindfold electorates? Thus, it
is foolhardy to believe that Gambian farmers, who suffered under the worst
paralystic regime, would be given opportunities to sound their incorrigible
sufferings.

As we continued to groan under Jammeh's paralytic system, whose myopic
tendencies tend to pare away our God - given virtues and rights as decent
citizens of the Gambia, Jammeh and his cronies busied themselves to push
Gambians under the fiercest carpet of economic deprivation and political
mishap.

Evidently, the politics of using school children on TV and political
rallies as flimsy political gadget, is an enough indication that the
bullies, with all their bullying tactics, have nothing to offer to Gambian
electorates, whose condition have repeatedly remain unchanged for the last
couple of years.

At a time when there is lot of messy things at the boiling point, President
Jammeh should engage Gambian masses in meaningful discussions to find
lasting solutions to the problem, than gibing at opponents, as there are
lot more awful things to be addressed in political gatherings.

Given the current economic malady riddling Gambians of all walks of life,
the tour should be search-orientated to redirect the ineptitude, as a way
of reaching at a conclusive resolution to resolve our collective inertia,
which have for century stripped off our sense of rationality for practicing
decent politicking, without recourse to politics of clattering and
gullibility.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2004 The Independent. All rights reserved. Distributed by
AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.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://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~