OPINION  GAMBIA: OPPOSITION TO APRC RULE IN PERSPECTIVE  By Burama FL Jammeh, USA

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January 8, 2006
We cannot keep crying over spilled milk. However, anytime we take a look at party politics in The Gambia, we cannot easily forget and forgive PPP. First I would like to credit PPP for all the goods they brought to Gambia. Bravo whoever participated in that effort. On the same plate PPP is responsible of the political menace in Gambia today with no ending sight in the near future.

PPP has won the support of the people of Gambia but still they fear opposition to their rule for the love and greed to remain in power. They used the public media (Radio Gambia) and public resources in party politics, centralize the electoral processes with Divisional Commissioners, accept patronage from the parastatals, privately own organizations, general public especially community leaders, etc. to the exclusive advantage of PPP. They made no attempts to institute periodic change mechanisms and block attempts of others to legislate such to limit tenures of certain political offices. The people behind the few opposition parties at the time were former PPPs and only came out opposition after been thrown out or some form of disagreement on specific issues. Some Gambians doubt their integrity. Whatever their motives, they did point out number of weakness in PPP administration and proposed alternative approaches. Gambians did not buy their ideas or PPP control and manipulation of the
 systems stop them from winning the ballots. Thank you UP, NCP, NLP, PDOIS and GPP for enlightening people and ensuring maintenance of multi-party democracy in Gambia. PPP was definitely working on killing the concept of opposition in Gambia by characterizing members with the famous Wollof phrase "danyi-aa-niani"meaning they are jealous. This is one of those bad weapons of PPP politics now inherited by APRC. Every Gambian should know by now that our constitution called for multi-party democracy, meaning different groupings can argue out national issues to the electorates, for election into public offices such as presidency, national assembly seats, district and municipal offices, etc. They are bonafide citizens of Gambia and of course better than any public who enrich him/herself from public coffer. We know Yahya owes his bank an overdraft at the time of the coup in July 1994. His monthly salary as Head of state/president is about D30, 000.00. In 11 years his told legitimate income
 should be 11 year x12 months x D30, 000.00 = 3,960,000.00. If he choose to invest these money into business (profit/non-profit) that should be disclosed to Gambians as required by law. How many times can we recall Yahya sitting in front of TV cameras and dishing out physical cash worth more than one million Dalasis? He has billions worth of assets across the world. Please make your own estimates of the property value at Kanilai, definitely more than his gross income in 11 years. Nobody should be fool by now, it is your money and it is one hell of a reason why you and I cannot pick a job or buy a bag of rice for the family to eat 3 decent meals a day. PDOIS has elaborate statistics on Gambia's money and information of national relevance; please contact them to know the issues. I also think PDOIS should increase and diversify their communication channels to reach out more audience.

The result of PPPs dishonesty and bad governance led to military take over. Some of those dishonest intellectuals immediately make a U-turn to help out the formulation and imposition of draconian decrees on Gambia. Who has read Fafa Mbai's "In the service of my believe" and the newspaper article/poem of E K Sarr's on what was"then Prophet Jawara, send to the people of Gambia"? What were their roles in the military government of Yahya? Where are they now? Gambia does not deserve these evils and suffering we had to go through in the hands of Yahya and his clique. However, our own history is hunting us. Yahya's practices are carbon copies of PPP deeds with additions of killings, detentions, tortures, rampant manipulation of civil service, and corruption in its most complex form including the famous crude oil, just to name few. Surprisingly enough these were the reasons advanced to justify the military take over.   WHERE ARE WE AFTER 40 YEARS OF SELF GOVERNANCE
The constitution was and is never respected for what it is meant to be. Everyday by the statements and actions of public officials, this important document that should bind us is blatantly abused without redress. This has resulted to unequal Gambians with preferred rights over one another. What a pity.
Gambian peoples request to limit the presidential tenure to 2 five year term was denied. The people are the ultimate authority; no single person has authority to change their verdict.
Traveling Banjul to Basse was a 4 day effort. It was reduced to 4 hours with an air conditioned ride for all Gambians, regardless to your income or social standing. How is it like today? I am not in the country for the last five years.
When I first came to Banjul for schooling in the late 1970s, I remember quite well the difficulties in trying to telephone Sierra Leone and/or send a telegram. I can hear the Sarahuleh's yelling in the phone booth while I was trying to post a mail at the main post office. Maybe someone else has the same experience. By 1994 we are fully digital with the state of the art telecommunication technologies. How is it today, improving and/or sliding back? It will take me days and sometimes a week to reach my old mom. The network is the common excuse and I don't know what that exactly means.
A brief look at the quality of the legislature. From the likes of Famara Wassa Touray (Gunjur), Kebba Nyama Leigh (Georgetown), etc. to those of BB Darboe (Kiang), Mbemba Jatta (Gunjur) and others. What a mile stone improvement. Except the intellectual dishonesty of some we have moved from "dara" to university graduates. Certainly, I did not imply that those old breeds of politicians did not live to the test of their time. May their souls rest in perfect peace. Hey, who is representing Kiang today, what about the Banjul's, or just take a look and make your own comparisons. It is a disgrace to hear the debating arguments of some of our representatives.
Who remember a salary review panel or commission created after the coup? I remember late Kekoto Manneh was a member. What I don't know is what they recommended and how many of that has been implemented or not? I also remember there was a steady 6% annual wage increment the last few years of Jawara administration. Inflation was less than 6%.
Serrekunda to Jarra Soma (Trans-Gambia Highway) did required redoing even before APRC government. But the cheapest political strategy to win votes was amassing heavy equipment to turn the pavement when there are no funds to do? Yankuba has campaign on that road and I understood is still not done. What a willful destruction of public property. All those responsible for that destruction should be in prison without doubt.
Infrastructural development should match social development. How much the schools and roads (kombo coastal roads) have has improved both the micro and macro economy.
Is there any credible official report to the nation on the death of Koro, students killed April 10 & 11, the attempt on Ousuman Sillah's live and lastly the Deyda Hydra's murder? Every government of the people owes it to your people to inform them on every important event. Who is next on the death/disappearance list, you or me? Could be anyone of us except Yahya. Should that be allowed to continue or be stop, right here, right now?
Everyone ask yourself few simple questions: why are there no market for farm produce such as groundnut? Why too much trouble going to Mecca and back for pilgrimage? Why is Gambia no more an attractive tourist destination? So on ….
Gamtel and GRTS is public property. They should be used for the purpose they are created. The TV should show opposing views of Gambian social. It should show the presidency and also the opposition. The cameras should be on national assembly, we are interested to see first hand what they are talking about us or themselves. GRTS is not about Yahya's vehicles, hotels, dresses and routes in foreign capitals. Anytime you decide to spend a butut of Gambia's money always remember there is someone out there without a meal.
What a joke, we can elect a president but we are not capable of electing and removing our district authorities such as village alkalos, and district chiefs. Again, this started with Jawara where people elect but he removes for whatever reason he deems fit. Yahya took both their installation and removal arguing we are not fit to do that. The main purpose of those traditional institutions is the maintenance of tradition and cultural fabric of the society and not the propagation of someone's political interest. I have no doubt that Jawara knows that but he is corrupt by power. On the other hand Yahya has no knowledge of himself, not to talk about Gambia traditions and cultures. Added to this muddy situation he is power blind and eager to enrich himself. Many of you can remember him saying Mandinkas are no tribe; Sanneh, Jammeh, Bojang, etc are all Jolas. Before then, he once said at a Sibanor meeting (not long after they took power) that he does not know what he is but a Jola. Later on
 he was in Illiasa saying that his ancestral home. Hell, who is this Yahya and where is he from?
The most talk about local government reforms and decentralization is dead. Dictatorship is about centralizing authority, so decentralization is incompatible and will not work until Yahya is history. Sadly, until then poor peoples taxes continued to be poorly managed and sometimes used to feed laborers at Yahya's Foni farms. I cannot understand how Brikama Area Council can feed workers of Yahya, who the previous night dishes out over a million dalasis in gift in front of GRTS TV cameras.
I think by now we can all make a shopping list of good, bad and ugly of Gambia. Let's do it and ask our selves what are the answers. Everyone go ahead…….   STATE OF PARTY POLITICS IN GAMBIAAPRC is a combination military guns and dictatorial monarch. Since 1994 the Gambian people have been threatened death if they act or decide otherwise. They were told over and over, APRC will not leave office if certain elements are elected. Tax payer's funds are used for wrong reasons; loans were signed on the name of Gambia just to build mansions for dictators, their girlfriends and wives both in and outside Gambia. In summary, APRC has adopted all the tricks applied by PPP and add terror by killings, disappears, detentions, torture, firing, intimidations, etc.

On the other hand the opposition has since 1994 operate under a very difficult environment. I want to credit them for putting their lives and those of their families for the people of Gambia. Also, bravo for the maintenance of multiparty democracy. However, we at a cross road where we either choose the right or wrong path. After a couple of attempts to dislodge Yahya failed we seem to settle for a coalition. Certainly, is a good strategy but not necessarily sufficient to earn us a win. A reflection on the electoral process (from registration of voters to actual casting of votes to the administration of vote's caste) and the experiences of the last 2 elections dictate that much more than asking people to vote is needed. Remember the referee is also the opposing player after the much talk about Independent Electoral Body. Here too the constitution is set aside or been subject to unnecessary change, whichever is true. Sadly, instead of building on the successes of our past and
 addressing the loopholes of the electoral process we are at war with ourselves. Coming together as a coalition is not a new strategy in politics and it helps in the numbers in some cases but it is not an automatic winning formula. A closer look at coalition in Gambian party politics has no impressive history. From my recollection it has never work until the UDP coalition in the last general election. Not all opposition parties joined mainly because of disagreements over who lead the coalition. Here we are with NADD and no known leader for sometimes now. This seems to me an indication of a brewing problem. Not to my surprise I have recently read articles saying some are opting out if they are not selected to head NADD. I don't know the truth but I got a question for NADD. Why can't a leader (flag bearer) for NADD be made known to electorates? How is the leader going to be select/elect?

History taught us that politics is about people. If your selection is going through primaries certainly the candidate with more people will be elected. Be sure to have a proper register of your membership or else your opponents can let the election of your weakest candidate with a view to ease general election for their candidate(s). I am not sure if we currently have structures to run fair party level elections democratically and/or make up one quickly. If you are to select/elect a leader by the executive, there are different possibilities based on the constitution of the executive membership and the set rules for such process. Many members veering for the job may threaten the very existence of the coalition. Depending on how the member parties are represented, you could choose the right or wrong candidate for your Gambian voters. What you could do based on what others did (success/failed) is to pick the party with better local establishment and larger following. Add the figures of
 the other smaller parties (smaller in terms of votes earn in the previous contest) and do the mathematics. Counting on the positive impact of unify electioneering messages we can hope to dislodge APRC. How is that? It looks more productive to collectively work within the set standards of NADD than writing articles about each other as if NADD has no codes of conduct for members. The biggest challenge of the Gambian opposition remained the correction of the flaws in the electoral process. A big task that may even cost us life's before we can get it straight.

With due respect, the miscalculation of the opposition to register a new party has cost going into by-election in which we lost an important voice at the national assembly, spend a lot of money, time and efforts to campaign in those regions, which could have been better used for our national efforts. All I'm trying to put across is that we could effectively come together to oppose the common opponent without creating another layer or making so complex for the electorates. In my view it should be as simple as standing side by side in the face of Gambian electorates and say vote for us for reasons A-Z, with Mr./Ms. X our leader. Certainly, the functions of such an organization will need rules and regulations to govern its operations and codes of conduct but it should not be cumbersome requiring months/years of work. We are loosing valuable time that could be better used to be out there talking to the people who matters and/or working with the so called IEC and government to address the
 known flaws of the electoral process.   IMPLICATIONS
Too much in-fighting that may render future relations in our efforts impossible.
Too much time, energy, money, etc. is spent on organizing ourselves than the electorates, hence loosing ground to the common opponent
How much sustained efforts are made to address the systemic problems which are designed to make winning of the opposition difficult or almost impossible
We are already in the election year, APRC can seize on our disorganized situation and call an earlier election, leaving us to immaturely disintegrate or go with the choice of NADD executive as oppose to peoples choice
Why is it difficult to tell your supporters your leader? Are the choices of the electorate difficult to understand or your own individual struggle for power? If it is the latter, then you may not be a better replacement for Yahya.   CONCLUSIONIt time to get out of the offices or get in the offices and go to work immediately, mainly against the current electoral system. It may require a complete revamp or major over haul or minor surgery, the important point is it needs a fix before any free and fair elections can be held in this heavenly strip of land in the West Coast of Africa. This is the hide out of dictator and I cannot imagine him let it go without cost. Be very well prepared for the unthinkable (certainly with Yahya there is nothing like unthinkable, he is cable of anything and will do it when desperate). In my view all the known opposition politicians are a better alternative to Yahya. Certainly, some Gambians including those in the opposition ranks may disagree and that is
 okay. What we in the opposition agree and want is come out with a leader most likely to rally us to a victory and stop fighting yourselves.




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