Mr Jallow,
I have nothing to say with regard the sulky tone of your rendition, because
if anything you are the last person in the world anyone should wish to sound
like.You really lost control of your wits and you were thinking aloud and
raving mad. It may sound like regurgitating the past to you, but that is
your own past, your own ugly past! Your crimes against the people of the
Gambia! And if the A(f)PRC has course for jubilation, it is sad to note that
one of their greatest apologists in your very person cannot join them. And I
have no doubt that those who were earning three hundred and fifty dalasis(
D350=) in 1994 but could buy a bag of rice at less than two hundred
dalasis(D200=), and are now earning five hundred and fifty dalasi(D550=),
but are most likely to buy a  bag of rice at almost five hundred
dalasis(D500=), will not willingly join such jubilation. We are not here to
apologise for the wrongs of the Jawara regime, for it should be noted that
replacing the former with the Jammeh regime is like "washing feaces with
urine".
You wrote " The skill of leadership is a talent and a gift from God
regardless of paper qualifications." This is the most traditional line I
have seen in your write-ups. subsequently, you will very soon be telling us
that leaders are made by God. It is a shame that with all your airs, you
would subscribe to such backward and reactionary thinking! " George Bush and
John Major", from Washington to Clinton and from Gladstone to Blaire these
are the two you can give as examples in justifying your idea of "leaders
made by God"? These are exceptions! For your information, Arnold has a
university degree. "Ogaa Obasanjo", what, a coupist! military dictator! "
Obasanjo and Yar-raduwa"! Mr Jallow your examples are not only exceptions
but they are bad ones as well. Incidentally, like some of them, your" His
excellency Alhagie DR colonel(rtd) Yahya Abdul Aziz Jamus Junkung Janung
Jammeh",  indulged in some dubious electoral practices to perpetuate himself
in political power. So who cares? Your examples follow a pattern indicative
of your disregard for the "sobriety of intellect". Mr Jallow you may not be
aware of it,  but this really makes you sound  " rough, crude, and crazy"!
Jumping on exceptions as if they represent the rule, betrays the lack of
depth to your analysis.
Come on Mr Jallow, you are insistently harping on this "mental development"
thing, and I can see you streneously trying to make an issue where none
exist. I am really bemused! You are really funny! And you even go on
shifting the debate from Waa Juwara's academic credentials to my own.
Remember, I am justifiably defending with credible evidence, other Gambians
who are better qualified to lead  our country than your sultan of kandinlai.
Finally, you wrote, "How can the A(F)PRC be anti-academic excellence when it
created the only ever institution of higher learning." Then you insisted
that I give the devil its due. You sure know that I have always praise the
Jammeh regime  for the university project. However, I have always argued
that the regimes performance in other spheres such as Human rights, the rule
of law and the political economy, makes nonsense of such a seemingly
ambitious education policy. What makes it anti-academic excellence is the
dictatorial nature of the regime, which makes open and critical discourse
risky.
In conclusion, I thank you for your insults, Jallow/coly, it doesn't matter
to me which of them you are, because they are all the same as far as I am
concerned.
Omar Joof.


>From: Ebou Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: NDAM SINKS AGAINST THE TIDAL WAVE OF TIME-
>Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 11:44:21 -0500
>
>Quintessential "opposition" with an attitude...your last is nothing new
>Mr. Joof.  Your lot always resort to regurgitating old rumors,
>innuendoes, lies and fabrications like a mad beast on a rampage- how
>predictable!  The fact is glaringly clear:  Thank G-d to the AFPRC,
>Gambia is now on the threshold of a genuine democracy and self-
>determination.  The APRC progress towards good governance is slow and
>incremental but never reactionary.  Regardless of  all the shortcomings
>and lapses in the historic process of transforming a parochial polity of
>30 years of Jawara Mansahood, the APRC still has a genuine case for
>jubilation.  Of course the passionate APRC detractors will never give
>credit to any obvious progress lead by Jammeh, and that is regrettably
>understandable.
>Mr. Joof their is no academic instution in this planet that can certify
>leaders.  The skill of leadership is a talent and a gift from God
>regardless of any paper qualifications.  If academic credentials was
>ordained by G-d to be the only factor for leadership then Arnold would
>never have been elected Governor, George Bush can never be president,
>much more Obasanjo, John Major et al.  It is only in the Gambia where
>pseudo-intellectuals rest on the oars of academic credentials and expect
>to be scions of political power- how arrogant and short-sighted!  What
>use is your academic "credentials" if you all have been reduced to
>second class citizens, and ruled by a high school graduate for the past
>9 years and much more in the foreseeable future?  Your "credentials"
>should be your badges of dishonour and disgrace, the last thing you
>should brag about because they have been proven meaningless for the past
>10 years.  In fact Halifa Sallah failed to see the irony when Prez.
>Jammeh ridiculed his "sociologist" fudge.  Instead he frenetically
>reacted by calling a press conference to display his laurels...he
>totally missed the point.
>Mr. Joof, tell this to your "coalition leaders"; perhaps another food
>for thought for their "mental development" as you rightly suggested
>earlier:  Rule No.1-  you do not proove your intellectual competence by
>brandishing a paper qualification but through a generous demonstration
>of your mind by articulating the relevant issues, representing ideas to
>the public and humbly accepting dissent from any one.  I recall Gramsci
>once said that everybody who can speak his/her mind is an intellectual;
>however, few have the function of an intellectual in society.  The name
>and the function are two different things.  Real intellectuals do not
>brag about their paper qualifications...They project their minds into
>the public arena for every one to see and challenge.
>Finally, Mr. Joof how can the APRC be "anti-academic excellence" when it
>created the only ever institution of higher learning in the history of
>the Gambia.  Please give the devil its due and don't degenerate into
>another bigot.
>
>
>Ebo
>
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