My contention on the  debate about  Gambia's economic performance is that,
it should be treated from a broader perspective  rather than from a narrow
approach as some of us are now doingt. It is perfectly right to disect
Jammeh's micro as well as macro economic policies in other to know how they
are utilising the taxes they collect from the people annually, I do not have
any qualms with that, in fact  that is perfectly legitimate and right, but
my problem is when issues are so narrowed that they are treated in
isolation. We must recognised the factual reality that in as much as we have
a very wasteful leadership whose priorities are not to liberate the masses
from the druggery of hard work, hunger poverty and backwardness, it is also
the capitalist mode of relations that is partly to blame for our economic
predicament. After all our governments are just reduced to debt collectors,
who compete for compliments from the IMF, WORLD BANK and rest of the
capitalist monetary institutions. And the only way they can have praises and
to expect more loans is for them to keep sevicing the debts. Consequent to
servicing such  debts is the postponement of our development and the
mortaging of our resources.

We are essentially Markets in a conciously constructed relationship. Hence
to devolop it is imperative for us to shed the shackles that still control
us, I know this may seem radical to the burgoise elites but it is the most
genuine route to development. Otherwise the cyclical recessions will always
have an impact upon us, irrespective of who is in power.

You see the trouble with Africa, as with the rest of the underdeveloped
world, is that every leader knows that we aretied to the west in an
exploitative relationship, as appendages; that this siphons off nearly all
our social surplus and that leaves us the poorer for that. In fact the
estimated capital outflow is to the tune of Billions annually. Yet nobody is
prepared to doo anything about it. I remeber when the US was experiencing
recurrent trade deficit against Japan, it was of major concern to congress
because it meant that Japan was benefiting more from their trade relations
and this was unacceptable to the eonomic wellbeing of the USA.And this same
equation has been the case in Africa for decades, but it is not of any
consequence to many of our so called intellects. Of course, they complain
very loudly, whenever they have theirr foras, but complaint alone solves no
problems. Since practically all leaders in these countries are developing
class intrest in line with those of the exploiters, they are hesitant to
come to grips with the crux of the problem. We all know it takes two to
tango, business deals are usually settled by two or more people, hence they
are responsible for its consequences. While there may have been excusesfor a
naive but enthusiastic involvement with world capitalism immediately after
independence, practical experience for almost four decades of post colonial
exploitation should no longer give any person the excuse for continuing a
relationship of this kind, which is essentially parasitic.
To extricate ourselves from this relationship requires a revolutionary
thinking and that is why am trying to impress onto Hamjatta and KB that they
may disagree with Famara Jatta but the reality remains that a finance
minister under Darbo will just be as mechanical as him. This could be
refuted for now but it will not ulter such a fact. After all their analysis
is just nothing other than platitude. We must aim to change the status quo
and there is no policy statement from the UDP CUM PPP yet to indicate such a
radical departure. That was why I premised my discoure on a broader context
but KB could not comprehend, he infact was wondering if I was talking about
Gambia, of course economics are so intergrating they must be treated in a
global context and that essentiall requires us to evaluate the effects of
capitalism. We must cease to be mechanical and just focus on narrating
GDPs , TAX etc, we should asses our relations with other countries and what
impact that is having on our economies and stop waffling, people know these
things, after all under Jawara it has been like that for decades it was a
ritual for us  to hear about meaningless economic jargons. What we want now
is concrete economic programmes that would help improve and alleviate the
conditions of the people, we know under Jammeh as was under Jawara as will
be under Darbo it is the same system there will be no solutions but the same
terminologies and economic jargons which only clever people like you
understand. From experience there is never solutions coming only crticisms

Whenever asked why there is no progres as is typical of their breed they
resort to fatalism an necrophilous arguements, amen well, well, there is
really nothing we can do about the situation. Some argue no one country can
solve the problem and that unless there is  unity in africa or among the
developing countries, poor countries are really helpless in the face of such
heavy odds.  This is a circular argument: we are backward because we are not
rich, and we are not rich because we are backward.  or again, we  are not
united because we compete, and we compete because we are not united. Put
this way,nobody will find any solution to the riddle.  Reducing the problem
to a conundrum is a way of avoiding coming to grips with it.  But the real
question is not about unity; the real question is: Do we have to compete
with the other developing countries in order to survive?  and if so, why?

The answers to both questions can be found in the structure of our
economies.  If we decide for ourselves to remain mere plantations of the
western capitalists countries, then there is no way out of competing with
other plantations.  But then we should not complain if the consequence of
this decision is to keep our countries backward and stagnant, to perpetuate
these plantation economies which benefit only a handful at the top and leave
the local masses in abject poverty.  This is a choice made by
petty-bourgeois leaders in their own interests and against the interests of
the working people.  If the basis of all our economies is peanuts and
cashew-nuts, how can we avoid competing among ourselves?  As we have noted
above, there is limited capacity for the expansion of demand for primary
commodities on the world market, and that is precisely why the coffee
markets is shrinking hence exposing all the cocoa exporting countries to the
exigencies of the market.

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