Dr. Saine, thanks for your piece. In response to your call for ‘comments,
criticisms and suggestions’ to your piece, I will endeavor to make a few
pertaining to some very visible positions I took in the run up to and
aftermath of the elections. Before delving into the substance, let me offer
a caveat here and state that I am speaking for myself and not for any
political party or coalition of political parties or any organization for
that matter.

I understand that what you posted on G_L is a summary of a longer version of
your take on the election. I hope that version did more justice to the
genesis of the ‘Coalition’ (hereinafter Alliance). I think it is very
important that people understand why we did not have a ‘full’ Alliance. To
answer that question it is also important to deal with FACTS and NOT
perception and rumor.

Months before the Election almost all the Opposition supporters on G_L (and
I can say in the Diaspora) agreed that we wanted a coalition of ALL the
opposition political parties. Many people (Ebrima Ceesay comes to mind)
wrote articles here advocating a ‘united opposition to defeat Yaya’. But
some did not just stop at writing on G_L. People went the extra mile and
wrote comprehensive documents detailing the modalities for a united
opposition. Parts of that document was what PDOIS was later peddling as a
plan for an Alliance. ALL the opposition political parties were aware of
these efforts. ALL the political parties received those documents. I
challenge any Party stalwart on G_L or on the ground to tell us that they
were NOT aware of these arrangements. Matter of fact, this challenge is
actually meant for PDOIS stalwarts because they are the most vocal at saying
that they were ‘left out’. They were NEVER left out. To this day I cannot
understand why organizations such as MRDG(UK) never came out to set the
record straight and tell the whole world what genuine efforts they made to
bring the parties together.

You couple these efforts with the efforts Assan Musa Camara made to bring
the Parties together. After Decree 89 was ‘repealed’, there was talk that
PPP was going to fight the election on its own. PPP did not quell the rumor
when they proposed to reregister their Party and start talking about Jawara
coming home. Genuine Opposition members (NOT Oppositions to the Opposition)
reasoned with PPP and showed them the futility of pursuing a PPP candidacy.
PPP did the selfless thing and endorsed the candidacy of ANOTHER Party. PPP
is the ONLY Party that did that. Technically, since Assan Musa did not
register his Party, his endorsement cannot be recorded as one coming from a
political party.

I hear people saying: ‘well, they endorsed Darboe because Darboe is their
stooge’. Although Dibba was arguing that the endorsement was his evidence
that Darboe was a stooge. See how confusing this is? Which is which? This is
why I said that we should deal with FACTS and NOT ‘perception’ and ‘rumor’.
The FACT of the matter is that Darboe has NEVER been a member of the PPP. On
the contrary, he has taken a lot of high-profile stance AGAINST the PPP
government. When Darboe stopped working for the PPP government, Yaya was
still in High School. That is known to any decent Gambian that is interested
in the truth. I need not catalog here evidence to show Darboe’s
independence. It would be futile. Certain Gambians will rather go with
‘perception’ than face FACTS (‘jaharang’). Take SM Dibba for instance. This
man was rescued by Darboe from the PPP and he still has the audacity to call
Darboe a stooge. Therefore it is at least understandable for someone in the
Diaspora that does NOT have a clue about who Darboe is to be bamboozled by
this ridiculous argument.

I say it is ridiculous because people making the argument NEVER substantiate
their statements with FACTS and they end up confusing themselves. I do NOT
hear anyone arguing that Yaya is a PPP stooge simply because BB Darboe was
in his cabinet or because Buba Baldeh was the chief APRC propagandist or
because Nafa Saho campaigned for APRC in Baddibu or because almost all the
APRC ‘Yai compins’ are from PPP. So why should we buy the argument that
Darboe is a PPP stooge simply because some PPP stalwarts support him? I am
all ears.

What your analysis also left out is the FACT that this ridiculous argument
was NOT just made by Yaya, but it was fuelled by people that were calling
themselves Opposition members. Right after Decree 89 was ‘repealed’, APRC
thought that PPP was going to contest on its own and what was more likely
was that UPD will merge with NCP. So APRC was NOT even lying about Darboe
then. This thing about Darboe and PPP gained momentum thanks to the
shenanigans of PDOIS and NCP. They were the ones that perpetuated the
perception. Granted, towards the end Dibba repented for his sins and set the
record straight about Darboe. But the damage had already been done because
focus was taken away from Yaya and reposed on Jawara.

I understand that it is inevitable that Jawara will be talked about. Which
is why it was important to have PPP in the Alliance to defend their record.
For the plan to succeed though, Darboe had to be given an opportunity to set
the stage for the way FORWARD. The Opposition within the Opposition will NOT
give the man that chance. Instead, they put him on the spot to explain why
he is NOT a PPP stooge. He was to prove a negative. Tell me whether this
made any sense. What can PDOIS show for it at the end of the day? What can
NCP show for it at the end of the day? Hamat Bah had more votes that these
two Parties put together. Simply pathetic. And they were the noisiest
AGAINST the Opposition. Talking about Hamat Bah, his ‘strong’ showing
shatters the hypothesis that the way to go was to castigate PPP and
associating with PPP was a vote-loser. Unlike PDOIS and NCP, Bah did NOT
adopt an anti-PPP campaign as his central plank. Matter of fact it was
reported that he went to Barrajally (the former president’s home town) and
literally cried about the way the former president was treated by Yaya’s
illegal government. Bah got rewarded for his stance. On the other hand, NCP
and PDOIS CANNOT attract the anti-PPP crowd. To this date no pundit can tell
us why is it that the anti-PPP crowd did NOT vote for NCP and PDOIS instead
of APRC?

Clearly their calculations backfired. They sabotaged the Alliance in order
to make PPP the focus of the election. Gambians repudiated them for that.
This is NOT about perception. This is about cold hard facts. This is about
votes. One final point about the Alliance. In our hour of need Gambians
asked the political parties to come together and apart from PPP ALL the
other political parties selfishly sabotaged that effort. Now it is obvious
to everyone that when Dibba was pretending to be fighting for PDOIS and NRP,
the man was up to something else. PDOIS put form over substance (or so they
said) and boycotted the coalition. They were upset they did not have a
‘formal’ invitation from Assan Musa Camara to attend the Meeting. Simply
pathetic. They do NOT even have the guts to say that they absconded simply
because they could NOT stand PPP. That is the bottom line. PDOIS knew all
along what was going on. They were the ones that wanted to put the Gambian
public in the dark. That is why they were upset that I announced that a
meeting was going to take place. Even APRC stalwarts knew that a meeting was
going to take place. PDOIS ought to step up and say what they feel rather
than hiding behind some ridiculous excuses like not receiving a ‘formal’
invitation. What is important here is that they received NOTICE of the
Meeting. They knew a meeting was taking place, they were invited, they
refused to attend. Period. But they will NOT tell the truth about why they
refused to attend.

Dr. Saine, this is getting longer than I wanted. I will stop here for now
but will get back to you on other interesting points you raised about the
campaign issues and why Yaya actually ‘won’. Thanks again for your
contributions.
KB


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