Brother Sidibeh,

You wrote:

" So for goodness' sake, why,  after fifteen hard years on the tracks, is
PDOIS, boasting a  leadership with impeccable integrity, perhaps the best
educated, the  most down-to-earth, still trailing the voter statistics at
under 3%?  Why?..."

The answer is because the education of our people to what the  proper 
criterion to use in selecting a leader is yet incomplete and we have  people who 
although they recognize and extol the virtues of an organization like  PDOIS, will 
at the same time turn around and make statements like you have made  here. 
The above alas! is the battle cry of the UDP/NRP of late. Because If the  people 
are educated about their rights, they will naturally choose an  organization 
like PDOIS instead of letting themselves be used a pawns in the  political 
game by those who recognize the truth but choose to perpetuate the  ignorance of 
the people for their own benefit.

You wrote:

"The  elusiveness of the answer to this question, perhaps only a temporal  
difficulty is one important reason why PDOIS itself saw the need to work  
with other parties, parties that we may disapprove of for various reasons,  
to build a coalition to remove the APRC from power."

Was the  coalition the idea of PDOIS alone? Like the UDP/NRP misinformation 
campaign, you  make it appear as if PDOIS initiated the idea of a coalition for 
the sole  purpose of having a chance at power and that is also the simplistic 
battle cry  of the UDP but Gambians are not buying that fallacy anymore.  

Does  the reality on the ground not dictate to any sober thinking person that 
without  a coalition of the opposition, none of them possesses the required 
number of  votes to beat the APRC? I believe you have said the same thing many  
times.
What use is the UDP/NRP's 46% if it is not enough to win the  elections?

You are right, PDOIS saw a need to work with others in a  coalition when the 
idea was presented to them as did the UDP and NRP, or at  least that is what 
they made the people believe, and PDOIS, NDAM and the other  players have never 
abandoned that ideal. They are not the ones who walked away.  On the other 
hand, the UDP/NRP's reasons for leaving the coalition is abundantly  clear to 
everyone although they insist on trying to make us believe it is  anything other 
than  what is so obvious. 

This supposedly paltry 3% is also needed by the UDP/NRP alliance because  
obviously, their 46% is not enough to win the presidency, and this paltry 3%  
symbolizes the sad state of our people as it evidences their ignorance to what  
qualifies good leadership and is a testament to the fact that others are  
exploiting this ignorance and can therefore point to it as a weakness for a  party 
that no sincere Gambian can honestly say does not have the interest of the  
nation at heart. Anyone who dwells on the fact that PDOIS is able to draw only  
3% of the vote in a national election instead of mourning it as an indication 
of  our people's lack of education as to their rights and what constitutes 
good  leadership choices cannot have the interest of our country and our people 
at  heart and is clearly interested in preserving something other than what is 
best  for all Gambians.

Jabou Joh

In a message dated 9/10/2006 2:25:41  P.M. Central Daylight Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:
Sister  Jabou,

For obvious reasons of principles (earlier stated) I would  limit my 
response to the following:

On Saturday, december 1,  2001, in a rejoinder to one Sister Mariatou and 
Brother Yahya on Gambia-L,  and in support of their view on the election 
results, I asked the following  question:

"...But in the mean time, here is my 1000 dalasi  question? Yes, I too do 
not
entirely agree with PDOIS economic  thinking yet I am confident that it was
not on account of their  econmics that most Gambians voted for other 
parties.
So for  goodness' sake, why, after fifteen hard years on the tracks, is
PDOIS,  boasting a leadership with impeccable integrity, perhaps the best
educated, the most down-to-earth, still trailing the voter statistics  at
under 3%? Why?..."

The elusiveness of the answer to  this question, perhaps only a temporal 
difficulty is one important reason  why PDOIS itself saw the need to work 
with other parties, parties that we  may disapprove of for various reasons, 
to build a coalition to remove the  APRC from power.
Faced with an engine of tyranny like the APRC, I want  to believe that 
slamming the door on all future possibilities of a  rapprochement I think is 
simply futile.
Other matters you raised I  would discuss after the elections not as a way 
of apportioning blame, but as  a way of pointing out serious tactical and 
strategic errors that may perhaps  help in a small way, in charting out a 
viable path towards our common  liberation. That, I believe, should be the 
mission of criticism and  self-criticism especially amongst progressives.

Many many  thanks,
sidibeh

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