Brother Sidibeh,
 
I agree with you. Lack of a united opposition plus all the other factors  you 
have mentioned are why the people have been failed and we indeed ought to  
scrutinize the politicians and that is precisely what some of us are doing, from 
 the lack of commitment to agreements signed to the refusal to cooperate 
behind a  united front that would have encompassed both the necessary numbers to 
unseat  the APRC as well as the know how to propel our people towards true 
liberty. So  we are just following through with the necessary scrutiny of our 
leaders and in  that effort, we will point out all the places where they are 
wanting every time  this is manifested and in order to move forward, we can never 
afford to  rationalize any of their short comings because then we become part 
of the  problem..
 
 
Sister Jabou Joh
 
In a message dated 9/8/2006 2:37:45 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Sister Jabou Joh,

Not that there should be no policy documents  or election manifestoes 
authored partly to win sympathy or support from  the literate constituency. 
But rather, to question and even provoke a  rethinking of the ways we look at 
and judge political processes in our  polity.

Because the efforts for a broader coalition of the  Opposition has failed, 
supporters of different alliances are now busy  demonising one another, even 
though it is clear as noon day that neither  NADD nor the UDP/NRP are the 
major obstacles to social reform. So my  position is that those who should 
place these policy documents and their  presenters under scrutiny ought 
temselves be the initial objects of some  such scrutiny.

Independent-minded journalists whose critique  would have been most 
welcomed are now  almost effectively silenced.  When once the respected corps 
of journalists demonstrated in paying  tribute to  Deyda Hydara, gunned down 
by thugs, not a single  politician - unless I am grossly mistaken - joined 
their ranks to vent  their anger at such brazen political assasination. But 
perhaps of even  greater import, is the fact that ordinary people again, 
managed to remain  unmoved by yet another outrage. Just as all the anger 
fizzled away after  the April 2000 massacre, as a great number of Gambians 
voted the APRC into  office after 18 months, inspite of the made-in-Gambia 
election  gimmickry.

My point is that ordinary tired workers, poorer  peasants, angry students, 
tried journalists, pauperized women, brutalised  civil servants, taciturn 
intellectuals and disgruntled politicians all  constitute a national 
community of descent that since independence in  1965, never found a common 
historical mission to pursue with relentless  zeal.
I say it is time we rethink the entire dynamics of political  processes in 
Gambia and how to alter them for the better. The divisions  within the 
Opposition is reflective of the divisions within the larger  community of 
descent.

When the politicians failed to cobble  a coalition after so much work by 
many Gambians, especially diasporan  Gambians I should say, some documents 
for regime change will prove to be  little more than academic material. There 
is great probability that the  Opposition will fail to unseat the APRC. Yet 
again.

Cheers,
sidibeh


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