Thomas, thanks for sharing this article with us and it really strikes at the
heart of our problem.  Jammeh must and will go, but a whole host of people
and attitudes shall accompany him.  Freeloading is rife in our society and
unless we change our mindset, we will wake-up after Jammeh's ouster, only to
see another croc replace him and adopt the same leaches for another ride.
Remember, Jammeh took-over where Jawara left-off.  The only constant in this
picture are the free riders, who like chameleons, will quickly adapt to
their new environment to enhance their longevity.  We need to come-up with
ways to effect this necessary change in attitude and the first step in my
opinion is to enlighten the people, to understand that the people they elect
are their servants and not the other way around.  We will be free from this
political prostitution when we reach that maturity level.

So, my fellow Gambians, as we set about changing our destiny, let us also
realize that we have a lot of cleansing to do after the skunks are gone.  At
that time, relationships, ethnicity, gender, religious affiliation, or
status will all be relegated to the main cause of national rejuvenation.
Gambian society as we know it today, will not be the same.  For we are going
to build a new and sturdy foundation upon which future generations and their
descendants will be proud of.  Accountability and responsible leadership
will be demanded of all who wish to lead, from the president down.  A
warning to the opposition, the standard upon which you will be judged will
be elevated and we would not hesitate to make you a poster-child should you
attempt to set us back.  I talk about the opposition now, because Jammeh is
a foregone conclusion.  He will be some where in Jail, Morocco, or Libya,
but gone he will.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


>From: Thomas Forster <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Are we ready to clear the mess after Mugabe?
>Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 10:47:40 +1200
>
>The author writes about Zimbabwe but this probably applies to any emerging
>democracy.
>
>ZANUPF is the ruling party, been in power since independence (1980).  MDC
>started last year and won nearly 50% of the vote at the June election
>including nearly all urban electorates.
>___________________________________
>The Financial Gazette
>--Brian Kagoro
>
>
>THE other night I was exceedingly restless. When I finally got around to
>stealing some sleep I had the strangest of dreams.
>
>I dreamt that by some divine intervention, His Excellency, the High Priest
>of Zimbabwean politics, had gone to a far-away retirement place. In
>inexplicable jubilation, I started preparing to host a huge celebration
>party.
>
>I drew up the guest list, the shopping list and the party programme.
>Impressed with my own effort, I thought:
>
>"All is set for the big do!" Except I had one insoluble difficulty. I could
>not come up with a theme for the intended celebrations. For a considerable
>length of time I toyed around with the following ideas:
>
>
>- "To a new day and a new era!"; and
>
>
>- "Goodbye my troubles!"; and
>
>
>- "This is the day of deliverance and national renewal."
>
>None of the above phrases offered me any comfort concerning the destiny of
>Zimbabwe. The departure of the High Priest dealt with what we had been, but
>failed to define who or what we were becoming or were going to be. The High
>Priest was gone but the mess was still with us.
>
>This may be a crude analogy but there is very little utility value for
>insecticide around a rotting carcass. The insecticide may kill the flies
>but
>
>it certainly will not arrest the rot nor will it revive the dead animal.
>
>At the risk of sounding gravely pessimistic, allow me to suggest that His
>Excellency's retirement will not revive the economy, nor will it arrest the
>moral, social and political decay that confronts us today.
>
>The reality that stares us in the face is that the entire old team must go.
>In this regard I share this nation's anxiety with the High Priest' aversion
>for rest and I also share this nation's eagerness to see him retire
>gracefully. In fact, I am persuaded of the urgency of this need, more so
>now
>
>that the High Priest rules from Harlem.
>
>Yet even as I prepared to party, I was dismayed to the point of dejection.
>This was not so much because I wanted the High Priest to come back, but
>because I realised that we were not prepared for the departure.
>
>As I scribbled on, I finally settled for the following phrase as the theme
>for the big party:
>
>"Here begins the real struggle".
>
>The High Priest is evidently not irreplaceable. This nation abounds with
>numerous capable men and women who can replace him any day of the week. It
>is just that this divine intervention caught all of us sleeping.
>
>It brought me to the sober realisation that our problems as a nation are
>much bigger than Robert Mugabe. Right there in the privacy of my bedroom, I
>realised that the national leadership crisis was much larger than ZANU PF.
>
>I felt silly that I should even be thinking that problems could be caused
>by
>
>anything else other than ZANU PF and its Mugabe. For a moment or so I felt
>like a man who had bought a new pair of trousers with no pockets and as a
>result had nowhere to put his hands and his wallet.
>
>
>Real struggle
>
>
>In my usual sense of resolve, I concluded that nothing could be worse than
>ZANU PF. My dislike for that party and the kongonya dance led me to
>conclude
>
>that it was the epitome of our national destruction.
>
>However, in the privacy of my conscience I conceded that the evil ZANU PF
>system:
>
>
>- had not created tribalism and racism; and
>
>
>- did not invent corruption; and
>
>
>- was not the architect of political violence; and
>
>
>- was not the author of dictatorship.
>
>NB. The party had simply perfected these vices.
>
>That is why I had finally settled for the theme "Here begins the real
>struggle".
>
>Among the wide range of adversities confronting Zimbabwe today, removing
>Mugabe may only be the opening chapter to a very long thesis. Such action
>may bring token relief but it will certainly not cure the malady of
>self-destruction that has besieged us since the inception of the colonial
>state.
>
>We habitually fall under the rulership of men with small minds and
>oversized
>
>egos. In fact, we have almost accepted as our assigned lot in this life the
>role of being professional complainants in the numerous cases of
>misgovernance.
>
>
>Biggest problem
>
>
>We consistently express amazement at the decadence of our political leaders
>but do very little else to deal with them. Mugabe is, of course, not the
>biggest problem that this nation has - we are.
>
>We sit on our behinds and hope that those who have made deviance an
>enterprise will some day reform and be born again. This whole nation
>watches
>
>bloodshed as it would a tragic loss at the Olympics, with very little
>motivation to act to save the situation.
>
>My biggest source of discomfort is not the High Priest but the hangers-on.
>At least we can vote the High Priest out of power, but how do you even
>begin
>
>to deal with the hangers-on?
>
>
>Is MDC the solution?
>
>
>Some may say your dream was incomplete. Why did you not dream of President
>Morgan and First Lady Susan in Zim-l and at State House?
>
>They will say why did you not dream of Silo, Matongo,etc, as vice
>presidents? Or even the learned professor?
>
>They will question why I did not dream of all the Movement for Democratic
>Change (MDC)'s shadow ministers as substantive ministers.
>
>They may not understand why I did not dream of open palms as replacements
>for clenched fists.
>
>Some might even ask: why did you not dream of a 40-something President as
>an
>
>appropriate replacement for a 70-something one?
>
>The MDC per se is not necessarily a panacea to our national problems. An
>MDC
>
>President, or a new ZANU PF one for that matter, may hardly be the issue.
>There is a more fundamental concern besides the obvious fact that the MDC
>guys would be a lot more handsome or beautiful than the ZANU PF lot.
>
>Cynical as this may sound, we must realise that we are not concerned - at
>least at the moment - about beauty contests.
>
>The MDC group might also pass the transparency test because the members
>have
>
>not been exposed to sufficient corruption.
>
>The solution to our national dilemma lies in transforming our ways of doing
>things and in a total paradigm shift. It is not a worthwhile struggle to
>spend an entire lifetime fighting for the removal of a dictator.
>
>As long as the conditions that nurture dictatorships are left unperturbed,
>we will have as much problems with the MDC as we have had with ZANU PF.
>
>It is therefore imperative that we transform the legal and institutional
>frameworks that nurture dictators. We must, as well, deal with our rotten
>political systems and political culture .
>
>
>-Brian Kagoro is a legal practitioner and political spokesman of the
>National Constitutional Assembly, a Zimbabwean civic organi-sation.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
>Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>You may also send subscription requests to
>[log in to unmask]
>if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your
>full name and e-mail address.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------