Mr. Jallow
Thank you for your posting on this serious question. Nevertheless, I found
your advice to President Jammeh rather baffling.
My belief is that President Jammeh and his government must simply respond
diplomatically to Guinea-Bissau and there are well-established channels
through which that can be done. Preparing for war by increasing Gambia's
defensive capabilities is the worst thing for our country and the entire
subregion; a region that is today witnessing the devastating consequences of
senseless and relentless bloodletting, the plight of hundreds of thousands
of refugees, untold human tragedies and  litanies of agonising
agonies....Liberia, Sierra-Leone (which is just beginning a difficult
process of healing), Casamance...with no end in sight.
It is also unfortunate and completely misguided to even make a comparison
between our two tiny and beggared nations. To engage the poor in a
who-is-less-hungry contest is to display a panglossian view of the African
world. Gambian nationalism should not feed off the misery of poor Guineans
especially if they live less longer than Gambians. Both peoples have
national struggles to wage and it is our duty to help define the agenda in
those struggles. President Jammeh, upon his return from the conference on
food in Italy (a conference that was shunned by Western leaders) remarked
that it was clear that "...we are on our own". It will be tragic if the
president is just beginning to notice that. Millions of Africans are
threatened with famine and disease, and in both Guinea-Bissau and Gambia the
struggle for food security, social and economic improvement of livelihood,
access to primary health care, clean water, education, and the struggle for
democratic and human rights must remain the national vocation. And in the
absence of peace, it will be impossible for us to fight the fights that
really matter in a world where others are busy designing juridical
frameworks that should give them legal ownership of even the plants that
feed the hungry.

If there is anything that Gambia has been blessed with since Jawara's days,
it is a sound policy of good-neighbourliness. President Jammeh must build
upon that legacy.

Sidibeh, Stockholm / Kartong

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