Jabou,
           The sovereignty of the country resides in each and every one of
us irrespective of whether one is  here or abroad. We have a right to
information. This is the only way we can make informed choices. Ignorance
and poverty pose the greatest threat to democracy. No leadership can
legitimately claim to be democratic as long as it presides over the poverty
and ignorance of their people. I can see from the crrosscorespondence in the
L that many people are starved of information regarding the concrete reality
on the ground. We will try to do our best to renew contact with the L as
long as you take every thing we say with a grain of salt. All of us need to
be critically minded so that we can convert information into realiable
knowledge to guide the decisions we make.
Thank you for the challenge. We hope we will equal our task as a political
party. You may reqest for postings from FOROYAA and PDOIS and we will gladly
include you in our mailing list.

Greetings

Halifa

----- Original Message -----
From: Jabou Joh <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2001 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: Response to PDOIS's Reaction.


> In a message dated 3/20/2001 10:36:34 AM Central Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
> > Fortunately Citizen FM and Radio 1 FM are informing the Gambian what
> > political parties
> > are saying in the Gambia. Gambians abroad should contact their relatives
or
> > friends to find out what is being said by the different parties on all
> > fundamental issues.
> >
> Greetings
> Halifa
>
> Mr Sallah & all Political parties in The Gambia,
>
> For us as Gambian citizens abroad, but who are nevertheless interested in
the
> welfare of our country, as well as having the right to be part of the
> decision process in the selection of our leadership, we hope that the
> different political parties do consider our imput and opinion important
> enough, and our recruitment as voters a necessary part of the election
> process, such that they will take the time to try to get their messages
> regarding the fundamental issues to us, rather than us having to ask our
> relatives to relay these messages.
>
> Are we really  that dispensable, and is our plight to cast absentee votes
> that unimportant that we have to forage for the political parties' stand
on
> the issues? Are our political parties that incapable of utilizing the
medium
> of modern technology to let us know what their stand on the issues are, or
is
> it that our opinion does not matter enough to them? We certainly hope this
is
> not the case especially because we as a nation are still hoping and
praying
> for an atmosphere where one man one vote to culminate in a majority of
votes
> is the process whereby our leadership is selected, and a party's stand on
the
> issues is what motivates the people to vote for them.
>
> As such, we think it is in the best interest of all political parties to
> educate us on what they stand for, and what they plan to do if given the
> mandate to govern us. Again, that is unless these parties are quite
certain
> that we are a group that they do not have to worry about ever, and that
when
> they tell us they care about Gambians, and that our constitution is
supposed
> to protect all of us, this does not include those Gambians abroad.
>
>  We have a right to know what the different political parties agenda is
first
> hand,so that we and the rest of Gambians can decide who to vote for ( if
we
> outsiders ever get to the point of finally convincing whoever is
responsible
> to enable us  to exercise our constitutional right to cast our votes that
is)
>
> I for one do not have enough information to affiliate myself with any
> political party, and after careful observation and  for the sake of
> simplicity in my life, I don't think that i will ever join any even after
I
> gain enough information, but I do know what my concerns regarding the
issues
> of the day are as  a Gambian, and having first hand knowledge of where the
> different parties stand will enable all Gambians who care to vote to make
the
> right choice.
>
> Jabou Joh
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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