In a message dated 3/2/2006 6:50:40 P.M. Central Standard Time, SS 
[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])   writes:

In fact  if the Brikama show down is anything to go by, Lawyer
Ousainu Darboe is  still a vote magnet. Mr Darboe’s
electoral record is actually a good  foundation for the
opposition to build on. If the opposition is  really
serious about looking for a realistic option to
dislodge APRC,  they need to recognise this and rally
behind the UDP/NRP Coalition in the  interest of their
ultimate common objective, which is to dislodge  APRC.
In the same way, NADD should drop the idea of Staging
up Halifa  Sallah as a candidate in the up coming
presidential election. This man has  being the face of
PDOIS for decades and yet he never achieved  anything
more than 3% for that party.  How on earth can  anybody
even dream of choosing such a man as President
Jammeh’s  challenger and expect Gambians to take you
seriously? 
unquote

Mr Mballow,
 
Since you are the man behind the mask of SS Daffeh, please relay the  
following to him for me on behalf of the Gambian people.
The point is not who is more sellable or who gained what percentage of  votes 
in the past, but rather that as a strategy to enable them to garner enough  
votes to win against the APRC, all opposition parties had agreed to come  
together as one unit, NADD, and through a democratic process, choose  one candidate 
to represent this one unit, NADD to face Jammeh in the next  elections.
 The various leaders of these opposition parties were to then explain  to 
their various supporters that this is a strategy that would enable them to  
remove the APRC regime and to give us our country back and that after this was  
accomplished, and followed by the prescribed 5 year term of an interim  
government,  these parties who had come together  would then be able  to go back to 
their individual parties and can then be able to organize  themselves and contest 
elections as individual parties. The people would have  understood this and 
indeed, all indications are that they already did.
 
All patriotic Gambians realize in their heart of hearts that it is high  time 
to forge a mechanism to dislodge the Jammeh regime from power before they  
murder all our people and sink our country into an irreversible economic  
disaster.Our people live the hardship on a daily basis, regardless of which  tribe 
they are, the suffering under the APRC regime knows no ethnic  boundaries. 
The idea is that if forging this mechanism means having to set aside  for the 
time being, all political, ideological or personal differences for the  sake 
of our people and for the love of our dear country, then that is what would  
be done by all those who profess to believe in the democratic process and the  
love of our people and country.
This was and is the hopes and dreams of the Gambian people who have taken  
all they can take from this brutal regime. 
 
What has transpired is that some of those who had subscribed to this  
magnificent ideal have decided that they did not like what the results of a  
democratic process to select the representative or flag bearer may bring, that  this 
process may not result in things going the way they want it, and so they  
decided to break their word and abandon an agreement that they had made to the  
Gambian people in order to have their way. This makes them begin to resemble the  
dictator they claim to be trying to dislodge.This scares us because if  
anyone can think in those terms at this critical juncture in the history of our  
country, and to the extent of abandoning the promise of this alliance and  the 
democratic process that was in place to select the flag bearer, then that  
sends a very negative message indeed that those individuals do not and will not  
respect the same democratic process tomorrow should they ever be in power, and  
that we will likely find ourselves in the clutches of another attempt to 
cling  to power at all cost. This is the message that these actions convey  
unfortunately.
 
So you see, it is totally irrelevant to talk about which party leader  is 
more sellable because each party leader had subscribed to an ideal to pool  their 
resources together, in this case, those resources being their support base  
and to implore that support base to vote for the flag bearer selected through a 
 democratic process by the coalition executive in order to accomplish a well  
defined objective, to get a dictatorship off the backs of Gambians. 
 
Unfortunately, a decision was made by some people that their own  aspirations 
were somehow superior to any effort to save our country and our  people at 
their most urgent hour of need and history will not look kindly upon  them if 
they persist in this senseless selfish endeavour.
 
These are the facts plain and simple, and people need to save us from  the 
endless rhetoric and spin which insists on making us stupid when we are  nothing 
but stupid. 
 
It is also time to stop the accusations of tribalism by those whose actions  
speak louder than words that they are the ones who are the tribalists. it is, 
as  our African American brothers and sisters say, a case of the pot calling  
the kettle black, or a cheap strategy of trying to beat your opponent to the  
punch by labeling them what you have manifested to be.
 
Our country and our people are crying and dying from the untold brutality  of 
this devious regime, and let those who truely love our country, and who say  
they subscribe to the democratic ideal keep their word and come back to the  
promise they made so that we can move our country forward. Their actions  will 
then be remembered by the people and they will be able to not only  hold their 
heads high tomorrow, but we will then know that they can be  trusted as 
people we the people can also trust to lead us  tomorrow.
 
For the love of God, this is an interim government we are talking  about, a 
temporary solution that will create the kind of atmosphere all  political 
parties have been yearning for for forty years. Do not those who  are so hell bent 
on derailing this process trust their abilities to win an  election in a free 
and fair atmosphere after our constitution has been restored  and coercion is 
not the order of the day anymore? 
 
Please also relay to "Mr Daffeh" that his cloak and dagger manner also  tells 
us that he and whatever he represents must not be something he can hold  his 
head up high for if he has to hide behind someone else to deliver his warped  
messages.
And Mr Mballow, a word of advice if I may. If you are as objective as  you 
profess to be, and if you are as sincere in supporting one  unified coalition as 
your last posting implied, then it baffles me as to  why you would agree to 
be the bag man for "Mr Daffeh" and his divisive  messages.
Jabou Joh

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