Dear Alieu,

Sorry for not being able to get to you earlier.Your topic is very interesting
and I believed the discussion should continue.However even though we have some
differences in opinion I dont think we are that much far away from each
other.I do try hard to imagine what type of society you are struggling to put
on paper,as said in my earlier posting,it must be one we all might be wishing
for our dear country and continent but  my greatest worry is that how do we
get to that society.You might not see my point that if Dr Jammeh had hold onto
his promises we would have had  society that all of us would be proud of,
because,as said, that would have been a step towards a greater victory.
Whiles you are still working on your ideas I wish to take up a point Of which
I believed,as long as power and politics are concern,is of great importance.I
have dealt with the issue here in a different debate and I believed it is
actual here too.
Alieu,I believed that without solving this problem of organizational method we
would not be able to get too far.This issue have have been dealt with by many
great theoretician and non of them have since produced anything to solve the
problem.There might never be a universal solution to this problem,this is
simply because of the different natures of our societies.For us as Africans we
have a unique experience in organizational method and revisiting this
experience we will be in a better position towards finding a solution.
By the way we must agree that this is a problem.Why ?because I believed that
the relationship between the ordinary people and power will be the basses from
which we can take  care of collective victory and advance it in the interest
of the people and society,and this relationship must have an organisational
form.That is to say in practical terms,after victory over colonialism,the PPP
came to power with the support of the great majority of the Gambian people.The
victory of the PPP was born out of the collective struggle of the Gambian
people.D.K.Jawara was brought to the party by the People who believed that he
could provide a leadership that will be in the interest of the Gambian
people.Through a close look at the events in those days one would find out
that D.K.Jawara was in no position to manipulate power,the decisions that were
made was collective ,the people had a say and were deeply involved in the life
of the party,these were ordinary Gambian People who had a direct contact with
the party,because it was their party.When victory was consolidated,through
this very party ,D.K.Jawara was able to gather power in his own hands and very
rapidly eroded all the possibilities that were there to enable ordinary people
to take part in decision marking.The character and the nature of the party
changed,from being an arena for collective decision marking and
consultations,to an instrument of political oppression.All constitutional
reforms that gave him more powers were done without the participation of the
ordinary people in any form of debate.The Party gradually turned into a
mechanism that was to serve the President instead of grounding the victory
with the majority of the Gambian people.In short the Party as a form of
organization becomes an easy mechanism for the manipulation of power.Look at
all the Parties in this world,in power or in opposition,and tell me which of
them is entirely depended on ordinary people in decision marking ?Tell me
which role are ordinary people playing in these party.I would tell you that
what all these political parties have in common is that they have the
intellectuals at the helm of power who make decisions and talk on behave of
the party,they are the ones who are or will become the president ,the
ministers,the directors etc not the ordinary people.The ordinary people are
not capable of becoming parliamentarians,or ministers or directors.All they
are capable of becoming is local party chairpersons,paying dues etc,they
become non thinking beings as far as the Party is concern,they are only cable
of carrying out assignments given to them by the party leadership who are the
intellectuals.With this form of organization there could be no form of
guarantee that the intellectual will not manipulate power,no matter how
sincere they are,this is a historical fact.
Alieu in your ideal society,you must be able to solve this problem of
organizational relationship,I believed without solving this problem we might
not get to that society were power is mass based.

For Freedom

Saiks














Dear Saiks,

Glad that we are at the threshold of agreeing to a framework of analysis. It
is extremely necessary that we set out on a firm basis. That will make the
discussion more enligthening.

Just to address few things before embarking on my second part, understand
Power and Politics here to be referring mainly to how a person/s is/are able
to both establish himself/themselves in a secure position to rule, in this
case, a country, and at the same time enjoy the undivided confidence of the
ruled or the led. If at all and according to the way you put it, that Gambia
would have had a different story to show to the World if the President had
kept to his promises, then that would even not fit into my ideal society. I
can only qualify it under the category of my No. Two Hypothesis. Remember, I
have defined Power Base as the "degree of popular support" and the "ability
to maintain stability and cope with opposition".

Yes, one can rightly conclude or expect that, if the Gambians had had course
to enjoy from those beautiful hopes as declared by the President, then the
regime would certainly would have a resonable degree of popular support from
the people - again as I define it. I now ask. Is that really enough? Does
that make the opposition dormant? Does that deter outside threat? I mind,
does it say much about how dynamic a regime is to both outside and inside
forces? Certainly not. Under such circumstances therefore, Gambia wouldn't
have still been stable, so to speak. It is how concious we are to addressing
these factors together as a whole which is crucial to my ideal type of
society.

So, perhaps if you had mentioned that the President wanted to look after the
peoples' welfare and also indicate and justify why the President sees it fit
to fortify himself so as to continue satifying the task of looking after the
peoples' welfare, then that could be considered to fit into my ideal type of
society that would ultimately bring about stability.

I will labor, as I progress, to detail further with my own examples how this
can come  about, I will be looking at questions such as what the role of
opposition should be and that of those who wish to bankrole such an
opposition in my ideal society. I am to inform you that most of political
societites in Africa do not share characteristics of my ideal society.

I would wish to reintroduce my opinion on Political Maturity in relation to
colonialism and the Monicagate issue. They may either implicitly or
explicitly appear in the discussion as we proceed. I will throw more light
on them later.

To be continued.....


God blesses us all for a better world.

Alieu



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