Sister Jabou Joh and Brother Joe,

  I had no intention to get to this point in this exchange. It feels 
premature, because there is likely to be a gruesome period of soul-searching 
amongst Gambians after the coming elections. But I also fear that, akin to 
previous periods of post-election trauma, all of that may end up into 
nothing more than having therapeutic effect. I hope I will be proven wrong, 
in all counts.

  It is true that scrutiny is necessary. In normal circumstances, I would 
have joined the fray to lay bare every political attempt at power in Gambia 
even if that alone is hardly sufficient. But my sensibilites are affected by 
the believe that the project towards "unifying" the Opposition even after 
September 22 would be crucial for the evolution of participatory democracy 
in our country. I tend to think that our proclivites towards the state of 
the opposition coalititon and the political alignments that the elections 
would produce, dictates present individual preoccupations.

  Ideally, we should demand the best and should not lower our standards. But 
the very essence of a coalition gestures precisely towards reaching 
compromises on those qualities we hold as best and of higher standard; 
endearing us to construct a half-way house between idealism and realism.
  But as I said, if one believes that the process is dead, the field opens 
up for internecine struggles of all sorts, exposing what is worst in 
eachother's closet of ideas. This should be unproblemmatic in developed 
polities where the contest for power rages within the realm of ideas. But 
where other variables such as unprincipled rivalry, vanity, ethnic identity, 
acquisitiveness, fear and even populism sway voter sentiments greatly, 
violent criticism is often taken personally. The effect is that the 
prospects for a future confluence of opposition parties becomes more remote 
than formerly. And not only that!
  We all know the UDP, don't we? It has been around for the last ten years, 
and so to seek certainty about its intentions in an election manifesto is 
like aspiring to define the APRC from dictated fiction gleaned from its 
Vision 2020 document. The UDP, like all of Gambia's post independance 
political parties (except PDOIS) rides on varying doses of populism, 
nevermind its professed assimilation of neoliberal, social democratic 
values. When sometime before the 2001 elections, Hamjatta Kanteh marketted 
Mr. Ousainou Darboe on Gambia-L as a most patriotic Gambian who sacrificed 
everything to wage a struggle against the quasi-military tyranny, some of us 
scoffed at that sort of politcal commerce. Mr. Darboe, of course, deserves 
much respect, but the party he leads, I thought even then, came to be the 
natural abode of disgruntled politicians and businessmen made homeless by 
APRC purges of the PPP and NCP. It posesses neither the ideological 
conviction nor the organizational tradition to carry the struggle for power 
beyond mere protest against corruption and the excesses of an egoistic 
political elite feeding on the spoils of power. It cannot control and alter 
the role of institutions even if it assumes state power. This conclusion 
brings me to the reason I think the coalition is of major importance.

  Since its formation in the mid eighties, PDOIS behaved like a modern 
politcal apparatus. It recorded and archived all its ideas about governance, 
presented its opinion about all issues of national and regional 
significance, debated and defended its positions on these and operated 
consistently as an alternative government. Because it keeps records, and 
because it can date(!) national events it has opened up itself to probing 
and and can easily allow for transparency and more importantly, running an 
effective adminstration. One might not like Foroyaa, but one can remain 
confident that it provides a consistent and progressive source of political 
currency, even if one may not agree with it at all times. With sufficient 
resources, such a politcal apparatus can create and control a very strong 
organisation, even if such an organisation may not necessarily be 
democratric in character. (I cannot vouch for how decisions were reached 
inside PDOIS, thus my scepticism). It is this character of PDOIS as a 
modern, workable institution, that appeals to educated, young Gambians, 
perhaps because it rekindles a familiarity with structures. Informed 
Gambians who oppose it are, therefore, easily identifiable. As important as 
they are, I would refrain from mentioning the characters of its leaders, as 
these, unlike the nature of the organisation they represent, are transient. 
There has never been a political party with such administrative, 
organisational and political potential in our country, and these are the 
qualities with which it would have infused the character of a coalition of 
opposition parties. NADD could have evolved into a society-oriented politcal 
movement, i.e a political instrument that reorganises society as a way of 
changing the state; as opposed to a state-based politcal group - which have 
invariably failed everywhere in Africa. NADD could have forever altered the 
nature of politics in Gambia!

  NADD's failure to mature into what we had hoped for is of historic 
significance in a state as small as ours, and the responsibility for this 
failure, spreads more widely than many seem to think. To resuscitate NADD at 
time a time when the struggle for power is at its peak is simply more 
difficult than doing so after the elections. I think that effort should be 
pursued with even more vigour, and I do not think continued internecine 
squabble will help it.

  Cheers,
  sidibeh

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