The multiplicative nature of the current programmed fanatic virus feeds from
the manifestly manipulative tutelage of a host organism, which is stationed,
of course, in Churchill's Town. This is not stuff lifted from a futuristic
sci-fi flick or bestselling nevel; but a basic scientific truth. I once used
to entertain the fantasy that caricaturing the earnest emptiness of the
so-called PDOIS/Foroyaa 'enligthenment' would help disarm its potentialities
of turning young and old minds alike into unthinking robotic members of
society. Seems with programmed fanatics, it will always be back to the
drawing board. Whenever their popular myths have been decisively repudiated,
and like the obstinacy of one those multiplicative viroids, more of such
popular myths doggedly re-surface to take their places. Sometimes it can be
plain frustrating. I'm not all alone in waxing perplex over the stubborn
streak of bad ideas not to die forever and or never to re-emerge in the
mainstream again. Paul Krugman knows all about it. Let him explain the
frustration:

"An experienced and therefore cynical government economist once described to
me his vision of his job. "It's mostly a matter of getting rid of bad ideas,"
he explained, " but it's like flushing coachroaches down a toilet - sooner or
later they just come back." The role of the economist who cares about policy
can be dispiriting: one may spend years devising sophisticated theories or
carefully testing ideas against evidence,  then find that politicians turn
again to ideas that you thought had been discredited decades or centuries
ago, or make statements that are flatly contradicted by the facts."

The current spate of the outbreak of the programmed fanatic virus affirms
just what Krugman's government economist told him. Just when we thought that
decisively repudiated economics like State contrived agricultural
collectivisation is dead and buried, programmed fanatics are busy and
doggedly marketing the idea anew. And, be it noted, most of the economic
nonsense now being recycled anew has been dealt with comprehensively in an
earlier essay on PDOIS' economic agenda; and one would assume then that they
would at least have the decency to go back to the drawing board again to
reformulate and rethink policy. Rather, the party unabashedly brought to the
fore again the same economic nonsense i have earlier debunked effectively.
For the purposes of clarity, let us revisit the central plank or thrust of
PDOIS' economic agenda. According to them, they are committed to enhancing
personal income through the agricultural economics of cooperative societies
like the ones you find in Bakau where women have their horticultural gardens.
Well, that is it. I'm all ears.

Now, for economic simpletons - as most programmed fanatics are anyway - and
unreconstructed leftists, this is the magic formula for that idyllic
egalitarian paradise leftists hanker for. But for sophisticated folks, the
equation that purports to undergird this policy thrust doesn't simpy add up.
Let us take for instance the feasibility of anchoring a party's main economic
drive on such rural or agricultural economics. As i pointed out before, such
an economic calculation rests on the presupposition that demographically the
Gambia is ruralising and have arable land in plenitude to accomodate the
demands of such a policy thrust. Yet, the reality is the reverse. Stuff is:
according most development economists, in a decade or so, demographically,
the Gambia would be a full-blown urbanised society. The realisation that the
Gambia is on the brink of full-blown urbanity demands a rethink of policy
thrust and or application vis-a-vis factoring to what extent should policy
reflect and accomodate this reality. Such a realisation, would then follow a
very familiar and orthodox course in economic thinking: that of properly
meted out industrial policies and a  liberal macro-economic framework that
can ably accomodate the Gambia's new socio-economic realities.

But PDOIS would have none of it. Instead, they are ready to wager the
Gambia's economic future to tested and failed State contrived
collectivisation that even Lenin and Stalin in their infinite lunacy wouldn't
dare impose on Russians in this day and age. Perhaps, PDOIS takes its cue
from the stubborn-ness of the North Korean dictatorship to continue with the
same economic nonsense that continues to register zero economic growth and
abject poverty for the masses they have literally forced against their wills
into these State contrived cooperative societies. Which brings me to a
question i've always asked myself since i realised the absurdity of PDOIS'
economic thinking: which trained economist helps formulate the party's
economic policy? Which professional economist with the appropriate
credentials does policy thinking for them? I certainly don't know of any
professional Gambian economist that is part of the PDOIS elites. On the
contrary, what we have is mainly a trio assemblage of a sociologist, a
linguist and a physics teacher. Physics + Sociology + Linguistics = Good
Economics? I don't think so. Perhaps, as one irrational programmed fanatic
frantically intimated - in defense of the party's economic thinking - their
training in the field of economics is as a result of torturous and late night
seminars at the party's Churchill's Town HQ dissecting Karl Marx' Das
Kapital. All the more reason for responsible folks to shun the party and it's
repudiated ideas.

A palatable, well-measured and liberal economic alternative is on offer. The
Alliance headed by Mr Darbo presents a policy thrust that in all essence
represents a macro-economic framework that factors greatly the current
socio-economic realities of the Gambia. More to the point, instead of the
Alliance relying on a group of jacks-of-all-trades-but-masters-of-none, the
Alliance brims to the top with the creme de la creme of Gambian technocracy.
From the fiscal and financial wizardry of Amadou Sanneh to Yaya Jallow's
agricultural credentials to Amadou Taal and Ebou Manneh's capable and
experienced hands in public policy and administration. Here, i'm not talking
about technocrats who just opened a Frank Wood textbook in Accounting and a
fortnight later declared themselves accountants. I'm talking of people with
both the academic training and the appropriate experience to demonstrate
prowess in their fields of speciality. Clearly, with such a vast assemblage
of talent and experience to pick an able and just administration from,
Gambians are better off voting for Mr Darbo and the Alliance - come October
18th. It is the surest way Gambians can start the difficult but rewarding
Odyssey - with Mr Darbo and the Alliance - of reclaiming their country again
after it has been reduced to a tragic wreckage by Jammeh and the APRC.

Hamjatta Kanteh

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