News I am getting from Gambia is very positive. Contrary to the falsity APRC
mental midgets want to perpetuate here, the Decree 89 politicians (OJ
included) are poised to join a United Opposition. Going by the reports and
negotiations that were in place BEFORE the ‘lifting’ of the ban, these
politicians are NOT putting out any conditions in front of their impending
union with the current Opposition leaders. Contrary to what APRC want us to
believe, OJ subscribes to the idea of an Opposition Alliance, as he believes
that “all hands should be available to kick Jammeh out”.

As Hamjatta said, rather than second-guessing these politicians, let us
encourage them to take their rightful positions in our midst. I again
reiterate my calls to the current leaders on the ground to aggressively go
after these Decree 89 politicians. Let us NOT buy into the APRC propaganda
and alienate these Decree 89 politicians. Some in the APRC have begun to
smell the coffee. I read somewhere today that Yankuba Touray was threatening
Jawara with a Commission of Inquiry investigation if the latter returned to
the country. This is ridiculous and laughable. This just goes to show that
these people are beginning to realize how the ‘lifting’ of this ban has
backfired in their faces; another nail in Yaya’s coffin. What can the
kangaroo courts do to Jawara now that they could not do in his absence?
Haven’t this government already confiscated all of Jawara’s properties?
Yankuba Touray knows that this is just an empty threat to preempt the
inevitable: the Opposition (Decree 89 and current politicians) coming
together to defeat Yaya. What Touray does not seem to realize is that the
Opposition already took that into consideration. What did Touray think OJ
was referring to when the latter said that they were going to encourage
Jawara to return and provide him with adequate ‘security’? Gambians know
that when Yaya said that people are free to partake in partisan politics,
the vermin does NOT mean a word he is saying. The moment he realizes that
power is slipping away from him, he will resort to intimidation and thuggery
to steal the elections.

Like Hamjatta, I also believe that all the Decree 89 politicians belong in
the Opposition. Low-lives like Buba Baldeh that wanted to join the APRC were
NOT hindered by Decree 89. We should welcome these politicians and show them
that the current Opposition leaders are worthy of their support. Let us NOT
listen to APRC propaganda that the Opposition is going to be split to the
advantage of Yaya who clearly CANNOT win the majority of the votes. That
propaganda is NOTHING more than wishful thinking from APRC stalwarts that
are in denial. That wish is very far from what is actually going on in
Gambia.

There are NO secret meetings and plots aimed at disuniting the Opposition.
These are just APRC lies. On the contrary, old opponents like Assan Musa
Camara and Jawara are talking now about a comeback. SM Dibba is also talking
to Assan Musa Camara. OJ is also receptive to the idea of PPP supporting a
United Opposition to get rid of Yaya. That is the stage we are at. All the
Political Parties in the country (except APRC of course) agree in principle
that they need to come together to defeat the APRC. We have to go for the
overkill and bring all the Parties together to register a resounding victory
come October 2001. There is no way Yaya can steal the elections if the
Opposition comes together now, in light of the ‘lifting’ of the ban imposed
by Decree 89.
KB



>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Decree 89 Politicians: A Blessing In Disguise
>Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 17:30:00 EDT
>
>Friends,
>
>Ebrima and Sanusi's revelation that notwithstanding the abrogation of
>Decree
>89, many First Republic politicians are in effect still banned by other
>obnoxious laws might turn out to be a blessing in diguise for the
>Opposition.
>It might well be the case that there wouldn't necessarily be any
>fundamental
>realignment of Opposition policies and or modalities for a tactical
>coalition
>to absorb the Decree 89 politicians. Moreso, Decree 89 politicians will
>find
>it enormously disabling to resuscitate whatever political fortunes they are
>left with - INDEPENDENTLY or INDEPENDENT of the current cadre of Opposition
>leadership.
>
>Rather, the worst that can befell us is to have some of these Decree 89
>politicians lured away by the APRC propaganda machinery and in essence
>provide a potential split of the Opposition vote. Even this hypothetical
>scenario has only remote chances of being the case. The reason for this is
>both logically and morally construed. Reason being chiefly that I doubt
>very
>much if these Decree 89 politicians would be suckered into an unholy
>alliance
>with the APRC: Those who were more likely or prone to be suckered into such
>an alliance have already been lured away. Buba Baldeh and Nafa Saho have
>already joined the APRC with or without Decree 89. If ever there were
>others
>that were ready to join the APRC, they would have done so on the cues of
>the
>likes Baldeh and Saho. There is, therefore, no need to second guess where
>the
>Decree 89 politicians are heading. Logically, practically and morally there
>is no better bosom to accomodate their anxieties, hopes and fears than the
>Opposition camp.
>
>Since the law - as it is - largely negates any attempts by the Decree 89
>politicians to mount presidential challenges to the incumbency of Jammeh,
>the
>best that lies in front of them, is in the interim to informally associate
>themselves with the current cadre of Opposition leadership and aid their
>efforts in decapitating the dictatorship of Jammeh. That way, they will be
>in
>a good stead to formally engage in politics in a post- Jammeh Gambia. What,
>however, doesn't augur well is to have Opposition pundits second guessing
>the
>intentions, wherewithal or the crimes of these Decree 89.
>
>As everything Gambian goes, most certainly, we will have unproductive
>elements engaging in the past-time of rehearsing and regurgigating the same
>old anti- PPP sentiments when there are better things to be done with our
>time, resources and energies. Worse, our resident historians will do their
>damndest to attempt spark fruitless debates about the role of Decree 89
>politicians in the current political mess. Fruitless debates that needless
>to
>say, have the propensity to lull us unwittingly into what the APRC and
>Jammeh
>loves best: What were the factors responsible for Jammeh stealing power
>from
>the Gambian peoples in July 1994. Such stuff and story telling have only
>academic importance and a great disservice to the efforts of the many who
>have died, disappeared and made despondent by the Jammeh Madness. Those who
>are genuinely concerned with the gradual withdrawal of basic Gambian
>decency
>by the criminal syndicate that has since July 1994 held the Gambia and the
>Gambian peoples hostage, would be expending their energies in formulating
>ideas that help to deliver the Gambia and the Gambian peoples from such a
>state of affairs.
>
>All the best,
>
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>
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