Bahoum, MRDG(UK), and Hamjatta, I was almost tempted to plead with you to
ignore Mr. Sallah's comments (because of their emptiness), but on second
thought I realized that it will be wrong and uncivilized to ignore the man.
Besides, it sends a wrong signal to the Halifa Sallahs of this world if
people accept some of their premises without challenge. These are a people
that think that they are the only smart people in The Gambia. All they talk
about is changing society and changing the way people think. They never stop
to do some introspection and for at least once admit that they might be the
ones with a problem and not the rest of society. No one is asking PDOIS to
act like sheep and just follow the flow. But commonsense dictates that if
someone has been doing something for more than two decades and have very
little to show for it, may be there is a need for a change of strategy. No
one is endorsing tyranny of the majority here, but commonsense also dictates
that if more than 90% of the voting population does not think too highly of
PDOIS, may be PDOIS should try and change itself and cease engaging in the
futile struggle to change the rest of society.

Halifa Sallah raised two questions for your organization to answer. His
reasons for posing those questions is beyond my comprehension. Sallah said:
"Who was the organiser of the London Meeting? If the London [Meeting] was
not a briefing session organised by a British MP, then what was the purpose
of the London Meeting?" emphasis mine.

The reason I said that I could not understand where Sallah is coming from,
is that PDOIS is in possession of answers to both questions. In some earlier
articles from Foroyaa, PDOIS said: "Some Gambians in Britain such as James
Bahoum who is the chairman and Chogan who was once Deputy Inspector General
of Police have established a movement
called Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in The Gambia. MRD. The
movement saw a British member of parliament to lobby for his support. As the
reader knows Gambian members of National Assembly do ask questions and speak
on certain subjects at the national assembly . The British member of
parliament can also question the policy of the British government on Gambia
in parliament with the view to influence the policy."

Unless Sallah wants to claim ignorance of his own party's publication, I
cannot understand why he is asking Bahoum to clarify on the issue of who
convened the meeting and what was the purpose of the meeting. The MP from
Britain did not call for the Briefing in a vacuum. The Movement cannot
clearly host a meeting at the House of Commons without the assistance of a
British MP. So, the Movement and the MP worked together (as they should) to
call the meeting. PDOIS is engaged in pure semantics when they insinuate
that they did not understand the role the Movement played in this Briefing
and the real source of the invitation that was sent to Sidia Jatta.

As demonstrated above by PDOIS' own publication, PDOIS was aware of who was
behind the Briefing. Apart from the letter that was sent to Sidia Jatta,
some PDOIS stalwarts like Malick Kah (who writes for Foroyaa) are active in
the Movement. They knew what was going on. No one can convince me that
people like Kah did not discuss the issue of the Briefing with the PDOIS
leadership. In any case, raising these questions at this stage of the game,
evince some bad faith on the part of PDOIS. If PDOIS was really interested
in knowing the full facts before making a decision, they should have made
their reservations known prior to the Briefing. They could have raised these
questions in their Paper as they are raising them now. They could have asked
Malick Kah, Alpha Robinson and others to raise these questions with the
Movement before the Briefing. I do not see the point in asking these
questions now that it is already late and PDOIS knows the answers to the
questions.

It is unfair to the politicians that attended the Briefing for PDOIS to
criticize them for attending a meeting to 'sensitize the British public
about the plight of Gambians'. What is PDOIS' problem? Do they want to tell
us that Gambians are not suffering? Do they want to tell us that the British
public is sufficiently aware of our plight? Do they want to tell us that
they are satisfied with British policy towards Gambia? Clearly Gambians are
suffering. By saying that now, does not mean that they did not suffer in the
past and they are not going to suffer in the future. So PDOIS should spare
us from this obsession with Jawara and move on. What is relevant to us, is
what is going on NOW. PDOIS can fume all they want, but we are going to say
that the callousness that is being visited on our people under Yaya's watch,
has NEVER been experienced in Gambian history. Neither Yaya nor Jawara is
acceptable to us, but Jawara is far better than Yaya. If PDOIS do not want
to hear that, so be it. What did Sallah mean when he said that Jawara was
lucky to have been with Hamat Bah at the Briefing and not Halifa Sallah?
This speaks volumes about PDOIS' priorities. Instead of preparing for duels
with Yaya and pumping their chests against Yaya, these people are still
obsessed with Jawara and cherish any moment they might have to castigate the
man. Get a life. It was Yaya that ordered the massacre of our children in
broad daylight on April 10 and 11, 2000, not Jawara. Jawara cannot
incarcerate anyone without trial (incommunicado) while he is living in
London. Yaya can and he is doing that. Commonsense tells us that Yaya should
be the focus and not Jawara, as of  now.

Bahoum, I must say that I am grateful to PDOIS for having published the
letter that was sent to Sidia Jatta. Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not
recall seeing the word 'refugee' in that letter. Again, it is beyond my
comprehension why PDOIS will use such characterizations to describe
patriotic and hardworking citizens like your humble self.

Frankly, I thought PDOIS was going to invoke a mea culpa on this one and
follow the high road you showed them in your response to their publications.
But, unfortunately I was wrong about PDOIS again. Instead, they came out
very combative and trying to take some cheap shots at Opposition members
that attended the Briefing; bringing into the matter irrelevant topics about
some trips to Mecca and Taiwan and gifts of sugar. What does that have to do
with attending a Briefing to sensitize the British about the plight of
Gambians? If the Briefing achieved nothing but an extra drop of ink on one
British newspaper, then the Briefing was worth attending. Thanks to the
Movement, the Briefing was well attended by a diverse set of people. We now
have the potential to change British policy to restore military support for
a regime that sanctioned the murder of innocent children as young as three.
PDOIS cannot belittle this meeting. It can try all it wants, but the truth
remained unchanged. History was made for The Gambia on February 28, 2001. No
one can change that. If one PDOIS representative attended the Briefing, that
would not mean that the work they are doing in Banjul will come to a
standstill. Their attendance could have only added to the Opposition's
strength; assuming that they do not come there and spend all of their time
attacking Jawara (who is NOT THE CURRENT LEADER OF THE COUNTRY). Surely,
attending the meeting was more worthwhile than spending hours at some bogus
press conference with mental midgets from the APRC feeding Foroyaa nothing
but lies.

Finally, I think it is also unfair for Sallah to say that your Movement
thinks that PDOIS is opposed to the Movement simply because PDOIS chose not
to attend the Briefing. I do not think that your Movement is saying that at
all. Having said that, I think your Movement will be within its rights if it
says that PDOIS is not supportive of the Movement when compared with the
support and respect your Movement gets from UDP and NRP. I recalled your
Movement proposing that the Opposition parties need to come together and
form a coalition to defeat Yaya. I further recall that you got good
feed-back from all the parties except PDOIS. If you take that fact into
consideration together with the characterizations PDOIS used in order to
undermine the effectiveness of the London Briefing, you cannot avoid
concluding that PDOIS is less supportive to your organization than say Hamat
Bah. I say, good riddance. Leave PDOIS alone and work with people that are
genuinely interested in working with you. I hope some of the good people
that have sympathies for PDOIS will continue to support your Movement and
your good projects.

I again thank you for your tremendous contributions and I wish you success
in your noble and patriotic endeavors.
KB

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