KB,

Once again you have demonstrated why you are irrepressible and have a knack for displaying ingenuity in reading reality. You are spot on the scandal concerning the letter of intent vis-a-vis the IMF's re-evaluation of the Gambia gov't status/standing.

If you recall, i did thunder here about the indifference and callousness that the IMF displays towards the local realities of States they claim they have come to bailout or rescue. This scandal merely proves my point. The IMF doesn't give a fig about where these so-called "loans" and or "grants" end up. All they care about, is getting their punitive penalties/interests and "loans" or "grants" paid back. So long as they are getting their profits from the wretched souls who toil to pay for these "loan" or "grants", they don't give a rat's arse whether the Gambia is a rogue State with a kleptomaniac calling himself as a president. Talk about IMF arrogance and indifference!

In my view, there is more to this scandal than just IMF indifference and arrogance. If what is chancing in the Gambia, happens in a more politically active and sophisticated society like say Britain, you can wager your last dime, that internal and local opposition would make the Fund to think long and hard before even entertaining the idea of giving loans to such oppressive regimes. Alas, in the Gambia, civil society is either dead or has no steely and courageous leadership to spur it to agitate for the end of Jammeh's brutality. Instead, we have a lacklustre opposition stuffed with it's self-importance who would rather drool about elections that experience and hard-nose logic demonstrates that will never be free and fair if  they ever happen. An opposition that has yet to show the world in unison how utterly barbaric this gov't is. All we get is opposition figures either whiling away precious time in party HQs writing posh letters to an ignoramus who never reads such missives or granting endless interviews that merely chafe the surface of the country's problems. Stuff happens that KB: unlike you and i, the local opposition do not have an inkling as to what they are faced with here. They respond to this gov't as if it still has a moral authority or legitimate hold on the State authority. They respond to this gov't as if  it will honour it's pledges impervious to yesteryears experiences. As they continue their dreams of a landslide come 2001, i hope at some stage, there is a sober reflection and remember how a dullard like Jammeh fooled them into legitimising him when they contested the 1996 elections.

Stuff is again KB: without agitation and civil disobedience, the outside world will remain ignorant of our country's plight. The IMF scandal has exposed an inherent limitation of how the battle can be fought on Gambia-L. As the sober and acerbic Saul Khan once noted here, Gambia-L is all good and effective for morale boosting and inspiring agitation and action for those on the ground and also letting the world know that we have something wrong going on in the Gambia. When it comes to getting things done, local opposition groups are far likelier to get things concretely done than the Diaspora which is really shackled by so many factors inexhaustible here. We in the Diaspora can make and sign endless petitions, host fund raisers upon fund raisers and disparage or expose this gov't's lies and skulduggery. All these would amount to zilch or very little if it is not complemented with such vigour and serious-ness by those on the ground.

Without a Rooseveltian or Churchillian type of steely and courageous leadership from those on the ground, we are a long way from finishing of the Jammeh Menace. The long and short of it is that virtually only little can be done by us concretely in the Diaspora when local opposition don't reflect  in  both words and deeds what we campaign and agitate for online. Sadly local opposition is all talk and no muscle. When i read people rattling off these absurdities about elections being the only credible alternative, i wonder to myself whether these people really wish to see Jammeh gone or are just guilty of gross naivety? Elections under Jammeh as it is now, has as much chance of being free and fair as Jammeh admitting that he gave the orders for school children to be shot down on April 10 and 11.

So long as local opposition is timourous, lethargic or half-hearted in making it plain that Jammeh's is a tyranny and are totally opposed to it, and will do everything in their powers to see to it's end, KB then we will continue to witness such despairing moments like the IMF scandal. The IMF scandal is a stark reminder to us all how even in this so-called golden age of civil liberties and liberal democracy, rogues like Jammeh can murder, pillage and brutalise and get away with "loans" and or "grants" from so-called respectful institutions like the Fund. What a shame and desecration to the memories of all those suffered and still continue to languish under this crack-pot dictator and regime.

Hamjatta Kanteh