PEOPLE ARE ASKING ABOUT WHAT IS PDOIS REPLY TO SARJA TAAL AND OBSERVER We have lodged a complaint with the editor of the Daily Observer for the inaccurate and superficial type of reporting of our meeting in Bakau by their reporter which gave rise to an equally superficial and hasty reaction by Sarja Taal. Any body who knows how PDOIS conducts its politics would know that Sidia Jatta could not possibly ask how government utilises tax money when he already knows. One would instead expect PDOIS to explain how the tax money is used and give an alternative policy. We did indicate at the rally how the people contribute over 1000 million dalasis to government revenue and how the public corporations made a turn over of D900,000,000 last year. We did add that the public corporations had an investment capacity of 1.12 billion dalasis in 1999. We proved that the government lacks vision on how to invest this sum of money to develop the productive base of the economy.. We did explain how PDOIS would have invested such money. Furthermore Halifa Sallah did explain how the government had dragged its feet on the local government bill and that there are machinations to make local government elections non partisan against the principles of pluralism. He also indicated how chieftaincy election are undermined by the lack of a local government Act and so and so forth. The Observer reporter however simply mentioned that democracy is being stifled instead giving the concrete criticisms PDOIS gave. Suffice it to say neither Halifa Sallah nor any PDOIS member could ever say that the Gambian People should vote for PDOIS because it is better than other parties as the Observer reporter indicated. Such demagogy is not PDOIS ' style Such a style of reporting promotes pettiness between political parties. The Observers reporter did not state any facts and just gave the impression that we were just blowing hot air. We can therefore understand why Sarja Taal had to foam in the mouth when he read the Observer report. We are amused that he speaks the same langauge as Lamin Juwara and ex-president Jawara in criticising PDOIS by turning to the communist scare-crow. We will be inviting Sarja Taal to a debate on theissues he raised We hope he knows that this is an enlightened generation and people are demanding for facts to back all allegations. Deception is no longer possible. We will have an interview with the Observer to clarify issues or have an extensive report on the meeting in FOROYAA and analysis of Sarja Taal's superficial reactions. PDOIS stands for the politics of issues. We do not have any penchant for pettiness. We hope reporters who cover our meetings would contact us for accurate summaries of what we said to avoid misrepresentation which can be politically expensive. We did not feel left out if any media ignores PDOIS' rally should they find it difficult to report what we say accurately. We do not want to engage in any polemics with any media house. We respect their independence and would respect their opinion as long as they do not claim that their words came from our from mouth Halifa Sallah ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------