The following is culled from Burning Issues (FOROYAA Publication) Wednesday, 7 March 2001 ********************************* On The Meeting Of Gambian Opposition Parties In London Dear Editors, We have been hearing about a meeting between Gambian opposition parties at the house of commons in Britain. It is not clear to me whether PDOIS was invited or not. It is also not clear what the meeting was all about. Gambians are very much interested in knowing PDOIS's position on the meeting. The rumours are many. Some claimed that the opposition parties are calling on the British government to put pressure on the Gambia government to remove Decree 89. Others are saying that the meeting intends to call for intervention of the British government in pressurising the Gambia Government to have greater respect human rights and democracy. It would be appreciated if FOROYAA explain PDOIS's position. A concern citizen. FOROYAA's Explanation 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. According to John McDonald, the MP for Hayes and harlington there are many Gambians refugees resident in his constituency. He therefore saw the need to get briefings from representatives of the Gambian opposition on the plight of the Gambian people. Mr. McDonald therefore convened a meeting on Wednesday 28 February 2001 at committee room 10 at the house of commons to which representatives of opposition parties were invited to brief him. While PDOIS has no objection for any Gambian abroad to try to promote good governance in the Gambia for PDOIS representatives to leave the Gambia only to brief a British MP on what is happening in the Gambia so that he can raise parliamentary questions when the opposition has earned so much respect from the British High Commission to the point that the high commission often reacts to any deterioration of the democratisation process would tantamount to acknowledge of impotency. Such briefings should be done by Gambian refugees who should be contributing their quota at that level. PDOIS considers its self to be more effective in promoting change in the Gambia than a British MP. In our view, the limited work of trying to promote the restoration of democracy in the Gambia should be done by human rights advocacy groups. PDOIS is engaged in the work of transforming the Gambia. We are now building grassroot committees for the enlightenment of the people. What we need from Gambians are resources to carry out the work at a much faster pace. PDOIS is capable of challenging the APRC regime. We cannot be intimidated by any one. PDOIS recommended for the banned politicians to cooperate to have a test case, for example any one of them especially Sheriff Dibba could have put up his candidature for Central Baddibou to see whether the IEC will reject his nomination papers or not. He could have even withdraw his nomination papers if it was accepted. On the other hand, he could have gone to the supreme court for further declaration on the constitutionality of decree 89 in light of the rights to stand for election granted by section 26 of the constitution and paragraph 6 of the second schedule which requires the modification of laws to suit the provisions of the constitution. PDOIS is willing to support any move to ensure that only the Gambian people will decide who should represent them. PDOIS considers it to be outright tyranny for any political leadership to arbitrarily exclude any other Gambian from exercising their right to stand for elections. Regardless of how we see the PPP, PDOIS holds that it should be left to defend its record before the people if it has any record to defend. PDOIS maintains that the APRC's draconian decree is unconstitutional and should be challenged. It is an obstacle to the democratisation process. If all parties were allowed to operate freely after the transition Gambia would have now had a political atmosphere under which the parties would be pulling their records before the people and be judged on the basis of the merits of their programmes instead of the situation we have now when human rights issues are the burning issues. The APRC needs to gain maturity after 6 years of AFPRC and APRC government. Going into hysteria just because those it bans are holding a meeting in London is not the answer. The answer is to lift the ban and then get the mature party supporters who can argue their case against the other political parties in order to win the support of the people. PDOIS also call on opponents of the government to trust our own abilities to change the country. We must not undermine our achievements. We must not see our salvation to depend on a British MP. We must show that we are capable of defending the sovereignty of this country. We must therefore rely on our people for change. Gambians abroad should know that they do not have impotent opposition parties who need to be rescued by British MPs. What they need to do is send resources to the parties of their choice to facilitate a change of government. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------