Anybody that says that I (personally) advocated for the return of Jawara as a presidential candidate will be telling a blatant lie. I might have been one of the most vocal advocates for Jawara’s return. But in what role? I have categorically stated that the man should be encouraged to return and support the presidential candidate that is going to be selected by the CURRENT OPPOSITION LEADERS. Jawara can be very effective in defending the PPP record and discrediting AFPRC/APRC justification for taking over. Rather than current Opposition leaders tackling Yaya when Yaya tries to compare himself with PPP, let the PPP fight that battle. Simple as that. For people now to twist this logic and make it appear as if I am advocating for Jawara to become our next president, is just mind-boggling to me. To this day I can only name one person in the Opposition on G_L that is saying that the Decree 89 politicians should also be given an opportunity to lead. One person. Granted, I delete a lot of mails without reading them, but I am pretty certain I would have read a mail under my heading advocating for Jawara to return as a leader. To my knowledge, only Jassey-Conteh said that we should not close the door on Decree 89 politicians’ chances of leading he Coalition. Although I do NOT agree with Jassey-Conteh on this, I respect his stance. Now, where is all this talk about people advocating for Jawara’s return to the presidency coming from? Let us shoot straight and quit talking in innuendo. I still firmly believe that the man should be encouraged to come home and defend his record and lend his support to the Opposition presidential candidate. Even if I am convinced that the current Opposition can win without Jawara, I will NOT recommend to the Opposition to snub Jawara. If the Opposition can canvass for 90% of the votes, why settle for less? No one can deny that Jawara still has a following back home. Would we rather have those people vote for APRC or abstain from voting for the candidate the current Opposition is going to choose? If we want the support of these Gambians (that are still loyal to Jawara) we do NOT go around alienating them by attacking their leaders. What does the Opposition seek to gain by attacking Jawara? Preventing him from becoming the next president? This is premised on the notion that he wants to become the next president. Not a single person can truthfully say here on G_L that Jawara said that he wanted to become the next president. Like I already said, apart from Jassey-Conteh, there is NOBODY in the Opposition is even remotely saying that they want Jawara to become the next president. And even Jassey-Conteh is NOT saying that he wants Jawara per se. It is practically impossible for that to happen. So, why use this false premise in order to attack the man? Attacking the man serves one purpose. It helps Yaya and his gang stand up and say that it was justified for them to take over. Attacking Jawara is NOT helping us right old wrongs by preventing him from gaining power again. The law already says that he CANNOT run in October. Besides, it is practically impossible for the man to go back and run a political campaign that is going to overshadow our current Opposition leaders. Our current leaders are lot stronger than that. I hope the leaders on the ground will embrace the Degree 89 politicians and ask for their support. We need NOT force these people to the APRC camp or away from us. The ex-PPP politicians, in particular, are very important because (among other things) they need to defend their record against attacks from APRC. We would rather that PPP fight that battle than say UDP, NRP or PDOIS. For example, if Yaya wants to boast about a University and belittle PPP, rather than Darboe tackling that, let Jawara explain how Yaya built on what already existed in the form of GTTI, MDI, Hotel School, Nursing School, Yundum College, etc. That is the wavelength some of us are at. Division of labor. Tactical Alliance. Now, if the Opposition wants to use PPP in this manner in the Coalition, we do NOT go around singing APRC songs like Jawara was here 30 years and did not do a thing. KB _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------