Coalition Chairman Talks Tough The Independent (Banjul) August 31, 2001 Posted to the web August 31, 2001 Shiekh Al-Kinky Sanyang Banjul, the Gambia The chairman of the coalition of opposition parties, Assan Musa Camara has charged angrily at the ruling APRC for asserting that thirty years of PPP rule brought nothing to The Gambia and her people. He dismissed as untrue claims that old guard politicians in the first republic did not effect any development after thirty years in office. Speaking at a rally organized by the coalition of opposition parties, Camara invited the APRC leadership to a debate over the socio-political and economic situation of the country in the past seven years to what obtained under the first republic. This he said is to put the records straight, since "at independence in 1965 there was absolutely nothing, no resources, no development budget and the recurrent budget was being subsidized by the colonial government." "Never in the history of the country has democracy been openly murdered" he said, referring to what he called 'the adulteration of the political system with a militaristic element'. Mr. Camara, a former vice-president posited that the replacement of an elected government by a military government and subsequently by a so-called civilian military government has led to a serious setback in the economy. He said most of the people who said the PPP regime did nothing attended primary and high schools that were established by that regime. He emphasized that salaries have almost remained the same in the past seven years while the inflationary rate has become astronomical. _________________________________________________________________ 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------