Gassama, it is refreshing to hear that you do NOT hate Jawara and in your own words, “to say that Jawara did a lot for the country would be an understatement”. The things some will say to be taken seriously. I do NOT even think I have been this glowing with my remarks about Jawara. I guess after you realized that you were NOT dealing with someone that was in the Diaspora the past 20 years, you decided to change your tact from saying that Jawara tried to ‘subjugate’ a whole nation by ‘deliberately’ denying them education, to now saying that “he (Jawara) has done his best for the country and it would be dishonest of [you] not to acknowledge that”. Emphasis mine. See, Gassama, if you are interested in a real postmortem of the Jawara era, I suggest you engage people like OJ or other PPP stalwarts that worked in the system. I have told you on numerous occasions that I am NOT interested in defending the indefensible aspects of the PPP record. What I set out to do is set the record straight when people like you attempt to distort the PPP record IN ORDER TO MAKE YAYA LOOK GOOD. I sincerely hope you get that this time. That way, you will save me from dwelling on frivolous issues about a government that is NO MORE and will NEVER happen again. I think most of you conveniently forgot my stance about PPP and their participation in the Alliance. I understand that for some of you life would be easier if you can go with Jassey-Conteh’s LIES and argue that I oppose Yaya because of vested interest I had in the Jawara regime. See, that helps you to feel that people only oppose Yaya because of narrow self-interest, and therefore it is justified for you also to support the man because of narrow self-interests. Well, you can convince yourselves about my motives for opposing Yaya. Contrary to what you think, I CANNOT DICTATE how you decipher information. I only have control of what I write. How you receive that information is up to you. Yes, there are a lot of people that oppose Yaya based on purely principled grounds. I happen to believe that anybody that orders the massacre of children as young as three, in cold blood, does NOT deserve to lead us. That person belongs in jail. That is my beef with Yaya. Go check the archives. Everything else came after that. If you want, you can still support Yaya DESPITE these atrocities. I will NEVER support him, especially when I know that he does NOT have anything extraordinary to offer us in terms of uplifting poor Gambians. Your government’s own records have shown that Gambians have grown POORER under Yaya’s watch. Why on earth seemingly intelligent people will unashamedly support a callous leader that has rendered our people poorer, is honestly beyond me. You can shout all you can about Yaya’s ‘developments’. What you CANNOT run away from is the fact that the net effect of those ‘developments’ rendered the people POORER and they are going to suffer for generations to come because of the debts this illegal government has saddled us with. So do NOT give me crap about Yaya having a vision for the country. The vision he has could be exhibited by any High School graduate in the country. We do NOT need that ‘development’ and the callousness it comes with. Who needs a government that does NOT even have the wherewithal to ensure that farmers (the bulk of the people in the society) earn a decent living from their sweat and toil? Gassama, that is where we differ. I do NOT tolerate mediocrity in any shape or form; let alone mediocrity accompanied by the callousness and the corruption of the AFPRC/APRC. You on the other hand, are prepared to IGNORE Yaya’s abuses so long as the mediocrity in the society continues. Even if people like Emanuel Joof (whom you claimed to be friends with) is abused, you still prefer to keep quiet about it and continue to support Yaya’s diabolical regime. With friends like you, Joof does NOT need enemies. I wonder where you were when Emmanuel was being railroaded by Joseph Joof asking Police Officers to fabricate evidence against the man? I hope you understand my stance better now. Right after the election an APRC supporter I know called me to gloat. The first thing he told me was to ask me why I opposed PPP and I am also unhappy with APRC. See, people like me do NOT just support a government because they are in power. When PPP was in power, I criticized them for their wrongs. Now that APRC is in power, I will also criticize them for their wrongs. NOT to have PPP back, BUT to have a Gambia that is better than anything we have seen before. I do NOT LIE for any government in power in order to make ends meet. KB _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>> To view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] <<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>//\\<<//\\>>