Folks, below, Waa Juwara is wielding both a carrot and a stick in my opinion. Whereas, he has the right to say whatever he wishes, but he also better feel the temperature of the Gambian Masses. Instead of Waa engaging his Alternative partners, he has decided to conduct a preemptive strive and unnecessary mudslinging, "Bantaba Style". I think his politics need to be more matured than that. How did Waa come to the conclusion that the nominated presidential candidate for the Alternative is going to be Ousainou Darbo or from the UDP? Gambians are not going to tolerate any divisive tactics from any of its leaders and Waa needs to know that if he does not already. His Secretary General, Ousainou Mbenga was at the Atlanta Conference and heard what Gambians want and expect from the Alternative. Now, if Waa wants to act like he never heard about what went down, then that is going to be to his downfall. I hope he is not deluding himself into thinking that he can win solo with all this waffling. Gambians, both at home and abroad are strategizing for a complete campaign package to get rid of these criminals and Waa is bugging us with sound bites. Talking about the Last elections, Waa is just as guilty as any he is accusing for the scam of an opposition they crafted. I hope those that are advising him counsel him of his attempt at political suicide. Mr. Juwara, have you taken up any of these concerns of yours with the other Alternative leaders? If not, why not? I know folks are just playing a wait and see with this initial gun shot from Waa, but I cannot help but also remind Waa of what his Secretary General pledged to and what Gambians are not going to tolerate - another five years with these crimininals and would dump any that attempts to. Folks, the more I read this flip flop from Waa, the more this whole article borders on nothing but someone that just want to blow hot air, and Waa needs to be told. As Ndam Set Their Own Terms Opposition Coalition in Disarray? The Independent (Banjul) August 29, 2003 Posted to the web August 29, 2003 Pa Modou Bojang Banjul Lamin Waa Juwara is set to cause emotive ripples in the precarious waters of Gambian politics by his critical and brazen assertion that an opposition alliance crystallized into a coalition is not the ultimate answer to the country's political problems, epitomised by Yahya Jammeh's leadership. He believes instead that the right endeavours should be geared towards "improving the climate" for free and fair elections, which he claimed has been denied Gambians for the better part of nine years. Mr. Juwara who has a penchant for controversial political standpoints strongly criticised the proposed idea of a coalition of Gambian opposition parties as carrying the wrong signals about the political needs of the country. "An opposition coalition is not necessarily the solution. Only free and fair elections, which have never been conducted since Yahya Jammeh came to power can salvage Gambians from his kleptocratic rule" the leader of the country's newest political organisation pointed out. Mr. Juwara said the first step towards realising an election free from the flaws and manipulations of the past two elections would be to ensure that each political party is represented by a Commissioner in the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) with a view to determining the free and fair nature of the next elections in three year's time. He said the other opposition organisations are so immersed in the plot to dispense with Jammeh's rule that they were already forgetting to right the electoral wrongs that had riddled past polls, the results of which in his opinion were a forgone conclusion of defeat for the APRC. He said it was his honest opinion that this "tactical mistake" should be corrected before he could lend his party's political weight to any ensuing coalition aimed at plotting Jammeh's hegemonic downfall. Although Juwara made it clear that NDAM was not ruling out the possibility or doubting the viability of any opposition coalition, in the same breath he emphasised that his party "would not run through the pattern of any other party and we would never associate with any party if the priorities are not clearly formulated that would ensure free and fair elections. We cannot liberate the Gambian people, but we can lead them to liberate themselves". Mr. Juwara said the idea of an opposition coalition was "blown out of all proportions and that was why, we are not making strident steps towards it". According to Juwara as far as NDAM is concerned, "we were invited at the Meet the Diaspora Summit in Atlanta to discuss the idea of an alliance - an opposition alliance against Jammeh but suddenly everything was blown out of proportion. The other opposition parties were sending the wrong signals by trying to pave the way for the same man who had inefficiently led the opposition in the last elections to lead them again. That cannot be acceptable as far as we are concerned". Mr. Juwara made pointing reference to the United Democratic Party leader Ousainou Darboe and accused him of "blundering" in his supposedly indecent haste to lead the opposition alliance in the last elections. Juwara claimed that the opposition coalition of the past was being sucked into the same politics of money, as was the trademark of the APRC regime, which was so insecure that its leadership had resorted to reprehensible vote buying and chicanery. He said a successful coalition must break from that norm and espouse "clean politics", which would not only encourage responsible politics but also help to differentiate between them and the "irresponsible politics" of the ruling party. "If money was the solution, we should be reminded that President Jammeh with all the money at his disposal shouldn't have lost some percentage in the last polls. Jammeh has shown that he will retain power by fair or foul means. We could team up against him but the right political climate should be there for it to be given any chance to succeed" he argued. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: Get 6 months for $9.95/month. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~