Brothers Jassey-Conteh, Mo Baldeh, Joe, Buharry, and All, One would have thought that even with Halifa, OJ, and Hamat Bah locked away, what NADD needed to do first was to deliver on Hon. Halifa Sallah's promise to impeach President Jammeh should he fail to apologise for his gross conjectures about the opposition's conspiracy to fan the flames of conflict with Senegal. This, of course should have followed a vehement denunciation of the police authorities for publicly coating Hon. Sallah, NADD coordinator, as a de facto fugitive. The state's disinformation tactic aimed tacitly to humiliate Halifa's person, was not simply desperately risible. It was repulsive and symptomatic of a government that has jettisoned all moral bearings in its ruthless exercise of power. NADD's failure to act on this initial committment left it without the necessary momentum to forge ahead with subsequent mass action during the weeks following the incaceration of the three leaders. Happily, we all should hope that the current order of things ought to bring definitive closure to that nightmare. Yet realistically, in a state where the rule of law has been under siege by those who are mandated to enforce it, hope itself becomes ephemeral. Hoping for a permanent truce between the adversarial political camps may be wishful thinking. What then should NADD do?? Before venturing any opinion on that, allow me to lay bare our weighty dilemma. Thanks partly to globalisation there are fairly sizeable commuinities of us (i.e Gambians and their friends) across the world gradually growing in intellectual, economic, and political influence in our country of origin. It is only natural that in time we shall particiapte ever more actively in the political life of our country, and so make demands for degrees of representation consummate with the collective influence we are able to wield. This influence so far, is most dramatically expressed economically. Without the remittances and investments from diasporan Gambians, scores of thousands of families will suffer untold misereis; many businesses will collapse throwing thousands into unemployment in an environment bereft of social safety nets. Government's (tax) revenue base will shrink further as local consumption plummets. In the long run price hikes will force even the godliest into the streets perhaps peacefully but angrily demanding for bread and jobs. [In the late eighites, in the wake of the IMF's first wave of Structural Adjustment Programmes, there were food riots in many African countries. President Jawara, introduced it in Gambia, but not even a mouse openly squeaked about hunger!. I am inclined to think though, that the geography of hunger then and now are quite different]. In short, brothers and sisters, we can create hell for the Jammeh regime, but at the cost of untold suffering of our people. Added to that is the fact that most of us are sincerely or otherwise aligned with the opposition, which is a damn good thing given the circumstances. Placing demands on the opposition in view of our political and economic clout is not as tricky as it sounds. Not to speak up our minds about what we think is a tragic case of self-censure. We know there are people who will as swiftly caution us for inciting mass action from the cosy and plastic interiors of our European condos, thousands of kilometres away from the eye of the storm. True, it will sound morally decrepit to suggest action that may cause death or imprisonment. But we would also be welcome members of the African fraternity of coconut heads if we fail to tell ourselves that PROTEST must be used as a legitimate weapon in the struggle against tyranny. In the same vein, we must also uphold the view that as long as we remian sincere, the ethical foundations of criticism must remain robust even if we are not able to offer reasonable alternatives. Criticism and self-criticism are organisational instruments that must be welcome at all times. Better still if alternative courses of action can be offered. Solidarity within the oppositon must be strong enough to withstand introspection from within. By all means, Sidia Jatta's reasons for not holding a demonstration are defensive and defeatist. A massive peaceful demonstration needed to be organised on behalf of the detained trio for various reasons. Firstly, it should have been held to actively inform the regime that people have a rigth to protest and to challenge the regime to make sure there are "No Bullets And Soldiers In Our Streets". Of course, President Jammeh may be a severe case of schizophrenia and so may order shooting peaceful demonstratorsis six months away from the AU summit he has worked so hard to host. In that case he may be Sani Abacha's redeemer. Secondly, a demonstration is perhaps the most effective method for public sensitisation. Imaginative slogans and songs often loudly say what most people think but are afraid to speak about. Capturing the public's imagination turns out to be more powerful than its deepest fears. In the third instance, a demonstration would have provided NADD the opportunity to wrest the political initiative from Jammeh's incontinent hands, and stop reacting to his violent paroxysm of unstatemanly natter. NADD must as of now take control of the political agenda and lay out a counter offensive toward the elections: rallies in chosen constituencies, public awareness campaigns on NADD's transitional agenda, workshops, seminars. It must put the APRC on the defensive by challenging it about its dismal record: unsolved murders, political assasinations, weeding out the green(!) boys, the continuous assault on the press and other media and journalists in particular. There are legions of issues: power supply, water, corruption, the presidential jet(!), infrastructure decay in the country-side, arbitrary dismissals, etc. Last year while most of us celebrated the orange revolution in Ukraine that brought Victor Yushchenko to power, I lamented that Gambia was an entierly different ball game. That reality has never been clearer than now. NADD's natural allies in the struggle for democratic rights and the reinstatement of the rule of law, Gambian workers and students seem completely oblivious of the tragedy being outplayed under their nose. To attend a university whose campuses are one of the worst equipped in the world while the president of our nation of just a million and half (with no oil) acquires a private jet and pretend that as absolutely normal is simply a historical aberration. That Gambian workers, professionals, civil servants and students should observe in solemn acquiescence the gradual escalation of repressive measures and abuse of rights and arbitrary dismissals without summoning the courage to organise autonomously against such humiliation vitiates the very history of student and worker militancy and protest of former decades. There is no point in wishing that we were as demonstration prone as South Koreans. But to wait till election day in order to vote out a regime that is monthly busy killing and jailing us, and refraining from publicly but peacefully exhibiting our anger at this indignity, is to have no use for all the intelligence and knowledge inside the world! As we endear NADD to act, those of us in the diaspora must help raise resources for the project of flushing the APRC from State House. Added to that, there is a moral obligation to recognise and respect ordinary people's legitimate sources of fear; and here we are dealing with a regime under whose watch Gambians have been killed and maimed without a "peanut being cracked"! While avoiding every tendency to classification into a "we" and "them" category, all of us as citizens must claim with one voice that these heavy layers of fear need to be systematically peeled away from the public subconscious. It can be done by scoring small victories one at a time, gradually persuading the fearful, that a bigger victory is possible if our numbers grow. One such small victory was the defeat of the APRC at local elections in August. NADD should build on the momentum produced by that victory by organising a peaceful protest in reaction to the illegal arrest of Hamat Bah, Omar Jallow (OJ), and Halifa Sallah. Finally, I hope NADD will strategise promptly and mobilise and reinvigorate its organisational structures so as to be able to effectively activate the membership and supporters. Many thanks to you all, Momodou S Sidibeh いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html 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] いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい