Mo, thanks for your post and I agree that the opposition should have been consumed with campaigning against Jammeh, together, but that is not to be and I think most Gambians have reconciled or are close to reconciling with that disappointment. Gambians have been asking anyone that wish to lead them to show us their road map and thus the reason why NADD spent almost three years to come up with one. With the split, Gambians now want to match the two strategies of the opposition and adopt the one that would give us results. So, when the UDP/NRP present us with a documnent that most have never seen, since their appearance as a party, naturally, it draws most of us to it. Then a bombshell gets dropped that the document is taken from the among other players, the APRC. Regardless of the fights we had within the opposition camp, it is very very vital that we scrutinize any that want to lead us, especially, having seen what Jammeh has done to us, the more important that we cross our Ts and dot our Is. This is not about those that do not support UDP/NRP finding an excuse, but rather, whether the UDP/NRP are infact ready and equipped to lead us. We had said we "Give the Boys a Chance", now look at what the Boyz have done and will continue to do for us? Thus, if we excuse this because we should not expose the opposition, then we are bound to repeat the same mistakes. What the AFPRC is doing to Gambians, other "civilian" governments in Africa are doing to their people. I support NADD, but the faith of Gambia is over NADD's any day. We want to be liberated and not be railroaded. I am just speechless that all these years that the UDP, especially, have been claiming that they have the numbers and should lead the opposition, that they do not have a road map to lead us to the future. Even if they wrote a page a month, they would have had a strategy moons ago, adding to the material that the AFPRC provides them daily. So, let's say the UDP wins this election, what are they going to do for Gambians? It is an embarrassment that such a party with legal minds would drop the ball at the last minute of the contest. It is the truth that will set us free and Gambians must challenge any that wants to lead them. If we don't, then we are playing Russian Roulette with our future. Chi jaama Joe >From: Momodou S Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list ><[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: FWD: THE ALLIANCE for REGIME CHANGE/Sidibeh >Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 21:37:06 +0200 > > Sister Jabou Joh, > > Not that there should be no policy documents or election manifestoes >authored partly to win sympathy or support from the literate constituency. >But rather, to question and even provoke a rethinking of the ways we look >at and judge political processes in our polity. > > Because the efforts for a broader coalition of the Opposition has failed, >supporters of different alliances are now busy demonising one another, even >though it is clear as noon day that neither NADD nor the UDP/NRP are the >major obstacles to social reform. So my position is that those who should >place these policy documents and their presenters under scrutiny ought >temselves be the initial objects of some such scrutiny. > > Independent-minded journalists whose critique would have been most >welcomed are now almost effectively silenced. When once the respected >corps of journalists demonstrated in paying tribute to Deyda Hydara, >gunned down by thugs, not a single politician - unless I am grossly >mistaken - joined their ranks to vent their anger at such brazen political >assasination. But perhaps of even greater import, is the fact that ordinary >people again, managed to remain unmoved by yet another outrage. Just as all >the anger fizzled away after the April 2000 massacre, as a great number of >Gambians voted the APRC into office after 18 months, inspite of the >made-in-Gambia election gimmickry. > > My point is that ordinary tired workers, poorer peasants, angry students, >tried journalists, pauperized women, brutalised civil servants, taciturn >intellectuals and disgruntled politicians all constitute a national >community of descent that since independence in 1965, never found a common >historical mission to pursue with relentless zeal. > I say it is time we rethink the entire dynamics of political processes in >Gambia and how to alter them for the better. The divisions within the >Opposition is reflective of the divisions within the larger community of >descent. > > When the politicians failed to cobble a coalition after so much work by >many Gambians, especially diasporan Gambians I should say, some documents >for regime change will prove to be little more than academic material. >There is great probability that the Opposition will fail to unseat the >APRC. Yet again. > > Cheers, > sidibeh > > >To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >Web interface >at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html > >To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: >http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.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 To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.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