----- Original Message ----- From: "Momodou S Sidibeh" <[log in to unmask]> To: "The Gambia and related-issues mailing list" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 9:37 PM Subject: Re: FWD: THE ALLIANCE for REGIME CHANGE/Sidibeh 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 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