Brother Sidibeh, You wrote: " So for goodness' sake, why, after fifteen hard years on the tracks, is PDOIS, boasting a leadership with impeccable integrity, perhaps the best educated, the most down-to-earth, still trailing the voter statistics at under 3%? Why?..." The answer is because the education of our people to what the proper criterion to use in selecting a leader is yet incomplete and we have people who although they recognize and extol the virtues of an organization like PDOIS, will at the same time turn around and make statements like you have made here. The above alas! is the battle cry of the UDP/NRP of late. Because If the people are educated about their rights, they will naturally choose an organization like PDOIS instead of letting themselves be used a pawns in the political game by those who recognize the truth but choose to perpetuate the ignorance of the people for their own benefit. You wrote: "The elusiveness of the answer to this question, perhaps only a temporal difficulty is one important reason why PDOIS itself saw the need to work with other parties, parties that we may disapprove of for various reasons, to build a coalition to remove the APRC from power." Was the coalition the idea of PDOIS alone? Like the UDP/NRP misinformation campaign, you make it appear as if PDOIS initiated the idea of a coalition for the sole purpose of having a chance at power and that is also the simplistic battle cry of the UDP but Gambians are not buying that fallacy anymore. Does the reality on the ground not dictate to any sober thinking person that without a coalition of the opposition, none of them possesses the required number of votes to beat the APRC? I believe you have said the same thing many times. What use is the UDP/NRP's 46% if it is not enough to win the elections? You are right, PDOIS saw a need to work with others in a coalition when the idea was presented to them as did the UDP and NRP, or at least that is what they made the people believe, and PDOIS, NDAM and the other players have never abandoned that ideal. They are not the ones who walked away. On the other hand, the UDP/NRP's reasons for leaving the coalition is abundantly clear to everyone although they insist on trying to make us believe it is anything other than what is so obvious. This supposedly paltry 3% is also needed by the UDP/NRP alliance because obviously, their 46% is not enough to win the presidency, and this paltry 3% symbolizes the sad state of our people as it evidences their ignorance to what qualifies good leadership and is a testament to the fact that others are exploiting this ignorance and can therefore point to it as a weakness for a party that no sincere Gambian can honestly say does not have the interest of the nation at heart. Anyone who dwells on the fact that PDOIS is able to draw only 3% of the vote in a national election instead of mourning it as an indication of our people's lack of education as to their rights and what constitutes good leadership choices cannot have the interest of our country and our people at heart and is clearly interested in preserving something other than what is best for all Gambians. Jabou Joh In a message dated 9/10/2006 2:25:41 P.M. Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Sister Jabou, For obvious reasons of principles (earlier stated) I would limit my response to the following: On Saturday, december 1, 2001, in a rejoinder to one Sister Mariatou and Brother Yahya on Gambia-L, and in support of their view on the election results, I asked the following question: "...But in the mean time, here is my 1000 dalasi question? Yes, I too do not entirely agree with PDOIS economic thinking yet I am confident that it was not on account of their econmics that most Gambians voted for other parties. So for goodness' sake, why, after fifteen hard years on the tracks, is PDOIS, boasting a leadership with impeccable integrity, perhaps the best educated, the most down-to-earth, still trailing the voter statistics at under 3%? Why?..." The elusiveness of the answer to this question, perhaps only a temporal difficulty is one important reason why PDOIS itself saw the need to work with other parties, parties that we may disapprove of for various reasons, to build a coalition to remove the APRC from power. Faced with an engine of tyranny like the APRC, I want to believe that slamming the door on all future possibilities of a rapprochement I think is simply futile. Other matters you raised I would discuss after the elections not as a way of apportioning blame, but as a way of pointing out serious tactical and strategic errors that may perhaps help in a small way, in charting out a viable path towards our common liberation. That, I believe, should be the mission of criticism and self-criticism especially amongst progressives. Many many thanks, 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 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