Folks, I do not think that there is one Gambian that can in good conscience, have an issue with the service, dedication, and commitment of halifa Sallah to the positive uplift of Gambians. So, why did Gambians vote the way they did? Why did Gambians re-elect a murderer and a thief that has been killing and stealing from them for the past 12 years? This is not about being afraid, but rather what Gambians wanted to do for what ever justification. After they voted the murderer back into office, how are the masses coping with paying their kid's education? How is their health? How about their living condition? Do they have clean drinking water, etc.? The answer is, nothing has change and will change for them but to continue to live miserably for the next five years. We were reckless in what we chose, thus we shall live the outcome of our decisions. That is those on the ground, in the pit of the fire. Now, to those that are thousands of miles away, we have our own share of responsibility in this lost opportunity. First of all, Gambians watched the only organization that dedicated its time, efforts, and resources for the uplift of Gambian interest, get wrestled and bogged down by dishonest and incompetent self serving party organizations, mounted on tribalism and nothing else. STGDP worked for four years bringing Gambians together to form a united front against the rogue government in the Gambia; brought the four political party leaders to the table to also form a united front to challenge and defeat the APRC; Raised funds from within and among Gambians and helped the predecessor of NADD and NADD to contest and win elections; sponsored a radio program that gave the opposition a voice to be heard by Gambians on the ground; lobbied congress men and women and the US state Department, civic orgs. and interest groups to address the Gambian situation, etc. All this, only to see a bunch of tribalist that have no agenda but to push for ethnic superiority and alliance to shatter the hopes and dreams of all Gambians, including their very selves. Those who knew better took the philosophical route under the banner of intellectualism, skirting taking on the backwardness that confront them. In the end, with the help of few other Gambians, the same STGDP members dug into their pockets to fulfill their civic responsibility to our people and ourselves and give their best. However, as stated below, that was not nearly enough to fight a kleptocracy with millions of dollars. We did not need to match the Kleptocracy dollar for dollar, or in percentage accumulation. All NADD needed was something as little as $100,000 or less, to be able to carry their message consistently in the last weeks before the elections. Gambians, you and I, in the diaspora, refused to support a program we all agreed is the best that ever happened to us. This is a time for all of us to reflect on our sincerity and honesty on what we want to see in our country. Now that we are seeing the result of what we allowed to happen, happen, we have an opportunity to start the rebuilding process. All must be tasked to action and not speech alone. Do we want to increase the voice of the opposition in the NA? If no, then we can continue to do nothing and be fatalistic. If yes, then, are we willing to dig into our pockets to work with the opposition and increase their numbers? Can we get a commitment for each to contribute at a minimum, $100, toward our liberation? Folks, that is a very small price to pay for ones liberation or empowerment. Now, we can philosophize all we want, in the end, money is needed to make this happen. Can we commit to continuing our journey towards our liberation, that is the question. Can we speak with one voice after our commitment, to hold accountable any that is against our collective interest? Folks, this in simple language means that we dedicate ourselves to our national interest, and not tribal, religious, or other sub interests. Leadership is very important in any struggle and so, we cannot afford to allow any that do not share the common interest to disrupt or soil our collective resolve. The is an opportunity for us to rehabilitate ourselves, or a continuation of the path that kept yielding us disastrous results. What say the people? I raise my hand to this challenge and more, any yeah's or nays? Chi Jaama Joe NADD FLAG BEARER ON THE ELECTION The lessons are clear. The destiny of the Gambian Republic lies in the sovereign hands of her sovereign people. In the same vein, my political weight and fate lie in their hands. Of course, it is rational to conclude that people just decided to vote for either candidate for the presidency because of their assumption that NADD cannot win and then proceed to prophecy that voters in Serrekunda Central will vote for me in the National Assembly election. I will not allow my mind to harbour such a fanciful logic. Hence if I were to be asked whether I will be a candidate in the forthcoming National Assembly elections my answer will be simple. My political fate now hangs on the balance of probabilities. It is for the people to decide. It is not for me to decide. To me representation is not a career but a duty that one is called upon to perform. Whenever the people want me to rest I will gladly do so. I have gained nothing from politics. The fact that Wuli East and Wuli West gave me second place in the election while Serrekunda Central gave me in 2006 almost 1/3 of the votes they gave me in the by elections of 2005 must not be taken lightly. I need to know how the people in Serrekunda Central rank me in terms of message, credibility, popularity or charisma and trustworthiness. I want the voters in Serrekunda Central to answer these four fundamental questions for me. During the Presidential campaign, did they find my message to be inferior to those of the other two candidates? Did they find me to be less credible than the other two candidates? Was I less charismatic or popular than them? Did I inspire less trust and confidence than them? If their answers are in the positive then I have no reason to contest National Assembly elections not to talk about future presidential elections. If their answers are in the negative then I would want to know what motivated them to vote the way they did. In short, if the good Jola is one who votes for Yahya Jammeh, the good Mandinka is one who votes for Darboe, the good Fula is one who is under the dictate of Hamat and good Manjago is one who follows Henry, then where is the place of Halifa Sallah, a detribalized human being who has long committed tribal suicide and belong to no tribe in Gambian politics. If this is how people intend to conduct politics in this country then let me be excused to build my centre for Social Science Research and civic awareness and leave the task of liberating The Gambia to the future generation. In order to interact with the electorate, I will conduct a constituency tour to listen to what people have to say regarding my role as their representative these past four years. I will start the tour on Tuesday, 31st October and continue up to Sunday. I will send people to visit voters and get their opinions. I will conduct the widest possible consultation to determine my political weight and fate as the Member of Parliament for Serrekunda Central Constituency. I hope the people in Serrekunda Central are fully aware that it is the executive, the Office of President which has mandate to make policies, prepare a budget to be approved and monitored by the National Assembly to solve the problems of the nation. It is the role of the KMC to raise funds from the rates, licences and taxes to provide good roads, public taps, street lights, proper waste collection facilities, recreational facilities, markets, community centres and so on. The duty of a National Assembly Member is to serve as a watch dog to tell the executive what it should do and inform the people whether it is being done or not. This is how they can put pressure on the executive just as I have put pressure on them regarding the terrible conditions, which existed near Sandika in Serrekunda. National Assembly members should combat bad laws and promote good laws. They should conduct civic education to educate their electorate. It is now left to them to determine the type of MP they want in January 2007. I have done the best I can. I have exposed how women still draw water from wells and queue for hours to get water from taps 500 to 1000 metres away. I have exposed the poor road conditions. I have exposed the unemployment situation and the high cost of education. I have done what is not even the role of an MP, that is, to deposit half of my National Assembly income in to a fund that some borrow from to run small scale businesses or sponsor disadvantaged students. We have launched sponsorship schemes for poor students sponsored by interested persons; provide vocational training to members of the community, provide football gears to children, established a counseling service to settle land disputes, marital problems, juvenile delinquency cases, psychological problems, labour disputes. We have a library where students conduct research and seek advice to write their thesis and dissertations. There is not a week that we are not invited to present papers or give lectures to societies and schools. Most of the monies received from workshops go to finance the fees of students including the education trust fund for girls. We are consulted by NGOs, CBOs and other societies in writing their constitutions. We are also invited internationally to give lectures on the problems of the African continent. Not being an MP will not make me to stop these services. I used to provide them before being an MP and I will continue to provide them even if I cease to be an MP. Being asked to quit will provide me with more time to do research. In my view, people in developing countries often confuse the period of National liberation and the period of the Democratic Revolution. People like Marty, Castro, Nkrumah, Nasser, and Ghadaffi have played major roles in creating a sense of Nationhood, a sense of Common destiny among their people just as George Washington of the US did but was opposed to multi party system. Without people liberating and taking ownership of their countries one could not talk about building democratic societies or government for the people. Herein lies the merit of the nationalist leaders What many liberated countries have failed to do under the pretext of ideology or pragmatism is to carryout the democratic revolution to the fullest point of empowering the people to be totally in charge of their countries. Once the people of each country are in charge everywhere and governments exist only to serve them there will be national peace and world peace. The most important of all battles to be won in the 21st century is the battle of democracy. All progressive forces should strive to win this battle for the fullest empowerment of the people to push world history forward to guarantee greater liberty, dignity and prosperity for the people. This is the direction NADD wants to take the Gambia. I maintain an active political life because of my subscription to the philosophy that even though it is good to understand the world it is better to contribute towards changing it. Knowledge for its sake is sterile unless it can be translated into action to make the world a better place than we found it. Infact, my centre for social science research and civic awareness is stagnant because of the duties I had to perform as an MP and for NADD. If the people do decide that it is best for me to give way to others I would then proceed to prepare my long awaited dissertation for sociology under the title “The Language and Culture of Custom, Tradition, Religion and Rights in the Gambia.” This will be very important to the way the future generation is brought up. There is a lot of conflict in society today because of lack of understanding of how socialization should take place in the 21st century. That will provide a new insight. It will show that religion is a depository of moral values and culture that should not be a source of conflict. It will shatter the myth of the clash of civilizations between the west and the east. It will give credence to certain universal values and culture that could transform the world into a universal home of people living in liberty, dignity and prosperity. In the area of International Relations I would work on the title “The Doctrine of Collective Sovereignty.” This will be very relevant to solving the problems in the Middle East, Darfur and emerging conflicts on the continent. Instead of a polarized world and the creation of spheres of influence. This will show the importance of creating zones were clusters of states like Israel, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Palestine will agree on standards of how to contain each other on the basis of strategic balance of power and establish a compact monitored by the international community to maintain good neighbourliness. The doctrine of collective sovereignty could have enabled Sudan, Chad, Libya, Central African Republic, Niger to all serve as a cluster of states adhering to a common standard monitored by the African Union. Instead of seeking military solution in Darfur civic education will start in the refugee camps and elections done to select a leader as a starting point to empower the people. Men, women and youth representatives could be selected. In the same vein negotiation for cease fire should go hand in hand with negotiation on a comprehensive plan for the sharing of wealth and power. In my view the future of world peace does not lie in the unilateralism of George Bush of the US or Neo anti imperialism of Chavez of Venezuela. It lies in the promotion of collective sovereignty where all states are required to adhere to standards of governance that are acceptable to the people of the world. In this way developing countries can develop better standards than the developed countries and push them to create a new international economic political. Military and diplomatic order instead of justifying their own misgovernance by pointing out the inadequacies of the developed countries. Anyway, this is just mentioned in passing. Let me get back to the point. Now one may ask: What is the future of NADD and the NADD flag bearer? It should be understood that my mandate as a NADD flag bearer did not go beyond the acceptance to serve for one term as President with the sole objective of putting in place a democratic constitution, laws and institutions, policies and practices that would protect fundamental rights and freedoms, build a transparent and accountable financial system, eradicate the excesses of incumbency and set the country on the road of a genuine multi party system that can guarantee free and fair elections. Since we did not win the elections I had to ask the NADD executive to come to a determination and decision on the political fate of NADD and its current flag bearer. In short, should NADD disintegrate or should it be retained? Should the post of flag bearer be void or should it be retained? The members of the NADD Executive have resolved that as far as they are concerned NADD has been enthusiastically received and accepted by the people. According to them, the objectives NADD to separate state from party, conduct civic education, curb the advantages of incumbency by restricting the term of the NADD Presidential candidate to one term of five years, open up the media to divergent views and build a foundation for a genuine multiparty system to emerge, respect and protect fundamental rights and freedoms and consolidate a democratic foundation for the country, are still valid. They resolved that NADD should be maintained and that it should contest the forthcoming National Assembly election. According to them, NADD’s flag-bearer was shown to the people after many felt that the opposition will present only one candidate; that time was needed to explain to the voters what led to the split for them to be able to make up their minds where to cast their votes. “That finally many abstained and others who traditionally use to cast their votes for the UDP did so in anticipation tat it could win. They argued that now that it is clear to such people that UDP cannot lead the opposition to victory, many saw the need for the type of alliance NADD sought to build based on the equality of all opposition parties just to achieve the aim of building a democratic foundation for the country. The Executive partly attribute NADD’s results to the overwhelming resources of the APRC which enabled it to go back where NADD displayed strength such as Fass Saho, Fulladu etc, to erode its support. The short time exposure of the NADD candidate, the inadequate resources which prevents NADD to give T-Shirts and flags to its supporters to retain their identification with NADD. The Executive lamented that STGDP could not provide the resources anticipated because of the split in NADD. They noted that the movement for Democracy in New York and the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in the UK were completely absent in giving support to NADD in the campaign. They asked me to make enquiries why that was the case. They resolved that we should thank all those who supported NADD in kind cash, votes, prayers and spirit especially the voters of Wuli. They resolved that the flag-bearer should continue and that the structures created in Wuli, which enabled the voters to develop a strong resistance against inducement and intimidation should be emulated everywhere. They mandated me to issue a press release to this effect. They called for a tactical alliance between NADD and the other opposition parties or independent candidates so that the strength of the opposition in the National Assembly will increase. They resolved that all those who are opposed to such a political alliance should be seen to be working so that there will be no opposition in the National Assembly thus making the Gambia a one party state. They concluded that such people should be exposed. What is my respond to the resolution of the Executive Committee for me to continue to be flag-bearer? _________________________________________________________________ Stay in touch with old friends and meet new ones with Windows Live Spaces http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp0070000001msn/direct/01/?href=http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us 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]