The quote here was BOTH in jest and a SERIOUS attempt to share that we the
citizens of Gambia have a myriad options in harnessing our values and train
those values on our desires. The jest part allows the partisans to focus on
their partners in coalition-building proper if they are indeed interested in
that.
In the coming days, I will be seeking the partnership of folk just like you
and our coleagues here to develop those other options. I seek your guidance,
counsel, and company in advance.
Haruna.
In a message dated 2/19/2010 2:40:37 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
"So focus your time and energies on value - building
and strangthening your parties. We are not interested in a United
Opposition any more. At least we will not depend on that idea as the
means to remove Yahya. So don't feel burdened to form a united
opposition on account of the
people"
ATT Jr, to Suntou
ATT Jr
In jest, or a serious stab at overcoming the
tremendous hurdles on the path of opposition Gambia
for success in Presidential Election 2011?
I take your counsel into advisement. Pa Samba is a dear friend.
He and I will come to understandings. It takes a little nudging and
explanation for him but it shall come to pass. I am not a novice at
conflict resolution.
Here is what I advise of you though.
Today, today. If Halifa for some reason went into a trans and
declared - Let us have a total opposition union and let UDP/NRP lead
it, wIll you and UDP/NRP waste your times to join
PDOIS??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
This is the question I want you and UDP/NRP and even GMC to
ponder. After you do, you will throw away Agenda-2011 and focus on
building your parties and alliances. As I can see, both UDP/NRP and
GMC have shortcomings in party administration that leave a lot to be
desired. Simple tasks take days or months to complete if at all. When
your leader is busy defending Femi Peters, the party's entire
activities stop. WHY???? If Ousainou is not free, the party's
executive committee need to ensure the continued functioning of the
party. WHY is that? Some due-diligence does not require money.
Organising and visiting with your supporters regularly as far away as
Koina and Jimara and cultivating new supporters should be done all the
time, Ousainou or no Ousainou. NADD/PDOIS has the same problem or
worse. But the time you partisans spend on chatter could be better
used developing your parties. The way I see it, none of the parties is
capable of governing Gambia in this state. And if you should dream
about forming a singular union, you will have multiplied the
inefficiencies ten-fold.
So focus your time and energies on value - building and
strangthening your parties. We are not interested in a United
Opposition any more. At least we will not depend on that idea as the
means to remove Yahya. So don't feel burdened to form a united
opposition on account of the people.
Thank you and may DaarManso continue to bless all of you in your
self-interests.
Haruna.
-----Original
Message----- From: suntou touray
<[log in to unmask]> To:
[log in to unmask] Sent: Sat, Feb 13, 2010 5:05
pm Subject: Re: Let us turn a new page
Haruna, your comments are simple, logical and straight
forward. But the sad facts is that, some people cannot even think for
themselves without Sallah telling them how. Halifa's attempt to be
Jack of all trade meant that, he did injustice to himself and UDP/NRP
analysing absent voters and the synergy effect with him being a mortal
man could'nt quantify.
Halifa should display his formula of his cirtic of the
UDP/NRP not adding the absent voters to the pool. Absent voters
affected all the parties, including PDOIS and NDam.
Haruna, your efforts are honourable and honest. Where you
criticise me and my attempts, i recognise the reasoning in them. When
we send our rejoinder, Halifa's few fans in American made all sorts of
noise, some saying:
Halifa is under attack, we should stop
all talks
Now who did we responded to? The wind or Halifa? Did this people
actually read anything Halifa wrote?
My hunch is they don't. But when Mr Grey-Johnson again repeated
Halifa mistakes, i didn't hear this people who nearly went into
coma when we their patron, when Darboe was branded power
hungry etc by a misguided bigoted partisan.
The two face mentality is the real reason Halifa is continuing
what he doing. Behind his back his own guys are dissolution with him,
among people, they defend his ideas even after knowing they don't make
sense. And as for Pasamba, true peace will come to pass when you are
bold enough to confront Halifa. But for now, it will be a dream.
Olfactor you can't help but take a swipe at yours truly. What
is wrong with you men? I'll have you know you can't have a better
friend than Haruna. I just got off the phone with a friend. He tells
me president Clinton is doing marvelously and with our continued
prayers, he should be back up, straight up, to continue to assist in
Haiti and Northern Ireland. I told him I have a friend in Dublin who
could hold the torch for Ireland as the president recovers. So I
messed up your hibernation long before you perceived it. SOmeone
will be looking for you over there to lend all Ireland a hand as she
works through devolution. Won't you do Ireland a good turn? Migrant
worker or not, you still live in Ireland. So why go into hibernation
on account of your friend Haruna when you could be working for
Northern Ireland???? Learn to not take, take, take. Learn to give,
give, give. Besides I did not hear where you tried to get our mutual
friend Demba out of box. I know your life has some value. I just
gotta figure it out for you. I still love you.
Now then Dad, you did a marvelous job in amicus of Halifa's
electoral arithemetic which you inform us was the basis for Agenda
2011. You must be commended for this. It is what mortal man can
expect of a partisan. I totally admire your zeal and sport. I guess
it is not necessary therefore for me to read Agenda 2011 afterall. I
will share some notes with you and they will be brief.
In my view, Halifa's un-intended dishonesty does not lie in
the arithemetic adduand. As a philosopher and sociologist par
excellence, Halifa must have been taught that linear arithemetic is
not terribly valuable for philosophers and sociologists. That is why
linear algebra and additional math were introduced in those years
where sociologists and philosophers shared their agonies in
explaining human conditions and considerations. Throw in the
philosopher and sociologist who wishes to use politics to solve the
landmark equations of social engineering. Why do people vote? Why do
they vote the way they do?
Let me be the first to share with you that the
adduand exclusively should not be considered in electoral
arithemetic. You cannot explain the distributive and
associative properties only by using addition alone, addition and
subtraction alone, Or addition, subtraction, and multiplication
alone. Electoral arithemetic must include the use of addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, the operations of integral
and derivative science are a complex use of these four, and they
cannot even begin to tackle electoral mathematics. Secondly, you
must endeavour to include the time value of elections and votes and
the time value of human considerations. That is where the accountant
comes to the aid of the philosopher/sociologist/politician. Even
further, electoral calculus contains some intractable variables such
as personal considerations of the voter that are a function of
his/her state of mind at the time of voting. What you must not do
under any circumstance, is to extrapolate or compare votes of
different periods or periodic elections. Your quandry is not
complete even after you satisfy the foregoing. There comes the
matter of vote-buying, vote-selling which Halifa himself was at
pains to convince us happens during the elections in Gambia. Well
throw in the mix of the Gambian voter's problems of Yahya's
intimidations, electoral riggings, and ballot stuffings, why you
have just thoroughly discombabulated yourself.
In essence, the dishonesty displayed by Halifa, though
unintended, is a result of using a dishonest formula. Now when you
skew that formula to portray another opposition party as incapable
to win future elections, you burden straightforward dishonest
calculus with odious bias. If the premise therefore of AGENDA 2011
is the result of such arithemetic, well you know the rest of the
story.
Therefore, I urge Halifa to apologise to the readers of Agenda
2011 and all other opposition parties, and when we work on a
roadmap, to cease redefining past elections in Gambia. Past election
results in Gambia will not afford any valuable or meaningful
discernment for any opposition party. And Foroyaa, based on such
arithemetic wishes opposition parties to go back to the drawing
board. For what????????? We are all unduly mesmerized by the
sanctity of a total opposition union. I advise sobriety and caution
against disingenuity and pretense.
I commend you nonetheless for efforting amicus of Agenda 2011
and Halifa.
Olfactor, any minute now you'll hear a knock on your door.
Nobody hibernates in Ireland anymore. She invests enormous amounts
to market herself as a lively tourist destination. You should help
her in that regard. I love you all.
Sent: Sat, Feb 13, 2010 4:54 am Subject: Re: Let us
turn a new page
Nyang,
Keep up the good work, however dealing with grouchy
characters is difficult, for reason and reality is
not their forte. Let me go back to my hibernation as our grouch
par excellence here has snorted at people
who have decided to ignore his incessant and vapid rambling. I
do not want to be splattered by his grotty stuff, so
hibernation here we come.
Nyang once again keep the fire burning and keep helping me
out of my hibernation with your good work. Thanks for a
very well written piece.
How Many times am I to prove that you do not do your
homework well? I can see that you are trying to get allies
from all those People with hate messages. This is weakening
your course. Such hate messages cannot isolate any one.. We
have seen those types of people here in the US during
Obama’s campaign. They cannot explain why they hate him.
Consequently their hate messages worked out very well
for Obama. Here too you are giving Halifa more publicity
than he has asked for. The worse thing that you did to your
self is to raise issues which led to the challenge for
Halifa to explain the role he played in NADD. I am still
waiting to read part 3 so that things will be clearer since
your camp is still trying to distort the truth even though
no NADD leader had come out in public to do so.
Your last hope to discredit Halifa is your claim that
he distorted the result of the 2001 Presidential elections
just to prove that the UDP lost more votes than it really
did, when compared to 2006 so that its leadership would be
discredited. In my reaction to your rejoinder I decided to
skip the issue of the exact number of votes your party the
UDP had in the 2001 election in order to do a proper
research on it. I have now scanned the results of the 2001
Presidential elections with the signature of the then
Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission Gabriel
Roberts.
However, before going into your distortion of the
results I would want to help one of your friends to
understand what I meant when I said Darboe was not brave
enough to tell his colleagues what he wanted and stuck by it
before they ventured to form NADD. He misunderstood me
completely and strayed into accusing Halifa of promoting
that a brave person should be selected to lead an opposition
alliance. My position is that if Darboe is strongly
convinced that he should lead and others should follow. He
should simply declare that for all to understand and then
proceed to sell his agenda to the people. Whoever wants to
join him would do so and those who would not want to join
him would go on with their own programmes. Since UDP is not
ready to compromise on leadership it should make that clear
and stand by that decision and should not join any
arrangement where leadership would have to be negotiated
with other stakeholders.
let me now deal with the results of the 2001
Presidential elections. Halifa made it clear in his Agenda
2011 that UDP had 149448 votes in 2001 while NRP had 35,671
votes. Please read the Agenda again. You will get the real
figures rather than approximations. If you want a copy of
the Agenda i will mail it to you electronically.
Halifa indicated that the two parties formed an
alliance in 2006 along with GPDP and had votes numbering
104,808 votes..Halifa concluded that compared to the 2001
figures the two parties lost 80,301 votes. Where then has
Halifa gone wrong?
Could you not do simple addition and subtraction? Add
149,448 votes to 35,67. You should get 185,119 votes.
Subtract 104,808 from 185,119. What is your answer? Is it
not 80,301 votes. Halifa is dead correct and you the members
of the UDP camp in the UK are dead wrong.
I have investigated and got the results a long time
ago. I wanted to check whether you have leaders who would
guide you to know the truth. The fact that you are still
persisting in claiming that Halifa’s figures are wrong has
forced me to request for a scanned declaration of results
signed by The Chairman of the IEC and I hope you will now
apologise to Halifa for your misleading statements. I am
surprised by the fact that you are still clinging to the
view that Halifa quoted wrong figures even though your
leaders in Banjul should be able to tell you the truth
instead of leaving you to humiliate yourselves before world
public opinion. I have decided to share the copy of the
declarations of the 2001 election results with the online
media for all to see for them selves since I cannot directly
place it here unless as an attachment.
Furthermore Suntou, you claim that it is the UDP who
enabled Halifa to win his Serrekunda Central Seat. Let us
look at the results of the elections in Serrekunda since the
UDP was put up by the three major parties of the first
Republic, that is, the PPP, the NCP and the GPP.
In 1997, the UDP campaigned against Halifa Sallah in
Serrekunda East and put up a major PPP supporter, Bakary
Manneh, as their candidate in order to exploit OJ’s
popularity as the MP at the time of the coup. The results
were as follows Halifa had 8, 529 votes, The UDP had 8,
067votes and the APRC had 9, 575votes. Contrary to your
position that the UDP put up a candidate against Halifa in
the 2007 National Assembly elections to humble him while it
left Sidia Jatta’s seat uncontested since he was a humble
PDOIS leader, Halifa did not stand as a Presidential
Candidate in 1996. It is Sidia Jatta who stood as a
candidate against the UDP. And in the 1997 National Assembly
elections, the UDP also put up a prominent NCP supporter in
Wuli against Sidia Jatta. Alhamdu Conteh who stood as The
UDP candidate had 1,098, Mamadi Karlo Jabai of the APRC had
4, 641 and Sidia Jatta of PDOIS had 5, 499. Sidia won
despite UDP"s attempt to contest the seat.
In the 2002 National Assembly elections, the UDP
boycotted the elections and called on all its members to
stay away from the polls. In Serre Kunda Central, Halifa had
5, 563 votes as a PDOIS Candidate while the APRC candidate
had 5, 143 votes. Halifa won.
In the 2005 by election in Serre Kunda Central, Halifa
had 5, 911 votes as a candidate of the alliance while the
APRC had 3, 984 votes. Ther alliance added only 348 votes to
the 2002 votes Halifa had as a PDOIS candidate. As a NADD
candidate Halifa had 4, 302 in the 2007 National Assembly
elections, UDP had 1, 548. and the APRC had 6, 386.
It should be clear that Sidia and Halifa both won their
seats as PDOIS candidates irrespective of the UDP. UDP made
a big mistake in contesting the Serrekunda central seat. It
did not spoil anything for Halifa. It spoilt its own name.
Many young people started to describe it as a party that
pours the sand in the porridge if it is not invited to share
in the eating. UDP UK is also doing more harm to the UDP. I
will take up this issue later.
Suntu you concluded that: "The UDP U.K knows very well,
Halifa's students will come trying to defend the
indefensible. They will again continue to twist the facts
and try to blame others for Halifa's inability to convince
Gambian voters. What the UDP propose which is respectfully
talked by sincere Gambians, Halifa don't want to pay
attention to that. What he want is to talk directly to
Gambians, the civil society, the NGO's etc and then create a
cadre of people who will later chose him as their
saviour."
This is your allegation. This is your fear. You do fear
that Halifa could convince the Gambian voters. Your
objective therefore is to prevent this through premeditated
character assassination. You claim that I am trying to
distort facts. What facts are we trying to distort? If
Halifa cannot convince the Gambian people then why is he
your headache. Halifa is not Darboes problem and Darboe is
not Halifa’s problem. The problem of the Gambian people
should be our problem .Allow me to quote what Halifa said
recently.
"Interestingly enough, in 2001 the APRC candidate had
242, 302 votes when it forged no alliance with the NCP. At
that time there were 501, 304 registered voters. Suffice it
to say, even though the number of voters increased by 169,
032, by 2006 the votes of the APRC could only increase by
22,102 votes. The UDP candidate had 149,448 votes in 2001.
Even though it developed alliance with NRP, which had 35,671
votes in 2001, its votes went down 104,808 votes in the 2006
elections, despite the increase in the number of registered
voters by 169, 032 voters."
"Foroyaa: What is your advise?"
"It is therefore necessary for political leaders to go
back to the drawing board and map out a new way forward. How
is the opposition to attract the 542,055 voters who did not
vote for them is the subject at hand. This is what Agenda
2011 is all about. Even though I am not excluding acceptance
of candidature, I have already declared that the best option
is to select a neutral candidate who will be able to run a
non partisan transitional cabinet for a period of 2 to 5
years and then step aside after a genuine multi party
contest. It is left to Gambians to decide whether they have
a better way forward."
Please ask Darboe to state his proposal for a way
forward so that we know what the UDP want for the Nation.
That is better than endless bickering by the spokesperson of
the party in the UK .
Bailo, good to know your ears are wide open. I
thought you understood the famous English saying "one
man's meat is another man's poison". What you believe to
be crap from Suntou is a gem to some and vice verse.
I have always been a fan of politics
Bailo, however it doesn't dominate my life. I
reveal here last year that, i was reading and consulting
with some Gambian opposition parties. trying to know
certain aspects of their politics and also to maintain how
i can relate to them.
It was after this period, i decided the best option
out there is the United Democratic Party. Hence my joining
their ranks.
I appreciate your boldness in stating on several
occasion that a party led coalition is the solution. Not
every PDOIS member wish to accept this fact, but in life
we have to accept and politely disagree.
The situation for us all are very similar. Our
central concern is to see that a government comes to
power that will respect the rule of law and adheres to
good governance. And also a government that will abide by
term limits and allow for diaspora Gambians to come home
anytime and stand for election without any restriction
like it it is now.
UDP/NRP all agrees with this principles and also
PDOIS. Therefore the deliberate error some people are
throwing about saying that, Ousainou will not abide by
term limits is the biggest nonsense.
Ousainou is selected by the UDP at there annual
party congress to lead the party, yet Jeggan is
complaining that Ousainou didn't hand over to someone. Who
is the new expert to lecture the UDP on how to select a
party leader?
Let Halifa hand over the leadership of PDOIS to Sam
Sarr before he too passes the required age. After all, the
American system seems to be if you cannot get the
presidency, you pass it on. Let Sam step up. Jeggan can
lecture his PDOIS members but not us.
The annoying thing in all this exchanges is that,
those who cry baby when we reacted are all in
hibernation, this world.
No wonder truth is relative. Bee kaa foo ila bori
leya, tiw tiw ( each person shout for your runner).
Things are moving, albeit slowly. But progress is been
made. Ajarama, and Ibalen jam. Ya Allah dandu meen foof
kata e katato. Ameen.
I heard you loud and
clear. But we gotta move on and not get stuck to
the past.
As for the NIA, they are
everywhere in the Gambia. Recently a young man was
pulled out of a public bus at Denton bridge and
merciless beaten to a vegetative state by our
so-called security forces. His crime? The bus in
which he was travelling was like all vehicles on
the road at the time ordered off the road because
the Presidential motorcade was expected along it.
The wait was apparently long and this young man
made the mistake of telling someone he was was
speaking with on his mobile that they were waiting
for the for the convoy of our stupid president
to pass. An NIA informant overheard his
indiscretion and decided to teach him a lesson.
When the bus reached Denton Bridge; the informant
ordered the driver of the bus to halt the bus, the
young chap was pulled out and his alleged crime
reported to the security forces. Their immediate
reaction was to beat him to a vegetative state for
his indiscretionary words against the President.
It is therefore ordinary private citizens
who are paying a higher price under the status quo
than public personalities like Ousainou, Halifa,
OJ, Seedia and the rest, the immense sacrifice of
the latter category
nothwithstanding.
Honestly, I am not a
strong moslem as you. Evidence suggests that are
not a taleban otherwise the only technology you
would approved of is the killing machines. I guess
you own a tv and even a computer. As such If you
were a taleban, your fellow talebans would have
been seeking to publicly flog for your deviation.
So you cannot be a taleban! Though I must confess
that sometimes I tend to mis-consider you as one
very angry ayatollah who considers so-called PDOIS
fanatics like myself as supporters of the great
Satan. I sincerely hope that is not so. Remember,
you cautioned us sometimes ago that politicians
are not to be trusted. Your transformation into
one within this short space of time is amazing.
Who and what is primary motivation? I suppose
Halifa is not the one.
Anyway, keep up the
good work for your party and the Gambia in general
and please leave the crap out. I concur that you
reserve the right
to.........................
Bailo, your spin was well intention albeit
your inability to accept the facts of your
Messiah's calamity. He cannot hide neither
run away from his mistakes. We are all
willing to move on and try to talk as brothers.
But what we cannot leave alone the continuous
blame game Halifa attributed to others leaving
his own saintly person out.
Politics is not a career for saints
Bailo, the sooner Halifa recognises that the
better. And the gang mentality his supporters
manifest is a turn of for even his supporters,
ganging up against those who speak about his
politics will only cause Halifa less
cloud.
I also notice that, some of his guys start
calling me Taliban, extremist and what have you.
If they are willing to stoop so low in
their misunderstanding of politics, my body
feel for them.
Bailo, you are strong a muslims
brother who actively partake in islamic actvist,
those that make you a Taliban? I know some of
your Islamic commitments, but I also accept
that, as Muslims, we should be interested in
politics, science, literature, acceptable art,
philosophy, just anything we can enhance our
minds with.
But alas, the gossip that Suntou is
intolerant pumped up by the PDOIS boys has
reached me a long time. Some of this liers are
even in cahoot with the Foroyaa establishment
providing them with equipment and the
like.
My Islam allows me the privilege to be an
enterprising citizen wherever I live. I am a
Muslim by choice and will practise Islam to the
best of my ability and will put across the
little I know God-Willing. I respect the
laws of the land i reside in. But If my
comments on Halifa incense some to the extent
that, they are willing to vilify and attribute
nonsensical tags to me, then I am
vindicated.
Let us see how things pan out, we standby
our findings and whenever it becomes necessary,
we shall respond to all false analogies on UDP.
For those who wish to be taken seriously
including you Bailo, distant yourself from
errors, no matter who commits them, only then
people will accept your subsequent cries.
Modou's abysmal response require no
countering from us. he place Halifa in even more
serious doubts hence putting across Halifa's
line. He is the brave soldier and others not.
The facts speaks different. Ousainou's office is
man regularly by NIA agents, doing all they can
to deter him from actively politics. His clients
harassed, his associated harassed, yet the
foroyaa guys go about their business selling
papers and earning yet claiming to be
sacrificing more than others. It make me laugh
mate.
Your
clarification efforts are highly appreciated.
Let us now move on and chart a new course
towards helping bring about unity within the
opposition movement. In our unity is our
strength. However, I strongly believe that the
general opposition movement would again fail to
realise our common goal of achieving a new
Gambia for all if we continue to rely on already
tried and tested counterproductive strategies of
destructive criticism aimed at promoting one's
candidate while vigorously attempting to tarnish
that of another's. Some may argue that come on,
this is merely politics at play. I personally
consider such tactics as a smear campaign.
Anyone on the frontline of our national politics
conscientiously opposing the retrogessive
policies and actions of the unjust APRC regime
deserve nothing but support and encouragement
from everyone craving and campaigning for
positive changes in the Gambia. Ousainou Darboe,
Halifa Sallah, Femi Peters, Seedia Jatta, Mai
Fatty and many others like them therefore only
deserve our genuine respect and good advice. I
had concluded long time ago that under the
current poliitcal dispensation in in our beloved
country the easiest and most convenient resort
for any person seeking only their own personal
interest would be to join the APRC Party.
Our primary objective should be towards
ensuring that the leaderships of the UDP-led
Alliance and the remnants of NADD coalition
would both sooner rather later pursue a strategy
of meaningful co-operation with one another
towards achieving an over-due united front
against the incompetent and callous APRC regime.
That way, the doubters would have been
confounded and hope lost by the silent majority
of Gambians would be restored.
Let
confidence building measures between all sides
of the opposition be pursued in earnest from now
on as time is precious sliding away.
Please try to help get your dear uncle
bailed out after being found guilty and
sentenced yesterday for making a wrongful
attribution to our dear colleague, Halifa.
Coincidentally, the amount payable which is any,
should be envoyed to him in jail for the benefit
of good Gambian causes he has been diligently
campaigning for.
Finally I wish to
commend organisations such as the STGDP and GDP
who have been focussing on just that. Let us not
be daunted nor depair; ultimate victory is
assured for the cause of any struggle for
justice, freedom and respect for human
dignity.
Let us turn a new constructive
page. Let all good works go on.
Amen!
Uncle Haruna understands Halifa very well.
This is why he prefers to rely on the issue of
credibility and not the election statistics
which Halifa relied on to draw his conclusion.
My uncle is among those who say that politics is
about numbers. In fact the other camp rely on
this so much that they refer to some parties as
fringe parties. They know what Halifa is talking
about but like the proverbial ostrich they
prefer to bury their head in the sand.
You see, some of these people do not care
whether there is change or not. What they are
interested in is the change they want. If they
cannot get it they prefer to join Jammeh. They
should not fool the rest of us. Where is Waa who
used to criticize Halifa. He accepted the post
of a governor while Halifa rejected the post of
a Minister. This is the difference between him
and his critics. He wants genuine change for the
long suffering Gambian people.
Halifa has made it quite clear that the
lowest common multiple in politics is numbers
and concluded that the numbers which rejected
both opposition and ruling party are so
overwhelming that none could be considered
credible if that is the yardstick of measuring
credibility. He therefore concluded that those
who want change should go back to the drawing
board. He offered a proposal and called on
others with better proposals to offer their own.
Where is the bickering? All honest Gambians have
seen the light and cannot be deceived any more.
They know who is power hungry and those who want
to empower the people.
Haruna tendered "So here Evian you will
notice that my notes were in response to your
notes and I encourage you to read your notes
where you re-presented what Halifa said."
This is how I represented
Halifa's statement: "You seem to be in denial
but that is sadly the truth. The APRC is far
from credible and from the perspective of the
potential electorate, neither exists a more
credible alternative. Otherwise, the opposition
would have won last time."
Please note
that perspective does always represent
reality.
The truth isI did not
misrepresent Halifa; you did. Instead of
acknowledging your error, you are trying
to shift it elsewhere. That's absolute
dishonesty!
What
i will do Evian is to leave my comments close to
yours and Halifa's in order that the proximity
may yield further comprehension where cacophany
meddles.
Sheikh Haruna, The following is exactly
what Comrade Halifa was reported to have stated
(emphasis mine):
“Some
supporters of the APRC said that the opposition
parties in the Gambia are not credible. They
should also add that the ruling party is not
credible. Their assessment of Gambian politics
as it stands would then be correct and
balanced."
And this
is how you interpreted it:
"As to which party
official speaks for the other parties, Halifa
shared with us that there is no credible
opposition or ruling party. What he should have
said was that his party PDOIS was not credible.
Then he would have been speaking for himself
because he is more intimately aware of PDOIS'
credibility. i think he was echoing
Waa's assertions that there is no credible
opposition. The problem is instead of focusing
on his party's credibility, he attempted to
match Waa's cluelessness. In so doing he
admitted Waa may be
right."
So here Evian you will notice that my
notes were in response to your notes and I
encourage you to read your notes where you
re-presented what Halifa said. Then come back
here and read the entire quote as it appeared in
the Foroyaa note, undoctored by you. What you
will conclude is that even given your sophomoric
representation, my comment (Not interpretation)
here does capture the cluelessness of PDOISards
fantastically. You see the APRC supporters are
smart people compared to Halifa. They are not
interested in selling the demerits of the ruling
party because that is who they support. Now
Halifa advising them to ALSO say that there is
no CREDIBLE RULING PARTY, in addition to There
is no CREDIBLE OPPOSITION PARTY, and that they
will have been both CORRECT and BALANCED is
where he put his foot in his mouth. Implicitly,
Halifa agrees with their supposition that there
is no CREDIBLE opposition party as CORRECT.
Because there is more than PDOIS in the
opposition parties, Halifa is thereby speaking
for other parties. That is the reason I shared
the advice about when in court and accused of
theft, your defense ought not be that not only
are you a thief in agreement with your accuser,
your accuser is also a thief. The grander
picture Bailo is when you consider you are an
independent voter. And you hear Halifa utter
such. How does it make you feel about him and
his incredulous party PDOIS. Forget NADD at this
time for there is really nothing in NADD besides
PDOIS. Please let me know if this is still not
clear to you.
[So now let us focus on separating the
chaff from the grain: Halifa reported that "some
supporters of the APRC said that the opposition
parties in the Gambia are not credible."
This is factual. It is APRC supporters
like Waa Juwara as you conceded who are claiming
the above; it is not Halifa as you wrongly
asserted. Halifa is merely a messenger who
conveyed the message. What Halifa opined in
response is "They
should also add that the ruling party is not
credible. Their assessment of Gambian politics
as it stands would then be correct and
balanced."] Evian.
Inutile.
[I hope you would therefore accordingly
revise your interpretation of Halifa's statement
to reflect the reality of what he expressed.]
Evian.
I was not interpreting anything. I was
translating. And there is no further revision
necessary.
[You aso wrote: "I
would encourage you to read Halifa's quotation
again because I think you misunderstood it. Not
that it makes any significant difference whether
you understood it or not. It just throws your
analysis of that part off quilter a bit. That is
the bit about "Not excluding acceptance of
candidature". There Halifa is speaking of
himself and not the candidature of other. Share
with us your renewed understanding."] Evian
regurgitating what Haruna shared.
[As you
encouraged, I referred again to the relevant
statement of Halifa as follows (emphasis
mine): "Even though I am not
excluding acceptance of candidature, I
have already declared that the best option is to
select a neutral candidate who will be able to
run a non partisan transitional cabinet for a
period of 2 to 5 years and then step aside after
a genuine multiparty contest. It is left to
Gambians to decide whether they have a better
way forward."] Evian repeating.
[My
understanding of the statement remains the same
even though I admit that Halifa did not qualify
whose candidature he meant.] Evian.
Halifa did not need to qualify whose
candidature he spoke of. The English is sound
and very good. If it were you or Mams I would
have asked for further clarification.
[He did not indicated either "my" or "any"
to give us precision of reference to
candidature.] Evian.
Bailo, the MY is implicit. That happens all
the time in conversations in English. Just for
fun, let us replace MY with ANY just
before candidature. That would not have been the
best sentence structure but it still tells you
Halifa is speaking of himself. This is
because MY is the ownership litmus
but ANY goes to the quality of the
candidature and not domain. Hey Allah, I hope
you understand me. So let's extend the semantic
game further; Let us say Halifa meant Ousainou,
OJ, Hamat, or Waa's candidature, and insert any
of these names just before candidature. Now you
will agree with me that Halifa does not have the
purview of accepting other's candidature. Do you
agree? If you don't just ask yourself where is
the authority for Halifa to ACCEPT a
dog-catcher's candidature????? He can ascend to
their candidatures when they accept accept it
themselves and the way he does that is by voting
his desire or ascension. These are some of the
games Shaky Shaky plays with English in order to
improve himself. Please let me know if you need
further ideas on these and others.
[In essence, he might have been referring
to his own candidature or someone else's.]
Evian.
Unless he is retarded, he could not have
been referring to any other's candidature.
[It is for him to help clarify.]
Evian.
I don't need Halifa to clarify and I am
certain most of our coleagues don't need any
further clarification of the statement. Let us
save Halifa the mental gymnastics where he could
try to manufacture extraneous meaning. That will
be a bigger problem for the man.
[Whatever he meant, I know that either
interpretations are possible.] Evian.
You do the tests and convince yourself
either way. It is easy. You can do it
Bailo.
[In conclusion, I think you have mistakenly
fallen for that proverbial saying of comparing
apples and oranges in the following statement of
yours: "Halifa endorsing Ousainou's candidature
will be equal to you or me endorsing Ousainou's
candidature or Halifa's candidature at this
point in time. There is not much basis for
that."] Evian repeating what Haruna
shared.
[In order words, you have
over-rated yourself and me at to be at par with
Halifa;] Evian.
No. I am not at par with Halifa. Just ask
him. We are of different mettle and polarly
opposite ambition.
[the latter is a political known and both
you and me are virtual political unknowns.]
Evian.
Well. Do you want to be a political known
Bailo????? I can make your arse famous in a
jiffy. You might not like what you become famous
for though. Political known. I have not heard
such cacamayme since Moussa Camara shared
Mbaranbirinbiring with me in 1982 in
Kuntaur.
[Therein lies the difference between us
Halifa's endorsement of any candidature.]
Evian.
I see.
[Cheers] Evian.
Cheers to you too. And don't try to be cute
with your Grand Pa again. If you know what is
good for you, you'll turn in your PDOIS
armband.
From:
Modou Nyang <[log in to unmask]> Subject:
Foroyaa News : HALIFA SALLAH COMMENTS AFTER THE
APRC TOUR To: [log in to unmask] Date:
Thursday, 4 February, 2010, 0:41
Foroyaa News : HALIFA
SALLAH COMMENTS AFTER THE APRC TOUR, NO CREDIBLE
RULING PARTY NO CREDIBLE OPPOSITION A NEW WAY
FORWARD NEEDED
After the completion
of the APRC tour, Foroyaa approached Halifa
Sallah for comments. This is what he
said:
“Political leaders should
tell their supporters the truth. A political
vacuum exists in the Gambia. Some supporters of
the APRC said that the opposition parties in the
Gambia are not credible. They should also add
that the ruling party is not credible. Their
assessment of Gambian politics as it stands
would then be correct and balanced. Some leaders
who do not want to be honest to their supporters
are trying to give the impression that the
statistics I have been putting out are over
statements. They are not telling their
supporters the truth. Political leaders should
tell the truth. For only the truth shall set us
free. I have relied on empirical evidence to
conclude that at this very moment we do not have
a credible ruling party or opposition party. We
have a duty to create both. Those who are
offended by this statement are not prepared to
do what is necessary to save Gambian politics
from being an exercise in
mediocrity.
After the presidential
elections in 2006, I wrote a pamphlet in which I
quoted the statistics to confirm my assertion.
Gambians have to be reminded these statistics to
awaken each from our political apathy.
According to the IEC, 670, 336 voters
were registered prior to the 2006 presidential
elections. When the results were delivered the
IEC indicated that the APRC candidate who was
also supported by the NCP had 264,404 votes. If
this is subtracted from the total number of
registered voters it would mean that 405,932
voters did not vote for the APRC candidate. The
UDP candidate who was also supported by NRP and
GPDP had 104,808 votes, while the NADD candidate
had 23,473 votes. The total votes of the
opposition amounted to 128,281 votes. If this is
subtracted from the total number of registered
voters it would be apparent that 542,055 voters
did not vote for the opposition. Wherein lies
the credibility of the ruling party and the
opposition party if politics is reduced to its
lowest common denominator as contest based on
the number of votes.
Interestingly
enough, in 2001 the APRC candidate had 242,302
votes when it forged no alliance with the NCP.
At that time there were 501,304 registered
voters. Suffice it to say, even though the
number of voters increased by 169032, by 2006
the votes of the APRC could only increase by
22,102 votes. The UDP candidate had 149,448
votes in 2001. Even though it developed alliance
with NRP, which had 35,671 votes in 2001, its
votes went down 104,808 votes in the 2006
elections, despite the increase in the number of
registered voters by 169032 voters.
Foroyaa: What is your
advise?
It is therefore necessary
for political leaders to go back to the drawing
board and map out a new way forward. How is the
opposition to attract the 542,055 voters who did
not vote for them is the subject at hand. This
is what Agenda 2011 is all about. Even though I
am not excluding acceptance of candidature, I
have already declared that the best option is to
select a neutral candidate who will be able to
run a non partisan transitional cabinet for a
period of 2 to 5 years and then step aside after
a genuine multiparty contest. It is left to
Gambians to decide whether they have a better
way forward.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of
postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at:
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of
postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at:
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of
postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at:
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of
postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at:
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings,
go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the
Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the
Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the
Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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 unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html