Yero
I entirely associate myself with your excellent comments on the Letter.
LJD's handwork is always moderate, restraint and pleasant. Thanks
Suntou

On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 12:25 AM, Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
>
> Well put bro Haruna! Our friend LJD put a lot of work in the piece. To
> single out some areas that clearly standout will rob the master piece its
> magnificence and historical importance, so I dare not try. I will be on
> records to say, it is one of its kind -to read and wallow in soaking tears
> down the cheeks in hope and prayers over Gambia's predicament. Without a
> doubt, we don't deserve a day of Jammeh. My reason for this is simple.
> Jammeh has pushed Gambians in a number of ways beyond elasticity limit,
> especially the human rights violations. Such has become the center of what
> landed him among the ten most horrible dictators.******
>  ****
> I only hope that Gambia's opposition gets the clues to the puzzles
> expressed. In that, a united coalition is the only way forward and a threat
> to Jammeh’s tyranny. With unity, there is high probability that Jammeh can
> be sent packing with his entire worrisome heavy burden, and we don’t want a
> bit of it. Something is clearly lurking in the wilderness for Gambians, and
> that is to say, if we fail to unite around a peaceful democratic means to
> unseat Jammeh, we will live to regret the terror on the citizenry, more than
> already seen. Moreover, we won’t be able to convince anyone not to deal with
> Jammeh by any necessary means, including the method he (Jammeh) himself came
> to power through. Personally, I will forgive any such person(s) who deals
> with Jammeh in a similar, in realization of a true path our citizens, and
> our generations to follow. We’ve seen what has happened in other nations,
> mainly the Arab dominated regions. It is like a sweeping tsunami, and its
> eye is headed to other nations as well. In the end, the brute Jammeh himself
> cannot be controlled on his thirst for more blood and being that spiteful
> killer serpent lying in wait for innocent Gambians. And he is not satisfied
> and will never be satisfied. The only hope and solution is unity. Do we as
> Gambians find it that hard to unite such that it cost us more terror? If I
> were ask who wants freedom? Everyone’s hand is up, but how come we cannot
> unite? The answer is only with those few or many that choose division over
> unity. ****
> ** **
> Down with dictatorship!****
> Down with Jammeh and desperate cronies!!****
> Forward with unity!!!****
> ** **
>  ****
> In anyway, thank you LJD for the beautiful thoughts. I am participating in
> its mass distribution. ****
> ** **
> ** **
> Thanks for space-****
> ** **
> Yero****
>
> *There is no god but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger. Fear
> and Worship only Allah alone!*
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2011 12:30:53 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [G_L] Open Letter to Opposition Leaders Reportedly Engaged in
> Exploratory Unity Talks
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Wonderfully constructed Mr. Darbo. Your open letter presents the argument
> for a united opposition with the proper dose of humility and urgency. The
> temperament is exquisitely respectful and encourages serious consideration
> by any sober citizen.
>
> I will do my part, in amicus, to persuade the honourable gentlemen of the
> UDP, NRP, PDOIS, and GMC that an electoral project in opposition unison, is
> verily the only option. Thank you for your efforts and consideration.
>
> Haruna.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lamin Darbo <[log in to unmask]>
> To: GAMBIA-L <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sat, Sep 3, 2011 5:10 am
> Subject: [G_L] Open Letter to Opposition Leaders Reportedly Engaged in
> Exploratory Unity Talks
>
>  *Adrift in the political waters: the crushing humiliation awaiting a
> fragmented opposition on November 24         *
>
>                * *
>
>                               “*The lesson is clear, we cannot fight in
> isolation**”*
>
> Dr Fox, *The Gambia Echo*
>
> In just over two months, The Gambian elects a Chief Executive for a fresh
> five year term. If the country’s opposition leaders continue their current
> conduct in refusing even to engage each other in purposeful talks, much less
> agree the architecture of a united front against an all-powerful incumbent,
> the person who assumes the mantle of President will not be Ousainu Darboe,
> leader of the UDP. He will neither be Hamat Bah of the opposition NRP, nor
> Halifa Sallah of PDOIS.
>
> A fragmented opposition on November 24 can deliver only one outcome, and
> that verdict will not be what a suffocating nation yearns for.  If only to
> restate what, to a person, observers at home and abroad accurately surmised,
> there is no question a fragmented opposition will comprehensively collapse
> in any, and all efforts, to electorally consign APRC to the archives of
> Gambian politics. Such an outcome cannot, under any plausible reasoning, be
> assignable to the electoral appeal of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji
> Doctor Yahya A J J Jammeh, Nasiru Deen (the Professor),  but to the
> decidedly one-sided nature of Gambian public life, with the state, and its
> entire coercive arsenal, controversially concentrated in one person.
>
> Indeed, the current crop of *bona fide* opposition leaders expressly
> preamblised in the Memorandum of Understanding of the defunct NADD that “no
> single opposition party can put an end to self perpetuating rule given the
> culture of patronage, intimidation and inducement that has already taken
> root in the political life of the country”. Clearly this prognosis is as
> relevant today as it was in 2005. In light of this admission, it is
> extraordinary that 2011 is shaping to be a possible four-way contest for the
> presidency of the Republic of The Gambia. Without question, an opposition
> vote split three ways, will go down in humiliating defeat to the APRC. And
> it cannot be overemphasised that in an unrelenting dictatorship, the
> presidential contest offers absolutely no consolation prize!
>
> A political environment anchored in lawlessness and self perpetuation, with
> their full panoply of attendant perversions of democratic accountability,
> cannot but further corrode the fabric of our public life. And a state of
> affairs where a sizeable segment of the population accepts governmental
> heavy-handedness as normal, and the majority lives in fear, cannot, in any
> way, be a harbinger of pleasant tidings for Gambian polity. In light of our
> quite precarious existence, it is astounding that opposition Gambia - having
> explicitly recognised that alone as entities, none can compete with that
> juggernaut of the Gambian state, *aka* the Professor, and his ruling APRC
> - are still bent on a fragmented presidential contest in a mere three
> months.
>
> Our country resides at somewhat of a permanent crossroads since 1994, but
> an explosion in civic awareness meant a decision must now be made to vacate
> that location and continue the national political journey. Will the decision
> to leave the fork in the road be made by Professor in a trademark
> unilateralism that cements his notion of himself as embodiment of nationhood
> and national security, and of all that is good for Gambian republicanism. Or
> will the decision be made collaboratively in genuine national conversations
> in the scant months, weeks, and days, to November 24?.
>
> For now, that decision lies mainly with the Professor as sole custodian of
> our national police power. After November 24, the journey must continue, and
> depending on the reality, or perception, surrounding the outcome of the
> presidential poll, in a potentially more chaotic, free for all manner.
> Travelling the latter route will almost certainly end in regrettable tragedy
> for The Gambia, not necessarily in the immediate aftermath of the polls, but
> somewhere along the inevitably arduous stretch to 2016.
>
> Notwithstanding the potential disaster of cohesive collapse heralded by the
> storm clouds over our national space, a fully united opposition front
> against the Professor on November 24 can avoid the tragedy of unrest
> inherent in limitless executive power. Regardless of the ultimate outcome
> under a united front, the opposition performance could be compelling enough
> to materially enlarge the democratic space by eliminating the extreme
> manifestations of arbitrary executive conduct from Gambian public space.
>
> Even accepting that Diaspora Gambia’s views on the slow pace of opposition
> unity talks for the presidential contest may irritate some party leaders, I
> reject the contention that the decision on whether to unite or not remains
> their exclusive prerogative. As stakeholders, the opposition’s supporters
> are entitled to a say on how the November elections ought to be contested,
> and our verdict is a near unanimous call for unity. It is my view that, as
> the victims of tyranny, and the intended beneficiaries of dislodging APRC
> from our councils of state, any project in this regard is our enterprise.
> Clearly crucial to providing direction and momentum to the ultimate success
> of that enterprise, the party leaders are nevertheless mere trustees of a
> vital national project. As fiduciaries, their duty is to the people they
> intend to liberate from the clutches of tyranny. Their duty is to us, and we
> accordingly have standing to challenge their vision on the way forward. I
> urge Gambians to do precisely that in this crucial period for unification
> negotiations!
>
> Notwithstanding the public pronouncements of opposition leaders
> provisionally committing to a united front, they may still be of the view
> that referring to 2011 as a make or break year mischaracterises the
> magnitude of our national condition. Even to the casual observer, the
> overwhelming evidence of the gathering storm over our national space must be
> obvious. The relentless atmosphere of repression is simply not sustainable,
> and something has clearly got to give. On the grounds that no Gambian
> deserves to suffer in a civil conflict over the absence of genuinely
> inclusive and participatory democracy, I still contend for the proposition
> that the electoral process must be the principal route and a united front
> the main vehicle for ushering in change. Against a fragmented opposition,
> however, it is delusional to even suggest the electoral vulnerability of
> APRC under our first-past-the-post system. In the best of current political
> circumstances, no single party can come close to effectively challenging the
> APRC electoral machine. .
>
> And so they are not amiss in anchoring their hopes and policies firmly in
> reality, national leaders who toy with any form of parochialism are better
> advised to accept that Gambia’s communities are eternally damned to a common
> fate, whatever that may be. We are condemned to survive or collapse as a
> national community, not as communities within a nation. Sink or swim, we
> must experience our plight as a collective. That fate is absolute and allows
> for no variation whatsoever!
>
> Never in doubt about the agonising challenge of fashioning a workable
> united front, I am nevertheless of the firm view that those who aspire to
> the rarefied task of directing the destiny of a nation must be mature and
> pragmatic enough to appreciate and navigate the bottlenecks inherent to a
> project of such critical import. We are alive to the reality that a deal for
> a united front is bound to present special problems of intense agony.
> However, trapped as we are in a totalitarian system without independently
> viable institutions, the challenge for our opposition leaders is akin to
> that of America's founding fathers, those architects of statehood who carved
> the world's most distinguished political jurisdiction out of extremely acute
> conditions. Their enduring legacy is not the phenomenal and extraordinary
> material prosperity of the United States, but the creation of a nation of
> laws, and a land, even if at incremental paces, of liberty.
>
> There is no defensible rationale to suggest that Gambians are incapable of
> instituting a governmental system based on the rule of law. The notion, in
> some quarters, that God installed the Professor and that we are therefore
> divinely required to accord him unquestioned obeisance until the naturally
> ordained time for his departure, must be rejected as manifestly stupid.
> Every people have control over their destiny, and as God does not install
> despots, He leaves them in place for as long as they remain unchallenged. By
> our apathy we allowed despotism to thrive wonderfully. As a people we chose
> failure in permitting the Professor to exercise a fierce stranglehold over
> our public life. It is therefore not contentious to argue that we have a
> right to redemption through a united opposition front for 2011.
> I have no hesitation in commending our opposition leaders for the very idea
> of united front exploratory talks on this third day of September 2011, but
> the Gambian populace will reserve its accolades for the final ratification
> of an enterprise whose true significance, in the fullness of time, will rank
> for us as among the seminal political achievements and events of human
> history. A wrong turn and our accelerating demise into a failed state will
> be confirmed beyond question. The relentless repression of the Professor’s
> APRC regime threatens a national break up and opposition leaders must never
> share in that responsibility by scuppering the only peaceable strategy to
> rid The Gambia of persistent repression.
>
> In light of the intricate challenges threatening our nation's very
> survival, the current crop of opposition leaders have a special rendezvous
> with destiny. I implore them to follow the stars that will lead to a new
> dawn for The Gambia. I hope they follow the path of courage and
> determination and Gambia shall forever be grateful. A nation's hopes for
> peaceful change are solidly in their hands. How tragic if that sacred trust
> should be desecrated for want of political courage and vision!
> Ala *The Gambia Echo’s* Dr Fox, the lesson is indeed clear that we cannot
> fight in isolation. What Ousainu, Hamat, Halifa, and their colleagues in
> lesser parties do may constitute part of their leadership prerogative, but
> opposition foot-soldiers are calling for nothing short of a genuine united
> front against Professor Jammeh in the November presidential contest.
>
> I sincerely hope you can give us a united front!
>
>
> Lamin J Darbo
>
>
>
>
>
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ 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]¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
> ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ 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]¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
>  ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ 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]¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
>



-- 
www.suntoumana.blogspot.com


¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
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]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤