suntu you quite right Yero said it all.What Gambia needs today is total cooperation within the opposition ranks and our moral supports with encouragements because if there is no united front, it would be difficult for one party to dislodge the tyrant who monopolises all state resources to his advantage thus hijacking all free level playing field. The fact that IEC cannot conduct any free elections is also a need for unity against any move by the state to steal the election. Opposition Leaders need our support and encouragements to gear us all out of the frustrations and bigettings against each other.Am know one thing all of us meant onething for Jammeh to go. The way we want it is where the difference lies but we aim the same direction.Thats why we argue to agree not to disunite once again thus playing into the same tyrany.Who know who the next victims might be when we allow the Kanilai monster to continue his idolistic cercrifices of Gambians. Unite we must and unite we will by God's grace.x
king
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 03:25:39 -0700
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Open Letter to Opposition Leaders Reportedly Engaged in Exploratory Unity Talks
To: [log in to unmask]
Mawdo Yero
Your pragmatic efforts are commendable. The interesting thing is, we all wanted the opposition leaders to talk. And talk they are doing. It is my view that, if that is happening. All those interested in seeing a unified opposition camp should give encouraging words instead attacking them and their efforts.
There is time for everything, and if we take our own personal life in equation, we judge things to our interest. The time to level blame and unnecessary attack is not now. The opposition leaders are engaged in talks as early as yesterday evening. Why can't people give them a break to constructively exchange views?
Our microscopic analysis of one another is important so far it is taking us somewhere. But sadly, people have become the topics rather than restrain, give the guys a chance, they would rather undermine and criticise needlessly. But then, it is our Gambia. It shouldn't pain any one person whether Jammeh stays or goes. I for one don't lose sleep over it, because a national matter is a collective thing. I commend the opposition for talking over four days. Some of us away from all political presures cannot even see eye to eye let alone if we were the ones leading parties. I wonder whether we will take cutlasses to rip each other apart.
Yero, lets hope for the best. Whatever happen, happen for a reason.
Wasalam.
Suntou
On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 9:20 AM, Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Uncle Suntou,
Greetings. I am tired of saying uncle when not given a wife or bull. You know in our fula culture, people say Uncle for a reason.
Jokes aside, good to see your lines. LJD's lines are worth looking deep into. I hope we have politicians who will listen to our concerns. November is just at the corner. There is still a chance of sending Jammeh on his heels. A good leader is one that listens to his followers. From speaking to them on the phone last week, I am optimistic that they will reach a deal on unity. Let us pray hard for Jammeh's peaceful exit. The man is just a joke and a ticking time-bomb! Part of what makes jammeh a rotten human being is his inability to listen, comprehend and undesrtand basic things. He've added the worst of things to his plate -complexity.
Recently, a friend teased me with reconciliation with Jammeh. i said to myself, Yallah tereh! Not even his rotten skull, much more to his psalms, do i want. Jammeh can just go.....that much I care.
have a great day-
Yero
There is no god but Allah (SWT) and Muhammad (SAW) is His messenger. Fear and Worship only Allah alone!
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2011 16:16:31 +0100
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]
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
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