Hopefully the current UDP Visa saga confirms the importance of the Public Relations office and the need to have an effective one in very organization. It is very troubling that a party of UDP's magnitude is caught up in a PR nightmare like this and militants are each coming up with their version of "the true story". As juicy as this may be to read, it is clear that UDP has a lot of work to do; internally. MB Krubally Sent from my iPhone > On Jan 29, 2014, at 6:53 AM, UDP United Kingdom <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > That was a premature posting guys but I post my full response soon. I hit the send button mistakingly while drafting on my iPhone. > > I will not allow any hypocrisy to scupper the truth in this matter, and this not a personal attack on anyone. > > Thanks > Daffeh > >> On Wednesday, 29 January 2014, UDP United Kingdom <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> Thank you Pa Saikou for that response. Now is my time as I was involved in the discussion before the matter even reached you guys in New York. >> >> Yes, Suntu did not get his facts right and understandably so,about who knowswhatbut theinsinuation you are also makingabout an unnamed person who called Yahya Jallow's daughter is also baseless,unfounded and an utter fabrication. It cannot be any far away from the truth >> >> The suggestion that the executive tried to securean invitation from UDP USA for three months is alsounfounded. Here is what happened; >> >> Mr. Manneh contacted a member of the UDP USA chapter about the party's plan to send a delegation to the US for fundraising and requested from the chapter an invitation through that person. That person then expressed his personal reservation about the timing of the planned but none the less promised to table the before the weekly joint UDP UK and UDP USA meeting for discussion and possible approval. No list of delegates were given neither was Mr. Jallow's name was mentioned as a potential delegate. >> >> This was a period when the UK and USA chapters were engaged in sponsoring series of tours and activities on the ground to prepare the UDP for2011 presidential elections. We could get your NewYork chapter on board despite my personal efforts (I suggestion was all chapters to collaborate in the supreme interest of the party despite your intraciblepersonal differences in the US). We also could not get your chapter to contribute to the 2011 presidential electionscampaign, again, despite my personal efforts in reaching out to atleast four leading members of your chapter. >> >> Iwas immediately contacted by that person in my capacity as the Secretary General of UDP UKand informed of the same. The person also shared his reservation with about the timing and I agreed with him on that. I also understood that Mr. Manneh was not happy about the gentleman expressing this reservation. Ithen opined that although the visa issue should be sorted immediately, the trip itself should not take place until the Women wing returned to the Kombos from their second leg nation-wide tour sponsored by the UK and USA chapters, and this was for tactical reasons. >> >> Unfortunately, before we could meet as a group to discussthe visa issue, news broke out on the amateur freedomnewspaper website about Yahya Jallow been denied visa. I was surprised because as far as I know, no invitation was extended to them. I wastalking with Mr. Manneh's contactin the USA chapter on a daily basis literally and I expected that he was going to update me on any change or abandonment of the process we agreed upon. So I decided to call him. I told me in no uncertain terms thathe also just the story online but wasnot aware of any UDP official who had submitted a visa application to the US Embassy but then promised to find out from Yahya Jallow himself and get back to me a.s.a.p. >> >> Few hours later, he called back and said he called Yahya on Skype but could not reach him. It was his daughter who picked the call (this was not the first time he told that he calledYaya Jallow on Skype but got his daughter instead). He said the daughter told her that she was not fine. And when he enquired, the daughter said because she was denied a US visa. He expressed empathy and urge to daugher to keep trying. He the enquired when Yaya Jallow was going to be available. The daughter gave some indications. The person then promised to call back at those times. The conversation ended with a usual bye. How you guys can call this interrogation is beyond me. In any case, the call happened after the story was already published in freedom and Yahya was also heard been questioned over freedom radio. >> >> After the person finally got in touch with Yahya Jallow himself, he again calledto brief me about the issue. He said yahya jallow confirmed the story and said he wasn't worried himself but the daughter whose education was more important to him than anything else. I then ask that to call the embassy and plea with them to reconsider the decision. The person told him he was not going to do that since this was a professional decision made in a governmental agency and thathe was not going to interfere with that. Yahya jallow then went on to talk others i.e his studies and several visits to the US, which are unrelated to the matter. >> >> At that point, my focus was to findout how the issue made its way to freedom's junk mailbag. I told the personto forget about everything and let's focus on that particular issue as it was very disturbing that such a sensitive high level information found its way into the rumour mill of the amateur freedomnewspaper and radio. I said to the person since UDP UK and UDP USA were not aware of this, we should contact banjul and findout who else they contactedin the diaspora on this matter and where they got an inivitation from. The person then said; well mr manneh was not happy with me so must have contacted the new york chapter instead. I interjected and said; that is mere speculation. There was a lot of mistrust between UDP USA and the New York guys at the tine. He later called banjul to find answers to these critical question. we later jointly spoke to another leading executive figure about thefreedom leak. This was how the enquiry started. What was discovered are that; >> >> 1. The US Embassy had received specific information about Yahya Jallow's alleged past activity(s) long before (probably a yr or more) hesubmitted his visa application. >> >> 2. Yahya Jallow was advised a member of the executivenot submithis daughter's student visa application togetherwith his own application for there was a concern that if an adverse decision was made against his application, his daughter's too will be affected. Mr Jallow clearly did not heed to this advice. >> >> 3. Apart from the people within the UDP New York and others that they and/ Mr Jallow may confide with, nobody with the UDP diasporaknew about Mr. Jallow application to the US Embassy in Banjul. >> >> 4. Only the executive committee and mr jallow's immidiate familyknew about hisapplication to the embassy. >> >> 5. Based onabove, only the UDPNew York guys and their confidents or a member of UDP's own national executive or somebody he/she confided with would have leaked the info to the amateur freedomnewspaper. >> >> The matter was narrowed down to four suspects. Three in New York and one in Banjul. Some of them had been in recent contact with mr jallow. Apparently when those names were mentioned to mr Jallow in a line of enquiry(i did not speak to him myself) he painted them all with the Vatican brush of saints saying that they are more or less himself and would not cause him any harm, and i was like well if some of them can comeon freedom radio trying tocreatea negative imagefor the party; giving a false impression that it is a divided party and even hold the sovereign will of ournational congressin contempt, then they can also sabotage the party in this way too through the same freedom medium. I understand that mr Jallow was not from that point easyto talk toand was throwing his own wild accusations againstthis person you alluded becausehe thought that persondoes not like him because of his political nexus with lawyer darboe. He said this to few people including Suntou Touray. >> >> I also understood that Lawyer Darboe personally made efforts to talk tomr Jallow upon his (mr Darboe) from paris to calm him down and re-engage his focus on UDP. He was unsuccessful. He also sent elders to meet mr Jallow and discussion the matter. They too found him uneasy and uncompromising. People then decided to get there focus back on the campaign. This is the matter went to rest. So for people like you to come here an insinuatethat somebody within the UDP USA was responsible for mr Jallow's visa is not only baseless but rather unfortunate. >> >> I noticed that you guys in New York have been saying a lot about the UDP USA folks and I find that quite unpleasant.I personally took the initiative to investigate this including some of the things you pasaikou told me, and whatI found is that most of the things youguys accused them of are baseless and merely borne by your perception of them. Even those with some elements of credence, the facts are utterly misrepresented. This is the truth. >> >> The UDP USA had the same problem and I have alwaysdismissed their allegations against you asbaseless where I know the facts because I spoke to some of you too plus three of your colleagues in the NewYork chapte,or speculative if they can't substantiate their claim. But the problem is mainly with you guys in New York and it's not a UDP problem but some personal issues you have with one and other. I don't care what anybody says for this is the truth. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> , 29 January 2014, Pa. Saikou Kujabi <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >> May I start off by thanking Demba for hosting that very interesting and revealing interview. As in many cases, a friend drew my attention to this particular interview. I would also like to say kudos to the panelist for thoroughly outlining UDP's position on some of what I consider as "the burning issues" on the minds of many Gambians. Among those issues, is the suggestion by some that Lawyer. Darboe should lead a mass protest in the streets of Banjul or elsewhere. >> >> I say no to that. Let the people lead themselves. It is then and only then will it be a true revolution. Some cited popular uprisings in Egypt, Tunis, and Syria as a template for The Gambia. To that also I say, look closely and tell me who led the protests in Egypt, in Tunis, and who are leading the arm struggle against Basar Al-Asad. Certainly not the politicians. If the people in The Gambia demand their country, and they take the lead, then they will own the revolution, hire and fire, have the ability for the first time to hold their leaders accountable to THE PEOPLE. I do not have all the time in the world to elaborate more on this controversial but important topic. >> >> On the issue of Deputy Leader. Yaya Jallow, I would like to register upfront that I am not speaking for him, and neither am I assuming that he would like all that I may express here. I am compelled to set the record straight only because I was directly involved in initiating the visa application process. First and foremost, it was UDP's Administrative Secretary, Ebraima Manneh who contacted the UDP New York Chapter through Hon. Saihou Mballow on June 12, 2011 for an invitation letter. >> >> Saihou, however, informed Mr. Manneh that I was the interim coordinator of the chapter, but that he will ask me to call him as soon as I could. When Hon. Mballow told me about the issue, I called Mr. Manneh right away.I must say, that by Mr. Manneh's own confession, the party turned to the New York chapter only after three long months of unsuccessful attempts to secure such a letter from the so-called UDP--USA organization, without saying much. >> >> Given the urgency of the, only the key figures of the chapter were informed about the request. I was then mandated to write the letter and send it electronically to the US. Embassy, and copy it to Mr. Manneh. According to the contents of the letter, which, by the way was coordinated with the Administrative Secretary Manneh, and addressed to the Secretary General & Leader of the party Lawyer. Ousaino Darboe, stated in no technical terms, that we expected Ousainou to lead the delegation for a three weeks fund raising tour around the US. The letter also stated categorically that in the event Ousainou cannot travel to U.S, we would like deputy leader Jallow to lead the high powered delegation. > いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] いいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいいい ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ 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] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤