Hi folks, Following is my Open letter to His Excellency the President, Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh. I wrote the letter in a bid to set the record straight about what Gambia-L is all about (at least from my perspective) and to invite President Jammeh to join and help us make Gambia-L and the Internet even more beneficial to The Gambia. It is my hope that the letter will, together with current efforts on Gambia-L, help move us along a path of cooperation, mutual respect, and a long-lasting, healthy debate. I faxed the letter to the State House this evening (Thurs., Nov. 18), and sent copies to The Point, and The Independent newspapers. For some reason, the fax number for The Daily Observer was not working, so I could not send them a copy. I will be sending seperate e-mail versions of this to both Foroyaa and Tombong Saidy (of GRTS) instead of faxing them their copies. I haven't had time to read all postings that we've received on Gambia-L in the past few days. With the weekend coming up, I will block-off some time to go through as many of them as is possible and send in my thoughts on where we should go with Dr. Saine's initial ideas, and the many excellent ones that were sent in response to it. I would like to encourage all of us to think hard about how we can all, despite our differences, dialog in constructive tones, and work toward an even greater Gambia. Have a great weekend, and best wishes in your endeavors. Katim ------------- Start of Open letter to President Jammeh -------------------- Nov. 17, 1999 His Excellency the President, Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh State House Banjul The Gambia Mr. President, AN INVITATION TO HELP INCREASE THE BENEFITS OF GAMBIA-L AND THE INTERNET TO THE GAMBIA: I am writing to invite you to help increase the benefits of Gambia-L, and the Internet to The Gambia. Gambia-L is an electronic discussion forum (sometimes called a mailing list) on the Internet created in January 1996 for discussing issues related to The Gambia. It is presently hosted, for free and along with many others, on a computer at St. John's University in New York, NY, USA. Electronic mail (e-mail) sent by a subscriber to Gambia-L is automatically distributed to other subscribers who can, in turn, distribute their replies to that message by sending them to the list. This way, the almost 600 Gambia-L subscribers from all corners of the world in effect have online discussions, and exchange information on various issues of concern to them. Discussions and announcements on Gambia-L cover a variety of topics ranging from job and business opportunities, marriages, obituaries, and activities in Gambian communities around the world. As you can expect, discussions have also dealt with current and topical issues about The Gambia, and the whole world. For this reason, many opinions have been expressed about you and your government on Gambia-L, and the debate continues round the clock, and every day. Not all of the postings on Gambia-L flatter you or your government. In the eyes of some people, Gambia-L is nothing but a forum for what they call "anti-Jammeh people." I have received suggestions that I for one created Gambia-L because I oppose your government. While I do not agree with some of your policies, I did not help start Gambia-L to provide a forum for your critics. Gambia-L is in fact a result of my efforts that started as far back as 1993 seeking help setting up a mailing list to discuss Gambian issues, and assistance in connecting The Gambia to the Internet. My interest in seeing The Gambia take her rightful place in the global Internet community also prompted me to write a two-part article about the Internet that I made available, for free, to "The Daily Observer" newspaper in The Gambia. The article was published around April 1994, well before most people had even HEARD of the Internet, and certainly before you came to power. Following your overthrow of the Jawara government, I started using one of my e-mail accounts in early in August 1994 to discuss developments in The Gambia with few of my friends. This system was semi-automated, but the number of people participating in the discussions continued to grow. We were finally able, in January 1996, to find a more convenient host for the list at the University of Washington (UW), Seattle, Washington, USA. We named the list Gambia-L, and still kept it's objective as a forum for the discussion of The Gambia and related issues. UW hosted Gambia-L until last May when we were forced to find a new host. The reason we needed a new host for Gambia-L was that a number of Gambian subscribers to the list started threatening a Gambian employee of UW who sponsored the list there. Those who threatened the Gambia-L sponsor did so because they were dissatisfied with discussions on Gambia-L, especially the many postings on the list that were critical of you and your government. Fortunately, I was able to get St. John's University to agree to host Gambia-L, and we successfully migrated the list to its new host without serious interruptions in service. The move to St. John's University has been a blessing in disguise for the simple reason that postings to Gambia-L are now archived on the Web at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html and accessible to Internet users anywhere in the world. Gambia-L continues to be managed by a number of volunteers, including me, who are responsible for approving requests for subscriptions, and handling other administrative details. Subscription to Gambia-L is open to everyone, except for the case of one previous member who was expelled because of his rudeness, and insults to people on the list. All postings to the list are automatically distributed, without the intervention of any of the managers. This arrangement is different from what obtains on other lists, called moderated lists, where list managers have to approve postings sent for distribution. The fact that Gambia-L managers do not intervene in the distribution of postings to the list, coupled with the free and open nature of subscriptions means that Gambia-L could not possibly be aimed at providing a forum for people to thrash your administration. While it might be true that most postings are critical, rather than supportive of your government and policies, this is only because your supporters and/or government officials have failed to respond to the criticisms of your government on Gambia-L. For example, in the past few weeks, there have been postings suggesting that your government has a list of Gambians overseas who are black-listed and being watched-for at border crossings by your immigration officials. Another posting mentioned that some Gambians were having their passports seized when they submit them for renewal because they are deemed opponents of your government. I was, to say the least, disappointed that only one government official, Tombong Saidy, of the Gambia Radio and Television Service responded to these postings. It would help a great deal if other government departments and agencies would get more involved in the dialogue on Gambia-L to help set the record straight, and dispel rumors. It is my strong opinion that contrary to what some of your supporters are saying, Gambia-L and those who criticize you on it are valuable resources to The Gambia government. As you know, Gambians are susceptible to telling people what they want to hear and not necessarily the truth. This, in my humble opinion, was the reason that former President Jawara was blind to obvious shortcomings in his government, and ultimately paid the price with his downfall. For this reason, I suggest that rather than dismiss Gambia-L as a forum for your opponents, you should use it as a source of valuable information and advice you will never get from those in your inner circle more interested in self-preservation than what is best for our country. May I mention that the importance of getting sound, truthful feedback has been demonstrated amply in history. You will recall that the late Shah of Iran, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, General Mobutu Sesse Seko of the former Zaire, and Samuel Doe of Liberia, to name a few, all died in disgrace and/or violently after being overthrown from seemingly unending dictatorships. The one lesson each of these people failed to learn was that the greatest insurance against a shameful end to power is to give the truth a chance to be heard. And, Sir, if you think for one second that you are the exception to this rule, you should think again. I would like to reaffirm my commitment to the idea that Gambians all over the world have a right, like anyone else, to exchange information and ideas with each other. For this reason, I would like to see Gambia-L used as one of the many tools that the Internet has provided people around the world to enhance communication, and increase understanding. We would be foolish to use something that continues to unite people the world over to divide us, and set us further back in our quest for national prosperity. In this regard, I am pleased to inform you that there has been an increased interest in Gambia-L subscribers to start a dialog between various Gambian interest groups the world over. In particular, a recent Gambia-L posting from Dr. Abdoulaye Saine of Miami University of Ohio in the United States has been received with enthusiasm by many subscribers who are ready to work toward our common good. I invite, and strongly encourage you to join us in charting a course of action to increase understanding, and foster a healthy debate among us. Toward this end, I would like to offer some suggestions about how we can make Gambia-L, and the Internet even more beneficial to The Gambia. First, I would like to suggest that Gambia-government Departments and agencies either subscribe to the list, or make sure that they have a system in place for making sure that they receive all discussions that relate to them. The Gambia already has Internet connectivity, and I see no reason why there should not be an effort to ensure that every government Department has at least one Internet-enabled computer. Second, I would like to suggest that every Gambia government Department set up a Website. This effort should be coordinated to produce Websites that are informative, engaging and of consistent quality. Such Websites will be a valuable link between the Gambia government Departments and Internet users all over the world. Furthermore, the huge and increasing numbers of worldwide Internet users means that developing an Internet-presence strategy for the Gambia government will be a valuable investment for many years to come. I am willing to offer any help I can in this regard, as I'm sure many Gambians the world over will be willing to given the chance. In conclusion, I would like to say that it is my sincere hope that the appeals for reconciliation and healthy debate on Gambia-L will be heard, acted on, and that we work to make the forum and the Internet a valuable resource to our nation. To paraphrase a Wollof saying, "you should dance when God claps for you." It is my belief, Mr. President, that we've started dancing to a tune of cooperation on Gambia-L, and I invite you to join and help us use the medium to improve the welfare of the Gambian people. Thank you very much for your consideration, and I wish you all the best in your endeavors. Sincerely, (signed) Katim S. Touray, Ph.D. Madison, WI U. S. A ------------- End of Open letter to President Jammeh ---------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------