X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 18:50:33 -0500
From: Abdoulaye Saine <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Organization: Miami University
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Sir Dawda's Visit Ends at Miami U
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

To the G-L Community:
Sir Dawda's visit to Miami university was a success and ended yesterday,
November 9, 1999.  It was a success because it was a good learning
opportunity for our students and faculty. While here, sir Dawda made
several class presentations to students about Africa and Gambia's
political situation specifically. Several receptions were held in his
honor. Students in my classes were told about Gambia's political
situation and often posed good questions to Sir Dawda. Many of them were
excited about his visit and their interaction with the former President.

On sunday, November 7th, Sir Dawda met with about eight Gambians from
Cincinnati, Columbus and Atlanta.  The discussion was candid yet
fruitful. Mr. Maffy Jarju flew in from Atlanta to attend the meeting and
took the opportunity to challenge Sir Dawad's thirty year rule.  Mr.
Jarju then proceeded to praise the AFPRC/APRC government.  Mr.O.B. Silla
also raised the issue of Sir Dawada's "complacency" to deal effectively
with corruption and other problems Gambians faced. Mr. Mustapha Ceesay
praised the former President for the contributions he made to Gambia and
as father of the Nation.  He asked Sir Dawda what compromises he was
willing to make to enable him to return home.  To the Jarju and Silla
comments, Sir Dawda insisted that his government improved living
conditions, readjusted the economy and laid the basis for the "Gateway
Project." I suggested that the improvements were marginal at best in
light of thirty years of PPP rule.  To this sir Dawda responded " we did
the best we could given our resources and the dismal state of affairs
after independence".  Mr. Abdou Sarra Janha, former Secretary General of
the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary at the President's Office,
cited the decline in infant and maternal deaths and improvements in
clean drinking water as examples of PPP Government success. To Ceesay's
question Sir Dawda responded that he was willing to engage President
Jammeh in a discussion as a citizen and elder statesman, if he "unbanned
the PPP, other parties and politicians and created the conditions for
free and fair elections".

On Monday (November 8) Sir Dawda delivered the Grayson Kirk lecture to
an audience of about 200 students, faculty and staff.  Sir Dawda
delivered, in the view of some of my colleagues, a well crafted and
coherent analysis of Africa's current Crisis and the need to build
democracy and protect human rights. In my view, Sir Dawd's speech/
lecture was very good. In the question and answer period, a Kenyan
faculty member in Miami's History Department asked Sir Dawda what he
would do differently if he had a chance to be President again.  To this
Sir Dawda responded that he would continue to emphasize democracy and
human rights and continue his economic reforms. Some of my colleagues
felt that Sir Dawda did not answer the question. The next question was
asked by a Ghanaian faculty member in the Department of Geography. He
asked if the Western model of democracy was suited to Africa's
conditions and if he would suggest alternative(African)models of
democracy such the Ashanti's. Sir Dawda maintained that "multiparty
democracy" premised on the "rule of law" and the "respect for human
rights" were suited to African conditions and mildly challenged the
faculty member to suggest the alternatives.

The last comment came from Mr. Kekoto Bajo, a gambian living in
Cincinnati, and in the U.S. for over twenty years. He expressed
"tremendous respect" for Sir Dawda and continued to critique his thirty
years of "misrule and corruption".  Bajo's critique of Sir Dawda was
laced with a personal story of broken scholarship promises by Sir Dawda,
problems with food at Armitage High etc. Sir Dawda responded that, Bajo
was "part of the opposition" and that he was sent to Miami to tarnish
his record. It is not certain that this was the case, even though Bajo
MAY have a relative in the current APRC Government. As Bajo got more
agitated the session was ended by the moderator, who said that "he was
not sure what next Bajo was going to do." Bajo was in the first row
alone; facing the ex-President and only about three feet from Sir Dawda.
This scared the moderator who himself is the Director of the
International Studies Program at Miami. Some student were also
"scared."  The discussion however, continued on the corridor as Sir
Dawda answered questions from other students and faculty. Many liked the
presentation and felt that while Bajo's comments were useful, they would
have addressed the ex-president differently and in another forum. Some
felt that Bajo's comments were an exercise of free speech; and a pillar
of and a practice in democracy. The same principles Sir Dawda outlined
in his talk. Bajo later made an apology to me and other faculty.

I will comment later on the Sir Dawda visit, the current impasse in
Gambian Politics, on the Gambia-L and the need for national
reconciliation, reform, and healing in the aftermath of the coup. Thank
you!

Abdoulaye Saine