In a message dated 99-12-11 16:13:41 EST, you write: << Mr Sallah, Believe it or not, I'm still open to persuation. The onus for that falls on you though. I'm just a little worried about getting inundated with totally irrelevant facts. The issues that myself and Hamjatta asked are pretty clear. So really, you don't need to give us a day-by-day political diary of the Gambia to answer these issues. That you had nothing to do with planning/executing the coup is a given. But in your last piece, you went to great lengths trying to prove what has never been in dispute anyway >> Saul: The ongoing debate is a clear testimony to the importance of such a forum. We maybe struggling with democracy at the motherland, but the Gambia-L has given us the taste of democracy. Another point that jumped out in the discussion, maybe just a coincidence, but Mr. Sallah is the only Gambian politician willing to participate to a Gambian democratic forum, and have his political believes and role probe and question. Where are the other politicians. Saul, after following your debate with Halifa, it has become apparant that you are much more incline to question his actions, and make insinuations questioning his intergrity. It is acceptable to question public officials, but when Halifa chronologically gave explanations, you hurriedly watered it down. You questioned his role and actions after the coup. He carefully gave you a litany of actions taken , and now you are questioning the importance of the detail and it's relevancy. You indicated that you are not a supporter of Jawara and his cohorts, for some reason you found it easy to understand their actions. Also Mr Dibba, a politician you admired, would not call him your hero, but never questioned his intergrity. You also listed the contributions of some other politicians. Saul, you have every right to engage Halifa and disagree with him, but it is also clear that Halifa is the ONLY Gambian politician with the intergrity, driven by a political believe and philosophy. It is factual to postulate that under a Halifa admisnitration, democracy will strive, constitutional rights of individuals will be guaranteed and socio-economic policies pursued would be in the interest of the Gambian people. On the other hand, I am not sure there is any Gambian politician that has even come close to demonstrating such commitments. What is also clear is that, both yourself and Hamjatta are trying extremely hard to make Halifa to be somewhat resposnsible for the failures of the Jammeh's administration. As a public figure, he played a role, and you should be objective and fair in analyzing his role. Finally, to Halifa I am looking forward to an explaination to Koro's situation, and how would they presently assess the role played by the Jammeh administration. Musa Jeng ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------