Hamjatta,
  By the way of introdution,the United Democratic Party [UDP]came into being in August 1996 in response to the gambian people's desire for a cridible alternative to the military regime headed by former lieutenant Yahya Jammeh.When the military regime decided to turn civilian in order to perpetuate itself in power against the wishes of the Gambian people and the expressed desire to our development partners,it undertook a number of actions to ensure success.This included the banning of all former leaders and politicians who could pose a serious challenge to Yahya Jammeh.The parties to which these politicians belonged to ie the peoples progressive party [ppp],the National Convention Party [ncp] and the Gambia Peoples Party [GPP] were all banned.A new political movement therefore became necessary to mobilise effective opposition to the military regime.This role the UDP fulfilled and in less than a month of its formation contested the presidential elections in september,1996 in an atmosphere characterised by harassment,intimidation and torture perpetrated by the security forces of the military regime.In fact the whole election process was considered so flawwd that international observers from respectable and credible international organisations such as Commonwealth and the United Nations refused to send observers.Despite these odds our party scored over 147,000 votes,in relative terms 38% at the presidential elections even though we strongly despute these figures.At the National Assembly elections we suceeded in securing seven [7]seats and we petioned the Jimara and Illeyasa seats in which we believed our candidates Saihou Mballow- myself and Sainey Jadama respectively won.Both results have comfirmed our position as the largested opposition party in the Gambia today.

 FOR THE PARTY CONSTITUTION SEE OUR WEBSITE OR KARAMBA

 Hamjatta,if UDP is elected to office:
MEDIA:A UDP government shall always encourage the full and unfeltered development of a free,vibrant and resposible press,especially in the private sector.We view the media practitioners as indispensable parners in democracy and development.The Government shall develop a comprehensive policy on press freedom and the right to information,in order to effectively fulfil their role.
HEALTH:Today,the UDP leadership is very critical of the APRC regime's capital intensive health programmes.Today there are many health centres that are not functional due to lack of drugs,transport and to other difficulties associated with fuel and spare parts all of which are a recurrent phenomena today.UDP government will address this issue adequately.
Important area education:APRC saw it as its so called priority to provide the country with as many schools as possible but without taking into account the felt needs of the population and the operational and maintenance costs required.Today,education has soared beyong the reach of many Gambians parents.A UDP Government would make education acessable and affordable to every Gambian child.UDP government will give Gambian children the real University education they need.
 Agriculture:A Udp government would give due attention to agricultural research,extention,input supply and marketing.Such policy initiatives would involve farmer mobilisation,training and empowerment.We will not allow the APRC attitude of mismanagement of public corporations like the closure of the Gambia cooperative union is another manifestation of the APRC 's mismanagement of public cooperation which are often viewed as an unlimited source of funding.
Women and Youth:A UDP Government would address the abuse and manipulation of our youths and women.A UDP Government will build and equipt skill centres for our youths who are school drop out.Women would be given their rights stipulated in the constitution.
Politics:UDP Government in this process of restoring democracy and nurturing it,we cannot overemphasise the role of political and civic education as a way of raising the political consciousness of the Gambian people.Today,if half the amount spent on securing Jammeh was spent on political education,the country would have gone beyong where she is today.The UDP despite limited resources,already embarked on civic education programmes.We know the population must be politically educated so that they would willingly carry on the values,traditions,norms and duties of their societies.They should never be turned into subservient and passive subjects,but active participating citizens in the development process of their communities.
  Foreign policy:UDP Government shall maintain strong relations with friendly countries particularly with those that shared our domestic ideals and the respect for human rights.In this respect,Senegal occupied a special place in our bilateral relations.
Beyong Senegal,UDP Government would seek to maintain and promote closer cooperation with our neighbours.we recognised that the coordination of our efforts with these countries is important for the maintenance of subregionaland regional stability and the promotion of trade and development.
Even today the UDP in four years developed a very good relations with international Organisations.One organisation that the UDP have good consultations with is the Commonwealth secretariat.It was due to such links that the secretary general and party leader of the UDP,Mr.Ousainou Darboe,was invited by the secretariat to attend the commonwealth meeting in Gaborone,Botswana in 1997.
 The socialist International also invited the youth wing of the party their x11 congress in Lillehammer,Norway in 1997 in which the youth wing National secretary Saihou Mballow-myself attended.
A UDP Government shall support our active in OAU,the UN and its specialised agencies,the Commonwealth,the Organisation of Islamic conference.
Hamjatta,do not be sceptical of the the UDP,as political organisation genuinely committed to democracy and the rule of law,the UDP will remain opposed to any move aimed at subverting the rights of the Gambian people.It is against this background that gambian people from different tribes came together to form the UDP organisation.
To butteress Karamba statement,two of us have never met like you and me but we have a common goal that is costitutioality to be restored and freedom to exist.we want corruption to be assasinated therfore,who ever is out for this for the Gambians is a member of our boat.
 You mentioned that during the Washington Dc protest of last month''[a mr. Dabo] claimed that they are riding to electoral victory with or without the support of other political parties /interest'',now i am telling you that the UDP leadership has never uttered any statement similar to that.We have high respect for our fellow collegues or other opposition political parties in the country likewise they have for us.
  Once more i thank you very much and all the members on the list for their kind attention.

Long live democracy;
Short live dictatorship;

Saihou





On Sun, 25 June 2000, Saihou Mballow wrote:

>
> Hamjatta,
> Thank you very much for registering your concerned to what the UDP would do when elected to office?.Though,i am not the party spoke person,but as a member of the executive,i  will be able to tell you something about the party.Right now i am here in Jersey City but by late evening i will be back to New York and will post something.
> By the way,it is incorrect to say that UDP do not need the supporrt of other political parties.
> Thanks for Now untill later.
> Saihou
> On Sun, 25 June 2000, Hamjatta Kanteh wrote:
>
> >
> >     It is time, serious sceptics of the UDP like me and else strike what the
> > American neo-conservative commentator, Norman Podhoretz, calls a "brutal
> > bargain", with the UDP leadership; a covenant of what to expect should we put
> > our scepticism and moral disagreement on the respite agenda and give them the
> > support needed to politically/electorally empty Jammeh into the dustbin of
> > history come the next general election.
> >     By "brutal bargain", Podhoretz was referring to it then to mean the
> > "deal" between mainstream America and hyphenated America in order to
> > assimilate the latter into the former. Hyphenated America willing and ready
> > to give up on things/cultures intrinsic to their history/identity and
> > assimilate whilst the mainstream is willing and encourages the accommodation
> > and assimilation of the hyphenated. This in itself has not done bad to
> > American life as a melting pot. Even if it means corroding/depleting the core
> > of what truly entails hyphenated America's culture, it had enriched the
> > mainstream culture and given America what the Founding Fathers had dreamt of;
> > an objective pluralist society that is accommodating. A truly multi-cultural
> > America. Of course neo-conservatives are in deny of this today. They are
> > increasingly being revisionist about Podhoretz's "brutal bargain"
> > intellectually and working fervently against the trend and tide of
> > multi-cultural America. Even if it remains until some time in the mid 1990's
> > the main consensus between Liberals and moderate Conservatives in the culture
> > wars that had consumed America since the 60s, the Right is attacking this
> > consensus from all angles these days. But that is by the way....... it is not
> > our topic here today. Sorry for the necessary digression.
> >     It is about time that those of us who are in principle not in favour a
> > UDP gov't under normal circumstances, take a neat leaf out of Norman
> > Podhoretz's "brutal bargain" as I tried to explain it above. Even if the UDP
> > is not your ideal political party, you would have to agree that it represents
> > decency and respect which any given polity needs by all means to move on to
> > better things. But decency and respect is not everything. We need more. Where
> > are the new ideas to turn things around? On the collapsing economy, the
> > military, the constitutional and institutional frameworks we need for a
> > viable civic oriented polity after Jammeh, the Casamance and Bissau issue,
> > the case of the impounded properties of the former PPP gov't members, the
> > obvious political limbs and baggage of remnants of the ragtag fraternity of
> > the PPP that are part of the UDP had brought to it, to what extent do they
> > [former PPP officials] influence policy and direction in the Party? There are
> > a thousand questions I can throw at them that I need at least a clarification
> > on or a pledge what is to be done about it.
> >     The UDP, at any rate, after virtually almost 4 years of existence as a
> > political force, still borders on the ambiguous. It is hard to culminate it's
> > pulsating political philosophy that runs in it's veins; it's cementing
> > ideology or world view. It's funny position of being a crossover and
> > hurriedly patched up ragtag fraternity of at best strange political bed
> > fellows who have struck an alliance to battle the common enemy. The aura of
> > mysticism that is it's relationship with the ancien regime of Jawara and old
> > order. Most Gambians like me haven't got a clue on these important issues and
> > their wider ramifications should the UDP enter gov't.
> >     Yet it is becoming a hackneyed acknowledgement that under free and fair
> > conditions [even that acerbic commentator Cherno "Mawbeh" Jallow has given
> > them his "toast"], the UDP will electorally empty Jammeh into the dustbin of
> > history. A UDP gov't has far wider ramifications than merely emptying Jammeh
> > into the dustbin of history. The challenges lying in front of a post Jammeh
> > Gambia are numerous and requires dedication, honesty and selflessness. But
> > above all new ideas to confront the harsh realities of daily Gambian misery
> > on the ground. Can the UDP deliver? I can't in all honesty answer because I
> > haven't got a clue. It is however, fair to allude to it the moral dilemma of
> > having too many faces and fronts or baggages which will not augur well for
> > the Gambia if not clarified.
> >     It is becoming a common place fallacy to attribute to the growing
> > vehemence of anti-Jammehish an apologia for Jawara-ism. This is erroneous. A
> > falsity that needs be tackled as the tyrannous evil of Jammehism itself. This
> > growing vehemence of anti-Jammehism is more than just replacing Jammeh with
> > decency and respect. It is a clarion call for better. Better. And better. The
> > poor people of the Gambia need and deserve better. It's been some 35 odd
> > years since the departure of Europeans from our country. Yet virtually little
> > has changed and much in need of doing. To overturn this, we need bold,
> > pragmatic and selfless leadership to inspire and direct us to newer heights.
> > A leadership, to pinch a phrase from Halifa, that has the foresight to inject
> > hope into the hopeless, buckle up the forlorn and most importantly harness
> > our enormous resources into building a new and better Gambia that is worthy
> > of emulation in the subregion.
> >     Since the PDOIS has taken up again it's neutrality in the status quo as
> > is inevitable with all most post-Marxist Pan African political groups who
> > have yet to reconcile their differences with moderation and the mainstream,
> > it is worth mentioning here that Liberal moderation has two choices. Either
> > to continue being sceptical of the UDP, cross their fingers and hope for a
> > messianic figure to arrive and deliver them from the devil of Kanilai. In
> > other words fence sit and be mere arm chair critics of the situation. Or on
> > the other hand, Liberal moderation can strike a "brutal bargain" with the
> > UDP; that in return for their principled and conditional support, Liberal
> > moderation expects and anticipates a convenant with the UDP leadership on the
> > fundamental issues aforementioned earlier. Of all the options opened to us,
> > the latter is more practical and prudent given the exigencies of the politics
> > of the period. To procrastinate would be foolish and detrimental to our dear
> > country.
> >      This convenant must be entered into now. The UDP leadership must come
> > out in the open and formally state in black and white what it will give in
> > return should this "brutal bargain" go forward. It cannot wait until the
> > twelfth hour and make throwaway pledges that are inconceivable or ill-thought
> > out. It must come out now with pledges that the Gambian people will hold them
> > onto should their mandate be signed come the next general election.
> >     Perhaps the affable and eloquent Karamba Touray or the liaison officer
> > the UDP online, Mr Saihou Mballow, will step forward and address our
> > concerns. Or better still someone on the ground like Mr Femi Peters, the
> > campaign director of the UDP or the indefatigable Mr Juwara, the propaganda
> > secretary should be invited online by those in the Gambia who have access to
> > the List to engage the Diaspora and Gambians in general about their
> > anxieties, fears and hopes.
> >     As my good friend Halifa Sallah rightly put it to me some time ago, this
> > is a time to share. Indeed a time to share everything as a people. The UDP
> > must never delude itself into the fallacy that everything is clear-cut and
> > they are on their way to claim the crown or the reins of power unfettered.
> > Perhaps the utterances of some UDP supporters like the fellow in the
> > Washington DC protest of last month [a Mr Dabo], who claimed that they are
> > riding to electoral victory with or without the support of other
> > parties/interests, is a stark reminder that the UDP need be reminded that
> > this is not an ego ride or selfish uni-lateral political crusades. And
> > victory must come only by engaging and embracing other interests who are in
> > principle not in favour of a UDP gov't.
> >      Whatever happens after Jammeh, must be about the Gambian people
> > bettering themselves after the recent experiences of both Jammeh and Jawara.
> > For this, those of us who are in principle not in favour of a UDP gov't under
> > normal circumstances must reconcile this principle with our vehemently
> > anti-Jammehism. It is time for the "brutal bargain" and a UDP formal
> > convenant with the Gambian People. The timing couldn't be better.
> > Hamjatta Kanteh
> >
> > hkanteh
> >
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