Hamjatta,
               I agree with you that politics can sometimes make for strange
bed fellows. Every political party is essentially in the persuasion business
which means the thrust of what they do is to rally people around a broad set
of ideas with the fervent hope that they can attract the support and talent
required to translate those ideas into tangible progress for the people they
seek to lead. Because of this simple but profound notion, any viable party
would have to attract the broadest spectrum of supporters ranging from
enthusiastic hard core adherents to more reluctant supporters like you seem
to describe yourself. The essence of participatory democracy is to make it's
operational parameters evolutionary so that good ideas always have a
reasonable chance of being heard. I can personally tell you that there are
aspects of the UDP platform I find inadequate or outright oppose, but what I
have chosen to do is to make efforts to engage the party and it's leadership
in bid to incorporate the one or two ideas I have. The objective like you
said has to be centered on making the lot of the Gambian people who have
suffered long enough better. I think it would be a tragic mistake if people
with good ideas and the requisite dedication to move our nation forward
subjugate their duty to themselves and to their country to personal
suspicions or get caught up in the notion that their kind of a party or
people have not emerged. That is a prescription for stagnation and decay. I
have never met Ousainou Darboe, or Yahya Jallow or any UDP leader. I have
never met you either. But so what? We can all be collective shepherds of good
ideas and help our people. It is not unreasonable for you or anybody else to
ask questions of those who seek to lead our nation in a direction that augurs
well for the Gambian people. I think where we hit a brickwall is when smart
people like yourself essentially insist on designer solutions to complicated
issues such as a clear road map to salvaging a nation that has been ruined.
To be sure you and every Gambian electorate would be far better served if
competing political parties would avail you of detailed plans on the economy,
healthcare, education and all the other very critical issues of everyday
life. I yearn for that myself. The fact of the matter is our political system
is rotten and ineffective and is primarily the reason why our country has not
been able to evolve the right kind of leadership. I know you don't like it
but as of now what you can get from political parties are broad policy
outlines that would invariably lack the kind coherence and specificity that
you and I would prefer. That is why I would urge you to perhaps hold your
nose and work with a less than perfect system as a transition to establishing
a fair and effective political framework that nurtures and rewards merit. I
can tell you a UDP government would quickly get rid off institutional
settings that hobble the flourishing of ideas be it in the economy, politics
or anyother aspect of Gambian life. They have no choice because our viability
as a nation depends on eliciting and nurturing the participation of all our
citizens. Call the politicians and pitch your ideas because it is your Gambia
too and I am positive you will find most of them receptive to suggestions and
most importantly support. Just don't insist on precisely how they intend to
run the Education Department with it's current unwieldy bureaucracy
consisting of more than half a dozen directors and abysmally failing
standards, not because it is not an important question, but because the
detail answer you deserve requires the kind of study and access to data that
the political system in our country does not foster. Herein lies our dilemma
Hamjatta and I am counting on people like yourself to help fix it. We must.

Karamba

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------