Brother Ansumana, the personal attacks on your second paragraph was really
unnecessary. This kind of statements only gives clowns like Edi Sidibeh,
Tombong and Ambassador-in-hiatus Essa Sey, ammunition to sidetrack and hijack
the real debate on Gambia and which way forward; Under the tutelage of Yahya
Jammeh, the old Jawara nomenclature, or a new Gambia, where the populace are
participants not onlookers, the latter being the norm since time immemorial.
The overwhelming philosophy of political participation in Gambia is one where
the system [rulers/commissary class] perpetrates a notion that 'The average
man/woman is so stupid, that, whatever they [the despots] say goes', hence
the electoral process would call upon the massive poor and disillusioned
every five years to vote for one or more of the myth makers, therefore,
continuation of the same crap is guaranteed through the voting scheme. My
question to you and other members of the L is: apart from PDOIS and Halifa
Sallah [in his personal capacity], could you name me one person, political
party or otherwise, that engaged the Gambian population in such
sociopoliticoeconomic education or 'edutainment' as you might refer to it
from your statements. I will be frank with you, my philosophy toward reading
and learning anything that comes my way, started during my second semester in
university. An Indian professor of political science asked me to write a
paper on Cheikh Anta Diop, for those of us who don't know, the most respected
African historian/archeaologist/philosopher/engineer, and being the smart-a--
fool that I was, went into the negative aspect of the nonsense diatribes
attributed to him by some Senegalese politicians and citizenry.... he's a
fool, baldheaded [the same nonsense Abdou Diouf tried on Abdoulaye Wade; "NIT
KU YORRUL PEPE KAWAR CHI BHOPAMBI, NAKA LAI YOREH NGUUR"] and that he must be
from planet Mars, because his historical approach that Africans were here
before Adam and eve, understandably offensive to Muslims and Christians. This
guy took me all the way to Philadelphia to the Lincoln Museum and lend me
some of Cheikh Anta's books, which I profess change the way I think and
respect others, even though have different perspectives. Guess who was named
after Dakar University after Cheikh Anta died? CHEIKH ANTA DIOP UNIVERSITY,
hence, it is truly said, "the stone that the builder refused, shall be the
head corner stone and that the rejected one, always end up be ing celebrated.
I will also confess that, I never followed Halifa's writing seriously, but
discussing with levelheaded people that are more versed in comparative
political history on the Gambia, Halifa is one person that Jawara really
respected because of the well respected nature of his personality, research
capability and grassroots approach.
I'm not saying that Halifa is perfect and I don't think he ever professes to
be such, but the guy is engaged in spheres of interests, such as the
constitution, political process, economic development/priority issues etc.
that most Gambians, including myself, paid little or no attention to. What
I'm saying is that, we have to start agreeing to disagree and that even
Jawara or Yahya Jammeh has a right to be heard, then challenge
constructively. the moment we start getting personal, we turnoff a lot of
symphatizers to our cause of changing gambia once and for all.
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