The ramble is extremely valuable, appropriate, and visionary. And I read
every word of it.
Ginny I'll give you a hint:
Your fair review of all political parties and their leaders of Gambia IS
NOT WHAT BRINGS OUT THE DAGGERS. I just want you to know that.
Some time just after the nadd dissolution and UDP/NRP's withdrawal from the
gaucherie, The GDP had invited UDP and NRP officials in order to fashion a
reconvening of minds around some coalescing of forces. You were kind enough to
grace a meeting of Hon. Hamat Bah. You spoke gloriously of him and he spoke
admirably of you both here and in Gambia. On your blog, there is publication
dedicated to Hamat, the Man.
So in life's mirages, and being an enhanced human being, you will not
understand why you solicit venom from some corners, even as you give praise to
their dear leader. The mentality and level of development is such that not only
is disagreement a harbinger of derision and contemptuous libel, but so is the
commendation and "praise" of phantom enemies.
I hope this keeps things in better perspective for you. I am concerned that
you will blame yourself for your good self. And it has nothing (virtually
nothing) to do with Ginny. What it risks doing is intimidating you to a point
where you recede in human terms to meet your detractors at the lower ebb of
life. I advise you stay true north. And enjoy life with your trademark
considerations.
Haruna.
In a message dated 4/16/2009 10:21:38 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
I wasn't
necessarily saying that anyone said, word for word, that
Halifa Sallah
wasn't human. And wasn't prone to mistakes. I merely
pointed
that fact out, as an aside, because every time Halifa Sallah
is discussed,
and/or criticized in anyway, the claws come out. And I
mean every
time! I almost guarantee you that if you scream Halifa
Sallah on a
crowded list, it's bound to evoke some kinda response.
And I also think
that some of his supporters idolize him, put him on a
pedestal, darn near
worship him, and anyone can disagree with me on
this point if you want,
however, from what I've seen, anyone who
criticizes him (rightly or
wrongly), gets all kinds of stuff flung at
them, and we get the same old
tired lecture of how great he is for The
Gambia, and how much he's done for
the Gambian people. Which may or
may not be true, that's not even the
point I'm addressing. However,
the unspoken rule seems to be that
criticism of Halifa Sallah is off
limits. Now this may, or may not,
be true. Maybe he has, or can't do
anything wrong. Maybe the
criticism has taken place off list. I
don't know.
I'll say
(once again as this seems to be getting lost in the shuffle),
that I
commend Halifa Sallah for speaking out and doing what he could
to get at
the truth of what actually took place. And I think that
questioning
his motives, just for the sake of questioning them,
without any proof to
substantiate any of the claims made in
questioning his motives, is wrong
and is over the top. OK? Now, if
anyone has any substantiated
claims that Sallah was acting in his own
self-interest, or for his own
political gains, let's post hard facts
here, and not just mere speculation
and inuendo. Let's not disagree
with Halifa Sallah just for the sake
of disagreeing with him.
I have wondered, though, why Halifa Sallah and
the PDOIS party has
failed to gain traction with the Gambian people.
And when I've asked
this question, the inference I get is that the Gambian
people, by and
large, are not politically mature enough, not educated
enough, and are
too tribalistic in their mindset, to choose what's best for
them (read
Sallah). Now, if one thinks so low of the people they
supposedly are
trying to fight for, the people you supposedly want to have
freedom,
democracy, the rule of law, etc., doesn't that mean that they
should
be allowed to support the candidate of their choosing? Even if
it's
not Sallah? Is Sallah (and the other opposition politicians as
well)
fighting for the Gambian people, or are they fighting for their
own
political gains? And if Sallah is so different than the
other
opposition politicians, how so? What has he done that say,
Darboe (a
human rights lawyer mind you) hasn't?
Sallah might be the
best thing for The Gambia (I'll steer away from
the "sliced bread"
comparison as it might offend some), however, the
hard fact is that the
majority of Gambians do *not* support him! Now,
how can you get
support from people when you infer (or right out say)
that the constituency
that you're asking to vote for you is too stupid
and uneducated to do
so? Now Sallah may not have said this himself,
but I've heard/seen it
from his supporters enough... And I'd
personally not support someone
who insults my intelligence or thinks
me stupid.
It seems that all
of the opposition leaders' supporters aren't that
much different than
Jammeh's supporters. You criticize their leaders,
the claws will come
out, you'll get called all kinds of names, and be
asked to prove (with
supporting messages, footnotes, and
documentation) every letter, word,
sentence, that you utter. And in
the process of the back-and-forth,
we lose sight of what the actual
goal is. Perhaps if we remember what
the ultimate goal is, which is
to restore democracy and the rule of law to
The Gambia (or at least
that's what I thought it was), then we can put our
differences aside
to achieve that goal and then worry about the back and
forth bickering
later. However, it seems that you have a group of
people who would
rather have Jammeh in power, than to see anyone else
butHalifa Sallah
as the next President of The Gambia.
All of the
opposition leaders, imho, have done something, in their own
way, to
challenge the current regime in power. They'd not be
opposition
leaders if they had not done something... Maybe it wasn't
exactly
what Sallah was or is doing, but if it's not, does it mean
that how they
choose to stand up to the dictatorship is necessarily
"wrong", or that
because they're not acting as PDOIS/Sallah woudl act,
that that makes them
power hungry, selfish, etc.?
And this is why we can't unite!
Because some do not have respect for
the parties they don't agree with,
they've put Sallah way up here, and
the rest of the opposition leaders way
down here. And will come on
the list and say they want a united
opposition no matter what, while
trashing some of the opposition
candidates.
I'm going to use American politics as an example again (and
my
apologies as this seems to offend some too), but do you think
Obama
would have gotten elected if he trashed Hillary and her
supporters
after he'd won the primary? Or, vice versa, i.e., what if
Hillary
and/or her supporters had continued trashing Obama after he'd won,
and
the democratic party had remained divided? What I'm trying to say
is
that for the most part, even Democrats and Independents, for
that
matter, rallied around Obama even if they didn't necessarily
agree
with him, in order to get rid of Bush and not allow McCain to
get
elected. They were able to put their smaller differences aside
and
focus on the bigger goal of ousting the Republicans from the
White
House as well as from many seats in Congress.
Now, if people
can't even do that here on this list, when we're
supposedly dealing with
mature and educated people, how do we expect
the leaders to be able to do
it? And even if the leaders were able to
come together, what about
their supporters?
You've got one person rehashing an event that
happened in 1996, per
Darboe, and another person questioning the supposed
ulterior motives
of a guy who, for whatever reason, put his life on the
line for asking
questions... i.e. Sallah... And this is just a
waste of time and
we're losing site of the big picture here!
My
nuanced view, that many either missed or chose to only focus on
the
critical of Sallah parts, is that Sallah stood up and spoke
out
*more*, hear me? I said *more than* any of the other leaders that
we
knew of! I was commending him for this. However, based not
only on
this current conversation but past exchanges regarding
Sallah,
criticism of him is not tolerated, even if it may be
warranted! I
also said that Sallah has done a lot in educating the
people in
electoral matters (and that was missed too), however, the fact
still
remains that PDOIS is still a small party in The Gambia. And
the fact
also is that many say that he and PDOIS urged people to support
an
admittedly flawed Constitution, the reason being that a
flawed
Constitution coudl be changed later and it was better than
no
Constitution at all. However, that's pretty much water under
the
bridge (just as Darboe's seeking refuge with the Senegalese
embassy
should also be water under the bridge), because even if we would
have
had a perfect Constitution, Jammeh has all but ruined it, and if
the
Freedom Newspaper *shudder* is accurate, Jammeh's fixing to
*oops,
there's the Tennessee coming out* put up a bill making The Gambia
a
one-party state. What will the opposition do then? Where will
the
endless quoting of the Constitution get anyone then?
You see,
many times I tend to have a pretty nuanced opinion about
things. And
many I think, missed that.
Anyway... this old argument regarding
Sallah/the opposition, in
general, is an old and tired one, and I'm sorry
that I wasted my time,
and others' time, getting involved in
it.
Although the emotional quips of "going back to Clarksville and
telling
the hibbies" along with my supposedly thinking my opinions superior
to
others (but they were didn't ya know? 'cause I'm educated and
all
that) have kept me laughing all day... And such an emotional
reaction
from presumably PDOIS/Sallah supporters have proven my point, that
any
kind of disagreement, or even mere suggestion that perhaps
something
else different should be tried, can't be tolerated, unless of
course,
the great and wonderful Sallah says it should be so... And
Maybe
Sallah is a great and wonderful leader, and I'm just not seeing
it.
I've just not been the type to put people on pedestals. Even
Obama,
who I think, for the most part, is doing good for this country,
I
don't always agree with.
Anyway, I've rambled on long
enough...
Ginny
On 4/16/09, Jabou Joh
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Ginny,
>
> Where in the
responses of those who are challenging the misinformation about
>
Halifa's intentions or anything else that is said about him for that
matter,
> have you read where any of us have even suggested that Halifa
is not human
> and does not make mistakes?
> Jabou
Joh
>
> But last I checked, he was human just like the rest of us,
he's not perfect,
> and just like the other opposition leaders (who by
being opposition leaders
> and human rights lawyers, etc., have also put
their lives on the line for
> The Gambia), have also made
mistakes.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
From: Ginny Quick <[log in to unmask]>
> To:
[log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:01 am
>
Subject: Re: The Halifa Factor, what next?
>
>
>
> You
know, I could care less *why* Halifa did what he did! If others want
to
> question his motives than go right ahead... However, the fact
of the matter
> remains that he went on a fact-finding mission
regarding the "witch-hunts",
> was arrested for it, and had charges
brought against him! Where were the
> other politicians while
all of this was going on? He was the most outspoken
> out of all
of the opposition politicians.
>
>
>
> Having said
that, though, just like the Republicans and Democrats in this
> country
can't do anything right in the other's eyes, so goes with the
> various
opposition parties (and their supporters) in The Gambia. If it
had
> been Ousainou Darbo or someone else, then someone would probably
be coming
> along and questioning Ousainou's motives
>
too.
>
>
>
> I don't think that anyone in PDOIS is any
more or less prone to hero worship
> than a supporter from any other
party, but I've always detected a hint of, I
> can't find the right word
for it, but a hint of defensiveness and and a
> sorta cult-like
hero-worship where Halifa is concerned, though this
> definitely
doesn't hold true for every PDOIS supporter. And Halifa is
>
human, prone to error, just like anyone else, though if you listen to
some
> people talk, he's the best thing since sliced bread, and if you
don't
> support him, then there's something wrong with you, you're
stupid,
> uneducated, or any number of
invectives.
>
>
>
> Notwithstanding all of this, at
least in the most recent case of
> witch-hunting, no matter why Halifa
did what he did, he did it! And if
> anyone wants to
question Halifa's motives for doing so, I'd like a little
> more
than speculation, i.e., direct quotes, hard evidence, etc., for
>
example, to sit there and say "if Halifa knew he'd be arrested, he'd
not
> have done what he did". Which doesn't make sense to me
because if memory
> serves me, Halifa has been detained before, so
surely he knew that his
> actions could well land him in detention of
some sort.
>
>
>
> Anyway, I've only read through some
of the posts as the back-and-forth was
> giving me a headache. And
it's just the same old "Halifa is selfish/thinks
> we're
stupid/whatever" meme against Halifa, and the "Halifa is great and
>
wonderful and how dare you question him/we all k
> now what you're
trying to do/you're trying to tarnish the image of the most
> courageous
Gambian to ever walk the face of the earth/what you're saying
> about
Halifa is patently untrue", on the other side.
>
>
>
>
And from my vantage point, the true is probably somewhere in the middle
of
> those two extremes. Halifa hs done much to educate Gambians,
has done much
> to empower them electorally, and he has put his life on
the line to stand up
> for Gambians. But last I checked, he was
human just like the rest of us,
> he's not perfect, and just like the
other opposition leaders (who by being
> opposition leaders and human
rights lawyers, etc., have also put their lives
> on the line for The
Gambia), have also made mistakes.
>
>
>
>
Ginny
>
>
>
>
>
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