Mr. Samateh, I will be very direct and brief with you. The point I was
trying to make was that the fiasco in Florida should not be used as an
excuse to perpetuate Yaya. If you are not trying to do that, then you need
not take offense in what I wrote. Frankly, it was meant for the Saja Taals
of this world. Few months ago, Saja Taal told the Gambian newspapers that
since Britain does not allow elections monitors in their elections, Gambians
should not allow the Commonwealth to monitor our elections. It was in
anticipation of these irrational rattling that I wrote what I wrote. I can
see Saja Taal or Sedat Jobe telling people that we should do away with
Democracy because the Floridians are having problems. Yes, I have a big
problem with that line of reasoning. If you personally think that this is an
opportunity to engage in American bashing, bringing up things that happened
decades ago and have little or nothing to do with these elections, fine with
me. My quarrel is with people that want to use this debacle to steal
elections in Gambia or disenfranchise the Gambians. You are right that there
is nothing wrong in questioning the legitimacy of the Florida elections and
learning from the mistakes of the Americans. There are currently more than
20 lawsuits doing just that. But what lesson should we (Gambians) learn from
this problem? I hope we are not going to conclude that we want to do away
with Democracy and let dictator Yaya lead us forever. Sorry if I did not
make my point clear earlier on.
KB


>From: Saikou Samateh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: The Wages Of Indifference
>Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 02:37:36 -0000
>
>I believed this discussion is  getting out of context,if questioning the
>democratic character of the election system and or the weakness of American
>democracy should be a credit for the Jammeh regime it is not because some
>of
>us are putting forward such questions but those who are questioning the
>legitimise of  our  questions.If Dennis Jet,the leader of International
>Center at the university of Florida could say that if what happened in Palm
>Beach should have been the case in Latin America or Africa,American
>election
>observer will be the first to demand for re-election,an American whose
>organisation have participated in monitoring elections in Africa,Latin
>America etc if he could say so ,why should we shy away from raising the
>issues that we are raising ?just because we have a dictator back home.This
>intellectual arrogance and short-sightedness might be the very dancing
>floor
>that this fascist regime is waiting to do the last dance.Whether we as
>observer raised our critical voice or not,Americans will do it and are
>doing
>it,they know the history of their constitution and  under what
>circumstances
>it was written,as some one was recently reminding me that the founding
>fathers were slaves owners who also have to protect their future
>interest,no
>wonder crisis are taking place in our generation under different
>circumstances.
>
>For Freedom
>Saiks
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Dampha Kebba <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 9:24 PM
>Subject: Re: The Wages Of Indifference
>
>
> > Hamjatta, a brilliant and timely piece. I like your 'flushing cockroach'
> > analogy. In my opinion, that is our most fundamental problem today. The
> > stubbornness with which certain people peddle 'bad ideas' is just
> > mind-boggling. But we must resolve to debunk these nonsense each time
>they
> > surface. Trust Yaya and his cronies for reaching perverse conclusions
>when
> > faced with clear challenges. As you pointed out and Winston Churchill
> > discovered years ago, Democracy is not a perfect system. But it is the
>best
> > thing out there. I agree that it is irritating to have people denouncing
> > Democracy and most of the time would not present credible alternatives.
>If
> > they are courteous enough to give us alternatives, their choices range
>from
> > the bizarre to the downright illogical. Some of these people are
>criticizing
> > a system that they do not even understand. We have to be very careful
>how
>we
> > interpret what is going on in Florida in the Gambian context. The
>population
> > of some of the counties in Florida is larger than the whole Gambian
> > population. The challenges that face the Floridians are different from
>the
> > challenges we have back home. When we advocate for democracy in The
>Gambia,
> > no one is suggesting that we should adopt all the proven mistakes and
>export
> > them to Gambia. That does not make sense. We should try to learn from
>other
> > people's mistakes. What is most significant in Florida is that there are
> > mechanisms in place for dealing with the debacle. The current structure
> > allows for matters to be resolved with little or no risk for bloodshed.
>Not
> > everyone is going to be happy with the outcome. That is not the point.
>The
> > focus is to at least convince the overwhelming majority of Americans
>that
> > the process was fair and the outcome is legitimate. To use the Florida
> > fiasco as justification for dictatorships is absurd, hypocritical and
> > downright dishonest. The more logical thing to do is to try and outdo
>the
> > Americans by ensuring that we have a system where every vote counts.
>This
> > should be a minor challenge bearing in mind the population of The
>Gambia.
>It
> > is ridiculous and perverse to argue that we should allow Yaya to lord
>over
> > us because people cannot be trusted to apply Democracy properly. We can
>have
> > a Democratic  process  that is better than the American one. Let us set
>the
> > standards high. This must be made clear to Yaya and his cohorts. What is
> > going on in the U.S. should not be used as an excuse to disallow
>election
> > monitors in the coming elections. With all the noise going on in
>Florida,
>no
> > one is alleging fraud (yet). Did we hear George W or Al Gore putting
>guns
>at
> > the heads of elections officials and asking them to declare bogus
>results?
> > Granted, there are other pressures being applied at these elections
> > officials. But the significant thing here, is that there are checks and
> > balances that will make it very hard for some of these partisans to
>succumb
> > to the illegitimate wishes of their parties.  Again, the challenges the
>two
> > societies face vis-a-vis Democracy are very different. Apples and
>oranges.
> > Like you pointed out, we should still insist on elections monitors (if
>and
> > when we have elections) and demand that the process be better than what
> > operated in Florida. Whether Democracy is a far more superior system to
>a
> > dictatorship headed by a moron like Yaya, should be a non-issue. Our
>focus
> > should be on how we are going to improve and perfect our Democratic
>system.
> > I will also conclude by reminding everyone about trying to flush a
> > cockroach. No matter how trivial we might think the 'bad idea' is, we
>have
> > to attack it. People can regard this as dictatorial. But it is not. Evil
> > ('bad idea') has to be met head on and debunked. To paraphrase an adage:
> > evil thrive where good people stay silent. The least we can do when
>faced
> > with injustice, is to speak out against it. We should not let Yaya or
>anyone
> > tell us that our people do not deserve to choose their leaders, unless
>they
> > can come up with a better alternative. And vagaries such as 'traditional
> > democracy' do not suffice. As you shrewdly pointed out, this argument
> > against Democracy is a very dangerous and sinister one. It is also very
> > insulting for people to tell me that I should not participate in
>electing
>my
> > leader because I do not know how to choose a good leader. That is what
>it
> > boils down to. This condescension must be wiped out. Morons like Yaya
>and
> > mental midgets like Saja Taal and Sedat Jobe cannot decide for us who is
> > supposed to lead us. One of these days, you will hear one of these
>shameless
> > spinmiesters trying to use the Florida problem to convince us to crown
>Yaya
> > as our leader for life. I can gladly live with the decision of the
>majority
> > of the illiterate farmers in Gambia if they freely decide to vote for
>Yaya.
> > What I cannot stand, is for Yaya to steal power from the people and then
> > have these knuckle-heads going around and trying to justify the illegal
> > takeover.
> > KB
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
> > ><[log in to unmask]>
> > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > >Subject: The Wages Of Indifference
> > >Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 11:33:34 GMT
> > >
> >
> >
>_________________________________________________________________________
> > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
>http://www.hotmail.com.
> >
> > Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
> > http://profiles.msn.com.
> >
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>
> >
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
>Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
>You may also send subscription requests to
>[log in to unmask]
>if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your
>full name and e-mail address.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at
http://profiles.msn.com.

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

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------