Hi folks,

Please allow me to comment on and contribute to the dialog on a number of issues that have come up on this list.

1.  The Black list
First was the issue of President Jammeh's government black-listing a number of people who have been critical of their government.  I remember seeing one Dr. K. Touray mentioned as being on the list, along with people like Dr. Abdoulie Saine.  If that Dr. K. Touray infact is me, I would like to say that someone should tell President Jammeh that "Dou ma morom mam."

Furthermore, some of you might recall that in an open letter I wrote to President Jammeh in November, 1999 (see http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind9911&L=gambia-l&P=R47063) I mentioned the same issue.  I also mentioned in that letter that only one person, Tombong Saidy, was actively presenting his government's case to Gambia-L.  It is safe to assume that many more of President Jammeh's government officials are now on the Internet than were in 1999.  Thus, one would have expected that there would be an increase in the number of people that provide official responses to issues raised on this list.  Unfortunately, the one Tombong Saidy that was their spokesperson is no longer heard indicating that either the Jammeh government has ceased to care about reasoning it's case, or has run out of people willing to engage Gambia-L subscribers publicly.  Either way, it is a sad testimonial for the kind of leadership that's presently running The Gambia.

2. World Conference of Mayors
The next issue that's been going is relates to the announcement that the World Conference of Mayors will be held later this year in The Gambia.  I read the remarks made by Rep. Johnny Ford when he met President Jammeh to discuss the conference, and found them either at best naive, and at worst misleading.  If Rep. Ford honestly believes that The Gambia is democratic, that President Jammeh's leadership is positive for our country, then we have to conclude that he (Ford) was being naive, and needs some serious education.  On the other hand, it is possible that he is fully aware of the facts, but chose to speak as he did because that was in his own self-serving interest, and deliberately misleading. Either way, we have no choice but to proceed to educate Rep. Ford, and set the facts straight for the consumption of the rest of the world.

The question then becomes:  how do we proceed.  As always, the devil, as the saying goes, is in the details.  The past few days have seen many a noble effort, crossed-swords, and flared tempers, from people who are all working toward the same objective:  the betterment of The Gambia.  In a way, this is all good, because it is an indication of the passion with which people approach these things.  Granted, we might have to apologize once in a while to people we have offended in the process, but in the end, it is the sum total of these small encounters that builds strong and long-lasting relationships.

By now, we have the art of the cyber protest down to an art.  And a science.  With the wizardry of George Sarr, the journalistic skills of Ebrima Ceesay, and helped along with an impressive array of others in far-flung places, we have managed to put up stiff resistance to the excesses of the Jammeh government.  I have seen a big debate about h and the recent how to go about responding to, and presurring Rep. Ford and his conference to discourage them from having their meetings in The Gambia.

In the end, I don't think we should be distracted by some of the nitty-gritty issues of the campaign.  However, I suggest that we now start looking seriously at developing an operational plan for how to go about this, and other campaigns in the future.  Even though we have had a number of petition drives in the past, it seems to me that we still are bogged-down (and hence lose valuable time, and spend too much energy) re-inventing the wheel.  It seems that each time something like this comes up, we have have to resort to working out what to do first, and then begin to do that, followed by an argument about what we have done!

In these circumstances, I suggest Ebrima Ceesay, Jabou Joh and Co. proceed with the petition in a manner to ensure that Rep. Ford gets the message, without swamping.  The man, after all is, well, a man.  He is no superhuman to take the flood of e-mail and protest letters coming his way.

Furthermore, we should not lose sight of the fact that Rep. Ford is just the Director General of the World Conference of Mayors, and certainly not the only member of that organization.  As has been shown in postings sent to this list, there are other Mayors in the Conference, and our efforts against the conference being held in The Gambia should also be targeted at them.  The million dollar question of course is, "How?".

Given that it seems Rep. Ford is less than generous with the list of participants expected at the conference, we have to be a bit more creative.  Our first line of action is that we make use of the many mailing lists that are Africa and African-American related to reach as many people as possible about the planned conference, and why we are opposed to it.  In this regard, it would help if we have a registry of other mailing lists some of us are subscribed to, so that we can designate individuals responsible for liasing with different lists.  This way, we can make sure that our petitions get to as many lists as possible, without duplicating them.

For a start, take a look at a list of Africa-related mailing lists at Stanford University:

http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/email.html

What used to be E-Groups, and now part of Yahoo! (http://groups.yahoo.com) also might have a number of lists.  If someone would be kind enough to search their lists for anything "African" or "African-American" and let us know what they find, that would be great.

Another option we have is to reach out to the African-American media (newspapers, radio, and TV).  This is a campaign we can each wage from our living rooms.  All it's going to take is for each of us to call his or her local media outlets to ask for people responsible for international affairs.  In radio and TV you might want to ask for their news producers (these people pretty much determine what gets on the air; not necessarily the better known sweet voices and pretty faces ).  For newspapers, you want to ask for their international affairs editors.

It will help a lot if we have a press release that we can send out.  In this regard, I'll look at the press release that was sent out protesting the Mayor's Conference being held in Nigeria, and send a amended version for our use.  We'll then have to send out the press release to different media outlets, and anyone who wants to send it to their local media outlets can do so.  Please note that it would be better if you call first, and tell them that you'll fax, mail, or e-mail them the release.  And do let us know if you have sent out a release so, again, we can avoid duplicates.

3. Opposition Coalition
I have also seen talk about getting the Gambian oppositon parties to form a coalition in preparation for the coming general elections, to present a united front against President Jammeh.  I think this is a wonderful idea, and I will take a look at the petition and sign it. Before I do that, I have one or two remarks on the issue.

First, the coalition plan must be based on sound strategy, and a clear plan.  The coalition must be seen in terms of something that the various parties enter into to demonstrate that whatever differences they have, and no matter how deep they are, they are nothing compared to the scourge that President Jammeh's rule has come to mean for The Gambia.  A lesson worth learning here is the way in which US politicians, no matter the color of their feathers, all come together in the face of a common enemy, real or imagined.  The same reasoning should form the underpinning of the coalition that's being talked about.

The coalition is going to be a significant test of the committment of different politicians to the welfare of our country. It is without doubt going to mean that all participants will have to put national interests before personal political objectives.  I would also mean that they will have to work with people that they ordinarily would not have had the inclination to work with.

In this regard, the story (http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0008&L=gambia-l&F=P&S=&P=95854) told by the US Ambassador Haley on the occasion of his birthday party is well worth recalling.  It was about two brothers fighting over a bird they had caught.  By the time they got home with the bird, it was dead.  We all have to realize that this coalition that's being talked about should ensure that a way is found to preserve our national bird, before it dies in our hands.

May I also suggest the coalition also consider what's going to happen after President Jammeh is defeated.  These should be worked out so that all concerned will know exactly what the action plan is before action starts.  For example, I suggest the coalition consider selecting a non-partisan candiate for President, and further, that this candidate agrees not to run for office after his or her first term. Other issues such as allocation of cabinet positions to different parties should also be considered before the coalition is consumated.  Finally, a coalition Government of National Unity would also present a wonderful opportunity to fix obvious flaws like the decrees that shackle our constitution.

4.  The Gambia after President Jammeh
It is very easy, in the heat of the moment to lose sight of the fact that sooner (and probably sooner) or later, President Jammeh is going to go.  For this reason, we must begin thinking about some issues that should be taken up by whichever government comes after his.  In particular, I suggest that the Gambian people embark on a serious campaign to recover any monies that might have been looted by President Jammeh and his colleagues.

World opinion is finally beginning to frown on corruption, and illegal accumulation of wealth, and for this reason, it should be a matter of national priority that we make life miserable for anyone who has stolen our nation's wealth.  To paraphrase a Wollof saying, it's easy to steal drum; the problem is finding a safe place to play it.  It must be made clear to President Jammeh and his officials that whatever it is they illegally acquire while in office, we will go after them with resolve until it is recovered.  No matter where in the world they are, or in whose name(s) these resources are.

As I like saying these days, this is a terrible time to be a dictator.  The Internet now provides phenomenal tools to enable people all over get what's the worst nightmare of dictators: information.  Thus, from my desktop, I have instant access to information from authoritative and various parts of the world.  To get us started on the issue of recovering monies looted from The Gambia, I suggest you follow this link to a search I pre-formatted to find the term "forensic accounting"

You might have heard of "forensic" and we all have heard of "accounting", and probably few have heard of the two together.  Well, that's a new branch of accounting which applies to corruption, whte collar crime and such.  The following link as of this evening (Central Time US; Sun. Jan. 28, 2001) generated 7,800 links.

http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=+%22forensic+accounting Select the number of results you want per page, and then click on "Google Search"

As you can imagine, there are plenty of companies that are willing to help governments and companies recover looted monies where ever they are hidden.  Thus, I see no reason why a future post-Jammeh government interested in recovering monies looted from The Gambia should not use these resources.  Examples of these companies include the following I found:  KPMG http://www.kpmg.com/services/  (click on "Forensic and Litigation Services), one of the big accounting firms of the world, and Michael G. Kessler & Associates, Ltd. (http://www.investigation.com/) 

For your information, I a while ago, found out the Web address for the Swiss law firm that Ebou Jallow said provided him legal services, regarding the case of the missing millions from The Gambia (see his original posting on the Gambia-L archives: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0007&L=gambia-l&P=R21709).  The firm, Pestalozzi Gmuer and Patry is online at http://www.pgp.ch/welcome.html and Mr. Jallow' said his lawyer there was Mr. Jean Patry.  You can find info about Mr. Patry (and his e-mail address by the way) at:  http://www.pgp.ch/firm/lawyers/patry.html 

I send all these links because in light of President Jammeh's open and blantant display of his personal wealth, it should be made clear to him we are getting his message loud and clear: he's really rich.  But he's really filthy rich, and we'll clean him up.  I'll end up with the Wollof proverb:  gounay ak dolem, mak ak pexem  In Mandinka, this would translate to ding ding ngho nala sembo, kebba nala ferro, and for those of you unfortunate enough to speak only English or neither of the above languages, the proverb loosely translates to:  a young person uses his or her might, and an elder uses his or her wisdom.

Please pardon this rather long e-mail.  I think I have to start writing more often, and write shorter postings!  Have a great week, and best wishes in your endeavors.

Katim 

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