Contrary to APRC disinformation, Decree 89 politicians, or those who have the
clout of a political heavyweight - Dibba, Camara, OJ et al - have, at least
in principle, joined or are on the verge of joining forces with rest of the
genuine Opposition. This has been confirmed to me by an unimpeachable source
in Banjul this evening. It is perfectly understandable why the APRC or the
NIA's Disinformation Department is working overtime to drive a wedge bewteen
the ranks of the Opposition: their calculations that the abrogation of Decree
89 would only help in unleashing disarray within the Opposition ranks, has as
of yet, not materialised and doomed to back-fire.

They figured that if they plant stories in gullible newspapers or use
gullible people like Pa Modou Gassama as their conduits, they can create
disarray, confusion and suspicion amongst the anti- Jammeh forces. So they
whip up mirages of a PPP revival with the hope that the fears and suspicions
it ends up breeding will feed on the age old rivalry between, say, the PPP
and the NCP. Such that those who would traditionally call themselves NCP
supporters would be reluctant to support a coalition that has traditional PPP
or GPP supporters. Wishful thinking, if you ask! Now, during the 1996
presidential election campaign, similar disinformation tactics were used by
the NIA to isolate what would amount to traditional NCP voters from the UDP.
They attempted this by working overtime on a disinformation campaign to the
effect that they alleged that Dibba was secretly in touch with the APRC and
privately supports Jammeh's agenda. Needless to say, this was nonsense. It
did, however, manage to create some confusion and suspicions within the
Opposition and Dibba was forced to publicly repudiate the claims.

To avoid a repeat of this, Decree 89 politicians ought to - at least in
principle - come out publicly and unequivocally state there is no way they
will be party to any shenanigans that will flunk Opposition efforts. This
they could do by either regrouping under a forum like "Concerned Citizens" -
as they did when they lobbied for the abrogation Decree 89 - and release a
statement unequivocally stating where they stand as a matter of principle in
the current political configuration. Or they could seize the initiative by
giving interviews in the local media and or appearing on both Radio One FM
and Citizen FM's current affairs programmes and help end the speculations. I
perfectly understand that before they commit themselves to anything, they
ought to enter into negotiations and seek a pragmatic political compromise.
But prudence dictates that they at least they ought to step out in the
limelight and unequivocally state that under no circumstances would they be
party to any shenanigans that would split the Opposition vote.

What role should these Decree 89 politicians play in the scheme of things? In
my opinion, their role while it should be primordially informal - given the
legal chains that still shackle their political limbs - shouldn't in any way
be constrained by the perception that they are "outsiders" who have just been
"included" in the scheme of things. Rather, they should be given prominent
campaign roles to get into every nook and cranny of the provinces and urban
settlements of the Gambia; travel the lenght and breath of the country to
help sell the anti- APRC message. I would go as far as radically call for
them to be given a free rein to preach to country folks about the life and
death issue involved in these elections. Of course there ought to be a degree
of co-ordination and coherence in the message preached. But the cold and
detached formalism associated party hierarchies and bureaucracies shouldn't
stand between these "old hands" and the best way they know how to reach the
masses in spreading the message.

Ultimately, and in these crucial moments, the general interest is neither
served by post mortems of the past or second guessing the ambitious of
individuals.  Or worse people in their attempts to grandstand, play the
political historians by forensically subjecting past political rivalries to a
scrutiny and speculating how such past rivalries will factor in the current
political configuration. There is simply no need for such academic stuff. Who
heads the coalition is something we can all debate but ultimately the Gambian
Family United Against Jammeh can initiate what i will call "a familist
conference" that will amongst others iron out the wrinkles of selecting who
heads this coalition. I'm made to understand that Mr Darbo privately doesn't
mind another individual heading the coalition. If this is really the case and
the case also that the UDP leadership is in principle wedded to this
position, then the pessimisms that is coming from some quarters are
ill-founded. The way i see it, there is still time to effectively launch a
successful campaign against Jammeh's bid to be re-elected. It requires, above
all, to have to all hands on deck - morally, financially and intellectually.

All the best,

Hamjatta Kanteh

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