Brother Joe Sambou,

I must begin by thanking you profusely for using your time to respond to enquiries I made on the matter of the Coalition Summit  in Atlanta. I found the report carried on The Independent  quiet informative eventhough obvious important details must have been filtered by the newspaper's editors. I suppose that is one important reason why there is high-pitched recommendation for readers to acquire the video. In any case, the rest of us owe much to those whose practical efforts made the Summit a success.  Year 2006 is not distant in political terms, and therefore those concerned for the evolution of  true democracy in Gambia need to hurry in setting up concrete objectives for a Post-APRC Gambia. Unfortunately that work has not begun, as was clearly spelled out in the paper referred to above. 

Before doing that (perhaps in a future posting) there is an urgent need to debate, rephrase and reassert the role of diasporan Gambians of all walks of life in the current thrust towards building a democratic Coalition capable not only of wresting power from the hands of the APRC, but injecting into Gambia's political experience a new era of inclusion and openness, qualities for whoich we have been gifted by both our history and geography. In a country where hardly anyone remains anonymous for any reasonable length of time, it is incredible that its citizens have proven incapable of building on old communal bonds of mutual solidarity to form the basis of  a consensus politics. A culture of tolerance and decency in political conduct need not remain alien to the Gambia. To survive in a dignified way in a world of brutal economic realities, Gambians need to strive for such "utopias" to attain some competitive advantage. 

The current actuality of socio-economic strife, the brutal distribution of poverty, the abrogation of Human Rights and destructive levels of corruption, power arrrogance and abuse are symptoms of a society adrift. A vaccilating foreign policy frantically searching for ever-elusive foreign invesments, that is hoped to rescue the econnomy from incontinent hands while thousands of Gambian high school graduates waste away in denigrating unemployment bespeak a political culture in need of swift resuscitation. 

There is nothing mysterious about our current societal torpor and infact, we have talked and quarelled about its different apparels over the years; and in the process we have argued, raised funds, befriended one another, discovered fakes,  flushed out dweebs from our midst and once in a while insulted those we believe deliberately are  guided not by their true lights. Yet, my friends, now when our country needs us the most, when we cannot have a night's good sleep, inspite of our cosy Swedish apartments and condos, without entertaining agonies of the sadness in the eyes of Gambian children yoked by malarial parasites, we are, as if by design, failing ourselves. Instead of producing ideas, lending our voices to those whose own have been silenced by fear, courageously asserting our RIGHT to be heard as concerned and enlightened citizens many seem to want to solemnly banish themselves to the margins of Gambian history, to the role of chief fund-raisers. Is that the best we can do? Where are all those voices of protest? Shall we believe that soemone else is going to award us the right to have a say?

When that  most eminent of Gambians, Sister Jabou Joh,  protested in Mr. Sambou's hopes to hang out to shame those who have not measured up to the Save the Gambia Fund standard, I hoped that Mr. Sambou would take the cue and withdraw his phrase.  Obviously, Joe Sambou and many on this list, including myself all want a Gambia much promising than what obtains now. But fund-raising is definitely, not the issue. 
Needless to say, money is going to make a huge difference in helping practically. But at this stage 50 names on a list donning money monthly as a way of helping save Gambia from itself is a far cry from the 80,000 strong diasporan community whose political leverage is not being canvassed. 
Our role at his point in time is to TELL all Gambian politicians the kind of Gambia we want to see after the next general elections. Together with a subsequent coalition our this vision of Gambia must be debated and refined to suit a compromise position adoptable by the opposition to become the basis of a platform for change. i.e. SOPI! Then it would make better sense to financially subscribe to a Save the Gambia Fund. I urge all of you, especially Joe Sambou and Abdoulaye Saine and all those who took the initiative for the Fund to rethink your strategy of creating a mailing list of those simply putting money in a collection bin. An organisation with so serious a mission should not be that narrow and elitist.

For Our Common Future,

Momodou S Sidibeh


 
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