Mr. Jeng,

You're right on the money. Many Gambians still have a problem analyzing the
defunct Jawara admn vis-a-vis Jammeh's. The truth is, the two issues are
mutually exclusive. Jawara led a corrupt, inept and totally incompetent
regime. Regardless of what Yaya Jammeh does/does not do, that fact is
unchangeable. In other words, no amount of failure on Yaya's part will
exonerate Jawara. The fact that he and his supporters are saying the things
they're  saying about Yaya, says more about them than it does about the
present regime. I'm not a supporter of Yaya Jammeh, but I do not believe for
a minute that the PPP govt. would have done any of the things that Yaya has
done since taking over. Like you've put it very aptly: The Pa just don't get
it!

I believe he is a decent old man. I say this because since being overthrown,
he has resisted the temptation to blame his cronies. All he had to do is
turn on one, and people will believe his side of the story. (Yaya and his
boys were singing his praise weeks after kicking him out.) It takes a
certain character to resist such "self-preserving urge?" But, what the Pa
needs to do is write his memoirs so posterity can learn from his terrible
mistakes. He is not being grateful to Gambians whose trust he has betrayed
all those years. Yaya Jammeh has s'thing to apologize for. But Jawara has an
even longer list! I would have asked the Pa if he would apologize for
failing my generation if he had held a forum in DC. This is not to shame
him, but to ask him to do the honorable thing. It's a shame I never had the
chance.

Saul.


>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: D.K. Jawara's Visit to Atlanta
>Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 21:40:13 EST
>
>I have never been up-closed to His Excellency, and this Atlanta trip was
>looked forward to as an opportunity to hear IT from the man himself.
>
>President Jawara looks extremely well, still carries that personality of a
>great man, and his ability to articulate his message is very impressive
>indeed. At the end of the meeting, I made it clear to the organizers of my
>disappointment of a lost opportunity. A man of President Jawara's calibre,
>resourcefulness, experience, and one of the best resources that can be
>essential to our search for solutions could have been better utilized.
>Instead the whole meeting became a PPP political rally, a feel good
>therapy,
>and ofcourse a nostalgia to the heydays of the Jawara era. Speakers were
>selected, all ardent supporter of the Pa (understanably so), but the
>rhetoric
>only reminded me of PPP rallies at Jarra, or Janjanbureng. The message
>lacked
>substance, not very careful with the facts and extremely partisan. Oh yea,
>it
>would not be a PPP rally without a Jaliba and a Kora to take us back to the
>tunes that reminded us an era gone by. It was nice and it was an effective
>therapy for the Pa, and I was infact happy for him.
>The Pa's main message was an echo of the rattlings of the previous
>Speakers.
>His central message revolved around these issues:
>A. Most of the APRC projects were infact in the pipeline, and the
>foundation
>was already in place.
>B. He said it is preposterous to even suggest that his government has never
>built schools."We have built several primary schools and most of the high
>schools were public funded"
>
>C. He talked about the successes of Parastatals, and how the Jammeh
>government raided their reserves and made them ineffective.
>D. He was very critical of Jammeh's so-called projects, and even made fun
>of
>how most of these projects have become refuge for stray dogs and goats.
>E. He proposed the need for civil disobedience by the civil servants as an
>option to challeng Jammeh's government.
>F. To looked into the possibility in organizing demostration, for instance
>at
>the Carter human rights center. He emphasized the importance of such moves,
>especially with large gatherings of Gambians inorder to attract the media
>
>Conclusion:
>It was sad that questions were not allowed, and this is where I got
>disappointed, and echoed my sentiments to the organizers. I argued that It
>was ironical that the champion of democracy, and his arguemant at the
>meeting
>to the importance of civil liberties was shield from any critical
>questions,
>or the raising of relevant issues to our development. Their explaination
>was
>that the Pa's last visit to Atlanta was met with unruly individuals that
>treated the elder statesman with so much dis-respect that they were not
>going
>to see that happen to the Pa again.
>Personally, I felt that his message lacked any critical probing, especially
>after been out of office for so long, I was expecting a  much more critical
>analysis of the situation, and not to see him pursuing politics of his
>handlers. A politics of retribution, politics of getting even, and even to
>suggest that Jammeh's failures exonerated him from all allegations came
>across vey hollow to me. I found him to be very descent, smart, articulate,
>and I feel his pain, but it was also very clear that the Pa has  still not
>got the message.
>I would also like to convey to the Pa, that whatever Jammeh does, whether
>trample over democracy, send our economy on a tailspin; the Pa's legacy
>would
>always be his legacy and would be judge on its own merit. And that even a
>second chance would be disastrous because no matter how you slice it,
>Gambia
>would be the ultimate looser
>
>Musa jeng
>
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