Halifa,
    You seemed to perversely twist my position on the 1997 constitution. I
inferred from this sentence of yours ".....there were things that each one
would support or oppose. What was before the Gambian people, therefore, was
not a perfect document that could have been acceptable to all in it's
entirety........" that you are suggesting that I am after "a perfect
document." In all my correspondence with you, I have always used the
nomenclature Fundamentally Flawed to describe my opposition to the 1997
constitution. I never expected a "perfect document that could have been
acceptable to all in it's entirety" rather I expected a document well
developed to the point of enshrining in a democratic order in which power
will truly reside with The People.
    For me the 1997 constitution is too deficient in what I deem to be truly
worthy of embracing inorder to break away from the past which was mired with
a fundamentally flawed document that saw a degeneration of legal
representation to legal misrepresentation of The People. The 1997
constitution contains all the tools that Jawara had used to entrench himself
into power and the deficits that makes the sustenance of a polity based on
the will and consent of The People impossible. The 1997 constitution still
contains life president ingredients, monarchical dispositions like the
executive (SOS, perm secs, ambassadors and seniors civil servants) still
hanging on the throes of a presidents whims and caprice and hence owing
loyalty to a president who can hire and fire them without explaining
him/herself. The not-so independent muscle-less IEC a replica of Jawara's
electoral system that has seen the playing of the democratic process
unlevelled. A system of governance still in place that is still dearth in
probity, accountability and transparency. I could go on and on......The list
is too long to exhaust here. Oh.......... and the infamous Blanket Indemnity
Clause. Perhaps my biggest objection to the 1997 constitution.
    I still await your refutations of my earlier assertions, debunking of my
postulates and answering the unanswered.
Once again Good Morning.
Hamjatta Kanteh

hkanteh

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

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

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