Dr. Jones, thank you very much for your lucid analysis. For those that just
joined us on G_L, I would want them to understand that me and you had our
differences in the past. But I respect your point of view and I remember
saying in the past that I wished we had a progressive leadership in The
Gambia where people like you can thrive, instead of the mental midgets we
have running our country.

You were spot on when you cautioned the people to move away from this
obsession with 'Vision 2020' and implement projects that will alleviate
poverty in The Gambia. Only fools will think that the economy got better
during Yaya's watch. Even the moron himself knows that he made people
poorer. Famara Jatta admits that. ILO told us that. UNDP told us that.

It was good that you broke it down to them in layman terms what growth rate
it would take and what period of time it would take for Gambia to achieve
the prosperity it deserves. It is important that we point out that pre-1994,
we had a steady growth rate of more than 5%. So, we were on track to
achieving the status you mentioned in your piece by year 2020. However, at
the rate we are going now, we will never achieve that status in our
life-time. Forget it. Yaya and his cohorts are taking us backwards. They
borrowed billions of dollars and can show very little for it. How are we
going to grow at the desired rate if we have to service all these loans that
we put in non-income generating projects like building an Arch? These people
cannot take us forward. No matter what figures they throw at people, the
facts speak for themselves. It is a struggle to get two square meals a day
in Yaya's Gambia.

They did not just stagnate the country. They want to render us all
destitute. Loot the whole country and escape to some exotic Island
somewhere. They are nothing but a bunch of low-life bandits. You counseled
them right when you said that they should concentrate in reducing poverty by
50% now against 2015. But can these vermin do that? For crying out loud,
they are INCREASING poverty. They are going the Opposite direction. Their
"Vision 2020' 'map' is leading us to Hell.

Dr. Jones, you touched on an issue that proves the point I have been trying
to make to these APRC clowns. The point is, investments in development
projects take a long time to achieve their desired impact. You see why it is
totally dishonest for the APRC to claim sole credit for fruits of trees
planted and nurtured by the Jawara regime? Is it that hard for people to
understand that it is Jawara policies that are paying off when clowns like
Famara Jatta write budgets? What the APRC did, was stifle the blossoming of
those benefits. Gambians that the PPP government educated, cannot contribute
their quota to society. Even people like Musa Mbenga ran away from the
country for greener pastures. Batchi Baldeh, the latest casualty. Why? APRC
has poisoned the environment. The plants PPP planted, cannot bear fruit.
Therein lies the reason why we have negative growth. Therein lies the reason
why our people are poorer even though buildings are being erected. As I told
Jobe few days ago, and you reiterated in your piece, these 'projects' have
to be synchronized in such a way that our poor people will feel the effects
immediately. Why educate a kid you cannot provide a job for? Why boast about
increased agricultural products when you cannot pay the farmers for their
products? Why dismiss competent people (educated by the country) from the
civil service just to replace them with mental midgets? Why borrow $35
million (in Gambia's name) from Taiwan just to steal some of it to put into
a private Swiss Bank account belonging to Yaya?

Dr. Jones, the pro-poor policies that can move our people forward are known
to all of us. Even mental midgets like Famara Jatta know those policies. He
might not understand them though because he is too scared to think straight.
If you look at Jatta's latest budget, he lifted up language from a UNDP
report that mentions verbatim those pro-poor policies. The morons know it
all right. The problem is, they do not have the wherewithal or the political
will or the integrity to implement those policies.

Take the issue of decentralization of our local government structure for
instance. Jatta told donors that the APRC government subscribed to the idea.
We all know that a decentralized local government structure will be more
accountable to the poor people in our country. The local authorities will
want to please their citizens by trying to attract meaningful investments in
a particular area. If a Chief knows that his position is an elected one,
don't you think that he would want to ensure that the wells are not dry and
the children do not have to walk 10 kilometers to go to school? On the other
hand, if a Chief knows that he owes his position to Yaya and Yaya alone,
don't you think the Chief will be more preoccupied with pleasing Yaya at the
expense of his villagers? You think if Yaya is upset with a certain village
because they did not vote for APRC, the Chief of that village will fight for
his villagers against Yaya (his benefactor)?

Famara Jatta knows the answers to these questions. That is why he would lie
to donors about decentralization when he knew that Pap Cheyassin Secka was
at the same time passing legislation that centralized more power in Yaya to
control our local government apparatus. What does Jatta understand as
decentralization when the word is used in the context of pro poor policies?
The word connotes accountability and transparency. What is more accountable
and transparent than a free and fair election? Decentralization in this
context does not mean that administrators are at the village and not in
Banjul. Decentralization in this context wants to establish a direct link
between the poor villagers and the policy makers. Pro poor proponents want
the policy makers to be directly accountable to the people they govern. But
I guess this is too much for our mental midgets to grasp.

In any case Dr. Jones, keep up the good work you are doing. We might not
agree all the time, but I will always respect people that show some
integrity.
KB



>From: basil jones <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: why I can support the APRC Government despite...Pt2.
>Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 10:26:20 -0000
>
>The sooner people stop talking about the "Vision 2020" and concentrate  on
>the primordial challenge of reducing the incidence of poverty in The
>Gambia,
>the better it is for the country. To make The Gambia a middle income
>country
>by 2020, means that we should achieve a minimum per capita income of $800.
>The current level of per capita income is around $350. With an average
>growth rate of 4 percent per annum, it will take a minimum of 18 years for
>our nation's income to double to $700. (this comes from the rule of 70 in
>economics).  18 years from now will take us close to 2020. So even the
>lower
>end of a middle income country will not be achieved. There is only one
>middle income country in the whole of West Africa and surprisingly it is
>Cape Verde, not Senegal or Cote d'Ivoire and these countries have a higher
>per capita income that Gambia. Vision 2020 was articulated without any
>empirical work done as to the sustainability of economic policies
>and the attainability of making The Gambia a middle income country.
>
>There is no doubt that the incidence of poverty is on the increase. What we
>should be concentrating on is how to achieve the development goal of
>reducing poverty in the Gambia by 50 percent by 2015, achieving universal
>primary education, reducing infant mortality rates. To do so need at least
>a
>growth rate of 7 percent. These are the challenges. For there to be
>sustainable development in Gambia, accelerated investment is needed in
>health and education and rural infrastructure. It is only fair to say that
>the government has made some progress in these sectors. The payoffs,
>however
>from such investments are long term. It takes up to the time a student
>finishes school to contribute productively to the society. There are
>lessons
>of experience we could learn from the most financially stable, democratic
>and pluralistic countries in Africa (Botswana and Mauritius, the two
>countries that have registered the most impressive growth and development
>record in Africa). Economic development does not only depend on economic
>policy. Improving the welfare of Gambians is predicated by improved
>accountability for public resource management, developing democratic
>institutions and an unblemished and good governance record and implementing
>codes of good practice in fiscal transparency
>
>The government has intervened in health and education, but still the level
>of poverty is on the increase. We need to take stock and reappraise the
>policy interventions. COllective action is need.
>
>The challenge is not vision 2020 or to make The Gambia the Singapore of
>Africa but integrating pro poor macroeconomic policies with social and
>sectoral objectives to spur growth and reduce poverty.
>
>Dr. Basil Jones
>26/04/01
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