Let me first of all take this opportunity to inform people whose postings I
am NOT responding to directly that I do NOT mean to ignore some of the good
points they have raised with me. My mail-box is inundated with mails and
although I have read all of them, I must admit that I browsed through some
real fast and therefore did not grasp everything.

It was with delight that I read Ebou Colly’s latest contributions. I am glad
that he is back on the List and giving invaluable insights into how Yaya’s
eventual downfall will pan out. Mr. Colly, I am glad that you informed your
comrades in the Armed Forces that a future Alliance Government is what is in
the best interests of our men and women in uniform. Unlike the current
Dictatorship, an Alliance Government is going to oversee a Professional
Armed Force and restore respect and dignity to the country. Ousainou Darboe
already spoke about reforms that would be put in place to ensure that we
have a Professional Armed Force that Gambians will be proud of. As you said,
our soldiers will be properly trained to serve the citizens of the country
as opposed to serving one ‘leader’ at the expense of defenseless Gambian
children. I shall look more into your excellent piece and make further
comments if the need arises.

Abdou Toure, you are also doing a fantastic job putting the record straight
for some people. Your analysis of Yaya’s desperation is spot on. The
irrational behavior he has evinced of late just goes to prove your point.
The man is grappling at straws. The only people that can keep him in office
are the Opposition themselves. Yaya and his cohorts clearly do NOT have an
agenda to move the country FORWARD. All they have is whine about PPP and
Jawara. We in the Alliance are looking FORWARD. Let us leave the rest to
obsess about an OLD MAN THOUSANDS of Miles AWAY from The country that has NO
INTEREST WHATSOEVER in LEADING the Country. People can engage in Jawara
bashing until way past October after we remove Yaya from office. That is the
forte of mental midgets without ideas to move the country FORWARD. I thank
you Toure for seeing the bigger picture and being pragmatic. What these PPP
detractors are calling for will NOT happen. The Alliance is NOT going to
reject PPP support because we want to prove that ‘We Hate Jawara More’.
Gambians are NOT interested in that ridiculous contest. For us, Jawara is
NOT an issue in this election. The ISSUE is the child murderer that is
CURRENTLY holding the country hostage.

Hamjatta, what can I say? Reading through your contributions, I did NOT miss
contributing the past few days. You echoed most of my feelings. Clearly, the
morons running our country are on ‘over-drive’ in their ‘panic-odometer’.
See, why I said that Marcel Thomasi’s piece on Yaya the other day was pure
garbage? How can the mental midgets (Sedat Jobe and other handlers) now
reconcile Yaya’s purported utterances in that interview with this erratic
decision to expel the British Diplomat? This is insane. This just shows that
the morons running the country do NOT know what they are doing. One moment
Yaya is pro-West and the EU. The next moment, the Dictator (Yaya) is
expelling diplomats for attending press conferences. The whole world is
witnessing first hand what we have been telling them all this time. The man
is a Moron and mental midgets like Sedat Jobe are too scared to think
straight. This extreme stance of expelling a diplomat from a ‘friendly
country’ is a disaster for our country. Even ‘Cold War’ adversaries involved
in high-level espionage do NOT take these EXTREME MEASURES lightly. Here we
have morons expelling a high-ranking diplomat from a ‘friendly country’ on
the silliest grounds in the book. The man attended an open meeting he was
invited to. As one of our newspapers said, AFPRC/APRC had invited numerous
diplomats to their rallies. Are those people also eligible for expulsion?
Rationalizing the ludicrous moves of this regime is way past my ‘pay grade’.
Nothing they do, make sense.

This should be a wake up call to the Blair Government and the British
ambassador in the country. We have loose-canons leading our country. It is
high time the Blair government start treating these criminals like the
American State Department is doing. They are nothing but a bunch of thugs
that used brute force to hijack our country. Gambians should repudiate Yaya
come October because the moron is yet again attracting sanctions to our
country. If Britain were to retaliate and expel our ‘diplomats’ in London
and lobby the EU to impose sanctions on us, who would be responsible for
that? Of course the paranoid vermin that thinks that the whole world hates
him.

Hamjatta, your postings about the Coalition also reflect my stance on the
issue. I find solace in the fact that apart from a few stealth attacks on
Darboe and the UDP (which I will get into soon), Alliance detractors are NOT
doing any damage at all to our impending victory against Yaya. What I see is
a ‘good’ case being made against a Jawara presidency. Like we keep pointing
out, the best time to have made that case was in 1992 (when Jawara was
running) or in 2001 (IF Jawara said that he was running). As you can see,
2001 is NOT 1992 and Jawara NEVER said he wanted to run in 2001. So, all
this Jawara bashing is nothing but an exercise in futility and political
opponents obsessing over ridiculous positions.

The ‘good’ case they are currently making against Jawara and PPP was
REPUDIATED by the Gambian voters in 1992. All they are now accusing Jawara
and the PPP regarding 1981 and corruption and ‘back-stabbing’ were said to
the Gambian voters. Jawara still won that election by a landslide. So, when
we say that Gambians are NOT interested in this nonsense, we base it on
actualities. Gambians want to hear about their groundnuts and the safety of
their children. Like Darboe said, every Gambian that works hard and plays by
the rules ought to be able to earn a decent living with his family. No
Gambian has to go to State House and beg Yaya for money the vermin stole
from us in the first place. Gambians want Opposition Parties and the APRC to
compete about ideas and who can move the country FORWARD. Gambians are sick
and tired of this ridiculous ‘self-righteousness’. This anti-PPP message is
NOT new. The voters heard it before and rejected it. The Alliance should
avoid being dragged into this campaign strategy that has been tried and
failed. Let APRC and other Alliance detractors dwell in that world. We are
moving FORWARD.

Our desire to move FORWARD however should NOT make us ignore the stealth
attacks on Darboe and other Alliance members (including PPP stalwarts).
There is no one in this world (including Sherrif Dibba himself) that can
look Darboe in the eye and accuse him of being a PPP crony (front). So, if
that accusation CANNOT stick, how then can people argue that PPP is using
UDP? What we have here is the exact opposite. PPP has recognized their
patriotic duty to the country; being the savvy politicians they are, they
are betting on the RIGHT HORSE (I hope the mental midgets on this forum will
NOT read this literally and start saying that I am characterizing Darboe as
a horse. This is just a figure of speech). PPP knows that Yaya will NOT
implement reforms to benefit all Gambians (including PPP supporters). Left
to Yaya alone, PPP will NEVER exist. The commonsense think for PPP to do
(faced with that predicament), is to ally themselves with a leader (Darboe)
who will implement changes to ensure that ALL the Political Parties in the
country have a level playing field to contest elections. Alliance detractors
now want Darboe to reject that support. Why? This is where it gets
interesting. You hear all sorts of absurd arguments.

However, the only one that has bearing on Darboe, is that he will be
dominated by PPP. You ask these detractors why they think so, you do NOT get
a coherent answer. This is just hilarious. When PPP was in the driving seat,
Darboe was fighting for underdogs like Sherrif Dibba against the PPP. It is
against logic that when Darboe is in the driving seat, he will agree to be a
PPP pawn. It does NOT make sense. The man has evinced independence
throughout his professional career. He is a man with immense integrity,
committed to the rule of law. His independence was respected by both the
government of the day (PPP) and the Opposition. Darboe represented people
like Dibba, Pap Cheyassin Secka and MC Cham. People from totally different
Political Parties. What has always been consistent though, is the man’s will
to pursue justice for his clients.

I see someone trying to downplay Darboe’s assistance to Dibba in the
latter’s hour of need before the courts by saying that Dibba’s case won
Darboe some clients. Poor taste. What Darboe did for Dibba can only be met
with gratitude. Darboe’s selfless assistance to Dibba should NOT be
rationalized in this fashion, especially when the rationalization is based
on erroneous premises. Let me inform that subscriber that Darboe’s clientele
AFTER he represented Dibba. Dibba’s case did NOT make Darboe. In case the
subscriber did not know, here is a listing of some Darboe’s major clients:
Gamtel, Central Bank, SSHFC, Gambia Airways. I might have missed some. The
‘parastatals’ do NOT get bigger than that. Only ‘Ports’ eluded Darboe (for
reasons I will not get into here). Now, just how did Sheriff Dibba help
Darboe get these ‘government’ clients? If at all Dibba’s case had an impact
on Darboe’s practice, the opposite would have happened. Darboe will NOT get
business from the ‘government’. But the PPP government (despite that Darboe
took numerous principled stands against them) recognized that Darboe was one
of the best legal minds in the country. The professionals that were running
some of these organizations looked beyond Darboe’s ‘relationship’ with
clients like Dibba and Cheyassin Secka and retain Darboe. So, it is a
blatant lie to say that Dibba made Darboe in any way shape or form. Dibba
supporters can only express gratitude for the man that put his legal career
on the line to support Dibba in Dibba’s hour of need.

I take this opportunity to inform people like Jassey-Conteh that they do
Dibba a disservice by fanning these erroneous claims and not repudiating
them. Your hatred for PPP should NOT prevent you from putting the interests
of the Gambians ahead of that of Sherrif Dibba. How can any of you honestly
claim that this is about the interest of the country? How can you prove that
Darboe is being used by PPP? Against PPP all you want and dwell in the past,
but do NOT lie about Ousainou Darboe’s independence.

I also want to address the issue touched on by Ms. Joh about the formation
of the Alliance. Clearly, Ms. Joh did NOT know what transpired leading to
the Coalition Meeting or else she will NOT say that PPP colluded with UDP to
form this Coalition. Ms. Joh, I believe you are interested in the truth and
would judge things objectively and would NOT make utterances because you
feel intimidated by Halifa Sallah.

It is a LIE (as opposed to TRUTH) that the PPP and the UDP colluded to form
this Coalition. See, what PDOIS and their supporters are now parading as
PDOIS’ plan for an Alliance Government, is NOT PDOIS’ plan. I have said this
on numerous occasions. There is very little that is new in this so-called
PDOIS ‘plan’. Let people in the know refute that. What this amounts to, is
political grandstanding. Delicate political matters of this magnitude should
NOT be negotiated in the public media. Does PDOIS now have a loud-speaker
broadcasting all the phone conversations they are having with other parties
regarding ‘PDOIS’ Plan’ for the Coalition? It is impractical to do that.
That is why we have political leaders. That is what I was alluding to the
other day when I told Ousman Bojang that he does NOT have a clue about the
way political parties are run. We trust our leaders to represent the masses
and negotiate behind closed doors in the interest of the citizens.

The masses (including us in the Diaspora) lobbied hard for the Opposition to
form a Coalition. While some were busy on G_L talking endless nonsense, some
of us were busy talking nonsense on G_L, but at the same time lobbying our
leaders hard to come up with a Coalition plan. Visit the site launched
recently by the MRDG (with the help of the invaluable George Sarr) and tell
us whether you think there is significant differences in the proposals
therein when compared to the proposals PDOIS is NOW talking about. When
PDOIS was and is still talking about a Coalition in the ‘second round’ of
voting, people were way past that level. People were already drafting a
Manifesto for an Opposition Alliance. PDOIS was aware of those plans long
before August 13, 2001.

Now, moving to this Meeting on August 13, 2001, how can you know that Assan
Musa Camara (who is NOT a UDP or PPP member) convened the Meeting and then
turn around and accuse PPP and UDP of colluding to rig the Meeting? Your
ignorance of events is also evinced by your insinuation that Hamat Bah was
side-lined. How many times did we say that the Meeting was postponed TWICE
because Hamat Bah was out of town and Assan Musa Camara wanted everyone to
be present at the Meeting? If PPP and UDP were calling the shots and wanted
to side-line NRP, why would the Meetings be postponed to wait for Hamat Bah?
It does NOT make sense.

Are you also prepared to tell me that UDP was out of order to solicit the
support of ex-PPP politicians? NCP met with PPP to discuss the modalities of
an Alliance to defeat Yaya in October, just like UDP met with PPP. It is
just that the UDP lobby was perhaps stronger or PPP realize that Darboe is
better for the leadership role (having no baggage hanging on him like Dibba
has hanging on him). For the millionth time, what is wrong in PPP supporting
a candidate even Sherrif Dibba himself says he has no problem with? Ah! The
problem is with PPP. But does Darboe and the Gambian public have to suffer
for this PPP phobia?

PDOIS and NRP were treated the same way (by Assan Musa Camara) as UDP, NCP
and PPP were treated. All the Parties received the same Assan Musa Camara
proposal. All the Parties were invited in the same manner (orally). Now,
some Parties want to put form over substance by insisting that they wanted a
more ‘formal’ invitation. That is their prerogative. But it is out of line
for their supporters to argue that people were colluding to exclude them.
Even PDOIS leadership is NOT questioning Assan Musa’s integrity. Supporters
do PDOIS a disservice by questioning this man’s selfless and patriotic
pursuits the past few weeks. PDOIS was invited. It is just that they did NOT
like the way they were invited. As far as I am concerned, I know I would NOT
be using semantics to rationalize boycotting such a pivotal Meeting in our
country’s history. We went through this during the London Briefing.

It is NOT a question of PPP and UDP forming an Alliance and then inviting
others to join. Every Party was invited to the Meeting. NCP came and when
they realized that Dibba was NOT winning the leadership battle, they walked
out. PDOIS decided that they did NOT like the manner in which they were
invited and NEVER showed up at the Meeting. The other Parties that valued
Assan Musa’s efforts and the calls of the majority of the Gambians, decided
to forge ahead and form a Coalition. We now extend our hands for others to
join the Coalition, and people are still complaining. If you want, you can
lobby your parties to fight solo. That is your prerogative. But if your
party decides NOT to join the Coalition and start attacking the Coalition
(including PPP) forgetting Yaya and the APRC, the Coalition have no option,
but to fight back.

This has been a rather long posting, and I hope people will understand.
KB


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