In a message dated 4/20/2001 9:20:43 AM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

Sister Jabou,

After reading your sending to the List,being one of those who wrote to the
List to state my sincere believe in a national reconciliation process that is
base on justice and forgiveness, i feel it's appropriate for me to clarify
that i am not an adversary of The Head of State especially when it comes to
the tragic events of April 10/11.I don't subscribe to the creation of
legislative means of protecting those responsible for the killings of
defenseless school children.

Best Regards
 Daffeh

Daffeh,

I am sure you are not an adversary for Yaya Jammeh, and neither can anyone
with a conscience and a desire for justice. The people who came to the L
trying to peddle the reconcilliation bag were the same who are still pumping
the L with Jammeh propaganda and a lot of other nonsense intended purposely
for  disruption. Those are the people I was referring to, and they know well
who they are.

By the same token, I sure hope that my posting is not seen as an advocation
for forgiveness for Jammeh and his criminal partners. My post was intended to
stir up discussion as to what our plan as a people and as a country should
be, and for us to realize what kind of people we are dealing with in this
regime, and the factors that are motivating their actions. These are things
we have to think about, and perhaps in discussing them, we can slowly
formulate a course of action. We can write all the criticism we want to, but
the true test is in actually conferring and coming up with a valid solution.

On the other hand, we can just write endlessly, and try to outdo each other
as to who can criticize this regime with the mose eloquent of words, but
until we start to look at all the problems and what options we have, we will
never get anywhere.

Brother Joe Sambou responded to my post and stated that the ballot box is how
we can get rid of the Jammeh regime. While I totally agree that the ballot
box is and should perhaps ideally be the only means to get rid of these
people, the results of this last election in Gambia has left me shocked and
baffled.

I was quite certain that no matter how much wool the APRC givernment was able
to pull over the eyes of the Gambian people, once they gave the order to fire
upon school kids, that wool would be lifted from the eyes of the people for
good. I was certain that after that, the number of votes the Jammeh people
can get in any election in The Gambia would at best be a handful of votes.
However, it is clear that ignorance coupled with poverty, has reduced our
people to circumstances where they are not able to resist a few dalasi to
buy their voting cards.

There is also the issue as to whether there was vote buying. Has anyone
investigated these allegations? Do we have a country where journalists are
free to investigate such an allegation and report their findings freely
without fear of being arrested or maimed in other ways? What is going to
happen in the upcoming general elections? Probably the same manipulations,
the same apathy. Certainly the same hard circumstances the people find
themselves in will still be there so that a bribe of 25 dalasis that they
cannot possibly earn in any given day seems pretty attractive when offered.

My question is, what are we going to do in the face of all this? We were
pretty sure that the people were now aware of the deception, corruption and
murderous tendencies of this regime, and yet, they voted for them. Why do we
think the general elections will be different?. Our problems in the Gambia
are many and varied, and added together, they are what results in the Yaya
Jammehs being upheld in power in our  country, and as long as things remain
the same, Jammeh and his band of thugs will be there. We better start
thinking of what strategies we need to employ to get these people off our
backs. Discussing it is what will bring out ideas, but we can also choose to
just sit around, have endless oratories about the situation,  condemn anyone
who makes a suggestion even before we think about it,and the cycle will keep
repeating itself.

Jabou Joh

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