Mr. Gassama,

I do appreciate the effort in preparing such a compendium of questions 
that spans a series of comments I made over time.  Let me state for a 
start that I found most of your questions regressive and quite 
nuanced.  They only succeed in multiplying the objects of discussion 
and the dialogue itself infinitely.  The question whether Halifa Sallah 
is a sociologist or not is preposterous.  Nobody can best answer that 
question but Halifa himself.  However, there is a tacit omission in his 
revelations to the media.  Whether this was a calculated evasion on his 
side or poor journalism is now any one's guess.  Therefore I cannot 
judge Halifa’s character from this without error.  As it stands now, 
Halifa’s integrity is intact as far as this “sociologist” issue is 
concerned.  As far as I am concerned, a sociologist is by all means a 
career academic doing research and publishing his findings in reputable 
scholarly journals.  I am yet to see Halifa publish anything beyond 
his “Forooya” (with all due respect to that paper).  An undergraduate 
major in sociology does not grant one authority in that discipline.  In 
any case Buhary let Halifa himself clear the fog:  Is he or is he not a 
sociologist?  The subsequent claims you deduce from this “sociologist” 
question about Halifa is therefore a false dichotomy about my 
understanding of his character.  It is not an either this or that 
situation.  There are options and I will choose to defer judgment on 
Halifa’s character until he himself answers the question.    

The next issue you raised is critical of my caricature of Halifa’s 
Jackson-Five hairdo which I strongly believe to be another straw man 
error.  I was trying to make a point about PDOIS “brand” of socialism.  
Let us just deconstruct the name PDOIS itself: PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC 
ORGANISATION FOR INDEPENDENCE AND SOCIALISM.  Granted even the 
communist dictatorships in North Korea and Cuba call themselves 
democratic and independent, what resonates with clarity in Halifa’s 
group is an ORGANISATION FOR SOCIALISM.  PDOIS is an organization that 
champions a socialist agenda.  An organization is NOT a political party 
as Lamin Waa Juwara rightly called them a “club”.  This is a loose 
association of very independent individuals who might not necessarily 
even have the same interests nor agenda but they may be rightly 
attracted to a common ultimate ideology i.e. communism (well Halifa 
likes to call it socialism).  So what is socialism?  Socialism values a 
collectivist system of political economy over free enterprise which 
values individual responsibility. In essence socialism values 
government control over individual liberty.  The point I was 
illustrating is the grotesque reality that the PDOIS leadership are 
closet dictators engaged in making us believe that their collectivist 
dogma as demonstrated with their own altruism of everyday life is of 
superior reality and morality.   

And you still believe that Halifa and his club of socialist are not 
dreamers...? Let us listen to some Halifaspeak  as reported on an 
online forum: Asked what brand of socialism if not “economic 
adventurism”...Halifa says – "Essentially, we are talking about co-
operative governance. In essence we see governance throughout the world 
heading towards this process....We have to get people to take ownership 
of their countries through institutionalisation of the process..."
Hhile maintaining that his “sort of socialism is not suited for the 
Gambia” he is simultaneously advocating for the dictatorship of 
the “people”.  Finally, Halifa concluded his statements with my 
favorite quotation, the mother of all incoherence: "In that sense, 
there are no quick fix solutions.  Privatisation is not the answer. We 
need a realistic appraisal of our economy in particular and the global 
economy in general and to start implementing economic regeneration 
programmes.”-THERE ARE NO QUICK FIX SOLUTIONS!...Does this ring a bell 
to a socialist....?  Of course- Utopian Socialism.  The word “utopia” 
is Greek for “no place”.  The connection of Halifa’s “No quick fix 
solutions” and “no place” is very interesting indeed and it does echo 
the classical socialist utopianism of Saint-Simon and Fourier :
“ Our fathers have not seen it,... our children will arrive there one 
day, and it is for us to clear the way for them”  

Tell me Mr. Gassama, does this not sound like a dream?

Best Regards,

Ebou Jallow

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