The greatest obstacle that will impede us or in all likely-hood stands a very
chance of scuppering victory from us is in the event of an Alliance electoral
routing of the APRC, people have not devised mechanisms to defend and
maintain their hard won victory. Given that we now know for certain the
lengths the APRC will go - in cahoots with Roberts and the IEC - to steal the
elections, the task no longer is just courting and making sure voters come
out en masse and vote; and vote en masse for the Alliance. The task that lies
ahead is of a two-pronged nature. One, we still need to court both floating
and APRC voters to vote for the Alliance whilst our core voters are not in
any form or shape isolated. Second - and this is becoming increasingly
crucial for an eventual routing of the dictatorship - is the need to protect
and defend ALL our votes and or ALL those votes casted for us. This  final
point may end up deciding the fate of the Gambia on October 19th 2001.

Herein, and broadly speaking, there are two ways to go about with this
proposition, given the exigency and the constraints they most certainly will
shackle our legs with should we opt for something far more comprehensive and
difficult to implement. Let me then lay down the first principle of this
propsition and its concomitant action plan. A sure-fire way to beat a cheat
is to shadow him relentlessly and around the clock; and stop him in his
tracks where and whenever he is at it. Indeed, as Burke commented in his
"Reflections on the Revolution in France", "he that wrestles with us
strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our
helper." To the extent that Burke is right, to stop the anticipated massive
electoral fraud of the APRC in cahoots with Roberts and IEC, we must match
their unethical shenanigans with a relentless advocacy against Jammeh and all
that he stands for; and if they can't take the heat and resort to physical
intimidation, we must be prepared to take it up with them as far as they are
ready to go. To paraphrase Burke, our APRC antagonists are our helpers
herein: they choose battle a ground, we will meet them there. Nothing stops a
bully in his tracks than the message that you are no longer prepared to take
it lying down. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Each life is
precious, and the greatest liberty defendable is the right to life. To this
extent we will be reacting appropriately to any attempts by antagonists to
stop us in our tracks, whilst we are exercising our God-given and inviolable
rights to be part of the shaping of our country's destiny.

If the first principle and its concomitant action plan is reactive, then the
second principle is proactive. Because through mainly instinctual premonition
and generally based on past experience, we know for a fact that the APRC will
do its damndest to steal the elections as they certainly did in 1996. To
prevent another re-run of that scenario, we need to strategise on a scale
that either narrows down the effects of electoral fraud on the out come of
the elections. Or in the extreme, strategise on a scale that will totally
prevent electoral fraud - be it tampering with votes directly or indirectly
by inducing and or intimidating voters with carrots and sticks. I'm not sure
about totally ensuring a fraud-free elections; but by looking at all possible
scenarios and strategising in lieu of that, we stand a very good chance of
reducing the degree to which the outcome of the election can be illegally
influenced. The principle that undergirds this is eternal and relentless
vigilance. We must strategise as if  there is no "D-Day". Wherein, we never
lower our guards and continually look over our shoulders for would-be
assailants and perpetrators of electoral fraud. To make this point stick, the
Alliance leadership must lace it's rhetoric at all rallies with a strong
counselling that the liberties of the citizenry are in the hands of the
citizenry itself; none can safe-guard better what is closest to you and with
you all the time. To this end, our votes are our liberty vouchers: none can
safe-guard better for any given individual their votes from being illegally
tampered with - be it through inducements or intimidations - than the
individuals themselves. To sloganize it, or craft a bumper sticker for it,
our votes are our bus/airplane tickets to freedom. To get on that
bus/airplane on October 19, each has a solemn responsibility in safe-guarding
your ticket.

Crucial to the safe-guarding of our votes is when we know we've won the
elections and the IEC in cahoots with Jammeh starts plan games with us. There
and then, we move to final battle ground: the streets of all the urban areas.
We must go into the streets ala the Serbian and Ivorien way when they
respectively gave Milosevic and General Guei their matching orders in massive
civil disobedience. Knowing Jammeh as i do, all my political instincts tell
me that ultimately this where history will decide the Gambia and the Gambian
people's fate. How we conduct ourselves in this battle will be much like
"D-Day" during the Second World War. If October 18 is the denouement of our
struggle against Jammeh, then October 19 is what makes or breaks it. Alliance
leaders must be ready to take the bull by the horns and with the Leviathan
muscle of the people behind them, they are assured of victory. If history is
our guide, no dictatorship willingly gives up after losing the support of the
masses; rather, they only give up power when life is made unbearable for them
and those that seek to perpetuate them. So it is not just votes that will
decide our fate as a people on October 19; but the extent to which we are
ready to play by the rules of history, i.e., meeting with it and changing its
course.

Karl Marx was wrong about alot of things - almost everything he wrote has
virtually been repudiated. Certainly, one dictum of his remains relevant and
even his most vociferous critics like to cite it, especially when
choreographing parallels in historical dramas. In his "The Eighteenth
Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte", Marx lucidly commented:

"Hegel says somewhere that all great events and personalities in the world
reappear in one fashion or another. He forgot to add: the first time as
tragedy, and the second as farce."

The manner in which Jammeh and Roberts stole the 1996 presidential elections
and how they got away with it certainly was a tragedy. To let a repeat of
1996 electoral fraud would not be a tragedy; but a horrendous farce that will
forever haunt Gambians - present and future. To avoid turning October 19th
into another historical farce, we must not - to paraphrase President Bush -
relent, yield and rest until those who have wronged us give back to us what
they have taken from us: our liberties and freedoms. This is the sure-fire
way to ensure and defend an Alliance victory on October 19th 2001.

Hamjatta Kanteh

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