Intellectual support

There is not a single country on earth that does not experience economic
downtowns. Lets remember the great depression and the crash of the stock
market, what Americans had to go through. The current economic situation in
Gambia is not going to last forever and we would come out of it. I  belief
that the road to economic and social progress in the Gambia would be
through greater productivity, and such productivity could be enhanced by
the discipline imposed by Gambians oriented toward greater efficiency and
productivity. The rise of a new and successful Gambia would  be
attributable not only to the Government, but to the increasing influence of
our Gambian intellectuals. With the creation of a managerial class
dominated by economist and those trained  in economics, if large number of
university-educated candidates, highly committed to a rationalized and
task-oriented concept of public administration  were to return home and
hired into high-level positions, we could set new values in the Gambia
drawn from market economics and business management.

Gambian intellectuals must contribute to building a collective share notion
of public interest. Our goal should not be to find a quick solution to the
current economic and social problems. The process of establishing a vision
for our society is not something merely to be left to elected political
leaders or appointed public administrators. Instead, the activity of
establishing a vision or direction, of defining shared values, is something
in which widespread public dialogue and deliberation are central.

I call on  all Gambian  intellectuals to take a vital role in the process
of bringing Gambians together in settings that allow for authentic
discourse concerning what we Gambians could do for our nation at the time
of great need. Based on these deliberations, a broad-based vision for the
nation can be established and can provide a guiding set of ideas for the
future. It is less important that this process result in a single set of
goals than it is to engage administrators, politicians, and citizens in a
process of thinking about a desired future for our  nation.

I know there are many angry Gambians out there and among us, but the
solution to our problems is to work together. I am  therefore calling on
Gambians both at home and abroad, to suspend the politics of hate,
negativity and personal attacks  and bring our ideas together and work as
one people with a common goal to do what is best for our country.. Every
Gambian most now take it upon him or herself as moral obligations, that we
will work hard to generate solutions through processes that are fully
consistent with the laws of our nation, our culture and tradition, our
values, with norms of justice and fairness.

Lets remember that the folks in Government and other administrative
positions are our brothers and sisters, they too have Gambia at heart and
would prefer a peaceful and prosperous Gambia for all Gambians. We can work
with them, a times disagree with them and give them feed backs for a job
well done. Let our intellectuals  ask our government to play an important
role in creating arenas in which citizens, through discourse, can
articulate shared values and develop a collective sense of the  public
interest. Rather than simply responding to angry and disparate voices by
forming a compromise, public administrators will engage citizens with one
another so that they come to understand  each other’s interest

Peace

Bulli Dibba

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