---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: UDP United Kingdom <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 3 September 2011 11:32
Subject: Re: [G_L] Open Letter to Opposition Leaders Reportedly Engaged in
Exploratory Unity Talks
To: Lamin Darbo <[log in to unmask]>


LJD,

Thank you ever so much for this wonderful write-up. I think we all
appreciate that notwithstanding the issues you alluded to, it is absolutely
imperative that the opposition formulate an alliance that is both viable and
legally permissible, and that is exactly what the United Democratic Party
under the able leadership of Lawyer Ousainu Darboe, is hoping to achieve
from these talks.

Kind regards
Daffeh

On 3 September 2011 10:10, Lamin Darbo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> *Adrift in the political waters: the crushing humiliation awaiting a
> fragmented opposition on November 24         *******
> ** **
>                * *
> ** **
>                               “*The lesson is clear, we cannot fight in
> isolation**”*****
>
> Dr Fox, *The Gambia Echo*****
> ** **
> In just over two months, The Gambian elects a Chief Executive for a fresh
> five year term. If the country’s opposition leaders continue their current
> conduct in refusing even to engage each other in purposeful talks, much less
> agree the architecture of a united front against an all-powerful incumbent,
> the person who assumes the mantle of President will not be Ousainu Darboe,
> leader of the UDP. He will neither be Hamat Bah of the opposition NRP, nor
> Halifa Sallah of PDOIS.****
> ** **
> A fragmented opposition on November 24 can deliver only one outcome, and
> that verdict will not be what a suffocating nation yearns for.  If only to
> restate what, to a person, observers at home and abroad accurately surmised,
> there is no question a fragmented opposition will comprehensively collapse
> in any, and all efforts, to electorally consign APRC to the archives of
> Gambian politics. Such an outcome cannot, under any plausible reasoning, be
> assignable to the electoral appeal of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji
> Doctor Yahya A J J Jammeh, Nasiru Deen (the Professor),  but to the
> decidedly one-sided nature of Gambian public life, with the state, and its
> entire coercive arsenal, controversially concentrated in one person.****
> ** **
> Indeed, the current crop of *bona fide* opposition leaders expressly
> preamblised in the Memorandum of Understanding of the defunct NADD that “no
> single opposition party can put an end to self perpetuating rule given the
> culture of patronage, intimidation and inducement that has already taken
> root in the political life of the country”. Clearly this prognosis is as
> relevant today as it was in 2005. In light of this admission, it is
> extraordinary that 2011 is shaping to be a possible four-way contest for the
> presidency of the Republic of The Gambia. Without question, an opposition
> vote split three ways, will go down in humiliating defeat to the APRC. And
> it cannot be overemphasised that in an unrelenting dictatorship, the
> presidential contest offers absolutely no consolation prize! ****
>       ****
> A political environment anchored in lawlessness and self perpetuation, with
> their full panoply of attendant perversions of democratic accountability,
> cannot but further corrode the fabric of our public life. And a state of
> affairs where a sizeable segment of the population accepts governmental
> heavy-handedness as normal, and the majority lives in fear, cannot, in any
> way, be a harbinger of pleasant tidings for Gambian polity. In light of our
> quite precarious existence, it is astounding that opposition Gambia - having
> explicitly recognised that alone as entities, none can compete with that
> juggernaut of the Gambian state, *aka* the Professor, and his ruling APRC
> - are still bent on a fragmented presidential contest in a mere three
> months.  ****
>    ****
> Our country resides at somewhat of a permanent crossroads since 1994, but
> an explosion in civic awareness meant a decision must now be made to vacate
> that location and continue the national political journey. Will the decision
> to leave the fork in the road be made by Professor in a trademark
> unilateralism that cements his notion of himself as embodiment of nationhood
> and national security, and of all that is good for Gambian republicanism. Or
> will the decision be made collaboratively in genuine national conversations
> in the scant months, weeks, and days, to November 24?. ****
> ** **
> For now, that decision lies mainly with the Professor as sole custodian of
> our national police power. After November 24, the journey must continue, and
> depending on the reality, or perception, surrounding the outcome of the
> presidential poll, in a potentially more chaotic, free for all manner.
> Travelling the latter route will almost certainly end in regrettable tragedy
> for The Gambia, not necessarily in the immediate aftermath of the polls, but
> somewhere along the inevitably arduous stretch to 2016. ****
>    ****
> Notwithstanding the potential disaster of cohesive collapse heralded by the
> storm clouds over our national space, a fully united opposition front
> against the Professor on November 24 can avoid the tragedy of unrest
> inherent in limitless executive power. Regardless of the ultimate outcome
> under a united front, the opposition performance could be compelling enough
> to materially enlarge the democratic space by eliminating the extreme
> manifestations of arbitrary executive conduct from Gambian public space.
> ****
>    ****
> Even accepting that Diaspora Gambia’s views on the slow pace of opposition
> unity talks for the presidential contest may irritate some party leaders, I
> reject the contention that the decision on whether to unite or not remains
> their exclusive prerogative. As stakeholders, the opposition’s supporters
> are entitled to a say on how the November elections ought to be contested,
> and our verdict is a near unanimous call for unity. It is my view that, as
> the victims of tyranny, and the intended beneficiaries of dislodging APRC
> from our councils of state, any project in this regard is our enterprise.
> Clearly crucial to providing direction and momentum to the ultimate success
> of that enterprise, the party leaders are nevertheless mere trustees of a
> vital national project. As fiduciaries, their duty is to the people they
> intend to liberate from the clutches of tyranny. Their duty is to us, and we
> accordingly have standing to challenge their vision on the way forward. I
> urge Gambians to do precisely that in this crucial period for unification
> negotiations!****
>    ****
> Notwithstanding the public pronouncements of opposition leaders
> provisionally committing to a united front, they may still be of the view
> that referring to 2011 as a make or break year mischaracterises the
> magnitude of our national condition. Even to the casual observer, the
> overwhelming evidence of the gathering storm over our national space must be
> obvious. The relentless atmosphere of repression is simply not sustainable,
> and something has clearly got to give. On the grounds that no Gambian
> deserves to suffer in a civil conflict over the absence of genuinely
> inclusive and participatory democracy, I still contend for the proposition
> that the electoral process must be the principal route and a united front
> the main vehicle for ushering in change. Against a fragmented opposition,
> however, it is delusional to even suggest the electoral vulnerability of
> APRC under our first-past-the-post system. In the best of current political
> circumstances, no single party can come close to effectively challenging the
> APRC electoral machine. .****
> ** **
> And so they are not amiss in anchoring their hopes and policies firmly in
> reality, national leaders who toy with any form of parochialism are better
> advised to accept that Gambia’s communities are eternally damned to a common
> fate, whatever that may be. We are condemned to survive or collapse as a
> national community, not as communities within a nation. Sink or swim, we
> must experience our plight as a collective. That fate is absolute and allows
> for no variation whatsoever! ****
>    ****
> Never in doubt about the agonising challenge of fashioning a workable
> united front, I am nevertheless of the firm view that those who aspire to
> the rarefied task of directing the destiny of a nation must be mature and
> pragmatic enough to appreciate and navigate the bottlenecks inherent to a
> project of such critical import. We are alive to the reality that a deal for
> a united front is bound to present special problems of intense agony.
> However, trapped as we are in a totalitarian system without independently
> viable institutions, the challenge for our opposition leaders is akin to
> that of America's founding fathers, those architects of statehood who carved
> the world's most distinguished political jurisdiction out of extremely acute
> conditions. Their enduring legacy is not the phenomenal and extraordinary
> material prosperity of the United States, but the creation of a nation of
> laws, and a land, even if at incremental paces, of liberty.****
> ** **
> There is no defensible rationale to suggest that Gambians are incapable of
> instituting a governmental system based on the rule of law. The notion, in
> some quarters, that God installed the Professor and that we are therefore
> divinely required to accord him unquestioned obeisance until the naturally
> ordained time for his departure, must be rejected as manifestly stupid.
> Every people have control over their destiny, and as God does not install
> despots, He leaves them in place for as long as they remain unchallenged. By
> our apathy we allowed despotism to thrive wonderfully. As a people we chose
> failure in permitting the Professor to exercise a fierce stranglehold over
> our public life. It is therefore not contentious to argue that we have a
> right to redemption through a united opposition front for 2011.****
> I have no hesitation in commending our opposition leaders for the very idea
> of united front exploratory talks on this third day of September 2011, but
> the Gambian populace will reserve its accolades for the final ratification
> of an enterprise whose true significance, in the fullness of time, will rank
> for us as among the seminal political achievements and events of human
> history. A wrong turn and our accelerating demise into a failed state will
> be confirmed beyond question. The relentless repression of the Professor’s
> APRC regime threatens a national break up and opposition leaders must never
> share in that responsibility by scuppering the only peaceable strategy to
> rid The Gambia of persistent repression.****
>
> In light of the intricate challenges threatening our nation's very
> survival, the current crop of opposition leaders have a special rendezvous
> with destiny. I implore them to follow the stars that will lead to a new
> dawn for The Gambia. I hope they follow the path of courage and
> determination and Gambia shall forever be grateful. A nation's hopes for
> peaceful change are solidly in their hands. How tragic if that sacred trust
> should be desecrated for want of political courage and vision!  ****
> Ala *The Gambia Echo’s* Dr Fox, the lesson is indeed clear that we cannot
> fight in isolation. What Ousainu, Hamat, Halifa, and their colleagues in
> lesser parties do may constitute part of their leadership prerogative, but
> opposition foot-soldiers are calling for nothing short of a genuine united
> front against Professor Jammeh in the November presidential contest.****
> ** **
> I sincerely hope you can give us a united front!****
> ** **
>      ****
> Lamin J Darbo****
>
>
>
>
> ****
> ** **
>  ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To
> unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web
> interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
>
> To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to:
> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the
> List Management, please send an e-mail to:
> [log in to unmask]¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
>


¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤