Buharry, you raised some very important issues that I would easily associate
myself with, with a few caveats. I think Hamjatta alluded to one of those
caveats earlier on. It will be a mistake for us to be hard on the UDP
leadership and the electorate. It is very easy to engage in this Monday
morning quarter-backing and second guessing of what went wrong here.

I am glad that you are bringing up pertinent points at this stage of the
game preparing for October. This is a good thing. This is how we can help
the Opposition. We do not help them if we stay mute all through the campaign
season and wait until it is too late (two days before the elections) and
start telling the whole world where the Opposition went wrong. It is also
unfair for us to stay out here, never gave the Opposition our support during
the campaign, wait until after the election, see where the wind was blowing
and then start blaming people.

I am one of those people that have conclusively stated that there was
vote-buying. I said this even before the election took place. So this is not
an excuse being put forward by a sore loser. Anybody that cared to know
would see Gambian newspapers reporting that APRC stalwarts were shamelessly
buying voters' cards for 25 dalasis. I mentioned this in an exchange I had
with Jaiteh on Thursday, two days before the elections. We are approaching
things with our heads and not with our hearts. Both me and Hamjatta
painstakingly looked at the figures to develop a pattern of what was going
on here. Yesterday, I gave a suggestion of what the Opposition might do to
combat this cancer of vote buying to disenfranchise voters. I hope the
Opposition pays attention to that or at least come up with a better strategy
than the one employed in these by-elections.

As opined by many, including yourself, the fact that the Opposition did not
carry Kiang shows that our message is not adequately engraved in the
electorate. We should accept responsibility for that and not try to say that
the people did not get it because they are stupid. That does not mean that
the message is wrong. I think the key here is persistence and better
delivery. We have to be unequivocal about our opposition to Yaya. We have to
drill it in the heads of Gambians that Yaya is intolerable. The moron has
nothing to offer us but misery. Anything Yaya can give us in terms of
development, the Opposition can give us ten times the amount. We have to
call a spade a spade. If Yankuba Touray boasts of building his father a
house in Baddibu, call him a thief because he is stealing from the Gambian
poor to feed his family. They had the audacity to question where people got
what they worked for in thirty years. Put them on the spot to explain what
they got in four years. The issues I saw PDOIS list on behalf of APRC were
laughable. Anybody that thinks that APRC won this election because of the
issues they discussed on the campaign trail must be living in another
planet. The issues are against APRC. I mean, how can the APRC blame our
farmers' plight on the sale of GPMB by PPP? What does that have to do with
UDP or the inability of our farmers to sell their goods six years after
power was stolen from PPP by APRC? Baba Jobe should have been asked on the
campaign trail about the part he played in the government's booting of
Alimenta. Instead of second guessing UDP now, Gambians with functioning
brains (not to mention journalists and other Opposition parties) should have
been talking about these ISSUES BEFORE the elections and showing how APRC
cannot take the country forward. You do not wait until after the elections
and say that APRC might have won on the ISSUES. What issues? Surely, the
issues I read from Foroyaa and heard from calls made to Gambia, cannot be
winners for APRC. Clowns on G_L and elsewhere theorizing that UDP might have
lost these elections because they did not discuss the ISSUES, do not know
what they are talking about. Gambian newspapers are replete with reports
showing that UDP tackled the issues during the campaign rallies. As we
demonstrated, what happened here is people will be given 25 dalasis and told
that even without your vote UDP is going to win. You are talking here to a
farmer that has not seen 10 dalasis in two months. To him, he is killing two
birds with one stone. He gets a cool 25 dalasis and he is assured that his
party can win without his vote. This farmer thinks that he is getting 25
dalasis for a worthless piece of paper. Do you blame him for being naïve and
not understanding that every vote counts? Do you blame him for
overestimating the strength of the Opposition in the constituency? Do you
blame UDP for not anticipating this in advance and safeguarding those
precious voter cards? Do you blame us in the Diaspora for not funding the
parties to combat the APRC shenanigans? Do you blame us in the Diaspora for
not encouraging the Opposition and giving them good ideas? Do you blame
other Opposition figures for undermining the Opposition by siding with Yaya
on most important issues? As you can see, there is a lot of blame to go
around. We have a choice here. I hope we will NOT choose to be engaged in
the blame game and jeopardize our chances in October.

UDP also had the same message in Kiang as they did in Baddibu. So the
problem cannot be the message. What is more plausible, is Hamjatta's
explanation about the differences in fortune of the two constituencies. I
can also assure you that the voters do care about 'human rights issues'. I
say this not on the basis of opinion polls, but because of my belief in
humanity. How can our people not care about the massacre of innocent
children in broad daylight? How can our people not care about the rampant
abductions and incarcerations without charge? To me, if I conclude that our
people do not care about these issues, that tantamount to admitting that we
are animals. If we do not care whether our children are cold-bloodedly
slaughtered in broad daylight by Yaya's security forces, then we do not
deserve to be called civilized human beings. There should be no doubt in our
minds that our people care about these issues. The question becomes one of
delivery. How do we convince people to look beyond their personal
experiences? How do we convince people to put themselves in the shoes of
Ebrima Barry's father? How do we convince our women to put themselves in the
shoes of Dumo's wife? How do we bring to people's attention the dashed hopes
of Alieu Mbye; father of Yusupha Mbye, one of the victims of the April
massacre? These ISSUES are surely important to our people. After all,
Gambians are rational and good human beings.

Buhary, you were spot on to identify the daunting task that awaits the
Opposition. Many people underestimate the predicament we are in. Otherwise
they will put aside minor differences and work together to defeat Yaya in
October. It would be easy for some of us that have already put forward some
proposals to sit back and wait until November and come back to the
Opposition and say: we told you so, but you did not listen. However, that
would be a callous thing to do to our people. Let us continue to point out
to the Opposition what we think is the right thing to do and hope that they
adopt some of our good points. I would want to believe that the Opposition
back home want to uproot Yaya. We want the same thing. It is just logical
that we work together to achieve that if the only way we can achieve that is
to stick together.

It is counter-productive to harshly criticize UDP or NPR or the people of
Kiang. The vice here was vote-buying both in Kiang and Baddibu. If votes
were not bought in Baddibu, the UDP rout would have been more pronounced.
APRC and their supporters do not want us to talk about vote-buying. If
crimes were committed in these elections, we have to talk about it. I
respectfully counsel the Opposition to continue talking about all these
issues. These issues are not mutually exclusive. Talking about vote rigging
does not mean that they cannot talk about the plight of our farmers or the
murder of our children or the way these vermin have looted our treasury. So,
why should the Opposition listen to APRC sympathizers that do not want to
discuss crimes the APRC has committed against the Gambian people?

Buhary, please continue to ask your very important questions and find time
to give some answers. I know you have a lot to contribute to this struggle.
I wished you had more time to dwell on these issues. That way, people like
me would become irrelevant as far as 'election talk' is concerned. I have
other interests I want to pursue vis-a-vis getting rid of Yaya. If I had my
way, I would not be involved in this debate at all. Thanks again for your
contributions.
KB



>From: MOMODOU BUHARRY GASSAMA <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: The by-elections: My Take
>Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 15:58:09 +0200
>
>Hi!
>      Various opinions have been raised regarding the results of the
>by-elections in The Gambia. As is evident, an election is a process, which
>in the final analysis brings about a winner and a loser. The creation of a
>winner and a loser also brings about varied reactions from those with
>stakes in the results. As Gambians, all of us are concerned about the
>results of the elections but I also think that we should think with our
>brains and not our hearts. As wisely counselled by Saiks, we should analyse
>the results and the factors behind them and prepare ourselves for a better
>challenge come October. In this vein, I shall attempt to throw a few bututs
>down this road.
>
>             The first issue and probably one that would send some reaching
>for aspirin bottles and others suffering minor and major heart attacks is:
>is it possible that the APRC won in Kiang because they campaigned more
>vigorously or more effectively than the UDP? Is it possible that their
>campaign appealed to more people? If this is the case, then what was the
>strategy? What was the UDP campaign premised upon that rendered it
>ineffective enough to result in a loss? How was the campaign styled? What
>did they do wrong and how can they ensure a non-repeat?
>
>              The second thing is the rapid condemnation of the UDP loss as
>brought about by vote buying. Is there any proof of this? I think we should
>be careful and not rush to judgment or make statements without having all
>the facts before us as this can undermine our credibility if we are wrong
>or cannot prove our case. Voices have been raised regarding this and the
>best way to make our case is to have all the facts before us and then make
>an action plan. Even if it is true that the election was lost due to the
>buying of votes, what does that say about the electorate? Have we given
>them more credit than they deserve? Has their economic situation rendered
>them victims to unscrupulous political machinations? What can be done about
>this? What does this say about the opposition in general and the UDP in
>particular? How can they be so negligent that this takes place without
>their noticing or stopping it? How can the opposition ensure vigilance to
>stop or at least make impossible attempts to buy votes come October?
>
>             The third butut is whether the use of state property gave the
>APRC an unfair edge. As is the case in developing countries, governments
>use state media, vehicles, funds etc. to give them an unfair advantage over
>opponents. Was this the case here? If so, why didn't the UDP do anything
>about it? What is the opposition's strategy to counter such come October?
>
>             Another issue is that of intimidation. Were the voters
>intimidated into staying at home? If so, then it is rather serious. Were
>the UDP aware of any such practices? What did they do about it? Do have any
>evidence that such took place? What are they going to do to ensure that
>those who were engaged in such are dealt with? How can the opposition
>ensure a climate conducive to the exercise of their supporters'
>constitutional rights come October?
>
>             Another issue is whether we have placed confidence in the
>opposition that is beyond their ability. Is the opposition capable of
>delivering the goods? Do we have a realistic picture of what is happening
>in The Gambia? Does the electorate take human rights as an issue worth
>bringing the government down over? Are human rights issues important to the
>electorate? Are the things we cry about out here in the West important to
>the average Samba on the streets of Kerr Pateh? If not, how can the
>opposition magnify issues that have relevance to the average people to
>ensure that they would be interested enough to vote come October. Jabou Joh
>puts it aptly when she states: "Personally, I think that a lack of
>understanding of government's responsibility to the people is why a party
>like the APRC can still win votes after all that has transpired, including
>the precarious situation the farmers have found themselves in." If this is
>the case, what can be done to educate the people and thus empower them to
>make the right decisions based on understanding of the issues at stake?
>
>             There are other factors that I would like to talk about but I
>have to do something now. I'll try and talk about them later. However, with
>the scanty information and facts at my disposal at the moment, I join Saul
>Khan in congratulating the APRC candidate with the option of taking it back
>should the facts state wrongdoing. Have a good day.
>
>
>                                              Buharry.
>
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