Hi Mr. Jallow!
Thank you sir for taking the time to clarify your statements. You wrote:
"With all due respect sir , nobody is questioning Mr. Halifa Sallah's
character atleast as far as I am concerned."
You wrote in an earlier correspondence with Halifa:
"I challenged your policies and not your personality. "
You further wrote in an earlier correspondence:
"Mr. Jassey-Conteh, Halifa will never tell you that he is a sociologist, and
he is yet to acknowledge that in public.Infact anecdote has it that he has a
masters degree in international studies. Instead he tries to shift
perspectives by lecturing the media on political maturity whilst acting
inconsistent."
In another earlier correspondence, you wrote:
"Halifa is NOT a professional sociologist, and he is yet to honestly
acknowledge this in public. He
did intentionally omit the fact that he has only undergraduate credentials
in sociology "
From the above statements, I glean the following:
1.You are not questioning Halifa's character.
2.That Halifa is not a sociologist yet he is pretending to be one.
3.That he lectures the media on political maturity yet acts inconsistently.
4.That he has only an undergraduate degree in Sociology but intentionally
and dishonestly gives the impression that he is a professional sociologist.
My questions to you are:
1.Are my assertions correctly gleaned from your posts?
2.If they are correct, how can you reconcile your two positions; that you
are not questioning Halifa's character yet you are saying that he is
pretending to be a sociologist, acts inconsistently and dishonestly gives
the impression that he is a professional sociologist? A pretending,
inconsistent and dishonest person is one who does not have a good character.
Are you saying that Halifa has a bad character?
3.What makes a person a sociologist? Completion of training in Sociology? If
that is the case, you acknowledged that Halifa has an undergraduate degree
in Sociology. Why isn't he a sociologist then?Are there extra exams such as
the bar exams in Law that make one a sociologist? If there are, do you know
if Halifa has taken them? If you don't, how can you authoritatively state
that he is not a sociologist?
In another correspondence, wrote:
"No insults but strictly rational and mature debates..bring it on Halifa"
You however wrote in earlier correspondence:
"Halifa is a dreamer whose leadership has never been tested""
"the socialist elites of the PDOIS will dictate to ordinary folks to wear
the same Jackson-Five Afro haircut"
A couple of questions:
1.Don't you find it insultingto trivialise Halifa's positions and work into
a "dream"? Isn't it insulting to call Halifa after everything he and his
colleagues have put into practice a dreamer? Isn't it insulting to try to
hurt Halifa's feelings by making fun of his haircut? I am sure Halifa sees a
lot of barber shops around Serrekunda. In fact, there are a few on his
street. If he wanted another type of look, I bet he would not wait for
people to point it out to him. Everything is a matter of choice and taste
and that is the beauty of democracy. How Halifa's haircut looks has no
bearing on his ability to do the job he is doing.
2. Is it " rational and mature debates " to sideline the myriad of issues
that are affecting our country and talk about Halifa's " Jackson-Five Afro
haircut "?
You wrote in another correspondence:
"But no, a government by PDOIS will lecture us that the state shall rely on
the good will of the man in the street to bring order out of chaos. The
PDOIS will then proceed with a far reaching agenda to define the meaning of
"integrity" to the Gambian citizens. Does this not sound like the precursor
to another communist dictatorship? This is the agenda that all socialists,
including PDOIS, believe in-political evolution through "political
education" not to secure individual property rights but a collectivist
economy by which they, the socialist elites of the PDOIS will dictate to
ordinary folks to wear the same Jackson-Five Afro haircut, and pay heavy
taxes to the state just like Halifa and Seedia are "surrendering" their hard
earned incomes to their constituencies. This in effect is the socialist
agenda and the vision that PDOIS has for the Gambia."
You have made some serious accusations here and in the interest of
fairness, " rational and mature debates ", I would ask you to prove where
you ever heard or read the above statements you attribute to Halifa and
PDOIS.. I have a few questions for you.
1.Where did you hear or read that " a government by PDOIS will lecture us
that the state shall rely on the good will of the man in the street to bring
order out of chaos "?
2.Where did you read or hear that " The PDOIS will then proceed with a far
reaching agenda to define the meaning of "integrity" to the Gambian
citizens "? Is it in their manifesto?
3.Do you believe in such big generalisations as to write: "the agenda that
all socialists, including PDOIS" ? What is the basis for such a belief?
Where did you read that all socialist are the same in all respects? If I
were to say "all Gambians are ...", would I be correct?
4.Where did you read or hear that " the socialist elites of the PDOIS will
dictate to ordinary folks to wear the same Jackson-Five Afro haircut"? Is it
in their manifesto or in another party communique?
5.Where did you read or hear that Halifa and PDOIS will make people " pay
heavy taxes to the state just like Halifa and Seedia are "surrendering"
their hard earned incomes to their constituencies"? Is it in their manifesto
or other communique?
You wrote:
"The problem is NOT Halifa but his party's dogmatic communist cum
"socialist" platform. "
Can you please show me how you came to the conclusion that PDOIS is a
communist party or has a communist platform?
You also wrote:
"The party's ideology is completely bankrupt of any practical value and
intellectually incoherent in this modern day global economy "
On what do you base your assertion that the party is"completely bankrupt of
any practical value "? This a very heavy statement which in essence negates
the very existence of PDOIS. Can you prove that the party is such? Can you
prove that they have no practical value at all?
Can you prove that PDOIS is "intellectually incoherent in this modern day
global economy "? Incoherent in what sense? Don't you understand what they
write or say? Are they incoherent on social issues, legal issues, economic
issues or what? Can you please give me examples of where they are
incoherent?
You also wrote:
"Halifa is a dreamer whose leadership has never been tested".
Can you prove this statement? Do you know what Halifa has done since he
graduated? Has he not been in any position of leadership since he graduated?
If you don't know, how do you know that his leadership has not been tested?
If you know of any leadership positions that he has held, what information
do you have that he did his job without his leadership abilities being
tested? If you mean his leadership position as president of a country, only
Jawara and Jammeh have been tested since independence and Jammeh's was not
tested the day before he took over. If this is what you mean, you are in
effect saying that anybody who has never been a president of a country
should be disregarded. That means basically all future presidents of all
countries in the world because before they become presidents, they have no
preseidential experience. I however guess that you are not saying this, or
are you?
Finally, you wrote:
"I do not believe Halifa in good conscience wants to represent a group of
knuckle-heads who
takes every word he says for gospel. "
I don't believe that either and I did not say that. I would never take
anybody's word as "gospel" be it Halifa or anyone else. All humans are
endowed with the ability to think and I believe it would be a waste of God's
gift to take a living being's word as gospel. People can make decisions as
to the a person's credibility based on what they hear, read or know about a
person over a period. Halifa has demonstrated over a long period his
dedication, principles etc. and one can safely make a conclusion that
compared to many others, his character is very good. If Halifa were to
however stand in Sereekunda and say it is Basse, I would be first to
challenge him.
I thank you very much for engaging me and eagerly await you response to my
questions. Have a good weekend.
Buharry.
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