My Dear Hamjatta,
I am very proud of your realistic thinking; you have vividly highlighted the
current situation prevailing in our country. As you have already mentioned
in your contribution, it is time now for us to consider very seriously the
limited options we have on our hands in our efforts to restore democracy
back home. The fact is that not many contributors and devoted fighters have
clearly understand the fact that what we have been lamenting about for so
long is way beyond the moron thinking of President Jammeh. The guy is not
intelligent enough to understand the severity of our messages. His animal
side of him continuously overshadows his human side, and more importantly,
Jammeh always take things very personal and absolutely negative. This is why
in my last contribution to the L, entitled:SHOULD SENEGAL AND NIGERIA
INTERVENE ON MORAL GROUNDS TO RESTORE PEACE AND TRANQUILITY TO OUR COUNTRY,
I have opted for REGIONAL INTERVENTION.
The principal reason for this is fact that considering the present changing
security environment back home it is presently breeding lawlessness and the
implementation of a well-planned and orchestrated tribal agenda and
strategy, coupled with corruption, mismanagement and total disregard for
human life. Therefore, since Jammeh is too moron to consolidate and
comprehend his surroundings, there is no way that this guy would have a
feeling for his inhumane acts to either change his style or step aside. The
only language he would understand is force; since we do not currently have a
solidified force at home to facilitate change, and TIME is running out, we
should thus consider REGIONAL INTERVENTION. To that end, my dear brother,
your analyses is a unique one which is worth considering.
Ansumana Kujabi
Concerned Citizen
>From: Hamjatta Kanteh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: What The Situation Calls For: New Tactics For New Situations
>Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 12:17:00 GMT
>
>From the outset, when the tyranny of Jammeh manifested itself again through
>ther murder of our school children, mainly three schools of thought on how
>to deal with Jammeh came to the fore. There was the 'extreme' view which
>advocated for a total annihilation of the forces of Jammeh; an outhright
>war
>. Then there the 'idealist' or 'pacifist' who advocated for mainly Ghandian
>tactics of tolerance and reason to handle Jammeh. Then there is the
>'realist' camp which isisted on a carrot and stick approach to agaitate for
>change. Since those bleak moments of April to this day, a lot water has
>passed under the bridge and the situation is in need of an appraisal.The
>debate about how we proceed from here in the battle to defeat Jammeh's
>retrogade Fascist political and social order has now taken new tactical
>emphasis since Jammeh belligerantly told July 22nd. Mov't youth
>campaigners
>that he will not hesitate to send enemies 'six feet deep' should they
>disobey him. Clearly, we have a case here where the application of only
>reason to fight Jammeh is foolhardy and gross mis-apprehension of reality.
>The fact of the matter is Jammeh doesn't understand the language of reason.
>The guy is a bully and loves to see his victims cower before him begging
>for
>his supreme mercy. Even those in the 'pacifist' camp who pleaded with us to
>reason and tolerate with Jammeh's Fascism, have acknowledged or are
>beginning to see that reason like all human endeavours has its limits and
>are beginning to see the beauty and raison d'etre behind what us in the
>'realist' camp call a "tit for tat principle". Well, i say to them: Welcome
>to the world of reality. Frankly, as it is becoming lucid to all truth
>loving Gambians, appeasing Jammeh with posh letters/missives and imploring
>on him to exercise restraint, reason and or mercy is proving to be an
>exercise in futility.
>
>Many of these people in the 'pacifist' or 'idealist' camp seemed to me to
>make analogies with and indeed draw moral capital from the what i will call
>the Mandela [or a procrustrean application of Ghandian tactics] principles
>or experience in the battle against Apartheid. Their reasoning goes that
>with magnanimity and a peculiar sense of fairness and justice embroidered
>in
>reason and tolerance, the forces against Apartheid became victorious. But
>the story is not as they suggest. A hard-nosed chafing of this glossy
>outlook will infact reveal a very 'realist' approach of carrot and stick
>tactics which made emphasis on reason whilst embracing the principle of not
>taking the whip of Apartheid whilst lying down. In short whilst concerned
>with civil strife and the conflation of violent activities which do not
>augur well for a racially riven society like South Africa, the ANC
>leadership did not tie it's hands behind its back by sitting in party HQs
>and sendind posh letters to Botha, De Klerk and the rest of the Apartheid
>leadership pleading for reason and magnanimity to prevail. Rather when it
>became clear to the ANC and the rest of the progressive forces battling
>Apartheid that what they faced was beyond pleas and bereft of reason, they
>began to call demos, sit-ins and civil disobediences that literally
>paralysed the S/African economy and in extension the State. Also it brought
>a new a facet to the grand narrative of the S/African plight under
>Apartheid: It brought more focus on what Apartheid has wrought on Black and
>others of different race by a minority White elites. This made Apartheid to
>be at the centre of world attention and made it increasingly difficult for
>it to be ignored. Like it's fore-runner, the civil rights mov't in 60s
>America, the application of this 'realist' tactic of carrot and stick
>proved
>crucial as it laid bare the oppressors in both cases to moral and physical
>vulnerabilities that hitherto they haveen't imagined of. This as the
>Nigerian writer, Ben Okri, argued poignantly in a different but relevant
>and
>applicable context, is a classic case of victims no longer seeing
>themselves
>as victims. Indeed, as he put it, "when victims stop seeing themselves as
>victims and discover the powers of transformations, forces are born on this
>planet. The possibilities of new a history depends on it."
>
>How is this equation relevant to us in our struggle? The relevance and
>application herein lies with our emphatically espoused narrative that we
>are
>victims of Jammeh's retrogade Fascist order. We must as Okri suggests, do
>as
>other victims had done earlier in history and stop seeing ourselves as
>victims of Jammeh and realise that we as a collectivity have in us a
>Leviathan muscle the flexing of which will cripple our oppressor. And with
>this as Okri opined, the possiblities of a fresh start as a people which
>will usher in a genuine pluralistic social and political order which will
>make emphasis above all on tolerance, liberty, social justice and equality
>of opportunity for all regardless of class, ethnicity, religion or any
>other
>social and political inclination.
>
>Together as a people, we are strong and more lethal than all of Jammeh's
>thugs and weaponry of oppression combined. This principle is what we need
>to
>translate into a politics of action and agitation. Without the fruitlful
>leadership of opposition and civil group leaders, this will be mere arm
>chair rattling and musing. Our leaders who genuinely believe that Jammeh is
>evil must stop the politics of posh talk and start the politics of action
>and agitation for change. Employing the sterilities of endless, fruitless
>and meningless dialogues with a dunderhead like Jammeh is an exercise in
>futility. It has brought us nothing from the dictator save scorn and more
>threats of 'six feet deep'.
>
>The increasingly forlorn masses of the Gambia are agitating for change and
>clamouring for bold pragmatic leadership that will not dither when it comes
>to sticking it's head out to battle the dictator, to lead them. Sadly the
>mainstream leaders are either too spineless or just naive to believe the
>futility of whispering in Jammeh's deaf ears for tolerance and reason to
>prevail. I repeat again: If the mainstream political parties are loath to
>challenge the brutal dictatoship, it will leave a vacuum open to armed
>reactionary groups who will have other agendas other than giving power back
>to the people. Everyday practical politicking is about being in sync with
>your constituents fears, expectations and dreams. Anything short of that is
>living in ivory towers and arrogant to real lives that real people live.
>The
>way i see it, the mainstream political parties and their leaderships, have
>yet to speak the fears, expectations and dreams of the people. If they
>fail
>to articulate these, then others will in a different fashion. That again
>shall be the ultimate crime and indeed, the betrayal of the people. It is
>time the drooling in ideals end and the politics of action and agitation
>starts.
>
>First port of call? The demand for the "Commissioners" and "Coroner's"
>reports into the murder of school children of April 10 and 11. If we get
>more procrastination and or arrogance from the State authorities, then
>political leaders must call for nation-wide demos and sit-ins until Jammeh
>is ready to speak to us as owners of the country. That is what bold
>pragmatic leadership is all about in harrowing moments like we are living
>in
>the Gambia today. Not labouring in sterile endeavours like pen-pushing and
>playing Mr Nice Guy to Mr Ugly Guy.
>
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>________________________________________________________________________
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