Saiks,

Your bizarrely vacuous objection to my piece failed to grasp and appreciate
two fundamerntal thrusts about the piece: it was written in the mode of
journalistic enquiry ala rhetorical speculation and provocation; and instead
of firmly concluding based on evidence, the piece merely treaded very
cautiously on the basis of the circumstantial evidence tendered therein by
affirming the subject matter of the piece: Is MOJAG now in cahoots with the
APRC? Had you grasped and appreciated this fundamental point, you would have
realised the relevance of my provocation-cum-enquiry. This is the first point.

Most bizarrely, you wrote of an idyllic MOJAG existence in which the idea of
the movement splintering - as i suggested in my piece - is not mooted; but
trades on a barbaric falsity. Well,  for all intent and purposes, you
contradict yourself enormously. According to your own testimony, the two
prominent members of your movement cited in my piece - Manjang and Sarjo -
are either no longer in your movement or have remained dormant members. That
admission by itself is enough for one to suggest that all is not idyllic
about your movement. Stuff is: if you are one big, united and happy family,
why did Sarjo leave the movement? Why did Manjang - perhaps the most
articulate and brilliant member of your movement, who as it happened was once
influential to the point of being appointed a spokesperson for your movement
after Jawara lifted the ban on your movement - remain inactive and dormant
within the movement to the point where you [Saiks] can't even recall when he
was last active as a member? For a very influential MOJAG member like Manjang
to remain inactive over a long period of time would be akin to, say, a very
prominent member of PDOIS like Halifa Sallah - perhaps Manjang's equivalent
within that parallel movement - remaining inactive in the politics of PDOIS.
Even if the case remains that there is no splinter group formed from a
faction within MOJAG, but this idyllic picture you painted of the movement is
purely fictional and a figment of your imagination. I certainly recall that
Sarjo's wife, Sister Jay or Jainaba Bah, once harangued you on Gambia-L to
the point where one can read between the lines that there was more to her
attacks than mere ideological differences. It was a tell-tale factional
bickering found in most romantic and heady movements professing the
revolutionary credo.

Anyone who knows anything about the history of revolutionary and romantic
fringe agitations and or movements, especially those professing to be
Marxists or leftists of all shades, knows for a fact that what ultimately
founders these movements is their Achilles heel of internecine
factionalising. More to the point, these heady and romantic movements
purporting to be revolutionary are invariably a hot-bed of back-stabbing,
factionalising and petty personality spats. I believe this to be true of
MOJAG as things stand. I remain convinced that all is not well with MOJAG as
presently constituted, especially given the curious silence of MOJAG on the
tragedy unfolding in the Gambia. The chances of the movement splintering
along the lines i suggested in my piece, is well within reason.

Of course, all of this rests on the presupposition that MOJAG is still
relevant. As far as most Gambians are concerned, that movement is not only a
spent political force but also on the whole irrelevant. If there is any
relevance to the movement, it is either for nostalgic purposes as members
daydream and reflect on the good old days - but sadly, the good old days are
over; and Gambians are not only looking and moving forward with Darbo and the
Alliance, but also have better things to do with their time. Or the other
relevance of the movement might be in salon politics as the champagne
Marxists and their ilk sit and talk about their decisively repudiated and
bankrupt worldview; and chimerically discoursing how to make it relevant
again to a populace that has moved on forward. In this configuration of
irrelevant has-beens, MOJAG shall soon be joined by its parallel cousin and
another soon-to-be spent political force, the PDOIS. This is the second point.

As per my accusations of Manjang, i'll let the Brother deny the charges
before presenting further evidence to attest to the fact that he has done a
volte-face in his politics.

Hamjatta Kanteh

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