Beran, thanks for forwarding this piece. Yankuba Touray’s unadulterated
garbage is NOT surprising to me. The vermin spent all the space he had on
the newspaper campaigning against PPP. Towards the end of the article, he
arrogantly asked the Gambian people to vote for APRC in order to have “a
sustained development and a better future.” I hope that only the people that
are enjoying under the current regime rally behind them. Then their votes
would be restricted to their families and misguided sycophants. Surely, the
majority of the Gambians are going to repudiate this regime. The majority of
the Gambians did NOT have a ‘sustained development’ under this regime. The
overwhelming majority of Gambians grew POORER under this regime. There is no
way the regime can run on its record. Their record is one of DESTITUTION for
the ordinary Gambian, CORRUPTION for Yaya and his cohorts, MURDER for our
children and MISERY for our people.

There is also no way the regime can run on PROMISES to our people. People
know that they are all a bunch of LIARS that do NOT have the wherewithal to
move the country FORWARD. So what do the vermin do? They try to give people
a smokescreen by running on the Jawara record when we all know that Jawara
is NOT running in this election. Yankuba Touray’s chief praise-singers (Buba
Baldeh and Fatoumatta Jahumpa) hold more prominent positions in APRC than OJ
holds in the Alliance. People therefore ask the question: UDP and APRC,
which is more PPP? APRC inherited all the PPP rejects. Vermin that the
decent PPP members no longer wanted in their Party because the vermin sold
out and went to slave for the people that stole power from them.

I hope the Alliance leaders ignore Yankuba Touray’s infantile rhetoric and
just concentrate on the plans for the future of our country. The only way
the APRC can win this election is to steal it. And that is exactly what they
plan to do by insisting on centralized counting of ballots. They want to
tamper with the ballot boxes while the boxes are being transferred from
point A to point B under heavy armed guard of thugs from the July 22
Movement. The Alliance must NOT allow this to happen.

As we have shown with our economy, these people do NOT understand the
problems that are facing our people. If the mental midgets do NOT understand
our problems, I wonder how they are going to lift us up from our misery.
They can utter all sorts of silly rhetoric about ‘we will reform this and we
will reform that’. The bottom-line is that the smartest among the mental
midgets (people like Famara Jatta) do NOT begin to comprehend the magnitude
of our problems. And in areas where they have a little understanding, they
are too scared to advise Yaya appropriately if they know that thugs like
Baabaa Jobe will NOT like the advise.

Take the issue of the exchange rate of the dalasi for instance. Foreign
currencies like the dollar are virtually nonexistent in the country. Even
Commercial Banks CANNOT guarantee their customers foreign currencies.
Gambians are left at the mercy of Black Market peddlers of foreign currency.
Monetary Policy in the country is in DISARRAY. When the government sends
reports to institutions like the IMF regarding the exchange rate of the
dalasi and government intervention in the foreign currency market, they
quote figures that reflect the inter-bank rate of exchange. What they do NOT
tell the IMF is that that rate is SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER than the rate at which
ordinary Gambians buy foreign currency in the Black Market. Our Central Bank
does NOT tell the IMF that NO ordinary Gambian businessman (people that need
the currencies most) gets foreign currency from the Commercial banks. The
impact our exchange rates have on the prices of goods CANNOT be measured
using the inter-bank rates.

These distortions in the exchange rates and the discrepancies between the
inter-bank rates and the Parallel Market rates were adequately addressed by
policies from the PPP government in the mid-80s liberalizing the foreign
exchange markets. But with the advent of the vermin in 1994 and their
shenanigans, the gap between the prices in the inter-bank market and the
Parallel market widened. The numerous government ‘interventions’ to
alleviate the problems in the foreign exchange markets under Yaya did NOT
solve our problems. On the contrary, these ‘interventions’ just compounded
the problems thanks to the manipulation of criminals like Baabaa Jobe. When
government intervenes to stabilize the currency market, the foreign
currencies NEVER reach the citizens it is supposed to help. A small clique
in the country take advantage of the (lower) rate Central Bank offers and
then turn around and go to the Black Market and make a killing with the
higher exchange rates that exist there. The Black Market also takes its
profits and turn around and sell the currencies at yet higher rates to the
ordinary Gambians. The vicious circle continues.

An Alliance government will close these loop-holes. GENUINE liberalization
policies will be implemented to ensure minimal intervention of our Central
Bank. Our monetary policies should positively impact the ordinary citizens.
We should NOT be satisfied just giving the IMF meaningless statistics
talking about ‘moderate inflation’ when our people are suffering from hunger
due to exorbitant rice and cooking oil prices.

The morons do NOT understand our problems. Needless to say, they CANNOT
solve our problems.
KB



>From: Beran jeng <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: FWD:Ruling Party's Mobiliser Speaks
>Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 10:53:14 -0400
>
>Ruling Party's Mobiliser Speaks
>
>
>
>The Independent (Banjul)
>
>September 7, 2001
>Posted to the web September 7, 2001
>
>Banjul, the Gambia
>
>As the countdown to the much awaited October elections draws near, The
>Independent caught up with a very busy Yankuba Touray, the National
>Mobilizer of the ruling APRC and Secretary of State for Tourism recently
>and
>he waxed eloquently on his party's preparedness for the D-Day. Excerpts:
>
>On the coalition of opposition parties
>
>
>
>
>The coalition is an absolute failure for the opposition and the impact on
>the APRC is extremely positive; that is why we are assured of a landslide
>victory in this 2001 presidential elections.
>
>Infact, the coalition is just an added advantage to us. The lifting of
>decree 89 gives us an added advantage over the opposition, as this is a
>coalition with people who have wrecked this country.
>
>On nation-wide opposition campaign
>
>I am not scared. The APRC is a very organized political party; our people
>are sensitized from the grassroots level such that they cannot be moved
>from
>their stand. Furthermore, the APRC has been active in nation-wide
>re-orientation programs for its public mobilization.
>
>Strategies for public mobilization
>
>Our strategy speak for itself , which differs from our opposition who are
>now committing political suicide by being in a coalition with the former
>political propaganda activists on the same political platform. These are
>the
>same people who exploited the economic interest of our dear country for
>thirty years.
>
>On NCP out of coalition
>
>I think this is due principally because of the fact that the NCP was always
>fighting to reform the former regime (PPP). If they (NCP) realize that this
>coalition is just calling for another PPP in the uniform of UDP, they will
>decide to remain as NCP and be independent.
>
>On alleged bribe of D3 million to NCP
>
>I do not know anything about that. We did not give anything to NCP. Besides
>they are an opposition party.
>
>The on-the-spot counting
>
>There is a misconception about counting ballots on the spot and a
>centralized counting. The IEC only undertook the on-the-spot counting
>during
>the Sami chieftaincy election, and the Kiang East and Central Baddibu
>by-election respectively.
>
>It was due to these three constituencies and besides, to provide the
>security and logistics was easy for the government. The proposal to do the
>same for the presidential elections requires logistics and security for 820
>polling stations. This was considered after consultations with government
>officials, national Security Council and the IEC, and it was seen as an
>impossible exercise, taking into consideration the security and logistical
>requirements. By and large the on-the-spot counting favours the APRC than
>the opposition parties who are pushing for counting on the spot without
>objective reasoning.
>
>The Kiang East and Central Baddibu by-elections are a clear testimony to
>this spot counting fact. The opposition has not provided any tangible
>reasons for a departure from the thirty-year counting system, which has
>been
>endorsed and acclaimed by the international community.
>
>The system will be a significant example of democracy in Africa under the
>keen supervision of the IEC and the various party agents.
>
>Finally, I will like to urge the general public to rally behind the APRC
>and
>its leadership for a sustained development and a better future.
>
>Long live APRC, long live President Jammeh, and long live the Gambian
>people.
>
>
>
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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