Dear Brother,
I sense what i like here in and i am almost not afraid to advertise my
sentiment! I must add we Gambians know that the blood that join us is
thicker than the stink air that separate us! We Gambians we have had our
share of a DEMO Demogratic system but we now seem to know for our own selves
that even a dead frozen DEMO is better than a well living dictatorship!
We had a dove once we complained He Is TOOOO soft the almighty GOD send us
an Eagle!! Now our shouldiers are sour any heavy. Our hearts are shattered
into million pieces altogether!Our expectations? Our confidence? How bonds?
Our values ? Ourcollective self?! Once upon a time little was said of
this:indepence will not change our groundnuts into diamonds! Right?
Wrong!!! If we have the tools yes if it can be dreamed yes! Here is a
prove:Our Dependence has changed their bullets for diamonds for them, on our
backyard right here and now who are we to teach our kids this realty scheme!
Say What that with the wheel and vision God will not see us through?
Lets ask of our peace and it shall be given! Backtrack,we asked for
an Eagle and so was HE given in the flesh seizing our babies in the name of
the invinsible soldier, common! Invisible in broaddaylight even from himself
i might add !collectively we nightmared
it came true collectively if we Dream of heaven its right at our door
steps waiting to be seized alive!This is the power of collective day
dreaming. Some know of this mystic presence like you the ropes to tie a
cow!! Lets free ourselves and ask of our change!!! Lets say it loud
and clear we are here to draw on the lives of our loved one! Their
lives are worth freedom equality and justice for all from now till the end
of time.Repeat! Their lives are worth freedom equality and justice
for all from now till the end of time!Common! This shall be the fruit
of your endeavours.You know the mind is stronger than the muscle!
What is a computer without the software a hollowed box!Hollowed be our
presence no way hosey!I will love untill the last of me!
May God Bless you!
>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: The Sceptics "Brutal Bargain" With The UDP
>Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 09:32:47 EDT
>
> It is time, serious sceptics of the UDP like me and else strike what
>the
>American neo-conservative commentator, Norman Podhoretz, calls a "brutal
>bargain", with the UDP leadership; a covenant of what to expect should we
>put
>our scepticism and moral disagreement on the respite agenda and give them
>the
>support needed to politically/electorally empty Jammeh into the dustbin of
>history come the next general election.
> By "brutal bargain", Podhoretz was referring to it then to mean the
>"deal" between mainstream America and hyphenated America in order to
>assimilate the latter into the former. Hyphenated America willing and ready
>to give up on things/cultures intrinsic to their history/identity and
>assimilate whilst the mainstream is willing and encourages the
>accommodation
>and assimilation of the hyphenated. This in itself has not done bad to
>American life as a melting pot. Even if it means corroding/depleting the
>core
>of what truly entails hyphenated America's culture, it had enriched the
>mainstream culture and given America what the Founding Fathers had dreamt
>of;
>an objective pluralist society that is accommodating. A truly
>multi-cultural
>America. Of course neo-conservatives are in deny of this today. They are
>increasingly being revisionist about Podhoretz's "brutal bargain"
>intellectually and working fervently against the trend and tide of
>multi-cultural America. Even if it remains until some time in the mid
>1990's
>the main consensus between Liberals and moderate Conservatives in the
>culture
>wars that had consumed America since the 60s, the Right is attacking this
>consensus from all angles these days. But that is by the way....... it is
>not
>our topic here today. Sorry for the necessary digression.
> It is about time that those of us who are in principle not in favour a
>UDP gov't under normal circumstances, take a neat leaf out of Norman
>Podhoretz's "brutal bargain" as I tried to explain it above. Even if the
>UDP
>is not your ideal political party, you would have to agree that it
>represents
>decency and respect which any given polity needs by all means to move on to
>better things. But decency and respect is not everything. We need more.
>Where
>are the new ideas to turn things around? On the collapsing economy, the
>military, the constitutional and institutional frameworks we need for a
>viable civic oriented polity after Jammeh, the Casamance and Bissau issue,
>the case of the impounded properties of the former PPP gov't members, the
>obvious political limbs and baggage of remnants of the ragtag fraternity of
>the PPP that are part of the UDP had brought to it, to what extent do they
>[former PPP officials] influence policy and direction in the Party? There
>are
>a thousand questions I can throw at them that I need at least a
>clarification
>on or a pledge what is to be done about it.
> The UDP, at any rate, after virtually almost 4 years of existence as a
>political force, still borders on the ambiguous. It is hard to culminate
>it's
>pulsating political philosophy that runs in it's veins; it's cementing
>ideology or world view. It's funny position of being a crossover and
>hurriedly patched up ragtag fraternity of at best strange political bed
>fellows who have struck an alliance to battle the common enemy. The aura of
>mysticism that is it's relationship with the ancien regime of Jawara and
>old
>order. Most Gambians like me haven't got a clue on these important issues
>and
>their wider ramifications should the UDP enter gov't.
> Yet it is becoming a hackneyed acknowledgement that under free and
>fair
>conditions [even that acerbic commentator Cherno "Mawbeh" Jallow has given
>them his "toast"], the UDP will electorally empty Jammeh into the dustbin
>of
>history. A UDP gov't has far wider ramifications than merely emptying
>Jammeh
>into the dustbin of history. The challenges lying in front of a post Jammeh
>Gambia are numerous and requires dedication, honesty and selflessness. But
>above all new ideas to confront the harsh realities of daily Gambian misery
>on the ground. Can the UDP deliver? I can't in all honesty answer because I
>haven't got a clue. It is however, fair to allude to it the moral dilemma
>of
>having too many faces and fronts or baggages which will not augur well for
>the Gambia if not clarified.
> It is becoming a common place fallacy to attribute to the growing
>vehemence of anti-Jammehish an apologia for Jawara-ism. This is erroneous.
>A
>falsity that needs be tackled as the tyrannous evil of Jammehism itself.
>This
>growing vehemence of anti-Jammehism is more than just replacing Jammeh with
>decency and respect. It is a clarion call for better. Better. And better.
>The
>poor people of the Gambia need and deserve better. It's been some 35 odd
>years since the departure of Europeans from our country. Yet virtually
>little
>has changed and much in need of doing. To overturn this, we need bold,
>pragmatic and selfless leadership to inspire and direct us to newer
>heights.
>A leadership, to pinch a phrase from Halifa, that has the foresight to
>inject
>hope into the hopeless, buckle up the forlorn and most importantly harness
>our enormous resources into building a new and better Gambia that is worthy
>of emulation in the subregion.
> Since the PDOIS has taken up again it's neutrality in the status quo
>as
>is inevitable with all most post-Marxist Pan African political groups who
>have yet to reconcile their differences with moderation and the mainstream,
>it is worth mentioning here that Liberal moderation has two choices. Either
>to continue being sceptical of the UDP, cross their fingers and hope for a
>messianic figure to arrive and deliver them from the devil of Kanilai. In
>other words fence sit and be mere arm chair critics of the situation. Or on
>the other hand, Liberal moderation can strike a "brutal bargain" with the
>UDP; that in return for their principled and conditional support, Liberal
>moderation expects and anticipates a convenant with the UDP leadership on
>the
>fundamental issues aforementioned earlier. Of all the options opened to us,
>the latter is more practical and prudent given the exigencies of the
>politics
>of the period. To procrastinate would be foolish and detrimental to our
>dear
>country.
> This convenant must be entered into now. The UDP leadership must come
>out in the open and formally state in black and white what it will give in
>return should this "brutal bargain" go forward. It cannot wait until the
>twelfth hour and make throwaway pledges that are inconceivable or
>ill-thought
>out. It must come out now with pledges that the Gambian people will hold
>them
>onto should their mandate be signed come the next general election.
> Perhaps the affable and eloquent Karamba Touray or the liaison officer
>the UDP online, Mr Saihou Mballow, will step forward and address our
>concerns. Or better still someone on the ground like Mr Femi Peters, the
>campaign director of the UDP or the indefatigable Mr Juwara, the propaganda
>secretary should be invited online by those in the Gambia who have access
>to
>the List to engage the Diaspora and Gambians in general about their
>anxieties, fears and hopes.
> As my good friend Halifa Sallah rightly put it to me some time ago,
>this
>is a time to share. Indeed a time to share everything as a people. The UDP
>must never delude itself into the fallacy that everything is clear-cut and
>they are on their way to claim the crown or the reins of power unfettered.
>Perhaps the utterances of some UDP supporters like the fellow in the
>Washington DC protest of last month [a Mr Dabo], who claimed that they are
>riding to electoral victory with or without the support of other
>parties/interests, is a stark reminder that the UDP need be reminded that
>this is not an ego ride or selfish uni-lateral political crusades. And
>victory must come only by engaging and embracing other interests who are in
>principle not in favour of a UDP gov't.
> Whatever happens after Jammeh, must be about the Gambian people
>bettering themselves after the recent experiences of both Jammeh and
>Jawara.
>For this, those of us who are in principle not in favour of a UDP gov't
>under
>normal circumstances must reconcile this principle with our vehemently
>anti-Jammehism. It is time for the "brutal bargain" and a UDP formal
>convenant with the Gambian People. The timing couldn't be better.
>Hamjatta Kanteh
>
>hkanteh
>
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