Toure, thanks once again for another great piece. You showed that you
understand what political horse-trading (negotiations) entails. Again, I
reiterate that mine is just my position as a supporter of the current
Alliance. What the leaders on the ground do, is entirely up to them. I argue
my case and let the chips fall where they may. At the end of the day, I am
going to support whatever the majority of the Alliance decide except of
course certain things I have ruled out in the past that are now moot.

Let me also reiterate another point. What I oppose is reconvening a Meeting
IN ORDER TO CHOOSE A LEADER. That Meeting already took place as far as I am
concerned. By all the means the Parties can still meet about other issues.
The Alliance already said in their Press Release that further meetings need
to take place to discuss the modalities of the transition period. We do NOT
need to go back. EVERY Party was given the same opportunity to participate
in Monday’s Meeting. The tribe has spoken as far as the leadership issue is
concerned. Let’s look FORWARD to the rally on Sunday.

I just saw PDOIS’ ‘proposals’ about a transition plan. The ‘proposal’
includes the same issues (or slight variations thereof) that several people
signed off on months ago. The MRDG(UK) made similar proposals to all the
Opposition Parties in the country (including PDOIS) as a basis for an
Alliance. The only new thing I saw in PDOIS’ piece is the mode of selection
of a leader. But as far as the changes needed to get a level playing field
are concerned, these proposals are NOT news.

Apart from the fact that a leader has already been chosen for the Alliance,
I am fundamentally opposed to choosing a leader that is NOT a CURRENT
Opposition leader. There are many other issues that I opposed about the
transition. My views were made known in private and needless to say, at the
end of the day I did NOT prevail. For instance, I did NOT agree to a short
transition period, but the majority of people seem to be. Fine with me. But
what this public negotiation initiated by PDOIS encourages, is for people to
be engaged in political grandstanding and end of achieving very little. The
reason I am opposed to choosing a leader outside the current pool we have is
very simple. In doing so, we are putting the cart before the horse. We are
thinking about how to effectively steer a transition period when we did NOT
in the first place ensure that we have an ‘electable’ candidate.

Need I point out that BEFORE we implement policies in a transition
government, we need to win the election first. Now, if we bring a totally
new person, how on earth are we going to campaign vigorously for that person
few weeks to the election? We need to put some trust in Darboe. There is no
reason why we should think that the man will not implement the Alliance
Agreement once he is elected. Other Opposition Parties can negotiate about
key positions such as the Attorney General who is going to formulate most of
these changes. But as far as the presidency is concerned, we need an
‘electable’ person above anything else. In Darboe we have both an
‘electable’ person and a man with immense integrity who I have no doubt will
honor the spirit of any agreement reached by the Coalition.

I hope the other Parties in the country emulate the maturity, pragmatism and
patriotism shown by PPP in this instance. In my opinion, PPP has clearly
proven their critics wrong. Obviously, the Party leant from some of its past
mistakes. When it looked at the situation and realize that it was better for
the country for the Party to take a back seat and support one of our CURRENT
leaders, the Party did exactly that. I hope the same patriotism visits other
leaders for them to do the right thing and support Ousainou Darboe. The man
has a clean record that Yaya CANNOT attack. His Party has the most members
of Parliament in the Opposition. They have a grassroots presence all over
the country. Above all, Assan Musa Camara convened a PROPER Meeting for an
Opposition Alliance and Darboe was chosen as the Opposition leader. Let us
give the man the chance to lead our people out of this insanity.

So, Toure, let the Parties continue to meet by all means. Just that I do NOT
see any point in going backwards. Let’s meet to talk about what the
transition government is going to do. In the meantime, let us have a leader
that will begin the campaign in earnest NOW.
KB



>From: abdou toure <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Alliance Passion
>Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 16:58:36 +0000
>
>vents that occured within the ranks of the oposition in the Gambia during
>the past few days brought both hope trepidation to many who follow such
>events. First, moments of hope with news of impeding alliance and later
>trepidation and disappointment that the alliance that emerged was not
>total.Lamentably, the opposition on the ground is short of sufficient
>passion for a total alliance to fight a dcadent regime in the forthcoming
>election. Now a few comments on some interesting comments made on these
>events.
>
>First, I am not sure that it is not correct to say that a leader was
>hastily
>selected. Before the Monday meeting there were a series of consultations
>involving Hassan Musa, Dibba and the PPP representatives. Further, Camara
>did circulate a memo to all parties on the alliance proposal. This suggests
>to me that no party was left out. In fact, it has been said that the
>meeting
>was postponed to allow Bah of the NRP to return from his overseas mission.
>
>
>Looking at Dibba's remarks at his press conference,  I cannot see any
>reason
>why the NCP should have worked out of the meeting. Even where the udp and
>ppp had decided to confer privately, there is nothing wrong with that. This
>is negotiation and anybody who has been involved in negotiation knows that
>parties to a negotiation do confer in the course of bargaining or
>discussions; infact it is not unusual for one side to ask for adjournment
>while they consider new elements that may emerge. That has nothing to do
>with beig secretive. Any party to a negotiations comes with an identity and
>a set of interests and leaves with less than he began with. This requires
>maturity and a genuine commitment to the goals of what is being negotiated.
>In this particular case, both the required level of maturity and the
>commitment to task at hand had not been fully demonstrated.   What is
>crucial here is a strong passion for unity, a passion that is much stronger
>that the passion for individual interest. We know that the desire for unity
>is dictated by the even greater desire - to rescue the country from grip of
>a dictatorship that will continue to bring misery and degeneration in our
>country. We must therefore forget about past glories and agonies of
>individual parities .
>
>Undoubtedly,  Dibba's credentials are impressive: a founding member of PPP
>which led us independence, a former holder of various key cabinet
>portfolios
>  and  a former leader of the main opposition party.As a politician; Dibba
>is charismatic and has stelar public speaking abilities. Yet his deafening
>silence during the past 7 years has raised many questions about his
>leadership credentials. Although he has explained that the reason for his
>silence was meant to avoid instability, there are many Gambians who would
>not buy that. If he was convinced of the illegitimacy of the yaya regime,
>which replaced a democratically elected government he should have at least
>spoken his mind. I don't see how speaking out like, OJ did, would have led
>to instability.
>
>The bottom line is: anybody who is interested in unity as a legitimate
>weapon of fighting the dictatorship should subordinate all other
>considerations and join the alliance. If this does not happen, then it
>would
>not be inaccurate to assume that these leaders have not had enough of the
>dictatorship that yaya jammeh brought onto a "virgin" country of innocent
>and decent people.
>
>Dampha, I do understand your position against reconvening a meeting. But, I
>think as we move forward, let's keep our options open. As the saying goes,
>no situation (particularly in politics) is permanent.I think if all the
>opposition parties can develop the right amount of alliance passion, the
>present distance among them could be bridged.
>
>Jabou, I am glad you are holding unto your apology until all the parties
>speak out In fact I don't think you owe anybody an apology for expressing
>you views based on your assessment of what was happening. If they turn
>around and treat this situation as an emergency requiring bold decisions
>that subordinated individual philosophies and idiosyncrasies for the
>interest of the country, they could then be congratulated, without
>apologies
>for views expressed on previous manifestations.
>
>What we are faced with is an historic opportunity for good to prevail over
>evil. If we fail, history will not exonerate our current opposition
>leaders.
>
>AT
>
>
>
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