Brothers Sidibeh & Jasseh-Conteh,
Thank you for continuing to add your voice to the appeal to have this effort
for Gambians in the Diaspora contribute towards a unified opposition coalition
in the 2006 elections opened up to all Gambians in the Diaspora who want to
participate, as opposed to having it turned into a private club where some can
participate and those cannot. That clearly defines what the effort should be
about.
However, as unbelievable as this may seem, it si begining to look like our
appeals have fallen on deaf ears, and are being outright ignored despite the
fact that we say we are trying to unseat a dictatorship.
At any rate, perhaps those who have decided to exclude the participation of
all interested Gambians have an unwritten mandate to speak for us, make
decisions for us regarding what our concerns are vis a vis our country, and they will
also see to it that this effort will be a success without the imput of
Disaporans in general. Perhaps they will also make a decision to vote for us should
it become reality that Disaporans are allowed to vote.
It will be interesting to also see if the opposition parties on the ground
will be satisfied to accept representations on behalf fo Diasporans that did not
emanate from any imput by the general body of disaporans.
One hopes that another effort for a united opposition coalition which so many
Gambians are placing their hopes upon will not fall by the wayside again
because of what i have now come to see as our inability to be able to engage in
anything that involves the allowance of full participation by all.
I surely hope that I am wrong in this assesment, so like Jesse Jackson says,
"let's keep hope alive"
Jabou Joh
In a message dated 8/5/03 5:25:53 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:>
>
>
> Brother Joe Sambou,
>
> I must begin by thanking you profusely for using your time to respond to
> enquiries I made on the matter of the Coalition Summit in Atlanta. I found the
> report carried on The Independent quiet informative eventhough obvious
> important details must have been filtered by the newspaper's editors. I suppose
> that is one important reason why there is high-pitched recommendation for
> readers to acquire the video. In any case, the rest of us owe much to those whose
> practical efforts made the Summit a success. Year 2006 is not distant in
> political terms, and therefore those concerned for the evolution of true
> democracy in Gambia need to hurry in setting up concrete objectives for a Post-APRC
> Gambia. Unfortunately that work has not begun, as was clearly spelled out in
> the paper referred to above.
>
> Before doing that (perhaps in a future posting) there is an urgent need to
> debate, rephrase and reassert the role of diasporan Gambians of all walks of
> life in the current thrust towards building a democratic Coalition capable not
> only of wresting power from the hands of the APRC, but injecting into
> Gambia's political experience a new era of inclusion and openness, qualities for
> whoich we have been gifted by both our history and geography. In a country
> where hardly anyone remains anonymous for any reasonable length of time, it is
> incredible that its citizens have proven incapable of building on old communal
> bonds of mutual solidarity to form the basis of a consensus politics. A
> culture of tolerance and decency in political conduct need not remain alien to
> the Gambia. To survive in a dignified way in a world of brutal economic
> realities, Gambians need to strive for such "utopias" to attain some competitive
> advantage.
>
> The current actuality of socio-economic strife, the brutal distribution of
> poverty, the abrogation of Human Rights and destructive levels of corruption,
> power arrrogance and abuse are symptoms of a society adrift. A vaccilating
> foreign policy frantically searching for ever-elusive foreign invesments, that
> is hoped to rescue the econnomy from incontinent hands while thousands of
> Gambian high school graduates waste away in denigrating unemployment bespeak a
> political culture in need of swift resuscitation.
>
> There is nothing mysterious about our current societal torpor and infact, we
> have talked and quarelled about its different apparels over the years; and
> in the process we have argued, raised funds, befriended one another,
> discovered fakes, flushed out dweebs from our midst and once in a while insulted
> those we believe deliberately are guided not by their true lights. Yet, my
> friends, now when our country needs us the most, when we cannot have a night's
> good sleep, inspite of our cosy Swedish apartments and condos, without
> entertaining agonies of the sadness in the eyes of Gambian children yoked by malarial
> parasites, we are, as if by design, failing ourselves. Instead of producing
> ideas, lending our voices to those whose own have been silenced by fear,
> courageously asserting our RIGHT to be heard as concerned and enlightened citizens
> many seem to want to solemnly banish themselves to the margins of Gambian
> history, to the role of chief fund-raisers. Is that the best we can do? Where
> are all those voices of protest? Shall we believe that soemone else is going
> to award us the right to have a say?
>
> When that most eminent of Gambians, Sister Jabou Joh, protested in Mr.
> Sambou's hopes to hang out to shame those who have not measured up to the Save
> the Gambia Fund standard, I hoped that Mr. Sambou would take the cue and
> withdraw his phrase. Obviously, Joe Sambou and many on this list, including
> myself all want a Gambia much promising than what obtains now. But fund-raising is
> definitely, not the issue.
> Needless to say, money is going to make a huge difference in helping
> practically. But at this stage 50 names on a list donning money monthly as a way of
> helping save Gambia from itself is a far cry from the 80,000 strong diasporan
> community whose political leverage is not being canvassed.
> Our role at his point in time is to TELL all Gambian politicians the kind of
> Gambia we want to see after the next general elections. Together with a
> subsequent coalition our this vision of Gambia must be debated and refined to
> suit a compromise position adoptable by the opposition to become the basis of a
> platform for change. i.e. SOPI! Then it would make better sense to
> financially subscribe to a Save the Gambia Fund. I urge all of you, especially Joe
> Sambou and Abdoulaye Saine and all those who took the initiative for the Fund to
> rethink your strategy of creating a mailing list of those simply putting
> money in a collection bin. An organisation with so serious a mission should not
> be that narrow and elitist.
>
> For Our Common Future,
>
> Momodou S Sidibeh
>
>
>
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