Hi Hamjatta!

                     I join Kebba Dampha and Saul Khan in praising you for a well-written article. I also praise you for acknowledging that PDOIS' strategy might have had the most minuscule, negligible effect. As I wrote in an earlier reply, PDOIS is but one of the stakeholders in the entity we proudly call home. If we were to assign the numerical value of .001 to the negligible effect their methods have had, that would nonetheless not take from but add to the possible solution to the country's problems. If all the other stakeholders were to add .001, we would soon reach the 100% mark.

            Notwithstanding the greatness of your article, you forgot to answer the questions I asked when I replied to your "Taking Stock" posting. Maybe you missed them as they were at the bottom of the posting or maybe it was just an oversight. I shall however repeat them. They are:

 

  1.. What has been your strategy since the April massacre as a concerned citizen to ensure that justice is served? 
  2.. How is it different from PDOIS'? 
  3.. How have you implemented the strategy or how do you intend to implement the strategy? 
  4.. Can you guarantee or at least gauge whether the results of your strategy will have a higher success rate than PDOIS'? 
  5.. What do you base such predictions or pronouncements on? 
  6.. What alternative approach can you proffer to deal with the current political impasse in The Gambia given that PDOIS' approach is not, in your opinion, working? 
  7.. How do you intend to institute your alternative? 
  8.. What do you expect PDOIS and the other political parties to do in the meantime? 
  9.. Given that you feel that the political process is not a workable alternative, do you believe that the only available or workable option would be a violent overthrow of the Government? 
  10.. When? What if that is not possible in the next one, two, five, ten years? 
  11.. Should the political parties stop all operations and wait for the alternative you propose or do you believe that they are obliged under the Constitution of The Gambia and their own to propagate by lawful means their beliefs?
Please allow me to add just a few more questions as you have extended the ineffectiveness of policy to cover the other opposition parties. 

  1.. Since Yaya is still in power doing as he pleases despite the presence of all the stakeholders, would you agree that it is not only the "failure" of PDOIS' policies but also that of all the stakeholders in and outside the country including  me, you, the other opposition parties and every other concerned Gambian? If you do not agree, what do you base your disagreement on?
  2.. Agreeing totally with Karl Popper's quote (thanks by the way for bringing such a heavy quote to my attention) and accepting in principle also the opposition parties' refusal to engage in civil disobedience measures, what should we all do pending the solution you propose? 
  3.. á la Realpolitik or realistically speaking, how do we go about bringing meaningful change when the forces that can bring about the change you espouse do not feel that the time is right for them to employ the methods you propose? Would there be any possibility for you to lead and bring to fruition the civil disobedience measures you propose? If you are not in a position to bring to fruition the methods you espouse, would you agree with me that as the opposition parties are able to bring to fruition the methods they espouse, no matter how "ineffective", they are then within their rights not to accept your proposal no matter how brilliant or no matter how much of a panacea it is to The Gambia's problems? If you do not agree, could you please tell me why?
  4.. Can you "empirically" prove that PDOIS' party strategy is not working especially in relation to but not limited to the April massacre? Which variables did you use?
 Sorry again for the long list of questions. To give you the time to answer my questions and to remove the possibility of distractions, let us assume that I agree with what you wrote. Let us take it that I agree with you that our camp is the gloating idealist one with infantile and suicidal dreamers who bury their heads in the clouds. Let us take it that I agree with the solution you propose, that we should not be tolerant of the intolerant, that your "two- pronged strategy" and all it entails are the solution to the country's problems. Now that those things are out of the way, would it possible for you to answer my questions?

 On another note, I am not among the PDOIS "programmed fanatics . who will hear no criticism of their venerable Saint Halifa of Churchill's Town or the Biblical Foroyaa". I sometimes try to fool myself into believing that I am a bit intelligent and can kind of make informed decisions. I do not espouse all the beliefs of PDOIS and I have in fact not read Foroyaa in a quite a long while. There are some areas where I disagree with PDOIS. That said, I agree with them on many things. I also believe that as a public figure, Halifa should be under scrutiny and I have made this clear on the L and have not commented on many discussions even where I sometimes felt that the criticisms levelled against him are unfair. As one who can defend himself, Halifa came back with explanations to justify why he did or did not do something. Have a good evening and I apologise once again for the long list of questions. Thanks.

                                                                                                Buharry.

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