Hello,
Daily, I tried to report how broken the opposition is. As we near the
elections, i have been exonerated several times. Here is yet another
indication that OUR DEAR LEADER will sweep the polls in 2011. The Gambian
opposition is dead and all of you should join the APRC.

A Reply to SS Daffeh
*by Jerreh Jallow , Manchester*

Mr. Daffeh has once again shown his lack of political maturity in the
opposition alliance building debate. He claims that
the international norm for alliance building is that all smaller parties
should put their weight behind the bigger party. He
goes on, in his reply to Mr. Jeng, to question what Jeng meant by the past
experiences of PDOIS. Worryingly, Daffeh as
usual rather than debating in a constructive manner resorted to character
assassination, an attitude common among so
called UDP supporters on online papers.

I have just a few answers and two questions for Daffeh. My first question
is, what is a norm and how does it come about?
To answer this question, I refer you to international relations theory and
particularly to Constructivism. In this theory,
norms and spaces are contested among different groups. Once the majority
accepts an idea within a given space, then
it becomes a norm. Your claim of a norm in international coalition building
is itself contested. All the evidences you
quoted as norms indeed differ from the situation in the Gambia. The
Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition you
cited was indeed a post-election coalition and totally different to what we
now have in the Gambia. What is a norm in
coalitions is that they rest on trust, mutual respect (of which some UDP
supporters do not possess) and a desire to join.
In the South African case, the ANC respected and heeded to the interests of
the smaller parties. The context in which
coalitions are borne is conducive to the specific country in which they
emerge.

My second question is what makes you and many other supporters of the UDP
portrait the party as the ‘BIGGEST’ in the
opposition camp. It gives the impression that the UDP is the ruling party.
How many seats do the party command in the
House? Four seats only. What makes you conclude that the party has the
biggest grassroots support among all
opposition parties? Has there been a poll conducted to confirm this? The
answers to the above questions are at least
speculative and at most imaginative. If the UDP is as big as you would want
everybody to believe, then the party should
not need any coalition to win in the forthcoming elections. If the UDP is
convinced that it does not need to listen, but
rather bully or intimidate perceived smaller parties to coalition, then the
party should go ahead and contest the elections
alone. Am sure the results will be very much the same as in past elections
or even for worst for the party. Better do it
alone than engaging in personal attacks on opponents. If we are to go by
history, the PPP should be leading all parties
including the ruling party as it has had the highest possible election
results in the Gambia.

What Mr. Jeng cited as past experience is the fact that the UDP is a
re-actionist party. A mature politician would be able
to read in between the lines. But Daffeh does not show maturity or prefer to
ignore the facts. The UDP boycotted the
2001 elections just days before scheduled date. This, I believe, has had a
long standing consequence for Gambian
politics. It was a self-defeatism that has disillusioned many Gambian
voters. The foundation to the voter apathy we are
all trying to turn around now was laid by this UDP move. Despite arguing
against NADD registration as an umbrella
party, the UDP stayed until late just to let their partners down and abandon
the coalition. This is the trust that the UDP
has lost and it would take quiet a time and efforts before this trust is
restored. And it cannot be regained by intimidating
opponents. It further added to the voter apathy that we are now witnessing
in the Gambia. The fact of the matter is that
the honesty that Daffeh himself is advocating has been lacking in the UDP.
For if they were honest with their partners in
the build-up to formation of NADD then they would not have endorsed the idea
in the first place or would have honoured
the agreement to the letter before leaving.

The whole situation is made worse by the statement by Mai Fatty who first
claimed that he is putting his weight behind
the UDP and later called on PDOIS to join a coalition without conditions. It
was all done in the name of what he called
‘national interest’. How could that be national interest when one is
obviously parting with one side against another even
before negotiations have started? It is an attempt to tip the balance of
power between the two blocks. This failed as ‘the
weight’ that was thrown behind seems to be so light that neither sides felt
its effect. Rather it has created tensions that
are not in the national interest of the Gambian voters. Perhaps the damage
is beyond repair.

As a politician representing a party wing, Daffeh should desist from using
foul words against his opponents, put your
ideas across, but show respect, as your maturity is determined by how you
interact with others. So far, you show no
signs of maturity in your comments and it seems to be getting worse time and
again. Get to grips with the game of
politics.



-- 
*
*****************************************************************************
GOD BLESS SHEIKH PROFESSOR ALHAGIE YAHYA AJJ JAMMEH*
*(PRESIDENT FOR LIFE.)*
*
*
*GOD BLESS THE GAMBIA*
*
*
*GOD BLESS APRC*
*
*
*DOWN WITH THE FAILED OPPOSITION *


¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤