PEOPLE ARE ASKING ABOUT WHAT IS PDOIS REPLY TO   SARJA TAAL AND OBSERVER
We have lodged a complaint with the editor of the Daily Observer for the
inaccurate and superficial type of reporting of our meeting in Bakau by
their reporter which gave rise to an equally superficial and hasty reaction
by Sarja Taal. Any body who knows how PDOIS conducts its politics would know
that Sidia Jatta could not possibly ask how government utilises tax money
when he already knows. One would instead expect PDOIS to explain how the tax
money is used and give an alternative policy. We did indicate at the rally
how the people contribute over 1000 million dalasis to government revenue
and how  the public corporations made a turn over of D900,000,000 last year.
We did add that the public corporations had an investment capacity of 1.12
billion dalasis in 1999. We proved that the government lacks vision on how
to invest this sum of money to develop the productive base of the economy..
We did explain how PDOIS would have invested such money. Furthermore Halifa
Sallah did explain how the government had dragged its feet on the local
government  bill and that there are machinations to make local government
elections non partisan against the principles of pluralism. He also
indicated how chieftaincy election are undermined by the lack of a local
government Act and so and so forth. The Observer reporter however simply
mentioned that democracy is being stifled instead giving the concrete
criticisms PDOIS gave.
Suffice it to say neither Halifa Sallah nor any PDOIS member could ever say
that the Gambian People should vote for PDOIS because it is better than
other parties as the Observer reporter indicated. Such demagogy is not PDOIS
' style Such a style of reporting promotes pettiness between political
parties. The Observers reporter did not state any facts and just gave the
impression that we were just blowing hot air. We can therefore understand
why Sarja Taal had to foam in the mouth when he read the Observer report. We
are amused that he speaks the same langauge as Lamin Juwara and ex-president
Jawara in criticising PDOIS by turning to the communist scare-crow. We will
be inviting Sarja Taal to a debate on theissues he raised We hope he knows
that this is an enlightened generation and people are demanding for facts to
back all allegations. Deception is no longer possible. We will have an
interview with the Observer to clarify issues or have an extensive report on
the meeting in FOROYAA and analysis of Sarja Taal's superficial reactions.
PDOIS stands for the politics of issues. We do not have any penchant for
pettiness. We hope reporters who cover our meetings would  contact us for
accurate summaries of what we said to avoid misrepresentation which can be
politically expensive. We did not feel left out if any media ignores PDOIS'
rally should they find it difficult to report what we say accurately. We do
not want to engage in any polemics with any media house. We respect their
independence and would respect their opinion as long as they do not claim
that their words came from our from mouth
Halifa Sallah

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