Hamjatta,

I see that you are becoming a tactician and a strategist for the
transformation of The Gambia. When will you come home to lead your people to
attain their liberation? May be some of us would then become what you make
us to appear to be - arm chair liberators sitting in Churchill's Town
writing letters that would never be taken into consideration.

Hamjatta! Hamjatta!! are you doing justice to your people? Are you trying to
help us to rectify shortcomings or simply misdirecting minds so that real
solutions to real problems elude us? Where have PDOIS ever promoted a
personality cult for you to classify people into Halifa-ists and
anti-Halifa-ists? Are you trying to caricature me by equating me with a Kim
Il Sung and add "great" before my name every time you mention it?

I hope you will start doing justice to history and deal with issues rather
than trying to depict us in a manner that we have always fought against. The
Gambian people do not need any great leaders for they do not exist. What
Gambian people need are humble servants. This is no time for myths. This is
no time to attribute the toil of the millions to be the achievement of the
few. Individuals do play a role in history but cannot be the creators of
history. Their significance only become recognisable if they merge their
energies, both mental and physical, with that of the people. This is what
some people often recognise and give respect that is disproportionate to
what should really be. This is how the words "great", "glorious", "supreme"
and so forth are appended to the names of such historical personalities.

I know that you know that we have always fought against such mystification
of leadership. It is grossly unfair for you to digress from the fundamental
points at issue to include in your criticism such ridiculous notions.

I hope you will from now on proceed to be straightforward in your analyses
and projections if you are truly interested in promoting greater
understanding among our people. This "lu Halifa Wah Baah Na" club or "Halifa
du Prophet" club are nothing but means to divert attention from the real
issues at hand. Anybody who fits into any of these camps by one's own claims
and volition must be seen to be sinking into the abyss of mystification of
personalities and politics.

Politics is about policies, programmes and principles. It is about
strategies and tactics. It is about mobilisation and organisation of people
to put tactics and strategies into action. It is, therefore, quite normal
for you to raise questions regarding PDOIS' principles, policies,
programmes, strategies, tactics, methods of mobilisation and organisation of
the people to attain strategic or tactical objectives. We have a duty to
answer all questions regarding such issues.

What I find interesting is your constant posture as someone challenging
something or fighting a duel of some sort. This posture is quite proper if
you had taken the step to put your plans into practice and not simply ask
others to be the movers of your plan or be damned as spineless and so on and
so forth if they consider them to be misconceived, to say the least.

Hamjatta, I appreciate your vigour in communicating your views not because I
deem them to be always relevant, but because they keep us on our toes. Of
course, sometimes I become personal because of my contemplation of the
contribution you could have made if you were a bit more sincere. This is not
a personal attack. I am just marvelled by your inconsistency in principles.
Let me call evidence to the fore to back my contentions.

In your writings dated 24 July 2000 entitled "Strengthening The Hand Of The
Devil: African Leftists And Dictatorships" you wrote: "In the attempt to
choreograph Leftists shameful complicity in repression in Africa, there are
fundamental moral truths to be grasped by all:
"1. All Utopias or attempts at implementing them as we have witnessed or
learned in history are invariably achieved through only force and
dictatorial mechanisms Persuasion and reason have no place in Socialism and
other world Utopias."

These are your very words, Hamjatta. According to you, persuasion and reason
have no place in Socialism. Now, since the inception of PDOIS we have made
it our fundamental principle not to utilise intimidation or inducement to
earn the support of the people. We have made it a life long commitment never
to take power from above in the name of the people; never to take part in
any government that has not derived its existence from the consent of the
people. We see the enlightenment of the people as the cornerstone of
providing genuine representation. Persuasion and reason constitute the
fundamental pillars on which our mobilisation and organisation of the masses
lie.

Furthermore, Hamjatta, you indicated that:  "Moral and intellectual
frustrations of Leftists have incredibly made them turn to despotic
political orders, finding in them surrogate ventilation outlets and conduits
to hopelessly keep alive their bankrupt worldviews."

Hamjatta, these are your very words. Here again, our practice, if you do
classify us as Leftists, has confirmed the very opposite. PDOIS has made it
a principle never to accept any Cabinet post on any government that is
established without the consent of the people. Furthermore, even if the
government is attained on the basis of the consent of the people, we will
not be part of any government whose economic policies sustain the poverty of
the people and whose method of governance promotes despotism.

Now, Hamjatta, you who accused those you deem as Socialists to always rely
on dictatorial mechanisms instead of persuasion and reason came up with a
new attack on PDOIS dated 28 July 2000 in response to a letter entitled
"When The Seed Of National Discord Is Sown, A Bumper harvest Of National
Disintegration Is Reaped".

You wrote: "You have just echoed my thoughts on Halifa's letter. I have
queried to
Halifa in April when these students were murdered, the rationale behind
attempting to discourse or dialogue with morally bankrupt person like Jammeh
who doesn't understand the language of reason? The biggest problem we have
today in the Gambia, especially amongst the opposition leadership, is the
spineless and feeble attempts of dealing with a situation which is everyday
showing evidence of needing bold pragmatic leadership. These spineless
hectoring will always amount to zilch for Jammeh. In fact, it insidiously
and
unwittingly informs him of his delusions that Gambians are at his mercy and
we can do nothing much about what he had and continues to wrought on us. If
he ever reads these missives, I am sure he must be putting on that evil
sardonic grin on his ugly face each time he reads Halifa imploring him to
exercise restraint and reason."

Hamjatta!! Students had been gunned down. Many were in detention. The State
had taken the posture, at the time, that this was not simply a students'
demonstration; that the students were motivated by some people who wanted to
overthrow the government. What tactic did you want the opposition to employ
at this stage? Can you state very clearly what you wanted opposition leaders
to do at that stage?

Furthermore, you wrote: "It is time to walk Jammeh's walk and talk his talk.
It is time civil society disobeys its oppressors and flex its Leviathan
muscles through nation-wide civil disobediences  Nothing less nothing more.
This is the simple truth in today's Gambia. Political leaders owe it to
their constituents and indeed, their own moral integrity to stand up for a
suffering and increasingly forlorn Gambian people."

Hamjatta, you want us to do what? Walk Jammeh's walk and talk Jammeh's talk?
This is empty demagogy from someone who has moved from being a closet
liberal to a closet adventurist. So what you are saying is that when Jammeh
says "I will put you six feet deep", the opposition should also come out and
say "We will put you six feet deep"? When the APRC mould thugs, the
opposition should also mould thugs while State power is still in the hands
of Jammeh?

You claim that civil society should engage in mass disobedience. Hamjatta,
have you ever been engaged in any form of political struggle? Do people just
get up and engage in civil disobedience outside of time and circumstances?
Have you spoken to your own family members to ask them whether they would
have gone into the streets in a continuous state of civil disobedience, as
of April 10, if called upon by the opposition? Who told the students to take
to the streets on April 10 and 11? In contrast, how many tens of thousands
of people voted for Darboe. When he was trapped in Basse, how many tens of
thousands of people went there to agitate for his release? What then is the
gauge to determine what people will do at any given time if they are called
upon to do so? Do you know the state of things that should exist in a
society before it becomes totally ungovernable because of the united action
of civil society?

I have received the approval of the Central Committee to come to London and
we will be examining such thesis in both its theoretical and practical
dimensions. I hope you will avail yourself the opportunity for such
discussions and I am looking forward to meeting those young people who
participated in your opinion poll and I will be expecting very tough
questions from them.

Let me proceed to the issue of strategy and tactic. According to you,
"Everyday real life events have more far decisive way of repudiating
life-long held delusions of grandeur than say, a seasoned
theorist/polemicist penning debunkers."

You added: "When the challenge was thrown to the PDOIS/Foroyaa Alumni to
empirically state how their party's strategy is working, of all gloaters,
only Mr. Buharry Gassama made credible attempts to pinpoint the "difference"
their strategy has had."

Hamjatta, you are proving your amateurishness in matters of politics with
overwhelming rapidity. According to you, "the appointment of a Coroner and
the setting up of a Commission to "investigate" the gruesome murders of
April 10 and 11, and the rescinding of the order of the State banning the
UDP from holding rallies as evidence of their strategy of "pressure" and
"writing endless letters" to Jammeh as being effective. Yes, on the face of
it, these are indeed, indicators of their strategy having some if not
negligible effect. Here I must emphasize the NEGLIGIBLE. For taken within
the context of what Jammeh has wrought on the Gambia, these "effects" are,
to be very fair, negligible."

Hamjatta, in politics when one talks about strategy one does not talk about
passing events. One talks about a whole period characterised by a whole
chain of events and forms of struggle. To you, the only thing that PDOIS is
doing is writing letters to Jammeh. This constitutes a very myopic
conception of PDOIS' work in The Gambia. You did complain about someone in
Tobacco Road whose father was a military man who is suffering. I challenged
you to send that youngman to us because we have a social clinic where we are
addressing countless number of problems. To this day, you have not
responded. Why then did you mention the name of the young man in your
article if you would not take the initiative to even collaborate with us to
see whether something could be done or not? This seems to be beside the
point, but it is not.

Strategy is about fundamental objectives. The fundamental strategy of PDOIS
is to empower the Gambian people mentally, politically, economically and
culturally. The ultimate achievement of this strategic objective comes when
the APRC Government is replaced by a government which can truly articulate
the policies, programmes, structures and principles of governance required
to ensure such empowerment. Our strategic objective, therefore, is to
replace the present government and create the governance environment which
will enable the people to exercise their power to change all conditions to
satisfy their interests.

Governments can be replaced by the people through expressing their consent
or through force. In our view, it is again the people, the vast majority of
farmers, workers and other sectors of society who have the overwhelming
power to vote to remove a government or to organise to remove a government.
The people constitute the force through which a government can be removed.

We have indicated it very clearly that since our strategic objective is to
empower the people, we will never ever be involved in any form of struggle
that is isolated from the people. Where condition exists for the people to
be able to express their consent, we will enlighten, mobilise and organise
the people to change their manner of government and we are committed to
creating the governance environment that would ensure that their power is
asserted. Where the people have come to a point where they have no faith in
an electoral system and are fully convinced that there is no way to change
their conditions, the people can be organised to take charge of their own
destiny.

Our position is, therefore, absolutely clear that the situation confronted
by the people, their awareness of what confronts and their determination to
do what is necessary to deal with what confronts them determines the forms
they utilise to liberate themselves.

What has PDOIS been doing? Our focus is the people. Our barometer is the
people. What they want determines what we do at each given stage. You
indicated that the effectiveness of our strategy is negligible. Go back and
read what strategy means. Then you can see that your allegation has no
foundation. You are focusing on Jammeh and his actions. We are focusing on
the people and their quantitative and qualitative state of enlightenment and
empowerment. Herein lies our difference. You determine effectiveness on the
basis of whether Jammeh is being pressurised to do one thing or the other.
We determine our effectiveness on the basis of whether we are addressing the
aspirations of the people at each given moment and whether the people
approve our methods or not.

When the incident took place on 10 and 11 April, the Hamjattas were not
around. Young people had been murdered. Countless number of children were
arrested. Codes of conduct were issued; the destruction of property focused
on and the opposition accused of being responsible for masterminding the
uprising. The State took a defensive posture and made offensive declarations
to stamp out any attempt to destabilise the government.

What did the people need to be empowered? Was it a Roman Gladiator who will
stand on roof tops and blow a trumpet for everyone to come and march to
State House? Would the people have responded to that call? Would one have
condemned the people as cowards if they refused to respond to that call at
that material time? What is the difference between adventurist and genuine
freedom fighters? Is it not making calls at a time when it stands the least
chance of being heard or responded to? That is what adventurism is about.
One believes that one is braver and more determined than the people instead
of working with them at their level as time and circumstances permit to
enable them to gain their strength stage by stage to become the architects
of their own destiny. Adventurists always give the impression that they are
ready to go ahead without the people and always accuse them of cowardice for
subduing to the people they overthrow in order to justify the imposition of
new conditions of tyranny. Genuine freedom fighters always gauge the
situation of people and do what is necessary to enable them to build up
their confidence in themselves and know that they are architects of their
own destiny.

The correctness of our tactic is that it fitted splendidly into the
attainment of our strategic objective. Our approach was to ensure that the
focus was put where it should be put; that if the right to demonstrate was
observed there would not have been any need for a mayhem. We called on the
State to accept responsibility for the death, free the children from jail,
call on civil society, be they human rights organisations, to participate in
the process and for Coroner's Inquest to be held to establish the cause of
death.

Which Gambian other than you, Hamjatta, felt that the action was negligible
and the achievements likewise? Even though your memory seems to be very
short, Hamjatta, you even wrote to commend us for the letter and of course
in your own usual demagogy called for me to unite with the UDP and take
Jammeh on, whatever that means. It is as if we own the people and they are
just like sheep whom we tell to move and they move by our command. This type
of conception of relation between leadership and led is certainly not one of
a closet liberal. It is the conception of tyrants.

We do not believe that we own the people. We try our level best to gauge
what they are capable and not capable of doing in each given moment, and
what they may be willing or not willing to do at each given moment. This is
the task of leaders who are in touch with the realities of the people.

Hamjatta, when Jammeh made his pronouncements recently, many people
irrespective of party affiliation applauded our action. We realise that
instead of fear people become inspired and strengthened. This is in line
with our strategic objective. The objective of empowering the people to know
that they are the commanders of their destiny. This notion must develop
quantitatively and qualitatively. Every quantitative development ultimately
leads to a qualitative one. No effort to empower the people mentally is
negligible, Hamjatta.

When Radio One was almost burnt, we went to the radio station and spoke.
This strengthened the people. In our view, therefore, letters engaging the
State in one thing or another serve the objective of articulating the
concerns of the people and show them practical examples that they also can
articulate their concerns without any hesitation. It serves to enlighten and
empower the people. Any government which fails to do what the people want
would simply become isolated all the more which hastens its removal.

You give the impression that PDOIS is simply engaged in writing to promote
good governance. We have established committees for the enlightenment of the
people in every constituency in The Gambia. These committees are in the
hundreds and they are increasing. We are running adult literacy, nursery
schools. We are speaking to the young and the old through all sorts of
avenues. In short, PDOIS is engaged in real work of enlightenment and
organisation throughout the country. How can you consider such work to be
negligible? How can you consider such a strategy of empowerment of the
people to be wrong? That is why I emphasise that you do not know what
strategy means in political parlance.

PDOIS has survived under Jawara's regime because of its mature tactics.
PDOIS is surviving now because of its tactics. You are telling us to adopt
the tactics of adventurists. Your whole call now for people rising up to
walk Jammeh's walk and talk Jammeh's talk constitutes adventurism.

It is important for you to begin to realise that there are different forces
at work in Gambian society. You are trying to give the impression that the
opposition in The Gambia is spineless and is not resisting Jammeh, when the
real work of the opposition in The Gambia is to engage in the education,
mobilisation and organisation of the people to prepare them to take charge
of their destiny. The work of the opposition is to ensure that the IEC
creates all the mechanism for the people to be able to express their will.
Even in Zimbabwe, where thuggery was at its zenith, those people who never
bowed to the threats of thuggery could go and cast their votes.

Hence, one fundamental question that must be addressed is: what is the
minimum condition required to give elections a chance? Does such a condition
exist in The Gambia? This is the question I want you to answer.

It is important for you to know that at each given stage there can be a
legal and illegal opposition. Legality and illegality are defined by those
who control State power in having the capacity to arrest, detain and try
those they accuse of carrying out acts to remove them from power. The
tactics of a legal opposition and that of an illegal opposition cannot
possibly be the same.

Suffice it to say, just as the Mugabes have managed to stay in power by
manipulating an electoral situation so has the Dioufs tried to manipulate
electoral systems but were removed. We have also seen the General Gueis who
removed Bedie in the name of providing a level playing field for elections
but is now contemplating the assumption of Bedie's position.

PDOIS must, therefore, continue to adhere to its tested principles,
strategies and tactics.

As for you, you are trying to propagate ideas which you have never tested in
practice. In fact, you are down playing the work of enlightening and
strengthening the people and promoting adventurism.

I will, therefore, not be surprised when some adventurist emerges somewhere
and after taking over announce that whilst a tyrant ruled The Gambia the
spineless opposition continued to call for dialogue and write letters. We,
therefore, had to make supreme sacrifices to take-over the reign of State to
avenge the murders, the thuggery, the corruption, the tribalism, nepotism
which plagued our dear motherland. Now we will establish a government of
national unity pending free and fair elections.

When that happens, Hamjatta, don't ever sit again and write to condemn any
group of people who may have perpetrated the act. Know that you are part of
the architects of a Gambia plagued by power taken from above and not power
which emerges with the emerging consciousness, resolution and organisation
of a Gambian people who are determined never to allow any tyrant to reign
over their heads.

At least, as far as PDOIS is concerned, we cannot prevent takeovers from
above, but no one can find us guilty of promoting a takeover of power from
above or its consolidation from above. We have always been trying to
strengthen the people irrespective of who is above, knowing that when the
people truly become conscious of their power they will need no political
saviours. They will save themselves. This is the fact you are trying to
distort about PDOIS' record and this is the fact you will never be able to
distort.

In our view, it is left to Jammeh to determine how his government will go.
We see elections to be a tool through which the people can express their
consent. Gambians have the capacity to form a united front to ensure that
the IEC conducts elections whose results all parties would be able to
accept, failing which all parties will act in unison to put pressure on that
government to concede to popular demands or leave office.

What PDOIS is, therefore, doing is to try to get those people on board who
have faith in the people and who are ready to do painstaking work by relying
on persuasion and reason, to use your own words, to enlighten, mobilise and
organise the people for change. Other forms of pressure come as dictated by
circumstances and not as a by-product of conspiracy to take over power from
above by few persons in the name of the masses.

Needless to say, where other forms of pressure lead to a change of
government, PDOIS will never accept a position in any such government until
there is an election for it to seek the mandate of the people. PDOIS'
history shall never be linked to the taking over of power by the few. It
shall always be linked to an attempt to empower the people mentally,
politically, economically, socially and culturally. This is the crux of the
matter.

Greetings.

Halifa.





----- Original Message -----
From: Hamjatta Kanteh
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, August 14, 2000 7:09 PM
Subject: On Programmed Fanatics


When last week i lobbed the challenge at PDOIS/Foroyaa Alumni to empirically
demonstrate how effective their party's strategy is in combatting the Jammeh
Menace, inevitably it drew  much anticipated animus from what i shall call
here programmed fanatics; supporters who will hear no criticism of their
venerable Saint Halifa of Churchill's Town or the Biblical Foroyaa.

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