Hamjatta,
Thank you very much for registering your concerned to what the UDP would do when elected to office?.Though,i am not the party spoke person,but as a member of the executive,i will be able to tell you something about the party.Right now i am here in Jersey City but by late evening i will be back to New York and will post something.
By the way,it is incorrect to say that UDP do not need the supporrt of other political parties.
Thanks for Now untill later.
Saihou
On Sun, 25 June 2000, Hamjatta Kanteh wrote:
>
> It is time, serious sceptics of the UDP like me and else strike what the
> American neo-conservative commentator, Norman Podhoretz, calls a "brutal
> bargain", with the UDP leadership; a covenant of what to expect should we put
> our scepticism and moral disagreement on the respite agenda and give them the
> support needed to politically/electorally empty Jammeh into the dustbin of
> history come the next general election.
> By "brutal bargain", Podhoretz was referring to it then to mean the
> "deal" between mainstream America and hyphenated America in order to
> assimilate the latter into the former. Hyphenated America willing and ready
> to give up on things/cultures intrinsic to their history/identity and
> assimilate whilst the mainstream is willing and encourages the accommodation
> and assimilation of the hyphenated. This in itself has not done bad to
> American life as a melting pot. Even if it means corroding/depleting the core
> of what truly entails hyphenated America's culture, it had enriched the
> mainstream culture and given America what the Founding Fathers had dreamt of;
> an objective pluralist society that is accommodating. A truly multi-cultural
> America. Of course neo-conservatives are in deny of this today. They are
> increasingly being revisionist about Podhoretz's "brutal bargain"
> intellectually and working fervently against the trend and tide of
> multi-cultural America. Even if it remains until some time in the mid 1990's
> the main consensus between Liberals and moderate Conservatives in the culture
> wars that had consumed America since the 60s, the Right is attacking this
> consensus from all angles these days. But that is by the way....... it is not
> our topic here today. Sorry for the necessary digression.
> It is about time that those of us who are in principle not in favour a
> UDP gov't under normal circumstances, take a neat leaf out of Norman
> Podhoretz's "brutal bargain" as I tried to explain it above. Even if the UDP
> is not your ideal political party, you would have to agree that it represents
> decency and respect which any given polity needs by all means to move on to
> better things. But decency and respect is not everything. We need more. Where
> are the new ideas to turn things around? On the collapsing economy, the
> military, the constitutional and institutional frameworks we need for a
> viable civic oriented polity after Jammeh, the Casamance and Bissau issue,
> the case of the impounded properties of the former PPP gov't members, the
> obvious political limbs and baggage of remnants of the ragtag fraternity of
> the PPP that are part of the UDP had brought to it, to what extent do they
> [former PPP officials] influence policy and direction in the Party? There are
> a thousand questions I can throw at them that I need at least a clarification
> on or a pledge what is to be done about it.
> The UDP, at any rate, after virtually almost 4 years of existence as a
> political force, still borders on the ambiguous. It is hard to culminate it's
> pulsating political philosophy that runs in it's veins; it's cementing
> ideology or world view. It's funny position of being a crossover and
> hurriedly patched up ragtag fraternity of at best strange political bed
> fellows who have struck an alliance to battle the common enemy. The aura of
> mysticism that is it's relationship with the ancien regime of Jawara and old
> order. Most Gambians like me haven't got a clue on these important issues and
> their wider ramifications should the UDP enter gov't.
> Yet it is becoming a hackneyed acknowledgement that under free and fair
> conditions [even that acerbic commentator Cherno "Mawbeh" Jallow has given
> them his "toast"], the UDP will electorally empty Jammeh into the dustbin of
> history. A UDP gov't has far wider ramifications than merely emptying Jammeh
> into the dustbin of history. The challenges lying in front of a post Jammeh
> Gambia are numerous and requires dedication, honesty and selflessness. But
> above all new ideas to confront the harsh realities of daily Gambian misery
> on the ground. Can the UDP deliver? I can't in all honesty answer because I
> haven't got a clue. It is however, fair to allude to it the moral dilemma of
> having too many faces and fronts or baggages which will not augur well for
> the Gambia if not clarified.
> It is becoming a common place fallacy to attribute to the growing
> vehemence of anti-Jammehish an apologia for Jawara-ism. This is erroneous. A
> falsity that needs be tackled as the tyrannous evil of Jammehism itself. This
> growing vehemence of anti-Jammehism is more than just replacing Jammeh with
> decency and respect. It is a clarion call for better. Better. And better. The
> poor people of the Gambia need and deserve better. It's been some 35 odd
> years since the departure of Europeans from our country. Yet virtually little
> has changed and much in need of doing. To overturn this, we need bold,
> pragmatic and selfless leadership to inspire and direct us to newer heights.
> A leadership, to pinch a phrase from Halifa, that has the foresight to inject
> hope into the hopeless, buckle up the forlorn and most importantly harness
> our enormous resources into building a new and better Gambia that is worthy
> of emulation in the subregion.
> Since the PDOIS has taken up again it's neutrality in the status quo as
> is inevitable with all most post-Marxist Pan African political groups who
> have yet to reconcile their differences with moderation and the mainstream,
> it is worth mentioning here that Liberal moderation has two choices. Either
> to continue being sceptical of the UDP, cross their fingers and hope for a
> messianic figure to arrive and deliver them from the devil of Kanilai. In
> other words fence sit and be mere arm chair critics of the situation. Or on
> the other hand, Liberal moderation can strike a "brutal bargain" with the
> UDP; that in return for their principled and conditional support, Liberal
> moderation expects and anticipates a convenant with the UDP leadership on the
> fundamental issues aforementioned earlier. Of all the options opened to us,
> the latter is more practical and prudent given the exigencies of the politics
> of the period. To procrastinate would be foolish and detrimental to our dear
> country.
> This convenant must be entered into now. The UDP leadership must come
> out in the open and formally state in black and white what it will give in
> return should this "brutal bargain" go forward. It cannot wait until the
> twelfth hour and make throwaway pledges that are inconceivable or ill-thought
> out. It must come out now with pledges that the Gambian people will hold them
> onto should their mandate be signed come the next general election.
> Perhaps the affable and eloquent Karamba Touray or the liaison officer
> the UDP online, Mr Saihou Mballow, will step forward and address our
> concerns. Or better still someone on the ground like Mr Femi Peters, the
> campaign director of the UDP or the indefatigable Mr Juwara, the propaganda
> secretary should be invited online by those in the Gambia who have access to
> the List to engage the Diaspora and Gambians in general about their
> anxieties, fears and hopes.
> As my good friend Halifa Sallah rightly put it to me some time ago, this
> is a time to share. Indeed a time to share everything as a people. The UDP
> must never delude itself into the fallacy that everything is clear-cut and
> they are on their way to claim the crown or the reins of power unfettered.
> Perhaps the utterances of some UDP supporters like the fellow in the
> Washington DC protest of last month [a Mr Dabo], who claimed that they are
> riding to electoral victory with or without the support of other
> parties/interests, is a stark reminder that the UDP need be reminded that
> this is not an ego ride or selfish uni-lateral political crusades. And
> victory must come only by engaging and embracing other interests who are in
> principle not in favour of a UDP gov't.
> Whatever happens after Jammeh, must be about the Gambian people
> bettering themselves after the recent experiences of both Jammeh and Jawara.
> For this, those of us who are in principle not in favour of a UDP gov't under
> normal circumstances must reconcile this principle with our vehemently
> anti-Jammehism. It is time for the "brutal bargain" and a UDP formal
> convenant with the Gambian People. The timing couldn't be better.
> Hamjatta Kanteh
>
> hkanteh
>
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