Hamjatta,
I admire your thought process. Almost everything you wrote here amplifies
my exact sentiments. I'm going to be very brief since I got my hands full
with other pressing issues but I simply couldn't desist from butting in
this debate. I couldn't agree more when you wrote to Saul, and I quote:
"I hope you will understand that occasional Brotherly disagreements/debates
between compatriots can only help foster the bond that ties them
together."
Disagreements between compatriots? Sure, it goes with the territory. But
now we must not walk on slippery turfs and expect to have it both ways.Come
on now! Let us not get too comfortable with our cozy recliners. Let us not
forget why Jammeh has managed to stay in power up till today.Gambians tend
to appreciate the little we have, which is morally good in a sense, but I
see nothing wrong in demanding the very best from our leaders. Why should
we settle for less? APRC builds a school, an airport, a freaking Arch and
roads and you think they should be commended for that while 20 percent if
not more of all the fundings of their projects goes into their personal
Swiss Bank accounts? Come on now! Are we saying to ourselves that is
acceptable and that it is the norm in Africa and we should consider
ourselves lucky? If justifying their efforts as commendable is not being
naïve, then what is? I'm not even trying to get personal on anyone but
Lord, please have mercy on the way we disagree sometimes especially when
we use words that don't belong. Commend APRC, for '^~ha? I'm sorry, there
seem to be a bad connection here.
Why can't we demand that if our government receive a $2M loan to build a
doggone school that we expect them to use that fund for that sole purpose
without a penny missing. Whatever happened to accountability, ha? Why do
we tend to suffer from these acute low expectation sydrome? Well, some may
say geez, hold your fire Mr Makaveli, things are not that simple in
Gambia but ain't we making matters worse when we accept that this is the
best we can expect from our leaders and that we should commend them and
tab them on the back? Come on now! A bag of rice here and a couple of
kolanuts there. This is preposterous!
As much as I hate to make comments like these, it is becoming dauntingly
evident that our complacency and naïveté have tremendously impacted our
current abysmal and despotic state. Booooy! I'm telling you. Even this
Jobe puppeteer can be an idiot when he wants to but he can be very
convincing if all you looking from them is how better than the Jawara
regime they're in terms of infrastructure and so called 'developments'.
Booooy! you don't want to get them started on that. They will all of a
sudden turn into parrots and bombard you with all the gibberish you would
ever care to know. Soon as you ask them about their involvement in state
massacres and other atrocities you notice a very discomforting silence and
don't make matters worst waiting for an answer. They will retreat back to
their closets faster than a midget gets ducked. Gone!Plunged into oblivion.
Even though I know brother Saul Khan means well and like to tell it like
it is and I do respect his opinion, he will be hurting the opposition for
tactical reasons to be giving these morons any credit , even where credit
is due . The fundamental principle behind that is that political ideals
are much accredited by sticking to your strongest point. Any slight
indication of bipartisanism gives the enemy room to ameliorate their
agendas. Jobe not even once commended us for anything other that being a
pain in the neck to him, so why should we commend them. Saul, don't allow
them to use your credibility to boost their selfish political agendas.
Besides most if not all of their so called 'developments' are motivated by
promoting their own political dominance rather than in the best interest
of the people. Their motives are for self-gratifications and their greed
to the extent of murdering opponents six-feet deep simply defies
borderline logic.
Again, for tactical reasons, I urge members in the opposition not to give
any credit to these vermins. The bottomline is the BAD outweighed the
GOOD, kaput. Giving them any credit will continue to make matters worst
and to give them reasons to cling on to power for as long as we can
tolerate their shortcomings and our willingness to forgive and forget. The
facts don't lie, look into their human rights record. It is overwhelmingly
nerve-racking and that's where our naïveté should stop for some of us and
try to smell the coffee a little.
Besides, if government and it's officials' properties/assets are more
valuable than the life of our people or their rights for liberty, freedom
and the pursuit of happiness, and APRC being the party to put us in that
predicament, then I wonder why should we should commend them for anything.
For those people on the ground who are witnessing the sufferings first
hand in our not so glamorous country, not a single day passes without them
wishing that we have a government that cares about it's people and pays
attention to their yearnings.
Therefore, it is mindboggling, counterproductive and damaging to the
opposition to give any form of credit to a government under whose watch
Gambia's prosperity is measured backwards. And we say this is the 21st
century. We can do better than what APRC has to offer. Let us not dig our
own graves by succumbing to the whims of this hell-bent administration.
Our problems haunt us daily and so we should know what they are by now.
Because being able to identify our problems is what will determine how
we use our power to vote. There will however,be some who identify their
problems yet mortgage their souls to this diabolic administrative, but
that too has a price to pay.
I urge our opposition leaders to be more aggressive and pragmatic. By
that I mean practical as opposed to idealistic. Telling is not Selling!
Making promisory notes is not going to buy you all the votes, although
one haste to believe that things should be easy for the opposition given
the callous record of the APRC. But if inducement and intimidation will be
the determining factor in winning elections in The Gambia, I suggest the
opposition parties to boycott the elections altogether. The by-elections
should be evident enough to alert even th most captious among our midst. If
opposition parties don't have the funds it will take to compete in these
elections then perhaps they should take our proposal for a united
opposition and increase our chances of getting rid of these APRC thugs.
While I commend Joe Sambou's and others initiating a fund drive for the
opposition as a noble deed, I'm somewhat not surprised by the low turnout
of contributors. Maybe the opposition leaders are not passing their agendas
properly through the proper channels to retain voter confidence, I don't
know. But I do know that it will make a hell of a difference if they tell
us their needs rather us in the G_L trying to figure it out for them. I
personally don't have the slightest problem chipping in $50 to the fund
drive but I would be more generous and make that atleast 20 times over if
they implement our viable proposal to form a unified opposition. We should
be fight the same course unless opposition party leaders start making it
apparent that they are only after their political aspirations and what not.
I also concur with Kebba Dampha's suggestion on trying to get the MRDGuk/ny
to spearhead the fund drive and basically get all organisations involved.
Otherwise we can attribute the low turnout to lack of organistion. As it
stands right now, the fund drive seems like a secret society club thing
and unless we make it official globally, we might as well have a barbecue
cook-out with it, in which case i'll be more than willing to bring the
silverware and refreshments. (o-:)..just kidding..
See, I promised to be brief and look at me all caught up in these issues.
I guess issues of national interest are more pressing afterall. Goodnight
everyone.
MR MAKAVELI
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