Subject:
Dear Mr.Ceesay,
Your query is well noted. If I understand you well you raised three
questions. First, as you wrote " the underlying causes of of the present
situation of Moja-G", second is your question of my "motive of Moja
charactyering Statement" which I must say i do not fully comprehend.
Third is what you called the "worse and threatening gambian realities."
I will try to be as brief as possible, but please do not forget that you
lifted a citation from a newspaper summary of and interview I had with
an Independent reporter on attempts to calm down the rising political
temperature initiated by Human Rights lawyer Emanuel Joof, Amnesty
Gambi's General Secretary Momodou Sillah and my humble self .
In it I was asked whether MOJA-G was dead and I answered " It may be
down
but not out." This is because though MOJA is currently in disarray, the
grass-roots and participatory profile it had assumed in the Gambian
political arena is still to be occupied; because many of its broad
membership remain politically concerned but organisationally unattached
and are still vying or hoping for its resurrection or rejuvenation.
Your second question is a bit above my understanding but I must say like
I said in a similar interview last year with the Independent ( 21-23
July 2000) that I am "today not mandated to speak on behalf of any group
of people but solely for myself." Mr. Ceesay I do not think this is an
appropriate medium for discussing internal organisational problems. Most
important however, is the concern for the rapidly deteriorating
political situation in the Gambia.
As you must have known, our country is due for elections over the next
six months and tensions have been rising to levels that should be
considered dangerous by any concerned person. You probably have heard
about President Jammeh's "six-feet deep" pronouncement and the more
horrendous in Brikamaba around the middle of June this year. There the
President questioned the authenticity of the claim to Gambian-citizenry
by
Mandinka-speaking peoples who, according to him came from "the
far-away-east". He even went further to say that if the "Mandinkas of
URD should "stir trouble" there are the Fulas ready to deal with them;
Those of the badibous will be taken care of by the Nyominkas and those
of Kiang and Jaara by the Foninkas. You must have also heard of Mr.
Ousainou Darboes " more prison space and more widows" declaration made
at a Banjul rally last month. Add to this the fact that all over the
country presently communities that have been living in peaceful
co-existence for ages are now been set against each other due to
political or politics-related conflicts. I can name scores of places
from Jamburr, Dampha Kunda, Yona, tubabkolong, tankularr, Kiang, Gunjur,
Brufut, Brikama, kolikunda, Tambasansang, Bantanto, Siikunda,
Gambisara, Bantanto, Laminkoto and so onm and so forth. Neighbours who
were before friends and relatives would now not go to each others'
funerals; self-help and mutual-help groups that before belonged to the
same kafos are now rivalling factions that will not share each others'
communal gardens, community centres and milling machines. The political
[polarisation has not even spared religios communities, other national
institutioons like the army, police, parastatals, you name it. To make a
lonmg story short, the Gambia today resembles a powder-keg that must be
diffused in order not to explode.
Take that picture Mr. Ceesay, and set it against the sub-regional
background of civil wars and you will see were we are coming from.
Remember that factionalism among the Southern Senegalese separatist
forces is not only deepening but also widening. Many of the factions,
war-weary and disillusioned by the endless squabbles within the
leadership, have now degenerated into banditry. Remember, also Mr.
Ceesay, that there is no residential area, from Biassau to St. Louis, as
vulnerable and attractive to pillaging as the Greater Banjul Area with
its hotel resorts and gadget-saddled suburbs.
It is with this in mind that Joof, Sillah and myself took the
initiative, in the wake of last year's fatal Numuyel incident, to
sensitize and organise civil society members for the working out of a
Framework for Peace, Reconciliation and Democracy. It took months of
discussions before we could finally agree on a joint position paper.
After these we got some members of the NGO community, religious
organisations before approaching the political parties. With the single
exception of PDOIS all other three parties were active in the process (
I must say with the APRC taking the lead in terms of punctuality and
participation). Three Framework documents, Programme of strategies,
Action Plan and Institutional Framework, were jointly worked out. A
series of phone in radio programmes are being carried out. Now however,
the APRC has decided to pull out of the talks accusing some for using
the forum for attacks against it. We have been mounting pressures on the
APRC to bring them back to the talks and that is one thing in which you
in the Diaspora can help. By respectfully urging the party through
their web page or office numbers to return to the talks. This was the
purpose of the interview that unfortunately was captioned like a talk on
MOJA.
Thanks for your concern
Ousman Manjang
pa ali ceesay wrote:
>
> The Independent (Banjul)
> >
> >August 6, 2001
> >Posted to the web August 6, 2001
> >
> >Banjul, the Gambia
> >
> >Ousman Manjang, former spokesman for the Movement for Justice in Africa
> >-Gambian branch (MOJA-G) On whether MOJA-G is alive, Manjang maintained
> >that "MOJA may be down, but not out,"
>
> As a former spokesman of MOJA-G,can you please explain the underlying causes
> of the present situation of moja-g and the motive of your moja charactering
> statement in the light of the present "worse and threatening" gambian
> realities.
>
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
> You may also send subscription requests to
[log in to unmask]
> if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your
full name and e-mail address.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Mr.Ceesay,
Your query is well noted. If I understand you well you raised three
questions. First, as you wrote " the underlying causes of of the present
situation of Moja-G", second is your question of my "motive of Moja
charactyering Statement" which I must say i do not fully comprehend.
Third is what you called the "worse and threatening gambian realities."
I will try to be as brief as possible, but please do not forget that you
lifted a citation from a newspaper summary of and interview I had with
an Independent reporter on attempts to calm down the rising political
temperature initiated by Human Rights lawyer Emanuel Joof, Amnesty
Gambi's General Secretary Momodou Sillah and my humble self .
In it I was asked weather MOJA-G was dead and I answered " It may be
down
but not out." This is because though MOJA is currently in disarray, the
grass-roots and participatory profile it had assumed in the Gambian
political arena is still to be occupied; because many of its broad
membership remain politically concerned but organisationally unattached
and are still vying or hoping for its resurrection or rejuvenation.
Your second question is a bit above my understanding but I must say like
I said in a similar interview last year with the Independent ( 21-23
July 2000) that I am "today not mandated to speak on behalf of any group
of people but solely for myself." Mr. Ceesay I do not think this is an
appropriate medium for discussing internal organisational problems. Most
important however, is the concern for the rapidly deteriorating
political situation in the Gambia.
As you must have known, our country is due for elections over the next
six months and tensions have been rising to levels that should be
considered dangerous by any concerned person. You probably have heard
about President Jammeh's "six-feet deep" pronouncement and the more
horrendous in Brikamaba around the middle of June this year. There the
President questioned the authenticity of the claim to Gambian-citizenry
by
Mandinka-speaking peoples who, according to him came from "the
far-away-east". He even went further to say that if the "Mandinkas of
URD should "stir trouble" there are the Fulas ready to deal with them;
Those of the badibous will be taken care of by the Nyominkas and those
of Kiang and Jaara by the Foninkas. You must have also heard of Mr.
Ousainou Darboes " more prison space and more widows" declaration made
at a Banjul rally last month. Add to this the fact that all over the
country presently communities that have been living in peaceful
co-existence for ages are now been set against each other due to
political or politics-related conflicts. I can name scores of places
from Jamburr, Dampha Kunda, Yona, tubabkolong, tankularr, Kiang, Gunjur,
Brufut, Brikama, kolikunda, Tambasansang, Bantanto, Siikunda,
Gambisara, Bantanto, Laminkoto and so onm and so forth. Neighbours who
were before friends and relatives would now not go to each others'
funerals; self-help and mutual-help groups that before belonged to the
same kafos are now rivalling factions that will not share each others'
communal gardens, community centres and milling machines. The political
[polarisation has not even spared religios communities, other national
institutioons like the army, police, parastatals, you name it. To make a
lonmg story short, the Gambia today resembles a powder-keg that must be
diffused in order not to explode.
Take that picture Mr. Ceesay, and set it against the sub-regional
background of civil wars and you will see were we are coming from.
Remember that factionalism among the Southern Senegalese separatist
forces is not only deepening but also widening. Many of the factions,
war-weary and disillusioned by the endless squabbles within the
leadership, have now degenerated into banditry. Remember, also Mr.
Ceesay, that there is no residential area, from Biassau to St. Louis, as
vulnerable and attractive to pillaging as the Greater Banjul Area with
its hotel resorts and gadget-saddled suburbs.
It is with this in mind that Joof, Sillah and myself took the
initiative, in the wake of last year's fatal Numuyel incident, to
sensitize and organise civil society members for the working out of a
Framework for Peace, Reconciliation and Democracy. It took months of
discussions before we could finally agree on a joint position paper.
After these we got some members of the NGO community, religious
organisations before approaching the political parties. With the single
exception of PDOIS all other three parties were active in the process (
I must say with the APRC taking the lead in terms of punctuality and
participation). Three Framework documents, Programme of strategies,
Action Plan and Institutional Framework, were jointly worked out. A
series of phone in radio programmes are being carried out. Now however,
the APRC has decided to pull out of the talks accusing some for using
the forum for attacks against it. We have been mounting pressures on the
APRC to bring them back to the talks and that is one thing in which you
in the Diaspora can help. By respectfully urging the party through
their web page or office numbers to return to the talks. This was the
purpose of the interview that unfortunately was captioned like a talk on
MOJA.
Thanks for your concern
Ousman Manjang
pa ali ceesay wrote:
>
> The Independent (Banjul)
> >
> >August 6, 2001
> >Posted to the web August 6, 2001
> >
> >Banjul, the Gambia
> >
> >Ousman Manjang, former spokesman for the Movement for Justice in Africa
> >-Gambian branch (MOJA-G) On whether MOJA-G is alive, Manjang maintained
> >that "MOJA may be down, but not out,"
>
> As a former spokesman of MOJA-G,can you please explain the underlying causes
> of the present situation of moja-g and the motive of your moja charactering
> statement in the light of the present "worse and threatening" gambian
> realities.
>
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
> Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
> You may also send subscription requests to
[log in to unmask]
> if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your
full name and e-mail address.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
