PEOPLE'S PROGRESSIVE PARTY ROARED, Allies a NO-SHOW!

First things first! CONGRATULATIONS to honorable Omar A. Jallow and the People's Progressive Party (PPP) for a very successful rally celebrating the country's 50th Independence Anniversary. It was not only fitting considering it was the Party that led us to independence, but very timely and necessary. With all its weaknesses, it's long overdue for the PPP to defend its record against all the smear campaign, the mudslinging by Yaya and the APRC. Time and time again, OJ has consistently done that with high velocity and degree of vehemence.

What we've heard from the rally in Brikama was the fiery, brave, committed and unapologetic politician taking the battle to the doorsteps of the dictatorship. Challenging and exposing the regime in a fashion so uncharacteristic of an opposition shackled in a poisonous den. He asked about the the president's riches, the illegal arrests and disappearances. 'Go tell him I said it!', he roared. He challenged them, pitching their record against Jammeh's and came out on top! That's what was expected!

But what's even more salivating was the aggressiveness and boldness of a top opposition figure that Gambians longed for, to continue the demystification crusade against a coward who is preying on a very innocent, peace-loving people. A people whom over the years have been terrorized and almost rescind to fate that the chains are unbreakable. Layer by layer, Yaya's bark gets peeled. OJ galvanized Gambians. He has reawakened the hope that the Gambia is only a few brave politicians like him away from salvation. It was impossible for anyone to not be proud and happy for the PPP and their interim leader for their latest assault.

Just like any other time that our Struggle Train gained momentum, there's always a mechanical failure to take the steam out of it. The fault is always a self-inflicted one. OUR OPPOSITION PARTIES again! UDP, NRP, PDOIS all stayed away. GMC didn't get an invite which Hon Fatty made clear. And from OJ's radio interview with FatuRadio's Mamalinguere, I sensed a baffled man who was still bewildered by the unexplained absence of his comrades. That's gotta be lonely but Mr Jallow wasn't deterred.

Although there's not been a formal reason advanced by those invited for their absence yet, does not lessen the bitter taste of the disappointment. We expected a show of solidarity from ALL parties for what the occasion was. So we await. I hope we'll be given answers. Until then, I'll remain ashamed, disappointed and hurt by the realization that we're indeed far from the top of the hill than we thought. That a serious look, diagnosis of what must have been the deep tetanus wound that remains incurable. A serious disappointment of course for UDP's absence and the silence is deafening. They've been the longest allies going into all previous elections. So it begs a tangible official reason for staying away. Gambians deserve one.

It scares me that we've not even started talks of political Union to go into the coming elections under one flag bearer, but that potential marriage is heading for a divorce before they walk the aisle. In a normal marriage, counseling would have been a must. This isn't an exception if we're to retain the slim hope of a serious fight against the incumbent. Our political parties are not oblivious to this fact but the diaspora should be battle-ready as partners to do all we could to summoned them to the table even if that means rolling the dice. It's worth the try.

This is why I've always asked that we be partisan but still be cautious not to be overly partisan if our goal is to forge a United Party Alliance. Considering the history these parties have, if we openly take partisan positions from the jump, we're bound to dig holes for ourselves as every party would come out swinging to avoid being buried. The diaspora Will make and/or break what we have at stake. We're a very significant constituency even when we're disenfranchised. It's best we impartially maneuver thru the barbed wire in pursuit of political unity than face them head-on wearing party colors. That might work for the fringes and the insignificant voices like me. But those who already command the respect and notoriety of being able to get the folks on the table must tread lightly. That by no way means avoiding the truth.

But what do I know?! This malaria must have gotten to me. :)

Good Morning And Peace To The Planet!

Saidykhan.

UNIVERSITY OF THE GAMBIA: These Students Are A Shame!

I did not intend to blog about this but I was so embarrassed and disappointed that I have to scribble this in a rush.

I do not have any more details on the reported University of the Gambia Students protest than already out there BUT I'm so freaking ashamed that the students would allegedly cry over the Institution's move to raise the Quality Bar.

Already, there's been charges of the Country's highest Institution of learning turned into a political propaganda chip by the government, where QUANTITY is favored over QUALITY. Evidently, we've seen a good chunk of them speak and write horrible English. This might not totally be the University's fault because over the years, high school results have been abysmally poor. So when those are the ones admitted into the University, they're instituting and encouraging Mediocrity! And these Students want to maintain just that. Simple! And that's a shame!

Look, I'm am Not an excellent student. But a lot of folks went through the University of The Gambia, proceeded to pursue post graduate degrees in prestigious Universities. Those who went to colleges in the US had their transcripts evaluated to the US equivalent by the World Education Services. So we want nothing more than a better, quality University education in the Gambia. Not some fucking subpar Institution, producing embarrassing brains.

All over the world, MOST colleges have a standard grading scale where excellence is HARD attain. 80 must NEVER be a 4.0 ANYWHERE. Period! So let these Students roll their damn sleeves and get to work, unless when they're comfortable with inferior education.

For once, I hope the authorities never waver. This shit is already too embarrassing!

If you were to ever demonstrate, let it be for a genuine cause. Protest over lack of resources, proper courses, abuse/injustice in the country, over what happened to Sait Matty and Minah Manneh, or over Prof Kah vs Kumbo Touray. Or even over stipend raise. For God's sake, you all need to be ashamed and take several seats already!

FOH!

Still, Peace To The Planet!

Saidykhan.

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ARE PDOIS BEING EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT?

For us to attain any gains in our pursuit of freeing The Gambia from the tentacles of a 20 year dictatorship, we must embrace the culture of impartiality, brevity and honesty in our actions as well as our political discourses. For far too long, many observed that most of our political pundits, commentators and those with voices and platforms have been exceedingly kind to certain politicians whilst holding others by the collar. My observation is that PDOIS have been cut more slack than their counterparts, possibly out of respect or we do not see the need to address their shortcomings. I am not blaming anybody for that but it will be so unfair to hold these parties and their leadership to a different yardstick and expect to make any meaningful progress in this war.

As 2016 elections nears and talks of Party Coalition intensify to devise ways of halting the accelerating wheels of Jammeh’s tyrannical administration, a lot of people, myself included, are almost certain that Jammeh will never be defeated at the polls. There are a lot of factors that play against our favor but the one thing that gives us a remote hope of putting up a strong fight via elections is when we are able to have a United Front putting up one candidate against Jammeh. Personallly, that will be the only time that I would support any elections in 2016, though I'm a nobody.

Many who are pessimistic of any sort of political union argued that the differences between the political party leaders are so deep that they could never put them aside to look at the greater good of the nation. And their position is premise on their experience of the past election cycles. Despite the absolute urgency of now, we have seen indications that indeed, a coalition is farfetched.

While the Group of Six (G6) Opposition Political Parties are adamant on their demands for electoral reforms for them to participate in elections, we have seen NRP and Hamat Bah contest 2 National Assembly elections going for the 3rd this month. Their party, they said, do not believe in election boycott. We came down hard on Hamat and accused of aiding and abetting a dictatorship. Then we have GMC and Mai Fatty put out two press releases that we considered to be endorsing Jammeh’s positions on homosexuality legislation and the recent verbal amnesty extended to diaspora Gambians. We even had an issue with him believing that Yaya is a ‘good Muslim leader’. He got accused of being opportunistic and wanting to kiss up to Jammeh.

When we feel frustrated that we are missing out on the timely opportunities to pounce on Jammeh, we point our daggers at UDP/Darboe and PPP/OJ for not dragging their supporters to the streets. But what do we expect of PDOIS and their leadership?

Personally, at the look of things, PDOIS are more likely to be the fishbone in our collective throats than NRP are, for the following reasons:

Although I respect PDOIS as an autonomous, sovereign Party, I am troubled by their reluctance if not refusal, to compromise their position even when we all know what’s at stake. That for us to rid Gambia of her predicament, each have to give up a position for us to reach a consensus. To me, because of the limited options available, a lot of variables would have to be forgone so all members at the negotiation table could be respected as equal stakeholders. That is what I called Compromise.

Since I am Not privy to any discussions taking place between these parties, I am going to argue on what we have all seen and known since the G6 demands were put forward:

a). In May 2013, PDOIS were the only Party not represented at the Raleigh Conference when an invitation was extended to them because they thought the diaspora needs go back to the drawing board to get our houses in order before they could partake in any National discourse.

b). In 2013 when Jammeh had his former Presidential Affairs minister read that unfortunate, inflammatory statement on TV that had the potential to stir ethnic tensions, the G6 members organized a press conference to condemn it. PDOIS was absent because they thought they needed to do thorough investigations before having an opinion about it.

c). From that, birthed the GUC rallies in Buffer Zone and Brikama, which they were absent too, since that was related to the same issue.

d). CORDEG invites all parties to ‘discussion’, PDOIS were absent because they were on a countrywide tour.

Now, let it be known that I am NOT a registered member of any local or diaspora Organization nor am I a member of CORDEG, so I am not holding brief for them. But as a private Gambian invested in our national affairs, I have been dehydrated and sickened by the 20 years of tyranny that poses an existential threat to our beloved nation. I have made it clear that I’ve subscribed to ‘any means necessary’ model of ousting the Jammeh dictatorship. Therefore, I do believe in the significant role the Political parties could play in making this happen. But we cannot idly sit by and watch the petty political and personal differences between these parties derail us, even when they are expected to recognize and respect the dire urgency of our situation. From the release PODIS had put out responding to the supposed CORDEG-Political Party meeting, indications are that history is about to repeat itself. They are 'firm' and would take a lot to have them shift positions.

With all their shortcomings, we are told that CORDEG in fact DID invite all Parties to a ‘discussion’ which PDOIS had acknowledged but claimed they were “engaged in a village to village tour to exchange opinion with the people in order to know what they want and what they think of PDOIS’ programme”. And their frustration that none of the party leaders at the meeting didn't distance themselves from the meeting confirms that those parties actually did partake in the 'brainstorming' session. Therefore to claim that the CORDEG meeting was ‘News’ to them is not totally true. What I found a little disturbing in this was PDOIS’ inability or unwillingness to multitask significant issues. I am not expecting them to abandon their engagements but I am convinced that if interested, they could have delegated a party official. Reiterating that “Malick Kah had no mandate to represent PDOIS and did not represent PDOIS at the meeting” raises questions about the internal running of the party.

Lest we forget, when the DUGA ‘occupied’ the Gambian Embassy in DC, PDOIS were not pleased especially with the involvement of their Party member in Coach Pa-Samba. Though he was not representing his Party, Coach almost got reprimanded and reminded of the code of conduct of party members. We have seen the same, if not worse, in embarrassing their European Branch’s chief. It is obvious that the Party members are answerable to the Central Committee instead of the reverse.

http://www.kaironews.com/politics/pdois-reacts-to-cordegs-statement/

Evident in this release was the rigid nature of PDOIS’ handling of matters with their colleagues in the letter written to them following the said meeting. As equal stakeholders, PDOIS could have been a little respectful to the rights of their ‘Colleagues’ to be sovereign and trust their ability to be engaging all participants in this fray without throwing a tantrum, which prompted Darbo’s tarse response via text. To request a postponement of a scheduled all-important meeting because of a meeting they were not part of is worrying. They could have gone ahead regardless of the CORDEG issue, with the meeting to do with the confidential pact they were to sign. But because they did not have it their way, they bounced. I am afraid but Banka & Coach’s fear that these leaders have deeper differences that they would never put aside are getting validated.

We cannot have the same sickness bedridden us again after 4 election cycles. All parties and their leaders must be held accountable to the same standard. When we choose to cherry pick, we're setting ourselves on a political suicide mission because we're handing Jammeh the silver platter to turn the Gambia into a monarch. And to prevent that, we have to speak the truth to our partners on the ground - PDOIS especially. Politics is about evolution and adaptation, and thus far the Gambia's oldest political party is stuck in stale ways of politicking. These parties must be forced to respect and run after our votes as Gambians instead of wanting us to allow to be herded.

In my subsequent blogs, I'll be writing to all parties and their Secretary Generals in a bid to start dialogue as a private citizen but also give my assessment of them and how I think they could do better where I think they fall short. I don't know why I think my take would matter anyway. Until then, PDOIS and NRP are our pinpoints, based on what we see. And we have to address it.

Good Morning And Peace To The Planet!

Saidykhan!

Bilahi Yaya JAMMEH 'NO SABI'

Delivering the 2015 Legislative Year speech to an assembly filled to capacity, president Jammeh, on Friday February 27, admitted that 'the capacity of the economy has been stretched and tested to its limit as it grapples with unprecedented domestic macroeconomic challenges including high debt burden and extraneous shocks.'

This admission would have been at least commended had the self-taught economist from Kanilai village not followed it up with a benumbed 'bad news'. He believed that due a 'strong tourist season and growth in agriculture, the economy showed growth in 2014. Unfortunately the positive growth trend declined due to 2013 drought and Ebola outbreak in the West African region that affected the over all crop production'.

Had my findings been right, the Ebola outbreak was initially reported in February 2014 and the severity of the impact on tourist destination countries was not immediate.  The contradiction is not just the unmatched timeline of Ebola outbreak, but the inability to attribute Ebola to crop production considering that there was not a single case of Ebola reported in the Gambia to affect farming.

He accomplishingly reported that despite the 'shocks the economy showed resilience and registered a 2% growth.'
To my utter dismay the president credited that to the 'soundness of our macroeconomic policies that we pursue and strict adherence to spending within the budget.' His macroeconomic policies that are almost non-existent should never have yielded any positive growth, so he was satisfied with the 2%.

Now here is when most people would think Jammeh was either hallucinating or in denial, taking Gambians for fools. It's insulting for Yaya to boast of responsible spending when he gives raw cash in bags to individuals, organizations and countries. We saw the wasteful celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the military takeover that costs a whopping D85 million last year, compelling the National Assembly to approve a supplementary budget at the end of the fiscal year in December.

The slump in the country's economic performance was predictable because Gambia featured heavily on the international radar the year prior as dissident activists criss-crossed Europe and the US engaging the Gambia's development partners on the country's deplorable Human Rights records. As if that was not enough, Jammeh went on a daring but unsurprising tangent issuing threats to 'exterminate' Gays and Lesbian like 'mosquitoes' calling them 'vermins'. A responsible government would have calculated the cost of this reckless pronouncement on the country's economic performance. But this was not featured in the president's excuses.

Continuing his fatal uncouth economic stratagem, we saw the unveiling of newly printed bills in an economy grappling with an inflation rate reported at 6.95 percent in December 2014. Promising durability and authenticity, it's said that the new bills 'are a unique symbol of national identity, pride and unity'. Most of us got riled up and distracted by Jammeh's face on the country's currency and missed the goal of this shrewd politician. For someone with limited to no economic inclination, they thought it best to print more money and flood the markets thinking that would tackle the inflation rate. They obstruct the natural market supply and demand because they do not respect the 'invisible hand' that could have self-regulated.

The Gambia leaps towards a possible hyperinflation, uncertainty and confusion, and fall in the savings of those able to put some emergency funds aside.

Yaya 'No Sabi'. With the wealth of experience in seasoned, tested technocrats and civil servants at his disposal, he prefers using an experience he never has, running all government departments and agencies on verbal orders and suiting the economy to the first lady's flashy tastes. From the little time that I'd spent in economic and finance classes, I was able recognize the horrible macroeconomic policies and the Juvenile Fiscal indiscipline that shows total disregard for national priorities.

Yaya should be liberalising the economy, encouraging competition especially in the private sector, ensures an enabling environment for job creation,  instead he is adding numbers to the unemployment statistics by banning lotteries and casinos that employ thousands of Gambians in an economy that has the military and security services as the biggest employer.

It's a shame, But what do I know?!

Bright Monday and Peace To The Planet.

Saidykhan.

3/2/2015