Opportunity Or Peril, Gambia At A Crossroad

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UDP’s Karamba Touray speaks his mind to the fullest!

By Karamba Touray

The legal, active and registered opposition political parties in the Gambia individually and in the aggregate have reached a fork on the road and they must make a historic and consequential decision that will result in either an opportunity for the Gambian people to renew their faith in democracy by embracing a united and determined opposition as they lead the fight to establish the will of the people or they can remain fractured, weighted down by petty politics, inertia and a lack of urgency to match the existential threat the nation and its people face.

Significantly, the opposition as a collective has also run out of time and reasons for not settling on a unified program to rally the country and world around.Their constituency, which is the majority of Gambians in and out of the country have only a single proposition for the opposition: Come together and represent us as one entity to fight for regime change, simple and straight forward.

Those political parties who value that call as a supreme national duty must promptly and publicly accede to this reasonable demand of their diverse constituencies and their allies around the world who believe Gambia deserves a leadership and direction worthy of its people. With a unified political leadership in place accompanied by a clear road map for regime change, every Gambian that aspires to a better country will join our political leaders to fight the battle to ensure freedom and democracy for our people. We will provide resources, expertise, time, our physical bodies in various ways and to various degrees to ensure success by the will of Allah.

All we ask the politicians to do is to provide robust and moral leadership commensurate to the rectitude of the cause they and all who have joined them over the years have dedicated themselves to.

Conversely, it should be clear to leaders of the opposition that their current trajectory of being content with the glacial pace of their consultations within the G6 framework and occasionally addressing the Gambian people through individual party events and or press releases is not adequate to the task at hand. In fact that approach has begin to irritate components of their constituency and undermined both morale within core supporters and faith in persuadable Gambians that the opposition is willing and able to move affirmatively as a united front.A continuation of a general perception of politicians set in their ways and refusing to accede to the common sense demands of their own supporters and democracy advocates around the world would risk a total rupture between the opposition and key elements of their support base.

Absent a full and total unified force, a coalition of the willing with a clear and definite road map for regime change should present itself to the Gambian people in a matter of days and not weeks. The opposition in its current posture risk rebellion among its ranks and allies and that may portend for the indefinite foreclosure of the political parties being the vehicle of change. This would subject our country to greater risk of uncontrolled violence as citizens look for alternative ways of ending tyranny, a quest that will not end as long as there is a Gambia and Gambians willing to fight for it. Consequently, I propose the following:

1- A unified political front comprising of willing parties fully agreeing to a clear roadmap for regime change be announced within the next 7 days
2- Following the announcement, the diaspora will raise D1million in 14 days and work with the constituted political leadership to tour the whole of Gambia to explain and seek strong support for the cause of action they have agreed to lead the nation toward.
3-Immediately following the nationwide tour, the leadership would be flown to regional and world capitals to explain the cause of action and to seek political, diplomatic and other support from governments and other entities that have already indicated sympathy to our cause.
4-Substantial effort at resource gathering in the tens of millions of Dalasis using all available means would be directed at capacity building of the political infrastructure in country.
5-Support mechanisms and associated teams will be stood up to help with strategy, logistics, communication and other components necessary for the efficient execution of the cause of action outlined by the political leaders.

Within three months of being in business every Gambian will be in no doubt what the program of the opposition is and what the inevitable results would be. It will be a country without Yahya Jammeh or his vicious system.

Ends

10 Comments

  1. Lafia Touray la Manju

    OJ is destroying every prospect of coalition on Faturadio. He said he would not fight against upper age limit but did not explain why he signed the electoral reform demand forwarded by the opposition. His aim is to paint UDP in a negative light despite the fact that all of them have signed the opposition electoral reform proposal containing a demand to repeal the Upper age limit. UDP has not done or say anything further than that. Why then is Oj distancing himself from a joint proposal which himself signed???

    Fatou Camara misquoted The Point Newspaper of saying that Darboe and UDP will be challenging the Upper Age limit when, in fact, the story is about the New Electoral Act recently passed by Parliament and which contains no upper age limit issue.

    PPP conspiracy is going on against UDP at Faturadio. Watch out UDP or you will be misrepresented by Oj the Mr Bigmouth and his gang in the US acting in cohort with Fatou Camara of Faturadio

    Thanks

  2. Lafia , OJ is not Gambia’s problem Yaya Jammeh is.

    I can count number of time you mention Yaya Jamme’s name in this forum with hostility or annoyance, so ho are you really ??

  3. Lafia Touray la Manju

    Purell, I am sure OJ is not Gambia’s problem but if he continues to undermine the prospect of a coalition through his utterance of reckless and misleading statements with the sole purpose of painting others in a negative light, he will soon become Gambia’s problem.

    The debate is about substance which OJ lacks. So he compensate this by being the Mr Bigmouth he is always known for.

    Thanks

  4. I meant to say you rarely say anything bad about Yaya jammeh. Excuse my french.

  5. I had said it severally that Lafia is a pro aprc but using UDP to propagate his Jammeh Agenda.

    Let Karamba and the UDP Gambians show how they want this unity to be achieved. Put your proposal on the table as it us always your party that breaks the unity.

    Please my brothers at least for once, bring what you have then we will move on. Age limit or not, come with your plans of what unity you want.

  6. Lafia Touray la Manju

    Purrel, if you said you can count how many times I criticise Jammeh, then you must have joined this forum only yesterday. Anyway, it’s your opinion and I am not bothered about it.

    OJ needs to zip up if he has nothing to contribute maligning the UDP and it’s using unfounded and misleading statements is not conginal to a coalition prospect as it can chip away respect for one another and undermine trust and confidence. We know he has no substance but being a Mr Bigmouth over the coalition is less desirable especially if you won’t tell the truth.

    There was no story in the point newspaper that says Darboe is fighting the upper age limit. Fatou Camara and OJ concotated that bullshit with OJ saying he (OJ) will not do that.

    OJ signed the opposition electoral reform demand asking for the upper age limit to be repealed and yet he come on FatuRadio and made it look like that is a UDP issue. Is that honesty??? OJ needs to zip up!!

    Thanks

  7. Lafia Touray la Manju

    waiting moderation…

    Purrel, if you said you can count how many times I criticise Jammeh, then you must have joined this forum only yesterday. Anyway, it’s your opinion and I am not bothered about it.

    OJ needs to zip up if he has nothing to contribute. Maligning the UDP and putting it’s leader in a negative light through the use of unfounded and misleading statements is not conginal to a coalition prospect as it can chip away respect for one another and undermine trust and confidence.

    We know OJ has no substance but being a Mr Bigmouth over the coalition is less desirable especially if you won’t tell the truth.

    There was no story in the point newspaper that says Darboe is fighting the upper age limit. Fatou Camara and OJ concoted that bullshit with OJ saying he (OJ) will not do that.

    OJ signed the opposition electoral reform demand asking for the upper age limit to be repealed and yet he come on FatuRadio and made it look like that is a UDP issue. Is that honesty??? OJ needs to zip up!!

    Thanks

  8. Lafia Touray la Manju

    The Point Story below that Fatou Camara acting in cohort with OJ misled Faturadio audience on.

    OJ’s was deliberating painting the UDP and its leader in a negative light without basis in facts. There is no mention of upper age limit in this story let alone challenging it.

    http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/udp-could-challenge-proposed-amendments-to-elections-act

  9. Lafia Touray la Manju

    OJ’s interview on Coalition in 2011 below;

    The leader of the PPP, Omar Jallow has said the opposition leaders have to apologise to Gambians for having failed them for the past decade partly resulting in their dastard performance in last week’s presidential election.

    Speaking in an exclusive with The Standard at his Pipeline residence, the first time he’s talking to the press in three months, Mr Jallow said: “We, all the opposition party leaders, should have the courage and the decency to apologise to Gambians for our failures from 1996 to learn from our mistakes and come together and remove the APRC from power. We should have learnt from our mistakes in 1996, 2001 and 2006. After the establishment of NADD we were able to win four out of six by-elections. Therefore it was clear that if united, we would bring about the desired positive political change. But come 2011, we were as divided as before. We failed to fulfil the wishes and aspirations of the thousands of Gambians who looked up to us for guidance and leadership to salvage The Gambia from the clutches of a dictatorship. Therefore on my part, I am apologising to all Gambians here and abroad for our ability to lead.”

    ‘Clearing the air’

    Mr Jallow said while he was abroad from 11 September to 21 November, a lot of things were written about his position and involvement in the opposition alliance talks.

    “Now I want to clear the air. I attended four of the opposition meetings summoned by the UDP.There were four proposals; a UDP-led coalition, an NRP-led coalition, a national convention propagated by PDOIS and a coalition led by Ousainou Darboe but not under the banner of any party proposed by Landing Jallow Sonko. After the second meeting, Ousainou made it clear he would not be able to contest under any other banner except the UDP and Landing Jallow withdrew his proposal. During these meetings, I tried to convince all the opposition leaders to support the UDP-led alliance proposal for the following reasons:

    First, we were negligent in waiting for four years and nine months before consulting each other, so time was very much against us.

    Second, the fact of the matter was that in 1996, 2001 and 2006, Darboe had more votes than any other opposition candidate.

    Third, because of time and resource constraint, it would be more cost-effective and practical if we support the UDP after they made concrete recommendations acceptable to me. They said if we have a UDP-led alliance government, the leader will serve five years, retire and not support any candidate; that the government he or she will form will be inclusive of all parties in the alliance and that all decisions will be taken consultatively.

    At the third meeting, Hamat Bah said he had consulted his membership and that while those in the Diaspora allowed him to partake in any coalition, those domiciled here demanded he must lead any alliance he takes part in. Halifa Sallah talked to his guns and started promoting his Agenda 2011. “

    Disingenuity

    Mr Jallow said he believed“it was unnecessary for Hamat to propose anything but join a UDP-led alliance because that was his position in 2006 and that was what he used to pull Darboe out of NADD and form a UDP-led alliance. In his own words, ‘in politics, you talk about numbers’. Since nothing has changed in the equation I do not see why the shift in his position. And about Halifa’s talk about conventions and primaries, my political experience informs me that that is applicable within a single party where more than one person is interested in leadership not in a coalition of parties.

    “After the fourth meeting when I knew there will be no single candidate to represent all opposition parties, I decided to withdraw from the negotiations and allowed a member of my party to sit in the negotiations with the specific instruction that we’ll only campaign for a single candidate and that our support for the UDP was premised on that. I told them otherwise we will not support or campaign for anyone because it will be waste of time, energy and resources. But that if they agree on a single candidate, I had an open ticket and would be back in The Gambia within 24 hours to campaign. They did not and I returned to The Gambia 72 hours before election day and cast my vote for the candidate I supported.”

    Lost opportunity

    The populist Serekunda politician and famous minister in the First Republic continued: “It was a lost opportunity for us. If we had banded together, we would not only have been in a good stead to wrest power from the APRC but the momentum we would have generated would have propelled us to get a minimum of twenty seats in the National Assembly elections and that would have stopped impunity in the country. Now I am appealing to the leaders of all the opposition parties to come back to the drawing board and form a truly united from for the parliamentary elections. The issues that unite us are greater than the issues that divide us. I am devastated. I am appealing to the opposition leaders to learn from the serious and dismal lessons [of the presidential elections]. If we fail to do that, then all the opposition leaders in The Gambia will be living on the wrong side of history.”

    “The Standard Newspaper”

    Since nothing has changed, we hope that OJ the Mr Bigmouth , who has no preconditions, will endorse a UDP proposal whenever it comes out, and not flee the country during election time as he always do.

    Thanks

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