By Deyda Haidara
THE WAY FORWARD IN MY OPINION
Whenever I hear that diaspora Gambian organizations should fuse into one umbrella organization, I say Oh my GOD here we go again for another messy road to the delight of Yaya Jammeh and his APRC [Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction].
We should understand and accept that people and countries can have hundreds of organizations and political parties formed without hurting others. People of the same vision and philosophy can come together. People with the same objective can come together and form a group or a political party. Even people of the same tribe or region can come together and form a club. There is ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with that.
What we Gambians should do and focus on NOW is rally around a COMMON document that highlights a common fight and a common objective to achieve the content points in the said agreed document.
We have a common document called “Proposal for Electoral Reforms in the Gambia”
The majority of the opposition political parties in the Gambia signed this document. Therefore this document can be improved by the diaspora Gambians if they wish and finally be tabled as the BLUE PRINT of our demands for electoral reforms in the Gambia. Once this is done, ALL political parties and diaspora organizations can come together under ONE umbrella ad-hoc committee in which all parties and organizations have ONE member to meet periodically to assess the progress or delays made in implementing the objectives of the blue print document.
The online media should be invited whenever this ad-hoc committee meets to discuss matters.
Once we have the above blue print document in place all of us in our individual and collective ways should work hard to bring it into REALITY in the Gambia.
In reality we do not need a unity organization IMPOSED on Gambians. A leadership role cannot be imposed; individuals EARN it. Political parties can continue to play their individual roles; organizations can also continue to play their respective roles. What we need is to come together around a blue print document with set objectives in which each and every one of us can IDENTIFY with it.
If we study the recent Burkina Faso experience that brought about the ousting of Blaise Compaore, one can see and appreciate that ALL opposition parties, Civil Rights groups and Trade Unions rally around ONE simple call that is “ Don’t touch article 37 of the constitution which puts a terms limit on the presidency”.
We have seen it work in Senegal in 2012 and why not the Gambia.
In my humble experience and believe it is a waste of time and energy trying to bring people together on ANYTHING other than a common and temporary mission.
Once mission accomplish people can go back to their respective organization and parties and compete effectively on level playing field.
Thank You.
Deyda Haidara
Ends
Hiadara, you have hit the nail on the head. So many unnecessary organizations. It seems every Micky Mouse wants to form his organization and be the leader. With one or two common objectives which every organization agrees to, and mobilizes people to fight, it could result to Jammeh’s removal. It is indeed foolish to see every organization claiming to be umbrella organization for unity. Lack of unity both at home front and diaspora resulted to Jammeh’s entrenchment and continuous abuse of citizens. The opposition parties are also partly responsible for these abuses because they failed to unite on common goal to remove a tyrant from power. Disunited opposition parties are also contributing factor to military dictatorship we have. They need to give up their selfish individualistic leadership interest and focus on common interest of masses. For twenty one years, they don’t learn that Gambian people are allergy to selfish ideology driven agenda. Current election act 2015 amendment could have been used as common objective to fight for, by mobilizing the populations through participation of all opposition parties. Majority Diaspora organizations are hypocritical, incoherent, divisive and lack of common objectives because majority are looking for their selfish leadership interest. Why can’t those leaders in each group rally behind a common objective or pick a single leader to represent all of them rather than every now and then, another Micky mouse will announce a new organization, group, association. Maybe next time another idiotic Micky mouse will announce Gambian association for entrenchment of military dictatorship. Leadership is earned but not given through mere writing of one or two articles or mere talking on the radio. Great leaders care for common interest of the people but not their selfish interest. Gambia lack great leadership and it is very individualistic society where common interest of citizens are usually not highly important. This is manifested in every aspect of our lives. In next government, nationalism and patriotism should be inculcated in national psyche if we are to develop as a nation. Lack of nationalism and patriotism resulted to daily abuses of citizen’s rights, political oppression, economic corruption and mismanagement under this regime.
Hiadara, you have hit the nail on the head. So many unnecessary organizations. It seem every Micky mouse want to form his organization and be the leader . With one or two common objectives which every organization agree to , and mobilize people to fight , it could result to jammeh’s removal . It is indeed foolish to see every organization claming to be umbrella organization for unity . Lack of unity both at home front and diaspora resulted to jammeh’s entrenchment and continuous abuse of citizens. The opposition parties are also partly responsible for these abuses because they failed to unite on common goal to remove a tyrant from power. Disunited opposition parties are also contributing factor to military dictatorship we have. They need to give up their selfish individualistic leadership interest and focus on common interest of masses. For twenty one years, they don’t learn that Gambian people are allergy to selfish ideology driven agenda. Current election act 2015 amendment could have been used as common objective to fight for , by mobilizing the populations through participation of all opposition parties. Majority Diaspora organizations are hypocritical , incoherent , divisive and lack of common objectives because majority are looking for their selfish leadership interest. Why can’t those leaders in each group rally behind a common objective or pick a single leader to represent all of them rather than every now and then , another Micky mouse will announce a new organization , group , association . Maybe next time another idiotic Micky mouse will announce Gambian association for entrenchent of military dictatorship. Leadership is earned but not given through mere writing of one or two articles or mere talking on the radio. Great leaders care for common interest of the people but not their selfish interest. Gambia lack great leadership and it is very individualistic society where common interest of citizens are usually not highly important . This is manifested in every aspect of our lives . In next government , nationalism and patriotism should be inclucated in national psyche if we are to develop as a nation. Lack of nationalism and patriotism resulted to daily abuses of citizen’s rights , political oppression , economic corruption and mismanagement under this regime.
Deyda Haidara speaks for me. It seems that, we are forgetting the central issues in our political problem. The laws governing the electoral process is crooked and needs to change. All the political parties and civil society group have to work together in making that law fair and constructive.
The obsession with flagbearer and one candidate will all be meaningless without fighting for a more democratic space. Secondly, all the people hauling on about Uniting organisations are doing so centrally in the media. It seems the fame and glory seeking far outweigh the genuine resolve to deal with other organisations and lobby them to work on a common agenda. Without working on a common agenda, there cannot be any Unity, because the mistrust between groups, people and organisation is too wide to simply say, Unite organisations, abandon existing parties and things will be well and good, That is wrong to assume.
Thirdly, if an organisation that can bring more votes, more people to the table is ostracized, marginalized, attacks, and openly vilified, are we genuinely interested in Unity or are we merely pandering to our fears of larger groups and our place in them?
As a Gambian expatriate, it bothers me seeing the simple logical strategy and facts avoided merely because some politicians are too afraid to consume their preconceived notion of others. If people don’t want a UDP party led coalition/alliance, at least the UDP should be approach to field the leader of the opposition outfit that will challenge Jammeh, be it Lawyer Darboe or someone else. Dancing around this issue is not only exposing our hatred of one another but demonstrating our lack of seriousness in defeating President Jammeh politically.
Deyda you are on point, Let us fight for a credible electoral reform, let the opposition leaders meet, strategise and protest at the IEC office, doing a peaceful sit in and call on their supporters to join them. They will all the be arrested, President Jammeh will be further isolated and he will have no choice but to succumb to the demands.
After those demands are met, an honest approach can be mapped to see how to unite for a better fight at the polls. OJ prematurely nominating his first cousin Fatoumatta Tambajang is not only childish but exposes his lack of political wit and sophistication.