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Originally posted by sankalanka


The Saviour and The Puppet King
by Shaka, a Bantaba contributor


The debate is heated,
the rage intensified and
the venom pofusely seep
through the bile ducts.

All directed at one man.
Their saviour and villain.

Yes it is the election season
in again.
How so can this one man
be a saviour and villain at the same time?

Good question! Ask the kingmakers
of the Gambia diaspora.
For at their feet they have gathered
a pile of rocks and stones
for the pelting feast
and in front of them clamouring
to dodge their weapons is the man
they love to hate
at this time of the season since 2006.

The mob is wild as Halifa Sallah staggers
from pillar to post
trying to shield from their pallets for dear life.
His only crime is that
"he is not willing to endorse"
the process they have hatched
to annoit the king they wish to enthrone. The Puppet King.

The Puppet King, they say,
is their Last Chance Saloon
in these wee hours before the
great battle against the evil Emperor Professor.

He would not have made last
not to mention top in their order
of pick had "time not been against them"
it is only a month before the great battle you see.

They say the Puppet King
is not leadership material.
He has no set beliefs, ideas,
principles or policies to present
to the people as an alternative
to the Emperor's dictatorship.

He's a coward who scappers
to foreign missions for sanctuary
every time the Emperor barks.

The Yanks and Senegalese missions
are fed up seeing him run to their abode
"to complain about Jammeh or the APRC"
at the mere sound of thunder or a burst car tyre.

He is also, they say, remote
controlled by a minority of his supporters
in the diaspora and is never seen
to be firmly in control of himself or his actions.
Never-the-less he has the largest
group of supporters among the opposition
and he came from the biggest tribe some dare say.

For the deluded diaspora Kingmakers
they believe they wield the strongest
and the most superior constituent amongst the opposition.
They are the "most learned" and the weathiest of the lot.

By virtue of these assets
they wield the power to determine
who ascends the Presidency.

How dare Halifa Sallah refuse their proposal.

They want to usurp the right to choice
and freedom to determined
the kind of governance and leadership from the people.
This, they say is the surest
and quickest way to boot out the dictatorship
and end their long endured self-imposed
exile existentence in Babylon,
for the long due authentic Mbahals,
Cheb bu jenn, Super Kanja and Domodas
that awaits them back home.

How very dare Sallah deny them this right.

For Sallah and The PDOIS
the right and privilege
to determine leadership and choice of goverment
belong to the Gambian people as a collective
and not a sellected few.

The people must be seen to have choices
in front of them and to be able
to choose at their own free will
and not what a deluded few
in the diaspora choose for them.

The PDOIS is not in negotiation
with the rest of the oppostion
to elect a UDP government.

That privilege belongs to the people.

The PDOIS is in negotiation
to help form and usher in
a transition government
to set right and give back to the people
what have been stolen, manipulated
and mutilated by the Jammeh Dictatorship.

It is not for The PDOIS
to bring to power a UDP government
that inherits the excesses
and powers of the dictatorship
that is forcing the people into servitude.

The notion of a UDP led transion government
is not only farcical as it is stupid,
it also trounces the very essence
of independence and coherence of a transition government.

The only position that is elected
in the executive of a UDP led government
is the Presidency.

All other positions are
either nominated or chosen
by the UDP President if elected,
as well as other powers like
dissolving Parliament
at The President's whims and caprices
as the constitution stands todate.

Therefore to call
a UDP led coalition government
a transition government among equals
is the dumbest thing i have ever heard.

You can promise
Halifa Sallah the Vice Presidency,
Hamat Bah the Finance Ministry,
Henry Gomez Foreign Affair etc
but as long as President Darbo
has the power to kick their butts
even before they touch their respective seats,
the rule of "ma waax waaxeet" is superior to all else.

It is therefore absolutely ridiculous
and outright delirious
to attempt to spin a 'UDP led trsnsition goverment.'
Plain stupid.

For those of you tying
to engineer a faux democracy
inorder to attend to your needs
for authentic Gambian dishes,
i'd say there is still a bit of waiting to do.

You cannot force Sallah to forego
his democratic principles
and great visions of future progress
of our nation for you instant gratifications.

Call him all the names on this planet as you want.
Dogmatic, over-intellectualised, arrogant and selfish.
I'm damn sure he had grown a thick skin
to all these insults over the course of his political career.

He sat among his equal
men and women of the highest
intellectual standing and professional discipline
and help formulate the 1997 constitution
before it was butchered by the AFPRC,
yet every day of your life you single him out
to fault for a 'flawed constitution.'

And yet it is Sallah
who is over-intellectualised.

He sat among his peers
constitutional lawyers among them
and together drafted the NADD MOU
and its attendant documents.
Yet still for the self righteous imbeciles
he is the architect of everything bad
about NADD to suit his personal agenda.

Oh yes it is Sallah
who is over-intellectualised
not those who dissect his utterings
to shreds every day of their sorry lives
looking for pathetic soudbites,
faults, red herrings, dogma
and ideologies as the ultimate sins.

Now you want him to commit
even more 'sins' by helping
to usher in a constitutional coup d'etat
for you to mastubate intellectually
in the future as soon as
the abvious cracks begin to appear.

Can't you find better use for you brains!!

When the going gets tough
with the dictator
you look for nobody in particular
but Sallah as your intellectual saviour and guide.

When he does not toe your line
as quickly as possible he becomes a villain.

For a man and his party
you love to insult so much
as incapable of yielding 5% of the votes
in any elections
how do you come to put the burden
of 'saviour of the people' on his shoulders.

For a man with so little influence
in the voting exercise
surely he cannot possibly hold
to ransom any opposition coalition effort.

Hamat Bah told you categorically
that there is no way
he is joining a UDP-led coalition
and i see no hiss of fits
and he supposively is the heir
to more than 10% of any votes cast anytime.

Sallah says
"let's look for an alternative
to a UDP-led coalition;"
"bring the go damn cross,
lets crucify the tyrant"
becomes you deafening reactions.

Are you people well?
or do you expect Hamat
to be a Happy Larry you just offer
some mbiskit medina
for him to start screaming
"weeew Darbo, da ma don chahan rek"
Get a friggin life all of you Saddos.

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Edited by - shaka on 10 Oct 2011 04:18:38


Another point of view. Shaka, please, excuse me for taking the liberty to arrange your posting in this poetic format.

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