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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Nov 2011 : 12:06:52
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FOROYAA
National News : Statements by opposition leaders at the signing of a unity pact
"Sidia Jatta of National Alliance for Democracy and Development
This nation also needs doers of big deeds, I want to be part of those who are going to do big deeds. Five years ago we had a ceremony similar but different. Five years ago we had a ceremony at Palm Grove Hotel to sign a memorandum of understanding creating National Alliance for Democracy and Development. But the fundamental difference with this one is that nobody was prepared or nobody committed himself or herself, body and soul to the implementation of the NADD MoU. This time the flag bearer of this united front is prepared to swear to commit himself or herself to the implementation of the national front MoU, body and soul. That is the fundamental difference. You see, I have decided not to talk because of Alhagie, that man there. He said something fundamental. He has prevented me from speaking and I agree with him a hundred percent. NADD failed because of what he said. This time that is why I have decided not to talk. But I want to do what I’m supposed to say here. And I want to make a promise that I’m prepared to lay my life for the liberation of this country. That is why for the last 25 years I had nothing to do in this country, but to serve the cause of the liberation of the people of this country. And that liberation is inside. This united front is going to usher in a new life for every body in this country. We are going to cut the chains of slavery.
So to conclude I renew my promise. I promise that I will lay my life in whatever capacity. For me leadership is just symbolic. Every deserving citizen is a leader, and i am one of those citizens. So on the 3rd of November 2011, the fundamental difference with the NADD enterprise is that you are going to be given responsibility to make a choice of the future president.
Hamat Bah of National Reconciliation Party
Good morning. Let me first of all say today this morning we are making history. We are making history in the sense that we have men and women, young and old, who are committed and dedicated to the cause of this country. And as you know that as small as we are we are a nation of men and women who are great and have done great things. We recognise the efforts that were made by pioneers of our independence. At a time when the British government thought that The Gambia was not viable as a state and could not exist on its own and cannot work on its own, to the extent that we were given a 35 thousand subvention in order to meet up our annual expenditure. They tried their best, they took that subvention just for one year and rejected it and struggled. Together we moved to the level where we are today. However, during the cause of history, we realised that something happened in 1994 and the hopes of many Gambians were raised that we are gearing towards a better future. Some were apprehensive. Some were supportive of the bloodless coup d'etat that was led by the then Lt.Yaya AJJ Jammeh.
As time goes on, we came to realise that the extreme tolerance of Gambians - we became victims of our own tolerance. We have a leadership that abused our tolerance and imposed intolerance in the entire system and the whole country. And that is what we are witnessing today. When Pope John Paul came here in 1986, when he stood at Saint Augustine High School, looked at his back he saw the Central Mosque of Gambia. When he asked they said that is the Central Mosque of The Gambia. He said it is unbelievable. This is the most tolerant country I have been to as a pope through out my life. And we are proud of that tolerance. It is unfortunate that has not been recognised by those in power today neither do they respect it. As a result we lost a lot in the last 17 years. We tried our best in our various ways to influence the system to influence them to change and listen to what we are saying in our various political parties .We did it in parliament and outside parliament. We tried everything. We believe even not as an elected president, what should be in the mind of the president, whatever decision he takes, he should think about what is going to be the reaction. If a country fails to achieve that then that country is in trouble. And that is what is happening to us today. That is why we decided to say look no one single party can remove this government from power. We worked together it was no easy negotiation, I can tell you because it was tough, bitter and difficult. But because we had one common thing, that is, coming together to remove a regime; that was the common objective. No matter how difficult we were able to somersault all those things and then succeeded.
And I can tell you that we would not have achieved that if it were not for the intervention of our women. We are grateful to them. We are proud of the role that you played during the cause of the negotiations and discussions in general. That is why if you look at our programmes we put our women folks into our agenda very high. As I was coming this morning to this meeting, I saw a man chasing a woman who was carrying a baby and my car almost knocked this woman down. And I looked at this guy he was chasing this poor woman who was carrying a baby in her arms. I tried to ask him, but he would not listen and the woman was running not looking at vehicles. I wondered where is the cry for women's right and freedom in this country and government. And as I moved along coming towards Wellingara I saw a man holding a pipe running after a child whipping the child. I wondered where is the freedom they are yearning for and all the talk about children's rights. That is why we hail the role that you have played. But be rest assured that I tell you one thing, we will make a difference in every aspect. But I will also make one thing clear, I want to inform those APRC people who have abandoned APRC and are wondering where to go and what to do. I inform them that they are most welcome and can trust us that we will not go after any body. We will welcome them as Gambians and will be treated fairly as any other Gambian. We assured them including the Head of State that we will take no revenge against any Gambian. We will stand to reconcile the Gambian people. And I want to remind this gathering if the South African people can forgive the perpetrators of apartheid and reconcile the people of South Africa and move forward. If the Ghanaian people can forgive Rawlings and develop that country into the democracy it is today; if the Nigerian people can forgive Abacha and move that country, I see no reason why the most tolerant country will not do that. I want to assure them that they can come and join us. If they cannot openly come and join us, let them give us their votes and we will defend them and protect every Gambian. We are not going after any body. But one thing, we must establish the truth for the purpose of the records, for the purpose of history, for the purpose of our students to read who did what and when was it done. That must be established. We will forgive the evils, but will not forget them. But no body will be punished for it. This is the type of Gambia that we want to build.
And I hope that people will understand this message. When they go home they should analyse it to know that it is the truth, but nothing but the truth. We are not here after any one in this country. We work with every Gambian and every Gambian will have fair access to the national cake. When you get to the cake it is your ability or know how or experience that will determine how much you get from that cake. But we will make sure that all have fair access to it.
And I will also like to make one point abundantly clear, our lady friend Aji Dunbeh (said so); about the issue of calling on our other partners that is the other opposition parties that the door is open. Madam this body has taken that into account, we will welcome any individual and this front is open until the day of nomination. We are ready to welcome any body who may subscribe to what we have agreed and we are ready to negotiate and bring every body on board. That is our responsibility. And I tell you we respect those parties and their values and the sacrifice they have made and the efforts they have invested in bringing democracy to this country. They are our partners and we will listen to them when they come and we are ready to sacrifice with them together to achieve our objective to make sure that this leadership is removed out of power.
For the youths I must remind you something, we have done what is expected of us. We will continue to do it at all times. Yes, you have been registered. You had a massive registration of youth this time around in this country. But that can only be useful to the country and yourself when on voting day you don't sit at your ‘attaya vous’; make sure that you go and vote before you drink your ‘attaya’. What we have realised - most of the youth even though they are registered, on voting day, sleep late or when they wake up instead of going to queue, you only find women queuing. You will never find the youth there. We want these youth to be youth with difference, to make sure that by 7 o clock you are at the polling station before any body is there. When you cast your vote you can go back to your vous and listen to the result. Be rest assured that every vote that is cast for this front will be counted for the front. And when we are declared the winner there is nobody who can resist it. There will be no Laurent Gbagbo in the Gambia. Because we have assured them of security and safety. You will see us and we will act in that manner. Therefore, nobody has any cause to resist when you are defeated. Accept defeat honourably and you will be considered a honourable citizen. They should have no fear. This is from us, and we are determined and I hope that you get this message across and send it to them. We want to build a Gambia where we are all equal, where we will all be free to exercise our rights and responsibilities.
Today Gambians cannot speak even within families. You find a husband and a wife that are at odds, because maybe the wife went to report the husband or the husband reported the wife. You have a family, the same mother and father who are divided because one sister went to report the other one or the brother reported the sister. The old days of Gambia where we sit in our Bantabas and discuss issues and debate them for the good of our country is all gone. Because any minute you expect that some body is listening to go and report you. We lost those cherished values and we want to bring them back to this country. We want to make sure that wherever you are you are free to express yourself and you will not presume that you are in prison or somebody is recording you. You will be free to express your mind and that is what the constitution guaranteed. And we will respect that guarantee for you. These are fundamental rights that we will never compromise.
Let me assure the press that the press is regarded as the fourth estate of government by the United Nations. Please the pen is mighty. The pen can do harm and the pen can do good. We want you to treat this front with the utmost respect. Sometimes you read some of your editorials, what you talk about the opposition you have a right to say it. But make sure that what you are saying is correct, right, free and fair. You have a right to your opinion. We don't want to dictate any body. Please we are not going after any body. But treat us fairly as you will treat every body fairly.
Henry Gomez of Gambia Party for Development and Progress
Fellow Gambians in conformity to the principles of democracy and progress, we as a united front have committed ourselves to the true discipline of democracy and fair play in the interest of our dear motherland Gambia. So we therefore urge all partners, parties and all Gambians present in this very commemorable gathering to strictly commit ourselves to all issues that put the interest or will of the people in the fore front. It has always been predicted that a coalition or alliance will fail. But this I believe is dependent on what we agreed here and whether we are ready to execute what we ourselves have put in place. If such is the case then there is no way forward and negative to the will of the people. Therefore, we are all obligated to come up with objective and well calculated decisions not for us today, but for those who will witness us in the future. This then calls for the respect of the objective, suggestion and decisions proposed by all political parties committed to this united front. We owe it to ourselves, our party sympathisers and the average citizen. In this light the united front is reminding parties present of their total commitment to terminal power and the successive formation of an effective transitional government if elected by Gambians for the realisation of real democracy and progress. We thank all sympathisers present for their time and commitment in this very noble, civic responsibility for the betterment of one Gambia, one people and one objective.
Halifa Sallah of People Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism
Answering to the Demands of the people
My colleagues, Honourable Chair, invited guests of the different parties, history is being made today. The nation is calling. Those who refuse to answer to the call of the nation cannot claim to be patriotic citizens. History has its demands. The present has its demands. Posterity has its demands. We are here today because of the demands of our people. We are here today to answer to their call; the call of 61.5 percent of the population who are living in abject poverty. We are here to answer to those calls; the call of 300 thousand young people who every 12 years are dumped in the streets and are searching and scratching the earth for jobs and survival. We are here to answer to those calls. We are here to answer to the calls of those pensioners who day and night toil and moil from morn to eve until they reach 60 years and are only given starvation allowances and dumped in the graveyard of poverty. We are here to answer to the calls of those people who live in poverty from the cradle to the grave, born in poverty grow up in poverty, live in poverty and die in poverty, leaving their children and grandchildren to continue the vicious cycle until when?
Development will not drop from the sky. We are here to answer to that call. Development comes from the people, from our minds. We must be thinkers. From our hands, we must be inventors. From work, we must be builders. We must be thinkers, inventors, builders. It is then that we could build a civilisation that all of us will be proud of.
Many weeks have elapsed and these people here have participated in a process; a democratic process of sitting down to reflect on the realities of our nation and then proceeded to ask themselves the question whether they were going to be part of the problem of the Gambia or part of the solution . Finally we all agreed that we are going to be part of the solution. That is why my speech will not be a long one. The actions speak for themselves. I am highly inspired that these people had finally answered to the call of destiny. They know that they will die and what they are thinking of is what will be left behind for posterity. And I hope that our other colleagues in the opposition will see that the fears that some people had did not exist. There is no acrimony here and there will be no acrimony here. Acrimony is present where there is selfish interest, where people struggle for power for its sake. But here what we have agreed is that this united front will not seek power for its sake. Its fundamental objective is to empower the Gambian people so that leaders will be public servants, public trustees who will manage their wealth in order to ensure their prosperity, who will create laws that will protect their rights, who will create institutions that will protect their rights. That is why the instrument that we are going to sign here, which gave rise to this ceremony, is an embodiment of what the future of the Gambian people holds. You have the opportunity to read it and you will see that fundamentally all of us have agreed that no modern society can develop and protect her population, ensure their liberty and prosperity without having strong instruments, that we call constitution and other laws, strong institutions and democratic, accountable and transparent institutional practices. Our aim is to transform the Constitution of the Gambia so that every thing they have left out that does serve the interest of people will be put in and all that is put in that does not serve the interest of the people would be expunged. We will transform the laws of The Gambia, make our National Assembly, judiciary and all the other oversight institutions, such as the Independent Electoral Commission independent institutions, which no one will be able to dominate or dictate to. It is our aspiration to ensure that the Gambian people are free to form unions and the unions will protect the rights of workers. Our people will no longer be mere objects waiting for the dictates of others. Now they will be active citizens who will combine together to check the powers of government.
I must conclude by affirming what we have stated in our mission and vision that no individual on this earth is honest enough, is trustworthy enough to be allowed to have absolute power to control the destiny of a people. Power that is not checked and controlled; power that is not restrained by the constitution, by institutions, by a people who are aware, who know their rights and how to defend them, becomes absolute and corrupt. What we aim to do is to change the nature of the power that exists today which is centralised and transform it into a power that will devolve authority to the Gambian people who never again will ever allow any leader to dominate them, seize their freedom, and force them to live in poverty and degradation from the cradle to the grave. This is what we commit ourselves to.
To conclude I must also give you a surprise. A review of what we are about to sign will not reveal anything that deprives any one of us of the right to seek political office.
On the 3rd November each of us has the right to seek the position of president or vice president and we will do so in the spirit of fairness and competition. When we signed the NADD memorandum of understanding I was the coordinator and there was no provision in that MOU that said that a coordinator could not be a presidential candidate. In the NADD memorandum of understanding when we signed at Palm Grove Hotel, what was there is that on the day of signing the memorandum the coordinator will cease to be the coordinator and the chairperson will cease to be the chairperson. I had done my job as a coordinator until we established NADD. The signing ceremony at Palm Grove should have been the end of my mandate and I should have returned to my party as its Secretary General but all the political parties agreed that I should continue. Eventually, I was being blamed that I should not have accepted what was unanimously given, even though I did not want it. I accepted it only because of duty.
Today nobody is asking me not to seek the mandate of president or vice president. However out of my own volition I would want to tell this audience that I will not be seeking such an office in this coming selection process. Why? because I have grown in Gambian society to be a conscience of a nation. When I was struggling to end the suffering of our people during the witchcraft scenario, many people said that I was doing it to build my political statue for the 2011 presidential election. By not seeking the office, I believe those people will know that the offices of president and vice president are not of value to Halifa Sallah. Those positions are positions of service, not positions of privilege. They do not belong to any individual they belong to the nation.
When we started this process and we recommended that we should hold a convention and all parties should participate so that we could seek the political office of president and win, some people felt that I was making this recommendation to trap people so that ultimately I will emerge as the presidential candidate. But again it is very clear that those people were mistaken in their conception.
I believe now we will have a number of people, at least two people who will eventually contest for these positions. Delegates should go there as mature citizens not loyal to individual parties, but citizens who want their nation to be transformed so that the liberty and prosperity of our people will be guaranteed. I have earned respect in this country and I will utilise that respect to ensure that this coming election is violent free, detention free and arrest free. People will be able to go out and carry out their campaign without any fear of repression. I will be able to take up, as chairperson of the inter party committee, an effective role that people like Desmond Tutu are playing in the world; the role of serving as conscience of a nation so that injustice will not be and impunity will not be. I’m calling on all of you to know that not seeking this office is the best thing that I can do under the present circumstances to put integrity in the process and ensure that we win victory to salvage Gambia. "Foroyaa
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Edited by - kobo on 02 Nov 2011 12:25:16 |
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