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"Political leaders are not stars.They do not need fans who would support them unthinkingly. They are simply amplifiers of the concerns of society. One must show respect to the leaders of others in order for them to reciprocate. I therefore call on all supporters of PDOIS to give respect to the leadership of other political parties even if they make pronouncements that aim to cast doubt on the humility and sincerity of the PDOIS leadership."Halifa (Maafanta).

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Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 12:44:07 -0400
From: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [>-<] Hon. Sidia Jatta To Mediate Among Political Parties
To: GAMBIA-L@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG


Greetings all, here's my short response/question/thought eminating from the sidelines here. Why the heck can't the leaders of the various political parties put aside their differences long enough to be in a better position to attain the current goal at hand, which is to unseat Jammeh? To my mind, once you do that , then you can worry about what kind of government you want after that. Because you are not going to get any semblance of the kind of government you want if you haggle so long, or ignore the other opposition leader you don't like so long that another election has come and gone and Jammeh can then claim an overwhelming mandate from the people to continue his rule of terror and mismanagement.

Because as long as I keep continuing to see diasporans online publishing pieces castigating Darboe for this or Sallah for that, and I continue to hear/read interviews/articles from leaders that seem to be acting like they each live a million miles away from each other instead of merely a few and thus can't possibly be able to sit down together to try to come to some level of understanding regarding the way forward, that that leads me, as someone who clearly is looking from the outside in, to believe that the opposition leaders along with their diasporan supporters would rather knit-pick at each other, and tear each other down, then put their issues and differences aside and get rid of Jammeh. And I'd almost venture to say that the Sallah and Darboe haters on both sides would rather see Jammeh in power than Darboe or Sallah respectively.

If we all can agree that we all want to see Jammeh gone, and preferrably via democratic means/the ballot box, and we all can agree that a united opposition is the best way to doing that, then certainly everyone from all sides could learn to compromise and put their differences and clear dislike for the other side aside just long enough to accomplish the goal at hand, which is dislodging Jammeh from power.

Instead people want to continue to harp on how Darboe is a coward (but no they really don't hate him), or whether or not Halifa Sallah/PDOIS maybe kinda sorta probably supported the coup because that may or may not would have paved the way for their own fortunes to get better as they would be the only opposition left in the game and thus it was in their best interest to support the coup at the time. And then of course you've got people who just can't resist wasting their valuable time and energy, that they'll never get back again, arguing with this Fankung Fankung whoever person, someone who doesn't even have the gutts to identify where he/she works and can't even be honest about where they are, who they work for, etc.

And we just don't have the time for all of this b****t, sorry. But we really don't! It's like some of us are arranging the deck chairs while the ship is sinking, or arguing about who's going to put the fire out while the house is burning up right before your eyes!

Perhaps if none of the opposition is going to play ball and learn to act like mature adults and be able to come together and compromise, then perhaps a person needs to be found who can bring everyone together and who can inspire everyone to vote for them. And Just leave the current opposition leaders to fight amongst themselves to their heart's content and their uncompromising supporters with them. And Fankung whoever he/she is, can also keep posting to their heart's content and perhaps we could all learn how to use the delete key on our computers or learn how our various email blocking features work. Because my point is we don't have time for all of these distractions! 2011 will be hear before we know it. October is just under a week away already! And I just have this strange awful sinking feeling that once the elections have come and gone, some of us will once again be on here pointing our fingers or once again scratching our heads wondering what happened, and really the answer would have been clear for all of us to see.

Ginny

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