By Halifa Sallah
Dear Dr Janneh,
This is not the time for elder bashing and ostracisation based on age. It is all the more suicidal, absurd and foolhardy to equate system change with generational change of leadership when one lacks the knowledge, experience and innovative capacity to replace them. Knowledge is the flower and seed of life. Those who trivialise it risk being marooned in a desert of bareness under the midday sun.
I hope it is now as clear to you as noon day that I have no craving for power and has always refused to be defined by the public duty I perform. That is why I stayed away from seeking or accepting Cabinet post in any government whose policies I cannot defend. Duty of representation is not a career or an achievement. It is a calling for sovereign citizens when their country and people need them. Allow me therefore to climb to the mountain top and rely on the thunder clap as my loud hailer so that those who are politically hard of hearing would be able to hear me loudly and clearly that my time for national service is overdue but I will not depart without a proper handing over process. It goes without saying that should I die before the mission of system change is achieved, I would not pardon anyone who would name a street, monument or any other artifact after me. I would not pardon any one who would make a state funeral for me or give a butut to any loved one in memory of me. I would prefer to be interred in an unmarked grave until the day that Gambia will give birth to the sons and daughters who would raise their country and people from the doldrums. It is then that I will deserve to be remembered through books and speeches and not through monuments. This I hope will confirm to you that I have no penchant for high office but seek only to serve, if duty puts me in any position of public trust. That is the chapter and verse of my mission regarding the representation aspect of politics.
I must now sum up this missive by stating the irrefutable truth that the problem of the future of The Gambia is not a generational one. The problem is the division of The Gambia into two types of leadership and followership, irrespective of age, gender, religion, regional or ethnolinguistic origin.
The first type of leadership and followership see The Gambia as a national cake and have no interest in politics but to have a bite of a lion share of the sweets of public office and live extravagantly, in pomp and privilege, at the expense of the suffering poor masses, irrespective of whether they are their own brothers and sisters or kith and kin.
The second type of leadership and followership are those who are ready to swallow the bitter pill of restlessness and industriousness to promote and safeguard the common good. Such people are ready to march forward to bite the first bullet to save the country and the people or be the last person to take a stand in defence of the country and the people when the going gets too rough for the many to take a stand. Such people would work day and night to enable the people to become the architects of a destiny free from poverty, ignorance and injustice; one that perpetually sparkles under the golden sunlight of liberty, dignity and prosperity.
Let me assure you that I am ready to give my handing over notes to such sons and daughters of our homeland whose heartbeats pulsate in unison with the heartbeats of those who have abiding love for their country and people and are ready to build a team to save The Gambia, that is, “Team Gambia 2026”.
It is also important to highlight that in between the two camps are the vacillators, distractors and detractors who hide their political loyalties by sitting on the fence and placate to be career lifelong human rights defenders rather than life long activists for the liberation of a people by deed, not just by words. They receive immense privileges and substantial income for being human rights defenders but never take the front line to participate in the liberation of a people. However, once those who take the front line in the struggle to eradicate poverty, injustice and ignorance of the rights of sovereign citizenship move one step forward in raising awareness and organising the people for system change, without enjoying any privileges or amassing any wealth from their toil and moil, they do not hesitate to engage in a mudslinging exercise to cloud the political atmosphere and push the masses two steps backward into the abyss of confusion, hopelessness and despair.They would be led to believe that men and women of integrity and knowledge would never ever surface in their lifetime to guide them to find solution to their existential challenges. These calculative distractors and detractors appear to be criticising everyone as they fish for the party or person, they could ally with to have the upper hand to move to the state house. It is then that they would exchange their human rights- cloak for a political one. Such people are good at saying things that would put the minds and conscience of the people to sleep so that they would rebel against those who are guiding them to be their own liberators until they could direct them towards a cause that would serve their vested interest. We could uncloak such people and be belligerent against their ploys but prefer not to in order to promote unity in diversity, in a bid to conserve and defend the truth that Gambia belongs to all and none should be excluded from being supported to be a better Gambian so that we could build a better Gambia.
However, it is important not to ignore what they say. The youth must fully understand that such people would not hesitate to turn political leaders into punching bags once they stand in between them and their interest.
Otherwise, could you explain to me how a human rights activist with a reasonable head on his shoulders could equate those who spent all their youthful and adult years fighting poverty, injustice and ignorance, at the expense of their own security and welfare, could be equated with those who spent decades of their lives enriching themselves and scraping the back of the people just to enjoy the fruits of political office, at the expense of their people?
Would you join me to request common sense to come to our aid and explain what kind of mind would fail to call the youth to come together to save The Gambia and instead agitate them to form an army to overthrow their elders. The road to political miseducation and political illiteracy is paved with such ill-conceived learning materials prepared by uncouth political commentators whose tactics and strategies on the way forward to heal national wounds are only fit for the dustbin of history.
Instead of investigating allegations and focusing on what is wrong with political parties and The Gambia and proffer solutions on how to right all wrongs, wherever they exist, they are pitting the youth against their elders. It is important to draw lesson that it was a twenty nine year old lieutenant who took over the country and with his fellow youth led the country for 22 years when we in PDOIS were in our late 30s and early 40s. We lived under their rule for 22 years combatting injustice, misgovernance, political illiteracy and impunity. It would constitute a great defiance of sanity to equate the pursuit of knowledge and practice to facilitate progress and justice with age of leaders. It is therefore an affront to common sense for those who wear the cloak of human rights defender to breed contempt in the heart of the young against people who took the front line in defending human rights while the leaders of the young people failed to mobilise them to confront their fellow young leaders to bring sanity to the country.
Finally, allow me to utilise this letter to you to convey to you, in particular, and Gambian people, at large, that the allegation that PDOIS is not practicing as it preaches is utter fabrication. We in the leadership have to give respect to those who support the candidates of the party at all levels otherwise we could have subjected, to rigorous cross examination, those who claim that PDOIS is not democratic, that one person decides everything or that its financial systems are weak, to prove that those who make such assertions cannot provide any evidence to back their claims. In order to prove my point, I would risk my status of an elderly statesperson by calling on you to fish for such people wherever they may be in The Gambia or the diaspora and I would agree to appear on media platform of your choosing with them to listen to their allegation and give convincing rebuttal to refute their assertions.
Allow me to make reference to a recent conversation on TV where a person acknowledged that he has never spoken to me about any of his allegations made in public. It is the verdict of common sense that suspicion must be substantiated from source. Without investigation there can be no evidence and no basis for indictment.
I would wish to assure all Gambians that PDOIS has a transparent and accountable leadership that has never had anything to hide or be ashamed of. It is a leadership that lives for and gives to the party and not one that lives for self and takes away from the party.
Hence, there is no justification to make allegation of weak control of a financial system by a new comer who does not know whether or not the Secretary General and the Administrative Secretary of PDOIS are signatories to the bank account of the party and cannot confirm whether or not the account has a financial controller who knows every butut which is credited to the account and must sanction every withdrawal from the account. None of the critics on such a matter could provide evidence-based allegation, indictment and judgement, as befit those who search for and speak the truth, in good faith, in the public interest. All they could say if such questions were posed to them is to disclose that they know nothing about the system in place because they have never bothered to investigate.
In the same vein, none of the critics on intra-party democracy could give evidence to prove that any organ of PDOIS could make decision without relying on the dictates of Article 90 of the party constitution which makes it mandatory for a quorum comprising two thirds of the members must be confirmed before any meeting of a party organ could be held. A simple majority of those present and voting is required for a decision to be taken. Neither the Chairperson nor the Secretary General has a casting vote.
It goes without saying that some of the critics were selected to be National Assembly candidates without any interference from the Central Committee thus giving the constituency and ward branches complete autonomy in decision making. All candidates for Council, National Assembly and Presidential elections are selected by consensus or direct election by party members at the ward and constituency levels, in council and national assembly elections, respectively and nationwide in presidential elections. Power therefore belongs to PDOIS members who are the real decision makers.
PDOIS is among the most democratic parties in the world which internalises dissent by not having any dismissal clause in its Constitution.
Let me conclude by assuring you that PDOIS is indeed a party that thrive on rules, knowledge and ethics, and has always taken cognisance of the fact that internal party growth and development require the taking of irreversible quantitative steps and qualitative leaps forward, as times and circumstances dictate. Hence, the PDOIS leadership has done its historic stock taking and has preprepared all the instruments and institutional framework that would help to nurture each member into a messenger with a message of hope to take to every village and town that offers solution to existential challenges. The party is now poised to pull all genuine members up and leave no one behind in imparting awareness and instilling respect for rules and code of conduct of sovereign citizenship. In fact, the coming congress will mark a major turning point in the history of the party after being kept away from its original mission by years of coalition building. Those who expect the PDOIS leadership to be the laughing stock of history will become the laughing stock of history. It is said that those who laugh last laugh the loudest. The PDOIS membership should prepare for that historic laughter of the PDOIS family and by extension the sovereign people of The Gambia, who have in PDOIS sons and daughters who are ready to live and if need be, suffer and die for Mother Gambia to have the peace and prosperity required to suckle generations yet unborn with the sweet taste of liberty, dignity and prosperity.
The Team to save the Gambia is being nurtured. The future is bright. We will never despair. We will surmount every difficulty for the people to take charge of their sovereignty and unite as one to be the architects of their own destiny.
Uncle Halifa Sallah.
