UNITED GAMBIA ASSOCIATION: PART V

By Professor Abdoulaye Saine

Following the Gambia's 2006 presidential election, and the opposition's unsuccessful attempt to effect democratic change, the time has come for all Gambians interested in peaceful change to assess, meet, and strategize for the future.  A countless number of commentators have argued with clarity how our own efforts and those of the opposition politicians at home contributed to President Jammeh's victory.  It is clear that the opposition at home made many mistakes, but we in the Diaspora must also own up to mistakes we made. We must now draw important lessons from our collective mistakes in order to enable us forge ahead and plan for the next presidential election in 2011 and beyond.   The first lesson we all must learn is our collective responsibility in and contribution to Jammeh's victory, in spite of our best efforts.  Once we come to a consensus on this important issue, only then can we begin the difficult task of determining where we need to go from here.

The proposed Gambian Diaspora Conference in Chicago seeks to explore answers to many questions.  No question must be left unanswered, and more importantly, no question is trivial.  We encourage Gambians in the US and Europe to attend if they can or send delegates to this important conference.  Those unable to attend can send letters or email to the steering committee so that they can have their concerns heard.  Here are a few questions to get us started:

(a) What were our successes in seeking to effect peaceful democratic change in The Gambia? Where did we go wrong?  Why were we divided?
(b) What are the issues that divided us and continue to do so?
(c) What do we need to do to build on the issues that unite us?
(d) Conversely, how can we minimize differences to establish productive working relationships?
(e) How would we assess success in achieving these common goals?
(f) Where do we go from here?

Clearly, these questions are not exhaustive but are sufficient to get the conference started. We may, depending on the interest and size of the conference, have one large opening session in which all can attend and then break-up into groups or committees.  Each committee will be given a specific task to deliberate on and then report to the concluding session.  During this session, reports from different committees would be discussed.

At the end of the conference we should:

(a) Come up with a clear set of goals; agree on our relationship with opposition parties and politicians at home; and establish what role(s) we wish to play in The Gambia and how, etc.,
(b) Set a timeline when stated goals would be reasonably achieved;
(c) Select committees to coordinate activities toward realizing goals;
(d) Put in place a group to resolve conflicts and iron out differences;
(e) Elect/select a permanent steering committee/ contact person to communicate with political parties/ politicians and
(f) Draw up a document that defines the framework of a new organization.

We expect orderly conduct in these meetings while simultaneously providing everyone in attendance a reasonable opportunity to address the conference. Conference agreements and decisions must be effectively communicated to political parties and politicians at home, all delegates in attendance and Gambians everywhere who were unable to be present.

Finally, we must expect and respect dissenting voices and strive to include women, and youth in all the vital organs/ committees that are formed, and establish effective mode(s) of communication following the conference in order to pursue established goals and identify a future venue for another conference in a year or two.

  Abdoulaye Saine
Hamilton , OH