THE DEBATE
The Third Point
It is now clear that a journalist and academic of good standing must not entertain subjectivity, prejudice and mediocrity in any of their undertakings.
One must use investigative methods if one is a journalist and research methods if one is an academic in order to establish a pool of irrefutable facts from which to draw deductions and observations before making generalizations. That is how the disciplined and versatile mind of a scholar or aspiring scholar functions.
The fact that Modou Joof could not see the clear distinction between party administration and state administration after Gambia’s experience of an Independent victor of the presidency relying on the Constitution to appoint a Cabinet to run a government for four years reveals how penchant for trivialities and common place aspersion blot out the obvious and mislead a person to read the ridiculous and the incredible as cogent arguments. If Halifa Sallah could guide President Adama Barrow to assume executive power how could he not administer the affairs of the state if he were to be elected as President? I will allow Modou to answer this question by going to the third point. He wrote :
“DOI already vindicated me and proved what I said cannot be sullied. They responded in the first person singular “I” and this manifests that the leadership has not built a truly national party in 34 years because the leadership personalize the party as their own and they firmly believe they found it, own it and will have to head it forever.”
What is the role of the Secretary General of a Party other than serving as the custodian of its institutional memory?
The role of Secretary General in PDOIS is just a function and not a mantle income crowned with reverend awe. It does not earn one any income or access route to opulence. It is a seat of sacrifice requiring minute to minute receipt and dissemination of information to promote the integrity of the party. A Secretary General does not automatically become the Presidential candidate of the party or serve as its head.
I made reference to my own conduct to move from the abstract to the concrete so that one could weigh whether there is any interest in perpetuating myself in office and by extension to affirm that there is no member of the PDOIS leadership with such intentions.
The history of the evolutionary stages PDOIS had to go through was aimed at sharing with the younger generations the sacrifices that had to be made to overcome all the thorns and rocks on the pathway to development. Instead of being inspired to know that we have succeeded in our mission in bridging all generation, gender, ethnolinguistic and religious gaps in the party and are now marching with one force towards the citadel that will enable the people to live in liberty, dignity and prosperity, Joof preferred to paint us as nostalgic dinosaurs waiting for extinction because of personalization of the party.
We want people to know that as a matter of tactics a party with a vision and mission will not be in a haste to reveal all its strength but would rather use the human resources it needs to carry out the tasks dictated by necessity as it quantitatively and qualitatively moves towards attaining its strategic objective.
In fact, we will later show in another write up how we selected two people to safeguard the visibility of PDOIS when the Political Activities Suspension Decree was promulgated in august 1994.
It was reduced to one person after the court ordered defiance to be stopped in September 1994.
PDOIS became subsumed into NADD from 2005 to 2012.
PDOIS was subsumed under Coalition 2016 until 2017 when it had to put up 22 Candidates in the National Assembly elections to fully emerge again.
Hence, few people have accepted to be the sacrificial lambs to combat all the obstacles in the first and second republics to bring about a change through the ballot box which has given confidence to all the educated, sincere and competent members of the party to rise up and take ownership of the party.
It is at this moment when those who have held the fort, come rain, come storm, come heat, with the mighty weapons of clarity, forthrightness and fortitude are now advancing with an accelerated power of motion towards building a most enlightened and broad-based national party capable of ensuring the sovereign equality of all Gambians that trumpets are being blown from mountain tops to castigate our frontline fighters of personalizing the party and wanting to head it forever. On the contrary, people are taking over the party and personalities are just there to ensure there is no seam to the momentum.
Those who are to take their place in the frontline will do on the basis of their own volition and strivings. They are there on the side building the dexterity of their hands, minds and conscience with clarity, sobriety, forthrightness and fortitude. They will never be led astray by those who barter knowledge for ignorance, grace for impudence, truth for fabrication and love of country and people for cosmetic populism.
HISTORY will be the final judge after I handle the last point.
PART FOUR
To be continued
