What
is System Change?
After
effecting a regime change in an extraordinary democratic manner, we will now
embark on a system change to consolidate the democratic gains of the New
Gambia.
Politics:
Politics
is an art of discussion on ideas, philosophy, ideology and democracy. Politics
depicts politeness, pluralism, persuasion and culture.
Politics
extends its ideological dimension into the field of political economy and its
basic tenet of economic development that are argued,experimented and applied in
economic systems such as Communism, socialism and capitalism as models of
socio-economic development.
Politics
is not a war game amongst politicians and militants.
Politicians
and militants should primarily see themselves as one big family with divergent
ideas, opinions and views vying for the seat of government to administera
socio- economic development vision and system for the total benefit of the
people they wish to lead.
As
such politicians are not war enemies of each other but rather civilize competitors
as in a civilized democracy. Just like the Lawyers will vehemently argue their
points of law in court rooms but as soon as they emerge from the court room
they become the brothers and sisters in society and at home. Politicians and
militants should equally behave like civilize lawyers in the competition for
election into office.
At
this juncture, I must give a mighty big CREDIT to the ex-PPP regime and
president Sir Dawda Jawara in particular for embracing and inculcating in us
the cardinal tenet of accepting multi-party democracy and political tolerance
that never transcend into animosity, insult, destruction and character
assassination since independence from colonial rule. Thank you Sir Dada.
These
lost values are what we Gambians must endeavor to RESTORE after loosing it from
Yaya Jammeh’s brutal dictatorial presidency for 22 years. This is why we
Gambians call for restoring a new democratic dispensation into the new Gambia.
Let
us STOP the insults in party politics and learn to argue, persuade and convince
each other to join or reject a political party as one big family, one people
and one destiny. Once we attain this mindset the Gambia will be the winner.
The
economy.
My
economic philosophy is based on private sector led growth. To unleash the
genius of the intelligence of a human being one must reward its creation and
innovation. This will make more people to endeavor to work hard, study,
createand generate new wealth, new technologies and by extension create more
employment, new markets and research development.
The
value added generated by these human intelligencesand enterprising developments
must in the greater part remain home to generate more added values for more
socio-economic development of society in general.
Employment
creation, market expansion, products and services delivery are best performed
by the private sector. As a former First Vice President of the Gambia Chamber
of Commerce and Industry for two consecutive terms, I know how to promote and
encourage enterprising for job creation and wealth creation.
I
can therefor transform the KMC municipality into a vibrant economy besides
making the environment clean, healthy and beautiful if elected your Mayor.
From
1997 to 2001, I was the national coordinator of the Gambia for the West African
Enterprise Network (WEAN) an organization funded by the USAID to help the
networking of the private sector entrepreneurs in West Africa.
TheWEAN
program availed us the opportunity to know each other in West Africa and
develop business relationshipswhich eventually lead to Mr. Nana Ofori Atta of
Ghana to access and buy the majority shares of Trust Bank Gambia Ltd. when it
was privatized by the Central Bank of the Gambia rescued from the bankrupt
Meridian Bank ltd.
Mr.
Atta was the national and regional coordinator of the WEAN group in Ghana.
I
mentioned the above experiences to expose my private records to the KMC voters
so that they know whom they are voting for in the coming mayoral elections.
Employment:
Employment
will be my priority and youth employment in particular will take precedence
over all other sectors of society in order to reduce the dramatic back way
syndrome.
We
will create a KMC solar and wind technology institute and will help graduating
students to set up small assembly plants to produce wind energy systems in
particular or get technical employment in companies specialized in these
technology’s production, marketing and sales outlets.
The
KMC will also embark on replacing all conventional public street lamps into
solar and wind energy in the next four years of my tenure if elected your
mayor.
This
transformation alone could generate hundreds of employments for the youths who
will be graduating from the institution and work as clean energy technicians.
Being
a solar technology expert my self, we have installed 57 solar water-pumping
systems in villages and 23solar electrification systemsin schools throughout
the Gambia under an EC/ACP/CILLS projects from 1993 to 1997.
KMC
will also collaborate with the telecommunication companies to offer public
Internet Wi-Fi in football fields at cost to users in exchange for tax rebates
for GSM companies. For an example if 500Mb was costing D100, users can have the
same bundle for D50.
The
Internet is no more a luxury.It is a basic necessity in this digital world. The
Internet as we know, provides everything one needs to study, educate, research,
sell,buy, entertain and make money.
As
someone who has evolvein this technology field as well, your next Mayor will
make sure the Internet is affordable to public places for the youthto access
information. To buttress this point further without bragging the first email
that landed in the Gambia landed in my email account whiles using a US Robotics
Modem and BBC Micro computer in 1998.
I
discovered the Internet back in the US in 1998 whiles attending a conference
expo called ISPCON in Baltimore Maryland.The Internet changed the world indeed.
It
is against this rich background that I intend to bring about true system change
in both politics and economic dispensations if elected your next Mayor of the
KMC.
Thank
you.
Pa
Njie Girigara.