Union

By Mathew K Jallow 

Lady and Gentlemen, 

“This email, as we all know, is coming to you at this critical juncture in the life of the independent media in The Gambia. The past several years have afforded us all a rich experience of learning, making mistakes and learning to grow from them, and falling down and raising up against all the odds, and today we should all be very proud of our accomplishments as members of The Gambian media fraternity. For The Gambia finally has a real independent media, a media that is diverse, that is focused, is committed and a media that can finally spread its wings and fly with pride. There is no independent press in Africa that is more committed, knowledgeable, and up to speed with current national and international events. As you all will agree, even a year can make such a remarkable difference in our lives. The Gambian media too is undergoing dramatic developments and mind-blowing growth that offers us both challenges and opportunities for it to grow and keep pace with the practicing media and the needs of our country. We have a unique opportunity to be able to help provide the resources to our sister union back home needs to help it grow and prosper, but our ability to do so has been limited by our inability to form a union  that is truly representative of a Gambia media in the U.S. After many discussions with a variety of journalists both active and inactive, and media owners in the U.S, the time has come for us to put heads together and recreate Gambia Press Union (USA) into a more representative and active organ for the development of Gambia media. I, therefore, call on the current executive to respond to this calling in the interest of unity and progress of our media. Look forward to you response.” 

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Gambians and friends of The Gambia around the world, this above email I addressed privately to Baba Galleh Jallow and copied to the Gambia Press Union (USA) executive on behalf of the owners, proprietors, writers and editors of Gambian media in the U.S, is what precipitated the acrimony and bickering of the entire last and this week. This email, contrary to image that was being portrayed about me, as a disruptive, arrogant, and unreasonable, was I think, straightforward, fair, reasonable and really not asking for too much. All the aggrieved party, the Gambian Press houses in the U.S. want is inclusiveness in this body that was originated by members of the executive; specifically, Baba Galleh Jallow, Fatou Jaw-Manneh and Pa Samba Jaw and others. This was not confrontational and was certainly not asking for the dissolution of the existing executive, nor was it an attempt at a coup as some ignorant Londoner put it. My primary motive was not to create a raucous, but to find a solution to what was perceived by the owners of the Gambian press in the U.S. as exclusive. Media owners are displeased with the way the executive was selected, elected and nominated, when they were informed after the fact, as a result, they decided to hold back in order not to legitimize an executive they had no part in selecting or electing. This blew completely out of proportion only after it was inadvertently posted in Gambia post and Gambia-L, but not by us. Dr. Jaiteh then made a comment in Gambia-L with which I agreed; to the effect that this was family squabble that ought to remain within the family. Baba Galleh Jallow’s first response and my subsequent three paragraphs response to his response posted below were all very cordial.  

Dear All,  

I first want to inform you all that I am not getting many of these email, because the computer rejects the "4" in my email address which causes the mail to return. Here is what you do; after clicking the "reply all" button, make sure that the "4" is inserted correctly in my email address prior to clicking the "send' button. Thanks.  

I first want to thank Baba Galleh and Pa Samba for their courageous moves. This is not a mark of cowardice, but a sign of strength. It reflects confidence and mirrors intellectual maturity. By resigning, it does not mean that they are out of the picture; instead, they will be very critical in moving GPU forward. Every step of the way, they will be consulted for critical advice, and this logic of this stems from the fact that they know the history of GPU, and where we are, how we got here, and the plans they put in place in order to move the organization forward. Lady and gentlemen, we are not reinventing the wheel here; merely changing it for the good of everyone.  

At this juncture, I must confess that I am disappointed with the tone of some of the emails from Fatou Jaw and the other discordant stuff on the forums. First of all, it is disingenuous to call this move a revolution, but more importantly the name-calling and characterizations are completely out of sync with what we are trying to achieve here. Regardless of whatever happened yesterday, we have a problem of representation and legitimacy here, which we cannot and will not ignore not matter what. If the people who own and run the Gambian media here and in the U.S. feel that they are not being represented and are therefore declining to participate in any GPU activity, then simple logic tell me that something is very wrong and must rightly be addressed. That is just what we are trying to do here. And all insinuations that other people are behind this are without merit, and I can assure everyone I acted in the interest of GPU and only GPU. This interest in what is happening with GPU came as a result of a research I was doing to seek funding for some projects. I proceeded to call and talk to various media owners and active and inactive journalists about GPU, and the genesis of what we are doing arose from the totality of the discussions I had with them over the past three weeks.  

At this juncture, I wish to inform my brother Pa Samba Jaw it is possible that around the time you guys posted information about GPU on the forums I was probably not logging on to them. In fact, it is impossible to log on to the Gambia post as one requires a pass word to do so, which unfortunately, is a form controlling information. The post website managers have every right to configure the site the way they like, and I am not complaining about the way they run their forum; merely making a statement of fact. I think people have a right to access information exchanges on that site without being subscribing members.   

Coming back to our GPU issue, I would urge the rest of the executive to follow the example of Baba Galleh and Pa Samba. Their resignation simply implies that they are no members of an executive, but they will each hold their portfolios until a new executive is elected by the majority and a smooth transition is executed between a newly elected executive and the outgoing one. It could well be that some on the old executive could be reelected, and everyone has a right to offer their names for election when the time comes. I therefore urge Fatou Jaw-Manneh, Demba Baldeh and any remaining member of the old executive to please follow the example set by Baba Galleh and Pa Samba Jaw in the interest of civility and harmony. In any case that will not stop us moving forward to implement the necessary changes that GPU desperately needs, because I don't see how stubbornness can make the two of them run an executive that has nobody in it and a GPU that does not have a single member of the online media in it either. I have made it abundantly clear that I don't want any position in a new executive, and the hunger for position should not jeopardize the cordial relationships we have with each other.  

At first it seemed we were on the verge of making progress but it all blew up out of proportion when it was posted on the Internet forums. By his own admission, Pa Samba Jaw himself agreed that my request was fair and reasonable. Demands for the dissolution of the executive only came later after stiff resistance was met with a lot of belligerence and acrimony from both sides. Regardless of what position one or the other side held last year, the Press Union must be flexible enough to grow given the current realities. In the email above that is what I alluded to when I mentioned that:

“The Gambian media too is undergoing dramatic developments and mind-blowing growth that offers us both challenges and opportunities for it to grow and keep pace with the practicing media and the needs of our country. We have a unique opportunity to help provide the resources to our sister Gambia Press Union back home needs to help it grow and prosper, but our ability to do so has been severely limited by our inability to form a union that is truly representative of the Gambia media in the U.S.  

Given that it was the same people being elected and selected to the new executive, and given that every owner of a Gambian newspaper in the U.S, had reiterated that they were only made aware of the election and selection of an executive after the effect, was a cause for concern for me and rightly so one would argue. To them, what looked like an election was actually a selection process in which virtually the very same people, except Demba Baldeh, were recycled into the executive. Granted, the executive has made it clear over and over again that they failed to convince enough media owners to get involved then, but as my email also clearly indicates, that fact was taken into account. At the same time, I referred to changing attitudes resulting from self-examination, new circumstances and evolving paradigms that would require flexibility, accommodation, and a constant ability to renew and grow. My one and only motivation, was not the result of arrogance because I was not informed; I have enough in my hands and don’t need additional responsibilities an executive membership would task me with, but to referee between the executive and the media owners so there will be new accommodation, wider participation, much greater involvement, and a more focused commitment to the goals of a press union in the U.S.

In an email yesterday, Pa Samba Jaw emphasized to that their GPU (USA) executive was not representing or speaking on behalf of the Gambian media houses in the U.S. To me that seemed rather disingenuous, but I will take him at his word nonetheless. So where does this leave us now?

Well last night, a teleconference was organized in which we discussed the issues on both sides. After some back and forth, a suggestion was put on the table as a way to help us move forward. But, first we agreed not to publicize any of our dirty laundry as we try to work out a compromise. The proposal I laid out was for the executive to stand down, not resign or call for a dissolution, and a committee of four; two from each side to created whose sole responsibility would be to organize the election of a new executive, within the next month, this time with the full participation of Gambian media owners/houses here in the U.S and U.K. A second proposal put forward by Pa Nderry Mbai, was for the media owners/houses to be immediately co-opted into the executive. At the tele-conference, Pa Samba Jaw suggested that Baba Galleh Jallow and me take up these proposals and report our discussion and agreement to the group. This is thought was a reasonable way to avoid creating two unions when it is not necessary. By bringing the Gambian media owners in, rather than have them as passive observers, I think I am actually helping the Press Union grow and move forward; despite the demonizing I have been subjected to. The Gambia Press Union has not by all accounts been effective by all accounts and some of their activities were best left to the media, which is better suited to handle them. The Gambia Press Union’s primary responsibility, in my view, is to help the Gambian media here and at home have access to all kinds of resources that are always available and just waiting for the asking. There are all kinds of empowering conferences, fellowships, educational opportunities and seminars avail that could be tapped into for the benefit of journalists and media workers. If the media owners want to get involved this time as opposed to last year that can only be a good development we should embrace. A rather inactive and dormant press union whose accomplishment to date is issue press releases after and petitions are not what we desire. This is not to minimize the effectiveness of these petitions and press releases, but rather, to emphasize that there is a lot, lot more that The Gambia Press Union can do to move the organization forward. If, however, we fail to make progress in bringing the two sides together into a single organization, the creating of a Press Union by media houses and media owners is still on the table, particularly since Pa Samba Jaw has indicated that their executive is does not stand to represent or pretend to represent the Gambian media in the U.S. Baba Galleh Jallow and me will be opening discussion to try and bring this to an amicable resolution. I can assure all Gambians that we plan to work this out in good faith, because we know that all Gambians will applaud a fair and amicable resolution of this matter. This is where we are at this point.