REJOINDER ON THE FUTILE INVITATION FROM HALIFA SALLAH
MAI AHMAD FATTY, GMC Leader
As a political Party, the fundamental priority of GMC is to achieve a robust acceleration of the demise of the dictatorial regime of Yaya Jammeh, replacing it with the unfettered choice of Gambians. Ending this brutal regime is our principal focus and agenda. Everything GMC and I do politically for now, is aimed at effecting this outcome. Therefore, I have no time to waste in arguing philosophical fundamentals with Hon. Halifa Sallah at any fora. I need not tout my competence in effectively tackling the Hon. Halifa Sallah on any subject of his choice relating to national politics. Indeed the Hon. Halifa Sallah had issued similar challenge to other opposition leaders before me, today is our turn. We regret that this type of regular combative and unproductive engagement has become the trademark of a seasoned politician of thrity years experience. The time shall never be ideal for me to accept an invitation to this pointless show of brinkmanship. For now, GMC recognises that the common enemy to fight is Yaya Jammeh and the APRC regime. We also recognise that Gambians are fed up with the constant bickering and disunity among the opposition, which predates the founding of GMC and my entry into politics. At this crucial period of our nation’s political evolution, we choose to aim our bayonets at Yaya Jammeh and his brutal machinery, instead of accepting a futile invitation to a needless political duel by Hon. Sallah. Thank you, but no thanks.It is important to put into context the reasons behind my said Statement written two weeks ago and quoted by the Hon. Halifa Sallah, today in his Press Release. I wrote that Statement on Facebook, at a time when the overwhelming majority of Gambians were writing several disparaging comments against PDOIS and against Hon. Halifa Sallah’s own personality on Facebook. I felt that the inordinate concentration by many Gambians on Facebook on the failure of PDOIS to join my colleagues and I within the opposition in condemning Yaya Jammeh’s propensities, was constituting a major source of distraction from the urgent need to unite against the APRC. I also felt quite honestly that some of the disparaging comments that were being written about Halifa Sallah on Facebook at the time were unfair to him, and in all sincerity I came to his defense. That was how that Statement came about. It was not an interview as Hon. Halifa Sallah claimed.
It is plain that if there were no philosophical differences between PDOIS and myself, I would have been a member of PDOIS instead of leading a different political Party. Nonetheless, I recognise that for now I have a much more important and urgent task at hand – fighting to end the regime of Yaya Jammeh instead of accepting Hon. Halifa Sallah’s invitation to an argument. GMC is certain that Gambians shall win the fight against Yaya Jammeh. Following victory against dictatorship, and provided I continue to enjoy the verifiable confidence, open support and clear loyalty of GMC members as their chosen leader, Hon. Sallah’s golden wish to debate us may perhaps come true. Until then, we will resist all efforts to drag us into any form of confrontation that merely serves the interests of Yaya Jammeh, by pitching our supporters against those of PDOIS, and offering the dictator the break he feverishly scouts for. This is a time for consensus and unity, not division.
Hon. Halifa Sallah spoke about his Party’s plans for 2016 elections. Both GMC and PDOIS are members of G-6, which took a decision a year ago not to contest at elections against Yaya Jammeh and APRC unless our demands for comprehensive electoral reforms were met. That was why G-6 Opposition Parties, including PDOIS did not participate at the last legislative elections. It is known to all Gambians that nothing has changed politically with the stand of the IEC in collusion with APRC, and G-6 demands for a level playing field remain rejected by both. It would therefore be inconsistent and indeed incomprehensible for PDOIS to unilaterally plan for 2016 election with Yaya Jammeh under the same conditions that prevented us all from contesting the Parliamentary elections, without inviting their fellow G-6 members to review our common position. To me, that amounts to swallowing one’s spartum.
Instead of accepting to debate Hon. Halifa Sallah, we invite him and PDOIS to join us and the Diaspora in working with other Gambian groups on a united platform in securing those circumstances that would ensure a democratic Gambia, free from Yaya Jammeh and the APRC. This is what Gambians require of us now – to unite and fight with them and for them – and not inviting each other at redundant contests of chest-pounding intellectual acrobatics.
Therefore, having made the above points, I refuse to respond to Hon. Halifa Sallah any further, now or in the future on this and related matters. My declination is not an acknowdgement of the superiority of outmoded ideas; rather out of the consciousness that at this time, Yaya Jammeh shall be the sole beneficiary of the perception of internal acrimony within the opposition, talkless of actual in-fighting – both at home and in the Diaspora. Falling for such subterfuge would be a crime against our people. I call on Hon. Halifa Sallah to desist, not to distract us from our on-going efforts in collaborating with like minds to quickly end this brutal dicatorship. There is a time for everything. This is not the time to engage in endless, meaningless hair-splitting polemics with you, Hon. Halifa Sallah. Yaya Jammeh and APRC remain our targets, and that’s what we have time for as at now; that is also where I am utilising my energies.
Long live the Republic of The Gambia!
Dated the 18th November 2013.