By Omar Bah
The Gambia Moral Congress (GMC) leader, Mai Fatty, has rejected suggestions that his party is dead or in a state of coma after what appears to be a period of sustained inactivity.
Speaking in a Standard exclusive yesterday following months of silence, Fatty said his party continues to remain relevant in Gambian politics and that making public pronouncements or undertaking political PR engagements are not the only pragmatic approaches to impacting public policy.
“A lot may be happening that may not be brought into the public square. There are also times when thorough introspection and sobre reflection are necessary. What every good leader needs to do, is to self-audit; to effect, a meaningful pause and make a critical, analytical evaluation of practical exigencies within the context of evolving dynamics of national politics. For me, it is a calculated strategic decision and not merely missing in action for the sake of it,” he said.
Fatty said some politicians believe being in the news daily assures their relevance.
“They consider notoriety as a political currency. I think this may be true to a limited extent. [But] my position is that the supreme value of a leader lies in the quality of impact, the lives changed, the policy decisions that fundamentally better lives and not the ubiquitous stumping in the public space. Over the years, I have learnt a lot. I am no longer inexperienced, and experience has the effect of changing people. Experience has taught me to reform my politics,” he said.
“The logic of your question is palpably defective. Today we have not won elections just like some political parties did in the past. The story may be somewhat different today but yesterday they too confronted obstructive challenges. That is not to establish that the situation cannot change for us in the future,” Fatty noted.
He said there are countries in Africa and elsewhere where politicians continue to contest elections for over thirty to forty years without success.
“They haven’t given up. Why should we? Some succeed and others still desire to contest again. It’s a lifelong ambition. It’s a journey and not a destination. Only God can predict the future. We will not give up,” he stated.
