Transcribed by Momodou Jarju
Sidia Jatta, PDOIS candidate for Wuli West, has advised women in his party to work to bringing about system change in the Gambia. Below is the press release:
“Before, what had happened was what we called in English regime change. One president is gone and another president has taken his place. But that is not what we struggled for. What we struggled for fundamentally is to change a system which had prevailed and remained for the last 22 years. And which has not been operating in the interest of you people. Therefore, there is still a necessity to continue the struggle to bring about the fundamental change which is system change.
So essentially, your meeting here today has two fundamental objectives. The first objective is for you women to create a forum in which you will work together to bring about that system change. Once you have agreed together and you have created that forum then we will reflect on how to bring about that fundamental change which is system change. That is in essence what I have said.
And I said for 22 years, our party (PDOIS) has been frozen. Why? Because we were interested to bring about a mechanism which would bring about that regime change. And it has taken us for a long time, because since 2003 we were making efforts to bring about that; 2006, 2011 and 2016 finally we succeeded in bringing about a regime change. The party was frozen because there was an effort which called for unity of people. So parties were put aside. Now that has been accomplished, the only mechanism that can bring about system change is a party, a political party that you people would entrust with the responsibility of running the affairs of this country. We need a political party that can bring about system change and that is why your meeting here today is fundamentally important because you are going to address yourself to the task of reflecting of methods and ways of raising the awareness of the whole country of your members. And you spread the message nationwide to all the women in the country, to all the grades in the country and to all men in the country so that the fundamental change that we are all aspiring for, which is system change, can eventually be realised.
He said both men and women ought to work together to move mountains.”
