Mr Simon Sabally did inquire into issues that Halifa Sallah claimed to have been hesitant to address during a discussion over QTV that ended up being a debate with Dr Ebrima Ceesay.
We will now open up the debate with some reflection for our readers to keep track of the key points.
Key among the points he mentioned is the ambiguity of the decision that Gambians are claiming to have made on 2nd December 2016 as reflected in T-shirts and posters all over the country and the whole world. He quoted the result of the 2016 Presidential Election and questioned how Gambians could rely on it to claim that the Nation has decided. He argued that Gambia was a nation heading towards war, but was saved by political strategies and tactics that gave rise to victory and a fragmented nation requiring further political strategies and tactics to cement it into a unified and peaceful entity.
Asked to draw his conclusion on the subject of his fears, Halifa Sallah indicated that he was afraid to tell the Gambian people that they were really labouring under a delusion that they have decided to turn a new page to build a new Gambia. He argued that the vast majority who did not vote for the coalition were marvelled by the change and had no option but just to wait for the outcome of the change. They also had no collective vision of what the change would bring since they did not take part in making it to happen. Those who made it to happen had different reasons for doing so. Once it happened, each began to build one’s constituency to prepare for a future power struggle.
Hence 2nd December 2016 reflected a victory based on the combined votes of those who decided to vote against what they did not want and that coincidentally became the simple majority that carried the vote, even though they did not constitute the absolute majority that voted. In fact, if those who abstained are added to the absolute majority what Gambians decided on 2ndDecember 2016 would become more precarious.
Instead of sitting down to work out the strategy and tactics on the way forward, the fragmentation even increased in the National Assembly elections, which further showed that Gambia had changed forever but the change was not being guided towards a unified path. The results of the presidential election gave the impression that if the APRC contested the National Assembly elections against a fragmented coalition, it could have the majority in parliament and that the GDC would follow. This did not happen.
Instead many candidates stood for parties whose values they did not believe in and who are now on their own in parliament without real party affiliation. The political animal Gambians have created defies political physiognomy that is comprehensible. Thus, every sincere Gambian who wanted a new start for The Gambia must now be wondering how that new start is to be effected. That Gambians are simply caught between the frying pan and the fire in the three year-five-year political blocs that have no link or bearing to the original agenda of founding Coalition 2016 is a truism that no one could deny. This is threatening further fragmentation of the political life of the country as non-transformative political platforms are randomly created.
Is the country heading behind its point of departure of political turbulence, with different forces trying to mainstream their interest for power behind ethno-linguistic youth, women or other sectarian agendas or would we have the maturity to carve a new path towards nurturing a new Gambian capable of building a new Gambia?
Read part 4 https://foroyaa.net/foroyaa-has-opened-this-column-for-political-debate-on-divergent-views-a-political-debate-that-is-enriching-enlightening-and-free-from-insults-that-is-geared-towards-nurturing-a-new-gambian-in-orde-7/
