Those who appreciate truth when they see it must rely on institutional memory to recognise it. The current state of the Coalition could only be understood by the honest and the sincere by relying on its genesis. Once that is the case one would accept the fact and state them as they are and leave the different interest groups to interpret it as they wish and as it serves their interest.
The Gambian should know that interest speaks in interpreting facts. Sometimes such interests even compel observers to close their eyes to facts and rely on half-truths to interpret reality. First and foremost, most Gambians did not know whether a coalition would emerge in 2016 and what type of coalition it would be. The Coalition developed as a tactical instrument aimed at creating a mass movement rather than a partisan movement for change. When the Coalition was the Coalition no one spoke about political parties. They were talking one Gambia, one Nation, one people. Under the current situation, people are talking about personality based movements and political parties. Is that what people fought for? Who is responsible for this? Is this about innocence or guilt? Hindsight reveals that the whole objective of holding a non-partisan convention was to create a non-partisan candidate to carry out a non-partisan movement to carry out a nonpartisan campaign to win an election as a movement to build a new Gambia owned by everyone.
Leaders had their choice of candidates and they made their choice. Why should anyone blame anyone? The choice they made was not imposed on them. The same leaders chose to build their parties, contest elections and create a partisan reality out of a non-partisan agenda. How do you remedy this?
What Gambians should do is to accept that a new reality has dawned that few anticipated. Each must now interpret this reality and move on. Those with similar interests will see point of convergence. Those who do not have similar interests will agree to disagree. That is society. Nothing is permanent but interests and truth, which may converge or diverge.
Gambians must finally come to terms with the fact that what is sensible to some could not be sensible to others. Let us debate in good faith and agree or disagree when the conditions dictate. History is ahead of us. Some rely on common sense and recommend for participation in everything.
However, when conclusions are reached, we may come to realise that common sense can be mistaken sometimes if they are based on short-short sightedness. Short sightedness has its common sense and farsightedness has its common sense. Both are common sense but they do not give rise to the same conceptions of reality and prediction of outcomes.
