When Ghost Political Parties Legitimize A Dictatorship….

….This  Editorial Is Dedicated  To Mai Fatty’s MCP Party

Our good friend and brother Mai Fatty is now a politician. He has registered a new political party in The Gambia call The  Moral Congress Party ( MCP). Mai’s party came at a time when the country is experiencing a major democratic deficiency. Hopes for democratic change of Government, through the ballot box had been shattered. The dictator Yahya Jammeh has hijacked the electoral process. The conditions for free and fair elections do not exists in The Gambia. It would be fool hardy  for any Gambian to think that Jammeh can be replaced through electoral process. We can form hundreds of political parties, but this wouldn’t change the situation. This is our humble position.

Under the current situation, the IEC has no choice, but to register any party, because it’s in Jammeh’s interest for such parties to be registered. After all, Jammeh wants the outside world to believe that there is multi-party democracy in The Gambia.

The emergence of new parties like that of  the MCP, would give some degree of legitimacy to his rule. There is no democracy in The Gambia. Forming a political party at this hour, tantamount to committing suicide. There is no way that the chicken hearted opposition can win an election under the current situation. Mai and his group must be kidding. Are these folks for real??? You guys need to redirect your energies into other ventures to remove the bad leadership we have in Banjul. I do not advise Gambians and friends of The Gambia to waste their resources on the opposition. It's a waste of resources to lend support to The Gambian opposition. I said this without any remorse!!!

While we welcome Mr. Fatty’s  selfless efforts in trying to restore democracy in The Gambia, through the launching of his MCP party, we might not hesitate to pinpoint the double standards of the new emerging parties in the country, whose sole aim is to amass wealth to the determent of the masses. A classical example is  The Gambia  People’s Democratic Party  ( GDP) under the leadership of Henry  Gomez.

The GDP is one of those “ Ghost” parties in The Gambia, collecting funds in the name of Gambians, without any political base. The party is not accountable to its donors and Gambians. Gomez is just there to solicit funds from donors. Period!!!

Unsuspecting donors normally fall prey of such party leaders, whose preoccupation is to register bogus political parties just to amass wealth. We do not want Mai’s party to follow the footsteps of the GDP.

The GDP leader runs a cleansing company in Germany and technically he does not live in The Gambia. He shuttles between Germany and The Gambia. He hardly stays in the country.

As the saying goes “ politicians are not to be trusted.” Mai Fatty has been exchanging emails with the Freedom Newspaper for the past few days, but he never unveiled the news of his new party. It was communicated to us through other sources. Mai did mentioned in one of his communications to us that “help is on the way,” but he never elaborated further. We still could not believe that our old friend could treat us like this…. One should be wary of politicians...

There are fundamental constitutional issues faulting Mai’s leadership. The constitution says before one could contest as Presidential candidate, he or she must reside in the country for five consecutive years. Mai has been away for about two years now. We guess he is on a self imposed exile. How can an asylee runs a political party?? We are just curious here....We hope the German Government will help him to pursue his political dream.

Talking about the constitutional provision, Gomez was disqualified based on the same constitutional provisions. We do not think Mai is an exception to this law. No one is above the law.  Fatty should be  aware of the said provision.

While we wish Mai Fatty good luck in his future political endeavors, we call on Fatty to return home and team up with his colleagues to engage the dictatorship. A party leader should be willing to bear the heat with his supporters. The days of  an armchair politician is over. One cannot sit in Europe and expect to remote control our political process. You got to be on the ground to fight the enemy Jammeh.

The most interesting thing is that the IEC press release never made mention of the MCP Executive. Fatty should use his good offices to allay public fear about the legitimacy of the said party. The IEC granting you the right to operate in The Gambia, is not enough. Gambians want to read the party’s manifesto-in other words mission statement. We also want to know how the party  plans to operate while its leader is residing overseas. The MCP should be accountable to Gambians. This is a very bad start for the MCP. How can Mai exclude the Diaspora media in his efforts to ousted Jammeh?  We hope the APRC is not using Mai’s name to fool the population as it did to our editor in 2006. We are still not convinced that Mai Fatty is the party leader of MCP. Please read this editorial with an open mind. We are independent minded journalists. We do not believe in appeasing friends. We report the story as we see it.