By Fatou Camara II
GMC leader Mai Ahmad Fatty has warned his party has never shied away from speaking its mind on national matters even if it left controversy in its wake.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Fatty stated: “We have never shied away from speaking our mind, even if it provokes controversy. And criticism is a fertilizer for us.
“So let those who criticize continue to criticize, let those who continue say ‘after all, who is he’, let those who continue say ‘well when you were in government why didn’t you speak like this, you were there you were quiet because you were eating’. Our politics is so negative and is so over-heated.
Mai Fatty spoke indistinctly as he laid out GMC’s position on the draft constitution, throughout criticizing those who aren’t willing to compromise but playing safe and steering clear of mentioning any politician’s name.
“At some point, we must be willing to sit down and talk and in any discussion, you have to give in and give out. In every discussion, everywhere where there is conflict, whether it is conflict on principle or conflict on anything, where there is a disagreement… There is a disagreement because people have different perspective. It cannot be correct to say that your position is always the right position. You must be wrong sometimes and somebody must be right sometimes. But this grandstanding, this playing to the gallery has to stop in the national interest,” Fatty said.
GMC is one of the political parties appearing to lean towards the scrapping of the retroactive clause. The only party that has shown muscle in rejecting any idea of tampering with the draft constitution is UDP. UDP’s Darboe participated in the Abuja talks where he reiterated UDP’s position. Fatty says you cannot go to a meeting with a pre-conceived mind.
“On the issue of the constitution, we have always been very clear… You cannot go to any discussion where there is a fundamental disagreement with a pre-conceived mind. When you have a pre-conceived mind, your position is already settled. You are not willing to budge,” Fatty said.
According to Mai Fatty, the issue of retroactivity is fundamental as there is a Gambian involved who also has a following, who has strong concerns about it. That Gambian can only be President Adama Barrow.
