Mai Ahmad Fatty of the Gambia Moral Congress party (GMC) is leading calls for Gambians to stand up against attacks on their values.
He said Gambians must advocate and promote pluralism and tolerance based on Gambian values and not foreign ideas.
“We must be our sister’s/brother’s keepers, not our sister’s/brother’s oppressors; we must give more, not take more. We must have the strength to rise above what we think divides us and reach for something greater. That has always been the great challenge of politics,” the GMC leader wrote on his Facebook page.
Mr Fatty added that Gambians are facing urgent challenges that they must confront.
“They are the challenges of a nation, not the challenges of an ethnic group, religion or region. Our people need security of livelihood. They need roads on which to drive their cars and transport their goods. They need houses in which to live and bring up their children. They need an education system that delivers graduates capable of adding value to the economy and a health system that protects them when they are sick, portable water to accentuate life. They need jobs to make a decent living with reliable energy supply to compliment their living standard. We must tackle the deep social inequality and focus on the promise of greatness we can achieve. And more.
“Our values are under attack. We must confront these long term challenges that were left undressed and restore the balance. This is the debate that should dominate our political discourse. It demands an explosion of competence, the understanding of complex problems and the ever demanding search for innovative solutions that cut across all boundaries.
Mr Fatty said Gambians must all be bold enough to play the politics of a constructive future and not take the easy route to destruction, including promoting destructive foreign culture.
He added: “The kind of people that we need to run and serve our country must be unifying, not divisive along the lines of misguided cultural disorientation under the feign pretext of diversity. It is easy to divide using imported cultural infiltration. It is difficult to rule grounded on Gambian realities, values, morality and be accepted by all.
“Politicians must step up and lead. Though our nation is going through some tough times, I am confident that we will get through it successfully. I believe in us. Inshaa’Allah, [Allah willing] we will achieve our national goals without sacrificing the fundamental principles of our two religions, and the values we hold dear as a Faith Nation.
“I have never been oblivious of this. Yet there are those among us who see the myriad of issues in pure economic terms. That is not how to build a people centred prosperity. The holistic welfare of a people goes beyond simple economics, and that is where the misperception under which a multitude belabours under lies. Providing quality of life to our people also entails building their confidence about themselves, pride in their values, their history, in their originality, what mints them and what makes them who they are, and not mere helpless intellectual clones of globalisation.”
