Political Parties Without Ideology Will Die a Natural Death

by Alagi Yorro Jallow.
Fatoumatta: The emerging political Godfatherism in our political clime and the survival of and sustenance of political party heritage and its legacies in the Gambia is a matter of life and death reflections amid with the rise and fall of political parties in the Gambia.
Politicians should learn and readjust their political strategies, tactics, and political philosophy or political theory. Throughout the Gambia’s history, the power of political parties has risen and fallen, reaching their nadir in the last two decades. Gambians today attribute to political parties the very maladies from which great parties would save us if only we would restore them. Great political parties of the past,pre-independence, and with selected post-independence political movements put political party convictions, ideals, and principles above Godfatherism or candidate or personalities and institutionalized resources to maintain coalitions based on principles. Political parties with identification and moderate ideology politics and provide opportunities for leadership in party politics. Political parties are encouraged to put the national interest ahead of narrow interests.
Fatoumatta: A time may come one Godson sired by a political Goodfather may become the undertaker the heritage and sustained inter of the political parties remain till eternity. As a chronicler of political happenings and events
around us, my position herein is a product of some dynamic analysis and observation of flippant characters who double as godfathers by one the privilege or the other even though some of them are not what they portray themselves to be.
Fatoumatta: If, as a political Godfather, every political Godson he helps install in office in one way or the other decides to cut off from him midway into their political aspiration, then something must be wrong with the Godfather. It is either he has a poor sense of judgment in picking his Godsons, or his Achilles heel is that of his overbearing parasitic influence on the Godson. It would help if he rethought his ways lest he suffers a perilous political fate.
In the Gambia, not much weight is given to ideas in party politics. Political parties in the Gambia lack ideological anchors. That is why we should probably not blame politicians changing parties frequently because there are no ideological borders to cross in the political landscape. Evidence has shown that political traditions of political parties without an ideology and identification, in addition to the power of grassroots members in a political party, have proved not to be durable. Whatever happened to the traditions of the independence era and post-independence era political organization people’s Progressive Party( PPP) liberation of Sir Dawda Jawara, United Party (UP) nationalism of Pierre Sarr Njie, the welfarism party of Ibrahima Garba Jahumpa Muslim Congress Party in Gambian politics today and the National Convention Party(NCP of Sheriff Mustapha Dibba?
Fatoumatta: Specifically, what are the ideologies of the United Democratic Party (UDP), the majority in the National Assembly and government in power, the opposition, Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction (APRC), the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), the Gambia Moral Congress (GMC), the Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC) and other newly formed smaller parties or ‘briefcase political movements’? These parties are yet to mobilize the people around coherent visions of development and identification, turning a platform of grassroots democracy to build a coalition across a wide range of political ideology, the ideologies of liberalism and conservatism. Apart from the People’s Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS), whose party ideology has been identified since its inception as “scientific socialism, democratic sovereign republicanism.”
The three administrations so far, the PPP, APRC, and the UDP led majority produced only and came up with “agendas” after their respective leaders assumed the presidency. Similarly, the UDP led alliance now in power is yet to articulate any coherent strategy of development. Little surprise that the rumblings in the Adama Barrow so-called coalition have nothing to do with policy disagreements just as the schism in the APRC and PPP does not derive from any ideological division. Politics has been indecently reduced to electoral calculations towards simply electoracy and no more democracy.
Fatoumatta: Our present political parties and their structures need parameter pillars that will make them stronger with unique ideologies. However, our current political parties need a surgical operation that will fusion them into a reasonable number. I have been an advocate of two-party systems. Yet, in our present reality in the Gambia, our political parties can fusion into strong political association/party that can form a formidable opposition to a ruling party.
As students of history, we are aware that many advanced democracies have two distinct ideological political parties, with a handful of smaller political parties that serve as buffer whenever any of the known political parties derailed or became unpopular. I still believe in two-party systems as the best option for the Gambia, with a population of fewer than 2 million people.
Fatoumatta: It is my prediction that most of the smaller parties without political structures and ideology also grassroots mobilization will die a natural death or retreat into eternal insignificance, just like the United Party of Pierre Sarr Njie.GPP of Assan Musa Camara and the NCP of Sheriff Mustapha Dibba. These newest political parties are a tool for mass coercion parties whose only ideology is elections will die a natural death. There are political parties that people do not talk about. Its members are greedy, selfish, and self-serving. It is called AGIP (Any Government in Power).