Maputo, 22 Nov (AIM) – One of the most respected figures from Mozambique’s war of liberation from Portuguese colonial rule, former Health Minister Helder Martins, has warned the ruling Frelimo Party that, since it has governed the country since independence in 1975, “we cannot blame our political adversaries for this disastrous situation”.
Martins is one of only five surviving members of the group of 300 militants who founded Frelimo in 1962. Under President Samora Machel, he was the country’s first health minister.
In an open letter addressed to Frelimo President Filipe Nyusi, and to the party’s general secretary, Daniel Chapo, he warned that Frelimo is facing its “worst crisis ever”, which threatens its very existence as the party leading the development of the nation.
To deny the existence of this crisis would be “a betrayal of the noble aims of our party”, and would “intentionally condemn the party to destruction”.
Frelimo, he accused, “has been infiltrated by opportunists of all kinds, who see in politics a means of enrichment with public property and the sweat of the people”.
Some of these “opportunists” had seized leadership positions, and “as a result, the practice has been installed in the party of obstructing the right to opinion and the space for discussion has been closed. Today, only the voice of flattery is heard inside the party”.
Martins traced the decline of Frelimo back to the party’s Fifth Congress in 1989, when criteria for party membership were abandoned. Frelimo was transformed from a vanguard party into a broad front, and the lack of criteria for joining the party “resulted in a slow, gradual process of infiltration by opportunists”.
At much the same time, ethical criteria about the sources of funding for the party were also abandoned. Frelimo came to accept money from “illicit sources, and mafia members were treated with respect just because they financed the party”.
Martins accepted that he bore part of the blame, since he had kept silent about the crisis for so long. But it was now time “to stand up and declare, Enough! I don’t want to be an accomplice or a coward any more”.
Martins had no doubt that the immediate spark for the crisis was electoral fraud – first, in the 2023 municipal elections and now in the general elections of 9 October. The election management bodies were completely discredited, and electoral fraud “has been enshrined in the most shameful manner”. This was why many citizens, including Frelimo members, had stopped voting for Frelimo.
The election fraud was the reason for the current instability, and attacking consequences rather than going to the root of the problem was “the politics of the ostrich”.
The ensuing police repression of demonstrations and of supporters of opposition parties, with its train of deaths and injuries, were “an assault against the Constitution and against all the human rights conventions that Mozambique has signed”.
The attacks against the demonstrators “reveal an abominable contempt for human life”, said Martin. The “authoritarian declarations” made by senior police figures, were “totally counter-productive since they ensured ever greater radicalisation of the demonstrators”.
“Imagining that you can win in politics through tyranny is a very serious mistake”, Martins continued. “The violence of police repression can only generate violence and disorder from those who have been attacked”.
He argued that it is now up to Frelimo militants to correct the party’s current course “so that we can recover our popular social base”.
He called for “an urgent, comprehensive national conference” to analyse the situation and “through frank and honest dialogue reach political consensus which can bring peace and socio-economic development to our country”.
This would not just be a Frelimo gathering: Martins said it should be open to all political parties, civil society organisations, professional associations, universities, religious denominations and cultural associations.
The Conference would produce recommendations that Frelimo would consider at a “National Cadre Meeting”. This would define criteria for purifying the ranks of Frelimo, leading to “the complete re-oganisation of the party”. It would draw up a Plan of Action “seeking to re-connect the party with the people”.
Martins suggested that following the National Cadre meeting, Frelimo should hold an extraordinary Congress, which would decide how to implement the restructuring of the party.
In conclusion, Martins said it is “a moral and political imperative” not to continue witnessing acts “which constitute flagrantly illegal, fraudulent and anti-patriotic practices, organised and committed in the name of the Frelimo Party”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (748)
