Frelimo behaves as if it were a single party – Samora Machel Jr.

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Frelimo behaves as if it were a single party – Samora Machel Jr.

4:23 CAT | 03 Dec 2018

Photo: Interlusofona

Frelimo, the ruling party in Mozambique, behaves as if it were a single party, Samora Machel Junior, son of the country’s first president said in Lisbon on Sunday, advocating a process of change within the structure of the party of which he is a member.

Samora Machel Junior, who was in Lisbon to participate in a tribute to his father, Samora Machel, the first president of the Republic of Mozambique, promoted on Friday by the Portugal-Mozambique Chamber of Commerce, criticised in an interview with Lusa the current behaviour of his party, arguing that it [the party] is asking for changes while admitting that there are cleavages he prefers to call “differences of opinion” within the organisation.

“First, I think that the party has moved away a lot from its electorate, which is the people. It has become arrogant,” he said, adding: “We have to start being humbler, getting closer to people, we have to present programmes and proposals that are feasible and realistic. We have to avoid promising things that we do not deliver later and behave like a party that is part of a democratic process.”

The son of the former president of Mozambique agrees that “there is a feeling within the party” that it has to improve, though there are those who find it difficult to accept change and those who assimilate it easily.

“The important thing is that we all sit down and talk, talk and discuss within the organisation how to improve the situation and avoid disgruntled elements or comrades,” he said. Board meeting or Central Committee meetings are forums where discussion can begin, he indicated as examples.

Samora Machel Junior admits that there is a part of Frelimo which is demanding change and another that thinks that no change is necessary. But those, he says, he “would not call cleavages, but difference of opinion”.

“We have to sit down and set the path the party has to take,” he said.

Party members should be the driving force behind this change, he believes.

“We are aware that we have to make changes, we have to improve what is already good, but it must be all of us who have to participate in this, not one single element that will do it. And I believe that this change has already begun,” he said.

Asked about the openness of Filipe Nyusi, current leader of Frelimo and president of Mozambique, to these changes, Samora Machel Junior replies: “I believe there is openness on the part of who leads the party.”

In the opinion of Samora Mache Junior, a militant and a member of Frelimo’s Central Committee, the party’s good or bad moments should not be attributed solely to its leadership.

“We are all part of the party and the party has to be open to criticism and self-criticism. If we cannot criticise ourselves and we are not prepared to make the changes, obviously the performance will be bad,” he said.

Leadership is in art made of responsibility, with the obligation to lay out the path that the party must follow, but all members must assume responsibility for the mistakes, the victories and the bad moments, he says.

“We must not forget that Mozambique is not on an island, it is in the world,” he said.

Globalisation affects the performance of the country directly, at the level of the economy, society and other areas. As a developing country that has come through a civil war which practically brought it to its knees, Mozambique has to undergo a reconstruction process that does not happen overnight, he recalls.

“It takes calm, it takes time, it takes patience, a lot of work, a lot of effort and a lot of dedication to make that happen,” he said. “Obviously we all want growth to be faster and results immediate, but that does not happen – we have to keep working.”

Along with these aspects, other problems have arisen, such as corruption, lack of transparency and lack of honesty, he mentions.

“All happening under Frelimo [governments], which wears down the image of the party. And the electorate begins to look at other solutions,” he said.

“But I believe that Frelimo is going to rediscover itself,” he concludes.

Samora Machel Junior was barred from running for the mayor of Maputo because the Youth Development Association of Mozambique (AJUDEM), whose list supported him, could not provide a sufficient number of substitutes.

Samora Machel Junior decided to head the AJUDEM list after his attempt to compete internally within Frelimo for the Maputo municipality candidacy in the October local elections was vetoed, for reasons that have never been clarified.

Source: Lusa