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RENAISSANCE
CONGO 2000
Registration :
99/15572/08
222
Athol Street, Highland North Johannesburg/South
Africa
www.renaissancecongo.co.za
Johannesburg
17/08/99
RENAISSANCE
CONGO 2000 IS A NEUTRAL CONGOLESE THINK-TANK THAT
ENDEAVOURS TO ENLIGHTEN THE
INTERNATIONAL OPINION WITH SYSTEMATIZED
AND OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS ON THE
POLITICAL DYNAMIC IN THE
CONGO
Dear
site manager of Congonline,
We
read - with quite an interest - the article of
the MNDL (published on your site on 13 August 1999), in which
our organization is accused of being an instrument of Mobutists
« Primacuriens », and a
product of obscure maneuvers of the
defunct MPR Parti-Etat.
The
author of this letter deserves to be commended for his/her vigilance.
In fact genuine Congolese patriots should be watchful and very
careful to ascertain that « evil forces » do not conquer
power to subjugate our people once again. We must be bold and equip ourselves with political insight to
identify and denounce any conspiracy against the Congo.
However,
we deemed it necessary to bring clarity on the issue at hand. The
accusation by KATU. B, the spokesperson of the MNDL, is obviously
induced by ignorance. Renaissance Congo 2000 is a neutral think-tank.
Non-exclusion is one of
our tenets. If this person had read our analysis and articles
published in South African newspapers, she would have realized that we
do not serve the Mobutists (others have accused us of being pro-kabilists and others contended that
we support the Tutsis. This is a tangible indication that we denounce
evil irrespective of its color).
The constitution of our organization stipulates that any
individual who can contribute towards progress in the Congo with his
ideas is accepted in our platform. We have an executive committee
made exclusively of young Congolese intellectuals (doctors, economists,
lawyers, political scientists, IT engineers, MBAs etc.). These are the
people who run the organization.
We have an audit
structure, which ascertains that our organization
operates in strict accordance with the constitution. There is also an
honorary committee. It comprises people able to contribute with advise,
experience or materially, irrespective of their nationality.
On
the issue of Mobutists, it would be cynically contradictory to our
fundamental principles to support them – or any body for that matter.
We are of the view that they plundered the country and deserve to be
sanctioned. However, they cannot be excluded from the Congolese
society. Those who derived their wealth from plundering the coffers of
the state will have to face the law, to its fullest extent. This will
have to be done by legitimate authorities in compliance with
established legal procedures. Nevertheless, we are of the view that
there is no moral or rational grounds for Mobutists, Kabilists,
Tutsists or any other members of groups that have records of
plundering the Congo, gross human rights abuses, state management
improprieties, and democraciophobia, to return to power. WE
MUST OPEN THE EYES AND THE MINDS OF OUR PEOPLE SOTHAT THEY CAN
IDENTIFY SUCH POLITICAL PREDATORS.
The
Mobutists must be lucid and wise to realize that Congo needs another
political elite propitious to its transformation. They had their
historical time but caused the bankruptcy of Congo. That is why
Renaissance Congo 2000 speaks of the redeployment
of the former political actors. The
dignitaries of the regime of Mobutu whom we interact with share this
point of view. Authorities in theories of élites (Pareto,
Gaetano Mosca, for instance), crystal clearly demonstrate that
convulsions, crisis and revolutions occur in societies, when those who
have been running the country for a period of time, loose the virtues
of governance – which is the blatant case with the majority of
unrepentant Mobutists as well Kabilists who have indisputably
demonstrated their managerial incoherence in the affairs of the
Congolese state. This causes an organic disjunction between the
transformational needs of the society and the egotists inclination of
the elite, whose members do not accept to evacuate the
political arena.
Development
demands a permanent circulation of elite. During the conference we
organized on 16 June 1999, in Braamfontein (Johannesburg RSA), we
indicated that Congo suffers also from congestion on the political
arena. Too many people want to exercise power. Those who did not
perform must just be humble and let other take over through elections.
We went on to explain that this was caused by the fact that in
Congo, the state is the only structure in which people see the
possibility of getting rich. We prescribed the revitalization of the
private economic sector directly by international financial
organizations so that people can have an alternative. In the same line
of though, we emphasized that because the Mobutists have accumulated a
very significant « informal saving », they need to be wise
and reorient themselves into socio-economic projects. This transfer of
a huge group of politically obsolete elite to other spheres of
activities, will empty the political arena of the exceeding and
dysfunctional elite. Therefore tensions will be reduced. There are
those who are still stuck in the instinctive
hatred of Mobutists, Kabilists and Tutsis, and those who believe
in rational methods through dialogue as we have seen in South Africa
– where the Black leaders of the ANC understood the rationality of
dialogue with the Afrikaners who actually run apartheid ( a crime
against humanity). Renaissance Congo 2000 believes in peace and
transformation through dialogue.
In
the light of what has been explained, it surfaces quite clearly that
the issue of the transfer of elite is vital for the future of the DRC.
Therefore, it cannot be
limited to Mobutists alone. It is a national problem that deserves to
be tackled objectively. In this regard it is worth noting that Kabila
and his Diaspora
counter-elite – who are using Mobutists - have not proved the people
and analysts that they had internalized the transformational needs of
the Congo. In Kinshasa, it is undoubtedly established that there is no
political innovation in the discourse or actions of Kabila and his
courtiers. Even those who claimed their “political virginity”,
under the banner of the AFDL, have proved as corrupt – and to a
significant extent - more politically debauched and unrefined than
Mobutists. THIS ISSUE MUST BE ADDRESSED NEURTRALLY AND HOLISTICALLY. Renaissance Congo 2000 is planning a conference on this vital
subject. We challenge the MNDL
(as they operate from Johannesburg where we are), to come
with sound ideas for a debate to which the public will be invited.
We
would like to apologize to the site manager of Congonline for the fact
that we did not get in touch with them from the very beginning to
introduce our organization, its aims and the nature of our activities.
This letter marks the beginning of our contribution to your site. We
also have a web site accessible on w.w.w.renaissanccongo.co.za.
Comments and criticism are welcome. We have passion for dialectics
which – we firmly believe - leads to intellectual and
political progress. Congo must move from politrick,
which consist of using all sorts of tricks – defamation, unfounded
allegations, corruption intimidation, coercion – to
access the age of positive
politics as prescribed in the idea of African Renaissance. Our
organization is not a political party or a liberation movement. We are
Congolese intellectuals concerned by the situation in our country and
believe that weapons must be put down for reason to prevail, as we
have seen in the admirable and inspiring transformation of
South Africa.
Positively
yours,
Kabasu
Babo Katulondi
General Secretary
Johannesburg South Africa
Contacts :
President .Roger Katombe (082 823 8989)
Vice-President
Dr. Mafulu (083 675 8467)
General
Secretary : K. Babo Katulondi. (083
602 5769) |
