M’MEMBE CALLS FOR CALM AND DIALOGUE AMID NATIONAL TENSIONS

M’MEMBE CALLS FOR CALM AND DIALOGUE AMID NATIONAL TENSIONS

He writes…

My dear fellow citizens, compatriots,

I come to you with a very troubled heart. I have been around for more than six decades, but I have never experienced tensions and divisions like this.

Despair and helplessness are starting to set in. People don’t seem to have anywhere to turn to. Religious leadership, traditional leadership, and political leadership have been undermined and discredited in so many ways to give the nation credible, and impartial voices that can be listened to by the great majority of our people in difficult times like these.

I am not neutral, and I am pretending or claiming to be. I belong to a political apparatus. But I am a patriot. I love my country. And love for the is not love the rivers, lakes, plains, forests, escarpments, and so on and so forth. It’s love for people and their well-being.

Our country is facing a moment of deep pain, fear, and anger. This tension hurts us all, and it threatens our families, our communities, and our future.

We must stop the anger from escalating. Escalation will not heal our wounds; it will only make them deeper. I urge everyone to step back and stay calm.

Stop the escalation, stop the insults, stop the fights, and protect one another. Our differences are real, but our shared homeland is greater than our divisions. Let us put down our anger. Let us choose peace, tolerance, and accommodation.

I call on all leaders and citizens in all their diversities and complexities to open the door to honest and peaceful dialogue right now. Talk, do not escalate. Together, we can protect our nation.

Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party