Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Your Excellency Mr Guebuza, president of Mozambique, your
excellencies Ministers of Mozambique and Ambassadors of Mozambique
and The Netherlands, Distinguished Guests representing the Dutch
political parties, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour for the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy
to receive the Head of State of Mozambique. An official visit by a Head of
State includes all kinds of meetings at the highest level, but the visit to an
institute of Dutch political parties is not an automatic component of any
official visit. We are therefore honoured that a visit to our institute was
included as this gives us the opportunity to discuss issues of crucial
importance: democracy and dialogue.

Mr President, in the awareness that you have been in touch with the
NIMD at a previous occasion (at the time wearing the hat of the
Secretary General of Frelimo) allow me to present very briefly the key
characteristics of the NIMD.

*First of all, despite being funded primarily by the Dutch government we
are not part of the government system. The seven political parties that
have founded NIMD in the year 2000 have founded an institute that is in
close contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but which is
autonomous in its approach.

*Secondly, our 17 country programmes are being implemented all over
the world on the basis of ownership of the political parties in the
countries concerned. While we have learned a few lessons of democratic
functioning over the years an decades, we are aware of the diversity of
democratic systems and are in no way inclined to export the Dutch
system.

On the basis of the December 2004 elections you have become the
president of your country, a country that has seen very substantial
economic growth over the last years. The Mozambican electorate
convincingly elected you and your party.

Many of us remember the state of your country at the end of the colonial
era, with hardly any middle class and few trained professionals. In
subsequent years your country has felt the impact of the global tensions
between East and West, but also had to cope with the destabilising
policies of the apartheid regime in South Africa. The civil war devastated
large parts of your country. Against this background the progress since
the 1992 General Peace Accord, in which you played a key role, has
been impressive.

The link between the dynamic economic environment and the political
dynamism is an area that needs further exploration. This kind of
reflection would also need to review the events that have taken place in
Kenya in the past two months. How to define the concept of stability if
tensions in society can become manifest at times of elections? The
exploration of the distinction between the roles of the state and of the
governing party is yet another prominent area. How to define the
separation of powers? Do European democracies and African
democracies answer this question in the same way? Last year Kofi
Annan stated that ‘no nation is born a democracy’. The introduction of
democratic systems requires a lot of time and effort, but after the
introduction permanent maintenance is indispensable.

Many countries witness changes in governing parties every few years.
Profound political changes have occurred in democratic countries as
diverse as India, Ghana and Brazil, to name but a few. The Netherlands
has also witnessed this phenomenon. My own party, the Christian
Democrats, lost its position as a governing party in 1994, after decades
of participation in governing coalitions. We came back in a government
coalition after eight years in opposition. Since independence your
country has not experienced the alternation of power. We are curious to
hear your views on this issue.

A few words on our programme in Mozambique. After the work
undertaken in the period 1994-1999 in South Africa by our predecessor,
The Netherlands Foundation for a New South Africa, your country was
selected as the first NIMD programme country. Former South African
President Mr Nelson Mandela recommended in 1999 that the Dutch
political parties would continue their work to assist new democracies. A
field office was established in Maputo and a series of activities started in
2001 to assist in improving the functioning of the Mozambican political
parties. Similar to the approach that had been applied in South Africa
inclusivity was the key characteristic of our programme design in
Mozambique. In NIMD’s thinking it is very risky for foreign organisations
to show any inclination to support a portion of the political playing field. In
Mozambique this implied support to both the party in government and to
parties in opposition. It also included support to parties not-represented
in parliament.

An external evaluation of the Mozambique programme in 2003 showed
that the political parties appreciated the support they received. Trainings
and workshops assisted in strengthening parties and in increasing their
planning capacities.

We hope that in this meeting we can jointly explore ways in which the
evolution of the democratic system in Mozambique can create
guarantees of inclusivity and dialogue. In what way can the creative
thinking in the opposition parties be given an opportunity to broaden the
views in Mozambican political society as a whole? What can we, the
Dutch political parties and the NIMD, do to enhance the political dialogue
in your country and to reduce the political tension between government
and opposition?

Finally, prior to this meeting it was agreed to organise a closed session.
The people present here should feel free to express themselves without
being quoted by the press. Mr President, the floor is yours.