For Immediate Release                                                May 17, 2001

Contact:
Dr. Alafuele M. Kalala
President, RNS
202-463-9373
info@rnscongo.org

Liberalizing Political Parties’ activities in the DRC: A Step in the Right Direction!

(Washington, DC)The Rally for a New Society (RNS) which is dedicated to providing the people of Congo with a new, credible, responsible, and responsive leadership hereby acknowledge with great satisfaction the signing by Joseph Kabila of a decree liberalizing the activities of the political parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Even though the RNS disagrees with some of the provisions of this decree, the RNS believes that this is a step in the right direction. Since its foundation in 1996 the RNS has always called for the liberalization of the political life in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a prerequisite to national reconciliation and the stabilization of political life in DRC. The RNS calls on the people of Congo and the Congolese political class to seize this opportunity to make sure that no ban will ever again be imposed on political life in the history of our country. The RNS calls on the Congolese political class to mobilize itself to make sure that all the provisions of this decree which will appear essentially manipulative be removed.

Political problems are never resolved through a ban on political activities, and the people of Congo have to realize that the right to form a political organization is a basic right which proceeds from the freedom to assemble. It is not up to the state to arbitrarily determine who has the right to form a political party or how a political party should be formed. It is the people who, through the exercise of their indefeasible right to choose, determine the viability of a political formation.

Contrary to the prevailing opinion that multiplicity of political parties breeds chaos, it is the refusal to allow the people to exercise their unalienable right to choose which does lead to confusion. As this is the case in all developed democracies, objective criteria may be developed not to prevent anyone from forming a political party nor to raise undue barriers but to allow for a meaningful participation of political formations in the institutions of the state. This is neither more nor less what Congolese should ask for.