"In our Angolan case, the fight against poverty necessarily involves encouraging quality education, the ethical formation of consciences, the review of the Constitution (...) and, unavoidably, the implementation of local authorities", said this Tuesday Adalberto Costa Junior.
Without local authorities "we will not have a society capable of better defending itself", highlighted the president of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), who spoke, in Luanda, about "the role of political actors in ensuring of peace, stability and development", during the International Conference on Peace, Security and Development.
Costa Júnior criticized the Government's "inefficiency" in resolving the economic and social problems that affect the majority of the Angolan population and the prevalence of a "wave" of reports of corrupt practices in public works and the "sense of insecurity" among citizens.
For the president of UNITA, citizens' feeling of insecurity is the result of "not only urban violence, but also economic instability of various natures".
"These are elements that combine to form the general pessimism that has spread among a population that for the most part has shown itself to be disenchanted with politics and politicians," he said.
"In the country's current social and political context, it makes perfect sense for us to question what the true role of political actors should be in safeguarding the guarantee of peace, stability and development in Angola", he noted.
Regarding the country's journey since independence on November 11, 1975, the president of UNITA pointed out that, after almost half a century of independent Angola, "the dream of dignity for all has not yet come to pass."
"Governing for oneself and not for the common good, as our Government currently does, is unforgivable. The common good implies the promotion of peace and peace implies dialogue and national reconciliation", he stated.
In criticizing the Government, Adalberto Júnior pointed out the lack of dialogue and, when it exists, "it is based on arrogance", highlighting that the behavior of the regime (MPLA, party in power since 1975) towards UNITA "is not that of an adversary political", taking on an "arrogant, authoritarian and often violent towards the people" nature.
Political, social and economic stability were some of the topics of his intervention, arguing that political stability requires the active participation of citizens.
In Angola, "poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon as it cannot be seen only as a lack of income, but also as a lack of access to basic services, information, work, a decent income and lack of social and political participation", he pointed out.
The president of UNITA defended the establishment of the defense of social rights, "so that young people, such as Tanaice Neutro and Adolfo Campos (activists recently detained in Luanda in a protest in support of motorcycle taxi drivers) and others are no longer arrested for simple crimes of opinion".
"Have the courage to annul such an unfair and absurd conviction of these excessively punished young people as a message to restrict other young people from enjoying their constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms", he defended.
These young people, he continued, are "above all victims of the society in which they live, victims also of the failures of their rulers".
"Free these young people, don't murder miners in the diamond areas or arrest motorcycle taxi drivers who fight for their bread", he concluded.
