The president of the parliament of Guinea-Bissau, Domingos Simões Pereira, said, Saturday, in Lisbon, that peace, freedom and self-determination, the reason for existence for Amílcar Cabral, are everything that is currently lacking in his country
“ (Cabral) said that his reason for existing is to contribute to world peace, freedom for his people, self-determination.
It’s everything we’re missing right now in the country and talking about Cabral should serve to inspire us and continue to work in this direction”, said the PAIGC leader to journalists, on the sidelines of the presentation by the Casa da Cultura da Guiné-Bissau.
Domingos Simões Pereira noted that today is “a day of mourning”, which marks the anniversary of the murder of Amílcar Cabral, 51 years ago. At the same time, it coincides with the launch of the centenary celebrations of the birth of the African leader.
“Only big men are capable of giving us this mix of feelings. We are mourning his disappearance and at the same time we evoke his life, to be inspired by the legacy he left us. I hope it serves as food for thought,” she said.
Simões Pereira invited the Guinean community in the diaspora “to discover Cabral”. “Mentioning Cabral, quoting Cabral is the easiest part. It is necessary to study Cabral, find his dimensions in the various aspects in which he contributed.
Cabral challenged everyone to update it, because he was aware that he lived in a time and would be limited in the projection he could make of this knowledge”, he indicated.
And he continued: “Despite being seen as an ideologue, he was aware that people do not follow us because they like our ideology, but because they believe that, through this ideology, it is possible to improve our living conditions”.
Regarding the motto of the house presented in Lisbon – culture – the president of the Guinean parliament recalled that, “having seen other formulations, Cabral said that the only weapon capable of truly guaranteeing victory is culture”.
“Only a people who are aware of and proud of their culture and willing to work for its improvement are able to mobilize, fight and assume their self-determination”, he concluded.
The political crisis in Guinea-Bissau was triggered after President Sissoco Embaló decreed the dissolution of parliament, elected last June, before the constitutional deadline for doing so. Sissoco Embaló considers the Guinean parliament to be a focus of instability in the country.
The President then dismissed the Prime Minister, Geraldo Martins, after he refused to form a Presidential-initiated Government, and appointed, in his place, Rui Duarte de Barros, episodes of a crisis that began to emerge following clashes between military, on the 30th of November and the 1st of this month.
Sissoco Embaló classified these incidents as attempted coups d’état. The clashes occurred following the arrest of two members of the Government accused of alleged corruption in the payment of State debts to companies.