São Tomé and Príncipe

a cursed land for opposition?

Abstract

The temptation to neutralize the opposition, “inherited” from dictatorial colonialism, has existed since the beginning of independence. During the political transition after the 25th of April, benefiting from a favorable situation and, in particular, the recognition of the OAU, the São Tomé and Príncipe Liberation Movement, a historic independence party, neutralized the Free Popular Front, a weak conservative formation, and the Associação Cívica Pró-MLSTP, a group of radicalized young people that suddenly went from being useful to being a nuisance. Before independence, for the sake of imperative unity, the slightest expression of divergence in the intentions, more intuitive than explicit, of the MLSTP was curtailed. Independence was followed by fifteen years of single-party rule. After the adoption of representative democracy in 1990, there was an alternation in power resulting from free and fair elections. In any case, occasional statements indicated some discomfort with democratic rules. Several acts denounced the desire for political neutralization of opponents. Recently, as a corollary of the wisdom of a long-term political strategy, the moment of greatest difficulty for democracy, that is to say, for any opposition, may have arrived. In this text, in addition to a historical perspective, we will attempt to identify the adverse factors – among others, economic difficulties, drives to adhere to the redemptive figure and the Big Man, relative ease of capture and deviation from the institutions’ purpose – to the performance of the oppositions in a cramped island society.