Through trial and error I found out that connection manager opens in latest freeplane (1.12.18) if I granted all java permissions via a policy file:
Create a file (e.g., freeplane.policy) with content:
grant { permission java.security.AllPermission; };
(This disables all security checks and should only be used temporarily.)
Then open freeplane through linux command line using shell command -
JAVA_OPTS=-Djava.security.policy=freeplane.policy freeplane
It would be nice if somehow the required security permissions can be included in the mapinsight addon.