Sam Nuvala Fonkem
7 March 2008
column
Those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable. The acts of violence perpetrated on the streets of some major towns throughout the country early last week by youths who were taking advantage of the sit-down strike by the road transporters' union to vent their anger and frustrations against Biya's callous regime, were a clear warning to the leadership to stop taking the much trumpeted peace and stability of Cameroon for granted.
It was indeed a very rare piece of dramatic irony when two ambassadors who were presenting their letters of accreditation slavishly stuck to their prepared speech by referring to Cameroon's legendary peace and stability, while streets of Douala and elsewhere were going up in flames.
A falsehood perpetuated by the regime that Cameroon is an island of peace just because there is absence of civil war has been debunked by the recent incidence of violence, which may not be contained soon enough even though we are told the Government and the transporters' union have struck a deal to call off the strike.
They may have called off the strike but putting a stop to the spontaneous street violence is quite another matter. For one thing, the perpetrators of last week's violence were not union members who merely grounded their vehicles and stayed at home. So to have suggested that the youths' agitation was beyond the control of the union is an overstatement because they were never in control of the situation in the first place.
The danger involved in the current spate of violence was the total lack of guidance by political and civil society organisations. In venting their long suppressed anger on the streets, the youths were only hoping that the Government would, for once, begin to seriously address their grievances.
If you randomly asked ten youths to say why they were bitter about the regime, you were likely to get ten different answers ranging from unemployment, corruption, spiralling inflation, very low purchasing power, police harassment and brutality, discrimination and favouritism in the educational system and inadequate training opportunities, etc.
The catalogue of grievances the populace has stomached for the past two decades is taller than Mount Cameroon, yet the regime keeps pretending that all is well or would have been well were it not for the wrong-headedness of a certain opposition party which has instigated the youths to violence.
It is very unfortunate that the Government is now refusing to assume its direct responsibility for the current malaise in the country by pointing a finger at the opposition. People are even wondering whether Cameroon of today boasts of an opposition party despite the registration of about 200 political organisations, the majority of which exist only on paper.
The current burst of anger sparked off by the unending rise in the price of petrol, food and essential commodities has nothing to do with the political agenda of the opposition party. The blame for socio-political and economic degeneration of the country lies squarely on the shoulders of the ruling CPDM regime, which has depended heavily on the brute force of the army and police to impose a reign of terror in order to govern without the slightest sense of accountability.
And now that the tail has begun to wag the dog, it has resorted to unleashing its dogs of war on innocent citizens instead of organising a genuine national dialogue to critically examine the issues plaguing the country. What has aggravated the unbearable social condition is the cavalier manner in which the regime has decided to perpetuate its grip on power by trifling with the Constitution.
Every right thinking citizen sees the current moves by the regime to indefinitely prolong Mr. Biya's presidency as an attempt to deprive the populace of hope. After a quarter of a century of hopelessness under the Biya regime, people are too exhausted to carry the cross for yet another generation of helplessness.
The absence of dialogue among the political class and between the leadership and the people is primarily responsible for the inevitable process of collapse the country is witnessing at present. Ever since he came to power in 1982, President Biya has always acted as if it was beneath his dignity to concert with the active political forces.
Since, in reality, power was merely handed to him on a silver platter, he has never felt that he was accountable to the people he is supposed to be ruling. He owes his allegiance to the neo-colonial powers in France and to the vicious centres of international capital, not to the people who have slaved and made enormous sacrifices so he and his cronies can live in style.
The sheer arrogance of his leadership and the contempt he holds for his countrymen constitute the stumbling blocks of his downfall. Pride goes before a fall. If Biya had the slightest concern for the well being of the people, he would have taken bold measures to cushion the severe economic hardship facing his countrymen.
His spin doctors have preferred to absolve him of bad governance by laying the blame for our economic woes on the IMF and the World Bank. Who asked him to go to the World Bank in the first place? The World Bank is not a charitable organisation. It is an institution designed to perpetrate the inequalities between the rich North and the poor South and keep the Third World suppliers of raw materials and cheap manpower.
The World Bank was conceived and designed to perpetrate Western capitalism and Western economic hegemony and world view. Forget about the so-called Asian Tigers who yesterday were the hewers of wood and who today are said to have made remarkable economic progress.
Do we really know the real standard of living of the masses in those Asian countries? It does not suffice to erect skyscrapers in the capital city and refer to them as proof of economic advancement.
What Cameroonians are clamouring for is not the Hollywood version of life, nor the glamorous lifestyle of the likes of Mr. Biya and his cronies. The natural wealth of Cameroon can ensure a decent and healthy standard of living for its citizens, but these natural resources such as petrol or crude oil have been mortgaged by an unscrupulous and greedy leadership whose days are numbered.
What is happening on the streets today is the writing on the wall and whatever message Mr. Biya and his clique decide to make of it, is entirely their cup of tea.
P/S. This article was written before Mr. Biya's televised statement on Wednesday 27. We all know the incendiary effect of that bellicose pronouncement which was sans objet.
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