allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Biya's Quarrel With the Mirror (Page 1 of 1)

It was a therapeutic discharge of pent up anger, suppression, systematic deceit and the accumulated frustration of a people who have, for over 25 years, been simply converted and treated worse than mere demographic statistics.

And it manifested in four days of mayhem in at least, five of the nation's 10 Provinces, including Yaounde, the "breathing" capital of the nation.

The placards said it all. Political and corporate persons, property and institutions that were selectively attacked, pointed, rightly or wrongly, to who or what were perceived to be those "weapons of mass destruction" that have systematically despoiled and rendered the country a hell-hole for its teeming citizens.

It took four grim days to expose all the sweet pep talk about "the peace that reigns in Cameroon" as a mere concept; as political chicanery, adopted and brutally sustained by a rogue regime, as a means of perpetuating itself in the marble corridors of power.

The macabre ritual was given official impetus by a temperamental Head of State, who turned up in the middle of the death dance to declare that he was this "Rambo", with the capability of taking on an entire nation of protesters through fiat, and by the application of other coercive weapons of power at his disposal.

In a manner of speaking, our "Methuselah" President is this person that would sow a whirlwind and expect to reap a gentle breeze; who would sow tares, hoping to return at harvest time and reap wheat. It is, by all means, a quarrel with the faithful mirror now reflecting the kind of Cameroon Biya has spent 25 so-called new deal years "building".

He doesn't understand why this mirror wouldn't simply do his bidding; why it doesn't reflect a young, strong and handsome Biya, devoid of any wrinkles, warts and all, with a firm prospect of possibly taking two more seven-year Presidential terms and taking Fidel Castro's place in the Guinness Book of Records.

Last week's street madness served as a wake up call; it was a rude reminder to Mr. Biya that he has only the mandate of a handful of fraudsters and grovelling sycophants to rule Cameroon. The rest of us are commandeered loyalists, herded on by speeches and gendarmes and made to sing, if we must have supper.

The real fellows who should stand accused of last week's mayhem are Biya and those with whom he rules and ruins us. Common sense and good conscience should have informed Mr. Biya that he has never been voted and may never be voted by the Cameroonian electorate and that only through moral violence is he still laying claim to the leadership of this country.

But let it be said here that those who go the violent way to rob Cameroonians of their sacred voting rights, forget that nobody has the monopoly of violence. They are even worse off than the stone-throwing and tyre-burning dehumanised youths, a good number of whom were either summarily executed or are presently being subjected to kangaroo trials.

Let it be said that no thoughtful Cameroonian would at this stage of political evolution fail to see the danger in a violent democratic process like the one political harlots in the likes of Issa Tchiroma are courting, preaching and spreading.

In other words, electoral thieves in the guise of local administrators, CPDM flunkeys and other Biya appointees may only cash in on their will for violence, to inflict harm on the people through electoral rigging, the real implication of which is that they are the very enemies of democracy, given that democracy is a game of reason, not Biya's characteristic insipid speeches, force, threats and the general resort to government by horsewhip.

If Biya's wasn't a government by horsewhip, there would be communication, consultation and concert. In which case the regime would not surreptitiously impose wicked prices on petroleum products and beget the kind of anger that descended on the nation's streets last week. Chasing out an unhealthy cabal like the one Biya is presiding over, could be said to be in order.

Yet, the raw subterranean street anger that cost limb, life and property could have been harnessed in a more civilised manner.Cameroonians could have been wiser by consigning their option to shame, through a more careful and rational quest for democratic justice.

What this means is that the administrative hooligan who is used to stealing the people's vote to please Paul Biya would be presenting both himself and his paymaster as the public fool, asking for collective pity. Or recognition. Or can't you see how our "headache of state" is desperately and shamelessly embarrassing himself and this good old country by creating the impression that there is no life after power?

There is hardly any method of violence that is more primitive than the violence of the type which has been visited on Cameroonians by Biya's cabal in the past 25 years; a cabal that does not even believe in the idea of "civilised protest violence" but crude violence of teargas canisters and live bullets.

We are talking of such violence as resulting in the killing of the people to achieve power to lead them. This is exactly what the election thieves in Cameroon apply.Come to think of it; non-violence is definitely more effective when it comes to addressing the internal affairs of a state.

In such circumstances, it would simply translate to saying a reasonable "NO" for a reasonable amount of time, expressing this opinion in every peaceful way that excludes harm in a physical manner. That said, Biya, the reluctant democrat should stop insulting the rest of us with empty preachments about the ballot box, those of his opponents who "lost" elections and all that crap.

The reason is simple: Someone like him, who sets out to lead, without in the first place, subjecting himself to a transparent democratic choice, is like a child born and "bread" with the flour of dictatorship. Such a one would rather die with the nation than relinquish power peacefully. Do not say I didn't hint you! Cheers, and let's keep suffering and smiling!

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