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Cameroon: Dry Cleaning Yaounde
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The Post (Buea)
OPINION
13 March 2008
Posted to the web 13 March 2008
Azore Opio
The transporters' strike which suddenly transmogrified into an electrically charged youth protest seems to have left some people in a pickle. It seemed to jolt the Head of State out of his torpor and put him in a real tizzy.
This made him speak tartly on national TV and radio, saying that he was going to tar and feather all the "delinquents" who went out to protest. Several people, especially the CPDM elite, were also left anxious, confused and frightened.
Amongst the elite who expressed their "embarrassment" and "anger" at the protestors, were the Mfoundi elite. They rolled the war drums and promised to "dry clean" Yaounde in a vitriolic declaration (The Post No. 0934, March 7).
Quote: "After an in-depth analysis of the serious events that have taken place in our country in the past week since February 24, 2008...we are strongly opposed to those fomenting trouble and authors of all forms of vandalism on people and their property in our city... in line with the Head of State, we strongly and forthrightly warn those who would attempt to repeat these acts of vandalism ... let it be known that we will return act for act. From now hence; an eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth.
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We are strongly requesting those forces of destruction from wherever to immediately leave our land because it is no longer secure for them. That they should tell those who sent them that all the living forces of Mfoundi have donned the war gear...We exhort our families to be vigilant to forestall all eventual acts that may breach the peace and stability in the seat of our institutions..."
In this realm of darkness, of falsehood, of brute force, of peace reinforced with powder and shot, of justice denied, there is no surprise in the declaration which constitutes a devastating attack on other Cameroonians; an explicit call for ethnic cleansing.
In 25 years, the CPDM "elite" have refused to call anything by its right name. Now they have joined in the chorus of praise, which is increasingly becoming too loud already. Their daring statements are testament to the seriousness of their demand for genocide.
We are led to think, rightly so, that the self-styled Mfoundi elite are contemplating a systematic murder of other Cameroonians. We suppose then that government leaders are meeting in secret with groups to form and arm militias to kill the Cameroonians whom they hate in their Yaounde (remember the Radio Milles Collines and the Rwanda Genocide).
In the same hypnotic trance, the Mfoundi elite contemptuously appraise other Cameroonians as a nuisance which hinders the glorious advance of the Yaounde people. Can Yaounde stand on its own legs? Did the Mfoundi elite tar the Yaounde roads from their own pockets?
Yaounde is a confluence. If the Doaulans adopt the same attitude of xenophobia, if the Northerners decide that they don't want anything to do with Yaounde, the West closes its door, and so on and so forth, Yaounde will undoubtedly stop breathing.
"A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye..." the Mfoundi elite, in their impulsive reaction, forgot that they have their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters and parents and others spread all over the country and who are considered oppressive (their innocent necks would be meat for the chopping).
We might justifiably wonder whether Cameroon has suddenly become divisible contrary to the fact that President Paul Biya never forgets to profess his faith in the oneness and indivisibility of the country. The declaration also reminds us of something else as well; the profound and agonising crisis gnawing away at the Cameroonian society; that the reality of Cameroon presents an agonising contrast and the contrast starts with the President.
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There is much here to perplex and provoke sharp protest, were it not that at a second and third perusal it becomes clear that the whole declaration is obviously coming from mad people in their lucid moments.
Among Cameroonians whose opinions do not conform with the official stereotype, there is a general view that the society needs, and it must aspire and strive for change. And we are alarmed by the likelihood that the reinforced silence and pent-up fury; the deadly calm that has always characterised Cameroon, the slow climbing tension focused on the establishment, will merge with the swelling current of poverty and misery only to explode.
Each teetering day now could bring a burst of indescribable deadliness upon the nation.
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