“With the pre election manipulations by the regime and the seeming helplessness of the opposition parties, there is no doubt that the CPDM is set to dominate parliament with some 160 of the 180 seats, come July 22!” Prof Tazoacha Asonganyi in an interview granted Pan African Visions (panafricanvisions.com) in June 2011.
The ruling Cameroons Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) as rightly predicted by former Social Democratic Front(SDF) Scribe and now independent thinker Prof T. Asonganyi (see panafricanvisions.com) emerged with a comfortable majority of sorts . Despite claims by the CPDM leader cum head of state Paul Biya that he needs a comfortable majority to push through the ambitious package he has for Cameroon, there is no doubt in any mind that the CPDM hold up in both the Legislatives and Municipals spells nothing but doom for the country.
Since 1997 when there have had a most comfortable majority in all elections, the country has made very little progress. Looking at the anguish and misery on the faces of Cameroonians even those who voted for the CPDM, one is tempted to wonder if anything other than the present trend was expected from the outcome of the July 22nd show of shame.
Fraud has been the most recurrent reason advanced for the dismal performance of some of the parties. Fraud there was, fraud there has always been since 1992, and unless something is done, fraud there will be in the next elections whenever there come up. From voters' registration, to multiple voters, to falsification of results, et al, the ruling party and its field agents who are the Divisional officers there was no end in sight to the fraud. Although it was predicted and expected by many, the effects were still felt by many, at least at the level of the magnitude.
Is the fraud the only reason to advance for the collective calamity that befell Cameroonians? Some will view it as a debacle for the opposition but the effects of the disaster that July 22 was will be felt by all Cameroonians especially the masses who are used as pawns in the chase game of sorts that Cameroon politics is. What is most needed now is a good auto critic of July 22 and where another calamitous election is leading Cameroon to especially with 2011 looming in the horizon.
Fraud as much as there was, political leaders on both sides of the divide have not done enough to help the democratization process in Cameroon. Blinded by the spoils of power, the unbridled greed of militants of the ruling party leaves little time to think of the collective interest of the country. The impunity with which they trample on the people stems from the fact that there have never received any mandate from them.
Since rigging has always been their major strategy to victory, there owe no duty to the aspirations of the people. In their minds when the mandate is over there will use the same means to eternalize their vicious grip on the people.
The opposition which is suppose to serve as an alternative has failed to inspire hope in the people. Instead of capitalizing on the strong show of support from the people, the opposition took their aspirations too for granted. The dismissal from the SDF of four dully elected Mayors by the Executive Committee of the party seeking to impose its own candidate is most regrettable.
The popular slogan Power to the People is today a perverted tool in the hands of unscrupulous politicians preying on change thirsty militants. Today there is general mistrust for politicians on both sides of the divide and the result is a people resigned to faith, waiting for some miracle whenever it comes to bail them out of the misery of a vicious system.
One would have expected Cameroonians to show a greater zeal in trying to break free from the shackles of a political class lacking in patriotism but this has not been the case over the years. Sure the results were expected to be flawed but what makes the ruling party and its agents so confident of their strategy is the unbelievable apathy expressed by the people. There is no absolute guarantee that resistance from the people will curb all the fraud but it will at least reduce the magnitude and the impunity with which it is carried out.
When someone who has never tried to register for any elections since the 90s, voted for one, attended a single political rally and shows general disinterest in the political evolution of the country spends time crying and lamenting I wonder what effect it has.
The evil that men do it is said lives after them, the present crop of politicians think at their own peril that life starts and ends with them and their sinister designs. I remember a resolution from a Divisional Coordination meeting right up to the ranks of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the SDF when it was not yet the pale shadow it is today, that names of those who excel in committing atrocities for the regime should be careful cataloged so that there could answer for their crimes tomorrow. I wonder if anything was ever done by the party about this but some how the untouchables will be reduced to rubble someday. The CPDM leader himself is inadvertently setting the tone by making scape goats out of some barons of the regime languishing in jail now.
Allegations have been flying around about moves by the regime to amend one of the few articles on the January 1996 Constitution that is operational now by doing away with term limits. This will pave the way for President Biya to grab another mandate in 2011 when the present one ends. If July 22 can be considered as a prelude to 2011 or whenever Presidential elections will be carried out, then the present apathy will not bring about any miracle. The thought of another mandate for the incumbent in 2011 makes many sick.
In countries like Zambia and Malawi, elongations of tenure were vigorously resisted and there did not work out. In neighbouring Nigeria similar designs by former President Obasanjo were ferociously resisted even by cadres of the ruling party which had a majority in both houses of the Legislature. This coupled with the active participation of the civil society led by committed intellectuals like Wole Soyinka and Chief Gani Fawehinmi amongst others thwarted the move. The world will be watching to see the reaction of Cameroonians should the issue come up.
Cameroonians have what it takes to put the country back on the rails in 2011. Its intellectuals can do a lot more than sign motions of sorts to support the incumbent as there did in 2004; there are still politicians on both sides of the divide who can help shape a better Cameroon. The people who are the greatest casualties in the cat and mouse game between politicians on both sides need to get more actively involved so as to re-orientate the dangerous downward direction the country is taking. The reaction to designs for tenure elongation will be another litmus test to measure the seriousness of a people to break free.
