TFT Magazine | Cameroon News | Southern Cameroon News

News & Analyses
TFT.com – February 26, 2008

This past weekend of February 23rd and 24th in Douala and on Monday the 25th in various other towns, the people of the Cameroun Republic appeared determined to tarnish the postcard image that the Biya regime has been sending around the world of an island of peace and stability. Increasing political repression in the wake of efforts to change the constitution and deepening economic hardship seem to be pushing the masses to revolt.

 

President Paul Biya has in recent years spent the precious few of his countrymen’s money paying high-priced western Public Relations firms to portray him as the guarantor of peace and stability in a region rife with war and instability. The question now arises (rhetorically as it were), why President Paul Biya is so adamant to muzzle the private media and public liberties in the land of peace and stability as he seeks to amend the constitution of the Cameroun Republic? An action he claims is barely listening to the call of the people. Should not the images and stories in the private media emanating from the beacon of peace and stability reflect that reality? The reality of the grateful masses to which a listening and fatherly 75 year old president has assured not be indifferent to their wishes.

Mise-en-scène

On Friday September 7th, 2007, President Paul Biya for the umpteenth time reshuffled his cabinet. Brought in, was one Mr. Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam as Minister of Communication and de facto spokesperson for the Biya government. In less than seven months as Minister of Communication, Mr. Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam is at the heights of his powers in promoting Biya’s image of peace and stability. Mr. Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam has branded his method, “New Deal Communicationnel.”

On Tuesday October 30th, 2007, President Paul Biya when asked on French Television if he foresaw the amending of the constitution to allow him to run for another term after he would have served as president for 29 years in 2011, responded: “Cameroon really has other problems to resolve than this, but I leave it to those who want to open this debate. Because there are people who maintain that in order to ensure continuity it is necessary that the president presents himself again. I will leave the debate to unfold, but for the moment, the constitution does not allow me a third mandate but I also know that constitutions are not etched in stone.

Paul Biya was speaking knowing that similar schemes have proofed successful in francophone Africa of recent, with Togo and Chad being the most recent examples; notwithstanding the inevitable protests that will result in the loss of a few lives here and there. Paul Biya is also aware of the support that Paris gave the dictators or their scions in order to enable and sustain such illegalities. And Paul Biya was of course speaking from Paris, after having just met with the new French president, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy.

And on right on cue, back home in the tropics, a few days after his interview from Paris, in November of 2007, some appointed members of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie fell right in line. With Shakespearean gusto, individuals like Mr. John Begheni Ndeh, Biya’s party chieftain in the Northwest province and Mr. Zacheus Forjindam , Biya’s party Central Committee representative, gathered in their village of Santa with other local “elites” in tow.

Messrs Ndeh and Forjindam it was widely reported in the local media, signed a communiqué calling for the “immediate amendment of Article 6.2 [restricting presidential terms in office] of our Constitution to allow democracy to take its course at all times, without restrictions, because the presence of that article restricts the people’s choice on who leads the people, and that is not democracy.” The prayed for divine intervention for Paul Biya to reign for another twenty-five years, God willing.

On Tuesday, December 4th, 2007, in another series of presidential decrees, President Paul Biya appointed his governors to the various provinces. In the Littoral province, a parachuting Francis Fai Yengo will land.

On the eve of the Cameroun Republic’s independence, December 31st, 2007, in his traditional end of year address, President Paul Biya answered part of the prayers of those who had gathered in Santa a month earlier. Using their logic and almost echoing their words, he allowed that Article 6.2 of the constitution restricting a presidential mandate to two terms goes against the very idea of democracy.

On Wednesday February 6, 2008, President Paul Biya’s party assembled its various section presidents from around the country for what it dubbed an “Information and Formation” seminar. The Secretary General of Mr. Biya’s party, Mr. René Sadi, in an interview to the government-controlled Cameroon Tribune said part of the seminar was to train the militants to “explain, persuade and convince” others of the importance of revising the constitution, naturally in a peaceful atmosphere.

The Enforcers

 

At the forefront of maintaining Biya’s peace as the public react to the imminent constitutional revision, are two gentlemen who are clearly distinguishing themselves so far: Messrs Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam and Francis Fai Yengo.

Since the beginning of 2008, the esteemed Minister of Communication has by ministerial order closed two private broadcasting outlets: Equinoxe-TV and Equinoxe-Radio; suspended a radio announcer, Billy Karson, for playing a record on the national airwaves that criticizes and warns against any change to the constitution, and for good measure, the said artist, Longué Longué songs have been banned from the airwaves; Minister Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam has also warned the media to stay clear of any coverage of matters relating to the military. Francis Fai Yengo for his part signed in January a gubernatorial order that has banned all public protests or marches in the Littoral province until further notice.

Political and Economic Grievances

The deaths this past weekend in Douala is as a results of public reaction to the impending constitutional revision against the backdrop of a populace condemned to increasingly difficult economic realities highlighted by an sharp increase in the cost of living. It comes directly on the heels of the attempted protest march led by Mr. Mboua Massock against any constitutional amendment meant to remove presidential term limits two weeks ago, and for which the Social Democratic Front planned protest march this past weekend was also against that led to the death of at least one person.

However, events on Monday, February 25, 2008 were largely due to the grievances of those in the transport sector protesting a surreptitious increase in the cost of fuel introduced following the Cameroun Republic’s national team win against Tunisia in the semi-finals of the recently concluded African Cup of Nations football tournament. The American embassy, in a warning to her citizens living in Douala, ascribed the protests to “political and economic grievances.”

Monday’s protest action, in addition to creating virtual ghost towns in other parts of the country, saw the targeting and destruction of business properties in Douala identified with French interests. Our colleagues of Le Messager are reporting in a piece titled “Attack Against French and State Interests” that it appeared that business operations belonging to companies identified as French such as the mobile phone company Orange (MTN kiosks were spared) and PMUC were destroyed and set on fire. The young rioters are accusing the French of “exploiting us.”

Government’s Reaction

The government through a communiqué signed by Biyiti bi Essam and published in the government daily, Cameroon Tribune on Monday February 25th, laid the blame of the riots over the week-end in Douala to a failed rally by the Social Democratic Front that was followed by a road accident that prompted some young people to begin mounting roadblocks, destroying property and calling for the “liberation of Equinoxe” (Equinoxe-TV). The communiqué deplored the loss of human life and condemned those who are trying to take advantage of the naiveté of the young.

As we went to press, unconfirmed reports reaching us was of additional military forces being deployed to Douala from the Koutaba military base. Our colleagues of The Post newspaper are also reporting that “the number of deaths increased in the Bonaberi locality which has mostly Anglophones” during the course of Monday’s riots. Various unconfirmed sources put the number of deaths as up to ten.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.