A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE POLITICAL SITUATION OF CAMEROON
The economic and political performance of Cameroon during the past three decades has been generally poor. Per capita food production has remained in an extremely discouraging state even though Cameroon remains the breadbasket of countries within the Central African Sub-Region. Poverty is on the rise where more than 50% of the population are classified as “poor” according to the 1999 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Report on Cameroon. The population growth rate stands at over 2.8 %. Corruption and mismanagement are on the increase with Cameroon receiving the “honour” of the first position as the most corrupt nation in the world according to Transparency International Report.
There is a general drop in the standard of living, as the impact of two salary cuts amounting to 70% in 1993 and 1994 is still weighing on civil servants: a hundred percent devaluation of the CFA Francs in 1994 and the general increase in the debt burden, both external and internal. All these factors add to the plight of the Cameroon population who today is considered the most “devalued nation” in the continent as compared to its natural and human resources. The sad fact is the nonexistence of an appropriate price control system and consumer’s association to defend the rights of the consumers. The increase of petrol prices to 569 CFA francs per litre which almost turned this country into a blood bath in 2008, the increasing joblessness of Cameroon youths are all indicators to the fact that our nation need God’s intervention and also that, Cameroonians must come together as one people to address these plights.
Though the country has come a long way from the horrific era of the single party system, much remains to be done to attain a genuine governance system that is characterized by Godly principles for good management of the blessings and riches, both natural and spiritual which God our Creator has embedded on our land. So far, the transition to political uprightness, social equality and economic pluralism has been plagued by incompetence; lack of the spirit of patriotism and sacrifice, coupled with electoral fraud, wickedness, hypocricy, and poor foreign and domestic economic policy.
This thwarts the political dimensions on which depend the socio economic, technological transformation and development of the nation.
Though rich in natural and human potentials, for three decades, the country which was once overwhelmed by economic miracle growth, the country that is considered as Africa’s miniature is now constrained by debt burden, economic stagnation, injustice, and embezzlement, imprisonment of once government officials, corruption and mismanagement. At the dawn of the 21st century, Cameroon is groping with the paradox of civil tension, with increasing abject poverty and misery boldly carved in gold on the faces of the vast majority of Cameroonians especially the youths whose future still remain very uncertain.
This is backed with a complex transition process to democracy and a liberal economic setting. Generally, one can say that the country, though pulling towards the practice of multi party democracy on the one hand, and economic disintegration on the other the result of out right embezzlement of State funds and the misuse of natural resources through the forces of an unsustainable exploitation, Cameroon remains a nation with vast potentials capable of soughting itself out of the present economic, political, and social chaos that has kept the nation crawling on her knees, kept youths in a myopic prison, and frustrated their efforts towards nation building for individual and collective happiness in this land of promise- land of glory.
So far, there is the poor record of government performance, which has forced her to transfer authority and management of resources to private institutions. Example of this is the AES-Sonel, Camrail, and Camwater, just to name a few.
Reducing the role of the State via the mechanisms of privatisation and simply getting the price right alongside other macro policies has proven insufficient to put development on the right course. Presently, one can at best develop an attitude of wait and see the outcomes of the ongoing privatisation process which seems to have taken off the ground from a bad perspective and the myth of 2035 emergence programme. The outcome is that insistence on privatisation by foreign bodies and private enterprises helps to place resources cheaply for the exploiters with the consequences of a deepening of the declining situation of the country’s economy.
This is reflected in Cameroon’s increasing reliance on foreign grants and loans which have increased the debt burden and the dependency of the country. Because of the devaluation of the CFA franc, Cameroon is depleting its natural resources for less than the amount obtained some years back.
The role of the international community has been the formula prescription of the Breton Woods Financial Institutions through the strategy of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP). Yet the new prescription offered by Western financial institutions to enhance existing conditions has turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing. Consequently, SAP is better known as “Structural or Social Added Problems” in view of its impact on the social and economic difficulties of the vast majority of the marginalized population. The rural and poor population are paying the price for World Bank/IMF imposed structural approaches which only enrich the rich.
In short, the dictates of the Breton Woods Institution in compliance with the teaming up of unholy alliance with the ruling elites, political power brokers and other stakeholders within Cameroon continue to have a profound impact on the country’s fragile and vulnerable political economy an impact that is likely to be extended rather than shortened within the vortex of the current regime as the country embraces the mythical 50th Anniversary of it’s Independence and Reunification.
Societal collapse in Cameroon cannot be treated only as a function of “strategic” issues based on Statist assumptions that emphasised Great Powers rivalry on the resources of the country, but must also include and prioritise a range of new forces of gender and population unity, ecology and environment, food and nutrition, shelter/housing system, health and medical care, education, taxation laws, internal security, road networks, tourism, the encouragement of small and medium enterprises, the price of basic commodities, conflict over natural resources and the greater ethnic and political divide confronting and constraining integrated sustainable development within the society.
The combination of economic, political and ecological crisis that began in the 80s has contributed to a new policy and political context. Many people now accept and advocate the practice of political pluralism, transparency, accountability as the best options for moving the country forward and in the right path.
According to Leslie Fox “civil society is a political concept because it is essentially about power, the power of non-state actors to participate in making decisions that have an impact on them”.
The failure of the Nation-State as a liberator of its people but playing the role as an oppressor of the inalienable rights of its citizens and backed with the collapse of the communist system, triggered a new wave of political democratisation process in the 1990s that equally witnessed the re-orientation of both academic and political discourse on development. Civil society was entrusted with a vibrant weapon once taken away by the institutionalisation of the dominant monolithic party structure.
The fall of the Berlin Wall engineered a new path to constructing a “political culture” in the developing regions of the world. In the case of Cameroon, the top down leadership approach institutionalised through the single party has been proven that development does not work in that pattern; that is, of the State remaining for a very long time the only instrument for promoting and controlling change in the direction of providing quality living standards for the vast majority of the population. Unfortunately, it has rather increased affluence for a selected few.
The growing influence and affluence of a selected few has eroded the ability of the State and the current regime to play the role of a powerful instrument for social justice, instead, there is a growing disillusionment and the lack of confidence from the people towards this regime. From the perspectives of the youths and civil society, the Cameroon State is viewed as an instrument of exploitation, pre-empting popular or individual initiative and revolt as well as fanning discriminative politics of ethnic confrontation and economic chaos. Thus the youths and civil society in Cameroon remained passive, captive and weak from 1st September 1966 till date.
Though political pluralism reigns in Cameroon following the creation of political parties such as the SDF, UNDP, UPC, UDC, MDR, MJLC, MP Etc, much still has to be done to institutionalize various institutions to reflect the standard of political pluralism in the country. By all evaluation, Cameroon is still a one- party State in disguise. It is still governed by the dictates and structures of authoritarian regime form the captivity of the legislature, judiciary and bureaucracy by a powerful Presidency which treats the other branches of government as an offspring of a political party machinery CPDM property.
What is evident and should be noted is that, development wisdom is no longer lodged in government bureaucracies but in local communities and institutions in short, in the people. That is, where indigenous knowledge and popular participation occupy increasing prominence in the development of the society. The captivity of the Cameroon youths and civil society was the result of two integrated fundamentals;
The economic and political performance of Cameroon during the past three decades has been generally poor. Per capita food production has remained in an extremely discouraging state even though Cameroon remains the breadbasket of countries within the Central African Sub-Region. Poverty is on the rise where more than 50% of the population are classified as “poor” according to the 1999 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Report on Cameroon. The population growth rate stands at over 2.8 %. Corruption and mismanagement are on the increase with Cameroon receiving the “honour” of the first position as the most corrupt nation in the world according to Transparency International Report.
There is a general drop in the standard of living, as the impact of two salary cuts amounting to 70% in 1993 and 1994 is still weighing on civil servants: a hundred percent devaluation of the CFA Francs in 1994 and the general increase in the debt burden, both external and internal. All these factors add to the plight of the Cameroon population who today is considered the most “devalued nation” in the continent as compared to its natural and human resources. The sad fact is the nonexistence of an appropriate price control system and consumer’s association to defend the rights of the consumers. The increase of petrol prices to 569 CFA francs per litre which almost turned this country into a blood bath in 2008, the increasing joblessness of Cameroon youths are all indicators to the fact that our nation need God’s intervention and also that, Cameroonians must come together as one people to address these plights.
Though the country has come a long way from the horrific era of the single party system, much remains to be done to attain a genuine governance system that is characterized by Godly principles for good management of the blessings and riches, both natural and spiritual which God our Creator has embedded on our land. So far, the transition to political uprightness, social equality and economic pluralism has been plagued by incompetence; lack of the spirit of patriotism and sacrifice, coupled with electoral fraud, wickedness, hypocricy, and poor foreign and domestic economic policy.
This thwarts the political dimensions on which depend the socio economic, technological transformation and development of the nation.
Though rich in natural and human potentials, for three decades, the country which was once overwhelmed by economic miracle growth, the country that is considered as Africa’s miniature is now constrained by debt burden, economic stagnation, injustice, and embezzlement, imprisonment of once government officials, corruption and mismanagement. At the dawn of the 21st century, Cameroon is groping with the paradox of civil tension, with increasing abject poverty and misery boldly carved in gold on the faces of the vast majority of Cameroonians especially the youths whose future still remain very uncertain.
This is backed with a complex transition process to democracy and a liberal economic setting. Generally, one can say that the country, though pulling towards the practice of multi party democracy on the one hand, and economic disintegration on the other the result of out right embezzlement of State funds and the misuse of natural resources through the forces of an unsustainable exploitation, Cameroon remains a nation with vast potentials capable of soughting itself out of the present economic, political, and social chaos that has kept the nation crawling on her knees, kept youths in a myopic prison, and frustrated their efforts towards nation building for individual and collective happiness in this land of promise- land of glory.
So far, there is the poor record of government performance, which has forced her to transfer authority and management of resources to private institutions. Example of this is the AES-Sonel, Camrail, and Camwater, just to name a few.
Reducing the role of the State via the mechanisms of privatisation and simply getting the price right alongside other macro policies has proven insufficient to put development on the right course. Presently, one can at best develop an attitude of wait and see the outcomes of the ongoing privatisation process which seems to have taken off the ground from a bad perspective and the myth of 2035 emergence programme. The outcome is that insistence on privatisation by foreign bodies and private enterprises helps to place resources cheaply for the exploiters with the consequences of a deepening of the declining situation of the country’s economy.
This is reflected in Cameroon’s increasing reliance on foreign grants and loans which have increased the debt burden and the dependency of the country. Because of the devaluation of the CFA franc, Cameroon is depleting its natural resources for less than the amount obtained some years back.
The role of the international community has been the formula prescription of the Breton Woods Financial Institutions through the strategy of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP). Yet the new prescription offered by Western financial institutions to enhance existing conditions has turned out to be a curse rather than a blessing. Consequently, SAP is better known as “Structural or Social Added Problems” in view of its impact on the social and economic difficulties of the vast majority of the marginalized population. The rural and poor population are paying the price for World Bank/IMF imposed structural approaches which only enrich the rich.
In short, the dictates of the Breton Woods Institution in compliance with the teaming up of unholy alliance with the ruling elites, political power brokers and other stakeholders within Cameroon continue to have a profound impact on the country’s fragile and vulnerable political economy an impact that is likely to be extended rather than shortened within the vortex of the current regime as the country embraces the mythical 50th Anniversary of it’s Independence and Reunification.
Societal collapse in Cameroon cannot be treated only as a function of “strategic” issues based on Statist assumptions that emphasised Great Powers rivalry on the resources of the country, but must also include and prioritise a range of new forces of gender and population unity, ecology and environment, food and nutrition, shelter/housing system, health and medical care, education, taxation laws, internal security, road networks, tourism, the encouragement of small and medium enterprises, the price of basic commodities, conflict over natural resources and the greater ethnic and political divide confronting and constraining integrated sustainable development within the society.
The combination of economic, political and ecological crisis that began in the 80s has contributed to a new policy and political context. Many people now accept and advocate the practice of political pluralism, transparency, accountability as the best options for moving the country forward and in the right path.
According to Leslie Fox “civil society is a political concept because it is essentially about power, the power of non-state actors to participate in making decisions that have an impact on them”.
The failure of the Nation-State as a liberator of its people but playing the role as an oppressor of the inalienable rights of its citizens and backed with the collapse of the communist system, triggered a new wave of political democratisation process in the 1990s that equally witnessed the re-orientation of both academic and political discourse on development. Civil society was entrusted with a vibrant weapon once taken away by the institutionalisation of the dominant monolithic party structure.
The fall of the Berlin Wall engineered a new path to constructing a “political culture” in the developing regions of the world. In the case of Cameroon, the top down leadership approach institutionalised through the single party has been proven that development does not work in that pattern; that is, of the State remaining for a very long time the only instrument for promoting and controlling change in the direction of providing quality living standards for the vast majority of the population. Unfortunately, it has rather increased affluence for a selected few.
The growing influence and affluence of a selected few has eroded the ability of the State and the current regime to play the role of a powerful instrument for social justice, instead, there is a growing disillusionment and the lack of confidence from the people towards this regime. From the perspectives of the youths and civil society, the Cameroon State is viewed as an instrument of exploitation, pre-empting popular or individual initiative and revolt as well as fanning discriminative politics of ethnic confrontation and economic chaos. Thus the youths and civil society in Cameroon remained passive, captive and weak from 1st September 1966 till date.
Though political pluralism reigns in Cameroon following the creation of political parties such as the SDF, UNDP, UPC, UDC, MDR, MJLC, MP Etc, much still has to be done to institutionalize various institutions to reflect the standard of political pluralism in the country. By all evaluation, Cameroon is still a one- party State in disguise. It is still governed by the dictates and structures of authoritarian regime form the captivity of the legislature, judiciary and bureaucracy by a powerful Presidency which treats the other branches of government as an offspring of a political party machinery CPDM property.
What is evident and should be noted is that, development wisdom is no longer lodged in government bureaucracies but in local communities and institutions in short, in the people. That is, where indigenous knowledge and popular participation occupy increasing prominence in the development of the society. The captivity of the Cameroon youths and civil society was the result of two integrated fundamentals;
1- The institutionalization of a monolithic political system in 1966, and
2- The abolition of the Federal Governance System in 1972 which intensified centralization and the co optation of the English Speaking Regions in to the ambit of Francophone Centralized System. As a result, the youths and civil society went into slumber and Cameroon degenerated into what has until now, been an authoritarian State that violates most aspects of fundamental human rights and liberties. However, there is now an emerging vibrant youth and civil society that could challenged the State, as we experienced in 2008.
So far, the Cameroon civil society has been confronted with problems of political apathy, lack of organisation, a sense of direction and leadership. Generally, democracy requires organisation. Organisation requires an interest in public affairs. The failure of the Nation-State to be the liberator of the people since independence and particularly from the 1990s prompted Cameroonians to adopt a cynical and distrustful attitude towards politics and the State.
Even though the Second Republic under President Paul Biya introduced communal liberalism and advocated for change, the damage had already been done as the slogan of “rigor, moralization and democratization” was more or less used to tarnish the image of the First Republic rather than putting into action the true meanings of the above concepts. The misuse of these concepts became part of the system, and used as a false passport for personal accumulation of the country’s wealth while bleeding the nation to death economically, socially and politically. The youths and civil society in Cameroon must become vibrant once again in order to create a new political agenda and landscape in respect to what I see as the youths and civil society strengthening the democratic process in respect of:
• Containing the power of the State through public scrutiny ;
• Stimulating political participation by citizens ;
• Developing such democratic norms as tolerance and compromise ;
• Creating ways of articulating, aggregating and representing interest outside political parties, especially at the local level ;
• Mitigating conflict through cross cutting or overlapping interests ;
• Recruiting and training political leaders ;
• Questioning and reforming existing democratic institutions and procedures ;
• Disseminating information.
The political landscape in Cameroon today is not very much different from that of the 1980s and early 1990s. The past decade has witnessed little or no progress towards democratic and economic reforms. With the collapse of communism, democracy has reached or touched nearly every region of the world for the first time in history, and in the words of Huntington, democracy has become “the only legitimate and viable alternative to an authoritarian regime of any kind”.
The youths and civil society in Cameroon has been a cause and consequence of this process the construction of a new political formula for the country, and even though the emergence of a genuine democratic government has yet to see daylight in Cameroon, the first step has been taken in that direction. The move towards democracy provides the much needed political space to develop new forms of governance whereby social capital can be constructed.
A democratic culture of participation, moderation, accommodation, tolerance, and restraint is critical to the consolidation and long-term stability of democracy. The youths and civil society has a role to play towards the realization of such goals. Here lies the challenges this generation of Cameroonians confront how to adopt a confrontational approach towards the State. In other words, defending individual liberties against the State and upholding the principles of civil and political rights of individuals at any price. It could be argued that taking such an uncompromising approach towards the State may undercut the overall objective of building social capital and strengthening civil society.
The other aspect is that of balancing State power. That is how the State can be made to loosen its grip over society. As earlier indicated, this may involve two factors.
1- Reducing State monopoly over resource mobilization and allocation and
2- Decentralizing developmental responsibilities to local self-governing institutions (Effective Decentralization).
This strategy entails a parallel devolution of political authority to local government institutions as well as to grassroots in order to enhance the chances of influencing public policy making.
What is vital is the compatibility of political and economic liberalization. Both politics and economics constitute complementary processes, with each impacting on the other in many and varied ways. The challenge confronting the youths and civil society in Cameroon is that the Cameroon government has degenerated into a system of personal rule, strongly influenced and supported by ethnic constellations and patronage networks since, between 1966 1990s, the country lacked a strong and coherent youths, religious, and civil society necessary to hold the State accountable for its actions.
The youths, religious and civil society during this period was co-opted and coerced into the ruling organ of the party and State machinery. These became captive, weak and constituted nothing short of a hand clapping or praise singing body that does not reflect the interests of the people, but played and danced to the tunes of the government and its offspring the ruling party’s hegemony.
The challenge, therefore, is for the youths, religious, and civil society to reverse existing trends that of the regime displaying rent seeking, corrupt and authoritarian behaviour, or creating, and establishing as well as institutionalizing an environment that can hardly promote a dynamic economic and democratic governance.
The other factor is to regain and institutionalise its lost or fast diminishing hegemony. That is establishing the enabling environment necessary to foster greater political and democratic participation.
Creating the necessary political agenda that spurs up people who had gone into slumber because of the dark years and who, until after 1990, still have little or no experience in social and democratic structures of governance. In short, to institutionalise popular participation and responsibility. Presently, current rhetoric concepts of “popular participation” avoid the people most affected, namely the grassroots and the suffering masses. The rich have jumped on the bandwagon to continue to take away from the have-nots (poor people).
So far, the policy and slogan of popular participation ignores an important stream of democratic theory traceable to Aristotle, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville and a host of others on the prescription that participation involves: “a containing inter relationship between the working institutions and the psychological qualities and attitudes of individuals interacting with them”.
Rephrased in another way, popular participation involves not just policies but equally the development of social and political capacities of each individual. Schmitz states that “support for democratic participation therefore should mean empowering the people to make their own decisions not engineering the forms of good governance which other elites are expected to undertake”.
In other for such concepts to have its full meaning, this generation has a vital role to play to deconstruct existing power structures of the regime and to put in place an alternative strategy that is more authentically democratic. The new agenda of USDP is that of democratizing existing authoritarian structures. To begin with, this should involve, accepting that development is more than economic growth and institutional structures of governance.
According to Tim Broadhead, development is: “a process of realizing potential, maximizing choices and allowing people thereby to become more fully human”.
The state of political impasse and urban violence, ethnic cleansing that ravaged Cameroon at the start of the democratization process in 1990 is traceable to the absence of views expressed by Broadhead. The youths and university students were denied their rights people were prevented from participating and sharing in the democratic and economic liberalization process. The wealth of the nation became the prerogative of a selected few who felt they were doing the nation a favour by constructing roads or providing social services and other amenities to the society. In reality, funds for these development projects which are the sweat of the suffering masses were hijacked by the governing elites as their personal properties. Selfish interest has replaced the common interest, thereby, destroying the sense of belonging amongst the excluded group of people within the society.
A State versus Civil Society accord has to be established for the country to move forward. This requires the provision for increased opportunities for greater popular participation, the re-evaluation of existing policy strategies and the role of dominant players who, for personal reasons and self-interests continue to stifle national development, exclusion of the youths, and the emergence of genuine democracy within the society.
It is imperative that the entire structure of the existing development agenda and political calendar of the nation be re-evaluated and reconstructed to reflect the political, economic and social aspirations of the people, not that of a selected few who have created an “isolated island of privileges” and continue to bleed the nation to destruction and moral decay.
Now that some form of quasi political pluralism and media freedom is attained, what impact has this on society? In short, has anything changed from the days of a captive, hand clapping and weak parliament to that of an institution sharing power with other branches of government, especially the executive? Who participates, when, how and to what effect in the emerging new political dispensation, is enormously important to the depth and durability of the democratization of the nation.
By and large, the new political dispensation should imply removing the obstacles (economic, gender, tribal, ethnic, cultural etc.) from existing power structures to persons and communities and developing the capacity for democratic governance. So far this is not the case. What continues to exist is the total absence of the necessary political mechanism to aid the transition from authoritarian to democratic governance. Incumbent power brokers continue to thwart such mechanism to prolong their stay in power to maintain existing status quo even in the wake of a new political wind blowing across the continent.
Existing power structures continue to perpetuate the dissemination of ideologies that entrench their grip on the State, on the structures established immediately after the attainment of political independence. Largely also because the developed democracies and the Bretton Woods Financial Institutions for all their invocation of politically correct language, have shown that they are not ready to surrender control over agenda setting to local democratic forces. Western dominated development agenda constantly defines the parameters of development and behaviour in Cameroon as well as in other countries under transition. France takes the lead in articulating and setting the pace for such behaviour. Here, the external and internal ideologies of the ruling elites converge to destroying and placing the society in a state of perpetual poverty and underdevelopment.
Bratton and Van de Walle correctly argue that the “diffusionist and structural interpretations partly explain recent political events in Africa in the course of transition, the major participants and the dominant influences in every case have been nationals”. Who articulates policy strategies and measures for the destruction and not construction of the society? In all the development trajectories and strategies of post colonial Cameroon has been either a reflection of, or a reaction to the agenda set by the strongest international players. Cameroon became vulnerable following the collapse of the First Republic and on account of pressures exerted on the Second Republic by the very doings of those who control the New Deal Regime.
Flowing from the preceding paragraph is the challenge of the Cameroon society standing up to the difficulties which may spring from international systems. Admittedly, while the revival of civil society has received encouragement from the international community, the global impact has also been the downfall and weakening of civil society which for a number of reasons beggs and dances to the tunes of these international bodies, just as State governments and the regime have done all these years.
The youths, religious, political actors, and civil society could gradually become a captive and weak instrument of external forces. The challenge is how to exert autonomy and independence towards its objectives. So far, the question is whether Cameroon can be divorced from its international and trans-national connections that do not contribute positively to the nation’s natural and human potentials and to resist the presence of dominant and authoritarian financial actors.
Another challenge for the overall survival of democratic governance in Cameroon is to understand the issues of global connectedness that the management of development and democracy in Cameroon will move toward more democratic and developmental connectedness when these issues are coherently appraised and incorporated into a common policy framework.
So far, the Cameroon Government under its present constituted leadership cannot provide that connectedness with the impact and consequences which the society suffers and trails behind in the democratization and economic liberalization processes. On top of that, the country’s image keeps declining within the international arena as the leader of the nation has presented himself as an “absentee President”.
The challenge today, and henceforth, is to unite the various communities and fragments into finding and creating a connection between the State and citizens to reconstitute civil society as an inherent way forward to sustainable democratic governance and socio economic development system.
The legacy of the dominant one party politics and centralized bureaucratic set up is likely to persist stubbornly in endless petty and profound ways far deep into this new millennium. Breaking it requires intensive education and empowering of the victims of the system as well as re-educating the advocates of the system, and, of course, promoting dialogue between the various political and economic stakeholders. Political, religious, and civil society associations, in various ways, have a crucial role to play in the process of political change, curbing political violence, limiting the politics of ethnic hegemony through mobilization of all available societal resources (natural and human), mobilization of community participation and vigilance, and adopting, articulating and aggregating a policy of reconciliation, consensus, dialogue and participation between the various contending political forces, given the new level of political knowledge and democratic understanding among the widest segment of the population due to the many decades of the legalization of a dominant monolithic political system that excluded the politics of general participation.
The mass and social media has during the past half decade, played an important role of awareness creation and education amongst the people. That effort should not be allowed to decline. Rather, all civil society, religious, and political associations should join forces to advance the return to democratic governance and good management. This implies “reinventing government” where the entire governmental system and structure is made to work better and cost less.
Throughout the years in Cameroon, ordinary people are calling for a second independence. This time from the indigenous leadership whose socio-economic and political mismanagement, together with brutal repression, have made mere survival an up-hill task for most of the citizens especially the youths.
Moreover, there is an increasing awareness among Cameroonians that the monopoly of power enjoyed by a status quo leadership has to be broken in order that power can be transferred to the people. That is why demonstrations for democratization in Cameroon persisted in the 1990s in spite of repression, and may continue to do so as long as civil society organizations can find a growing and reliable base in Opposition Parties. The question of course, remains: for how long will belly politics reign?
The regime is very effective and efficient in spoiled politics of “divide and rule”. This, it applied in 1992 and split the UNDP into two blocks. And of recent, the same strategy was adopted in splitting the SDF. The countervailing forces of the State should not be under-estimated in the process of destabilizing opposition parties.
Presently, the democracy movement and train for political reconstruction in Cameroon is a powerful objective and a historical force, as it continues to express the desire for the ordinary people to gain power and material improvement quality living standards for all. There are indications that the desire for material gains is fuelling the democratization process in Cameroon. This has far-reaching consequences.
Firstly, this implies that the feasibility of democratization will depend partly on the correlation of this process with better economic prospects.
Secondly, the critical importance of the economic factor in the Cameroon democracy movement will mean a change of emphasis from abstract legal and political rights to social and economic rights, from laissez-faire and the tolerance of economic inequality, to the acceptance of considerable economic intervention in the market-place in the interests of growth and redistribution of economic wealth.
USDP is revitalising itself to playing a more fundamental role to further the course of economic and democratic liberalization. The creation of a democratic and developmental culture remains crucial and constitutes the only way forward to building a vibrant and sustainable society. Cameroon is currently facing growing crises in health care, welfare and housing conditions, unemployment, economic, social and security instability among other critical issues. The resolution of these issues by the current regime, even though with a seemly increase in budget allocation, is not at all clear.
Yet these gordian knots form the stuff of the recovery of the economy of Cameroon. It is even clearer, given the failure rate of the government, that they cannot be resolved in conventional terms and forms. The key in finding the way out is a return to certain fundamentals of re-creating civil society through community values and citizens working together with the State. What this entails is that of the civil society shifting the emphasis on government as “problem solver” to the development of civic muscle and local communities and institutions in the community contributing to creating a safer and enabling environment.
So far, peace and tranquillity has reigned in Cameroon; it is an envy of other States within the Central African Sub-Region. Implying that a strong civil society in Cameroon can equally be a catalyst for radical changes political and economic in the Sub-Region. Now that the urgent challenges of breaking the back of the single party has passed, there are massive new requirements and challenges for the nation to intensify efforts in the re-democratisation process. Democracy is more than the sum of its institutions. A healthy democracy largely depends on the development of a civic culture.
And culture here refers to the behaviours, practices and norms that define the ability of a people to govern themselves. A democratic society shaped by the freely chosen activities of individuals and groups for the common good.
Democracy has to be re-created in the context of the given realities and in political arrangements which fit the cultural context, but without sacrificing its values and inherent principles and sovereignty. In Cameroon, this is likely to entail, among other things, a “co societal” arrangement the use of every ethnic group, social class, communities as the constituencies for representation. There is need for the establishment of a highly, yet representative, decentralized system of government with equal emphasis on individual and communal rights. It has to be understood also that democracy in Cameroon is not something that will emerge from a rational blueprint; it must emerge from practical experiences and improvisation in the course of the implimentation of value-based principles.
The process towards democracy and economic liberalization in Cameroon must be shaped by the singular reality that those whose democratic participation is an issue are the ordinary people of the country the “buyam and sellam” group, the marginalized poor, ¬many of whom are illiterate, and almost all are poor, rural dwellers in an essentially pre industrial and communal society.
The international community must develop an obligation to support the Cameroon democratization process, not to support existing power structures focused to achieve only the democracy of alienation power not to the people but to the existing powerful and exploitative classes.
Therefore, reconciliation, understanding, tolerance and mutual respect should be fostered and bridges constructed across the various economic, ethnic, and political divide. In short, there could be real hope for democracy and economic liberalization in Cameroon, as long as a strong civil society is put in place. And that function must be appropriated within the framework of protection of values like truth and reason, peace and harmony, justice, good morals, freedom, family lifestyle, honesty and accountability, trust and care and on the reflections of a just and democratic politics.
The fact remains that these multiple, diverse and pluralistic foundations of a generation of civil society actors that are emerging are capable of forging, changing and reconstructing their society and culture that can have a chain effect in redressing existing situation of authoritarian regimes in other parts of the Central African Sub-Region.
To sum-up this introduction, it will be relevant to state that, broad democratic legitimacy cannot be established unless democracy is able to work and function properly to improve the appalling conditions of the lives of the vast majority of the marginalized population. A change in that direction can be effected provided we are all willing to see democracy and other changes triumph over authoritarianism and corruption.
Religious, political, traditional, and other stakeholders can help the people realize that they themselves are a resource. In other words, it is a matter of building a society of people who are willing and conscious of their potential and power as a group, over the power holders. It will enhance not only their political rights but also their spiritual, socio-cultural and economic rights. Powerless people are not only powerless in a political sense but even more so in a socio economic sense. The poor are often badly treated even by others like them or slightly better off. Empowering the poor through building their human capacity through proper civic, social and political education constitute one major role of political and civil society actors in bringing progress in the society. The lack of education and skills makes it more difficult to help out their poverty and much effort and creative thinking is still needed in that direction.
The challenge which USDP is willing to take will be to re-build democracy and capitalism on a more human scale, ensure good management of both human and natural resources, and to expand the capacity of citizens for self governance and public problem solving. Civil society enables people to be positive about the future. Being positive, means creating sustainability. Sustainability is inevitable and the Cameroon population must not allow its cultural heritage to collapse, but to use culture as the framework and basis for developing and sustaining an emerging democracy and management.
Certain core aspects, such as, participation and pluralism, honour and trust, reciprocity, tolerance and inclusion, constitute key concepts and values of eliciting inputs, participation and consensus embodied in the values of democracy and development. The act of developing these values is an act of civic responsibility itself. Religious, political, traditional, and civil society actors must bring together peoples and groups at the various levels of society to identify core values and, sharpen their focus on strategic programmes so as to assist in realizing their aspirations democratic governance and quality improvement in living standards. The following points constitute the areas through which all stakeholders could influence change:
• State/Civil society harmony constitutes a healthy sign for the growth of authentic democracy.
• Religious, traditional, and civil society organizations are crucial instruments for democratic change and socialization because they function as continuous instruments of participation and mobilization.
• Religious, traditional, and civil society organizations contribute to the development of democratic culture in many ways which can be used by the State for awareness creation. The more pluralistic and coherent religious, traditional, and civil society organization is, the more it benefits democracy.
• The State must bear its responsibility of ensuring balanced development and providing the needs of society equitably.
• National reconciliation is never constructed or consolidated by ignoring others or by shouting them down.
• The legitimacy and authority of the State is more enhanced through a transparent, accountable, participatory regime form.
• Spirituality, politics and economics are inherently linked and progress in one requires the support or progress in the other.
• There is an urgent need for “reinventing government” in Cameroon and to ensure total quality management as instruments for moving the country in the right path of sustainable development.
• Cameroonians must articulate and aggregate policies that fight against ethnic disparity and other dehumanizing corollaries, and put in place mechanisms for living together as a diverse people in a one and indivisible Cameroon.
• There is also the urgent need for reinventing citizenship ensuring shared values that stress a balance between rights and responsibilities of citizens democracy being “of the people by the people and for the people” in the words of Lincoln, and not against the people.
• Democracy itself guarantees nothing. It offers instead the opportunity to succeed as well as the risk of failure. Yet building on Thomas Jefferson’s shrewd phrase; the promise of democracy is: “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
Government of and by the people implies that the citizens of a democratic society share in its benefits and in its burdens. And of course, must take the responsibility for the failure and fate of the State hence, a country gets the government it deserves. As for United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP), our case is simple: that Cameroon can and must be better.
The vision is one of national renewal, a country with drive, purpose and energy.
In each area of policy, a new and distinctive approach has been mapped out, one that differs from the old conservative centralized system. This is why United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP) is new.
United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP) is a party of ideas and ideals and not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works. The objectives are radical. The means will be modern. This is our contract with the people.
We believe in Cameroon. It is a great country with a great history and a great future. Cameroonians are a great people. But we also believe that Cameroon can and must be better: better educational system, better medical system, and better ways of tackling crime, of building a modern welfare state, of equipping ourselves for a new “world” economy where the taxation laws and the banking systems open doors for every ambitious Cameroonian and for foreign investors on 50/50 profit.
We desire a Cameroon that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege; we will run for political office for the many not for the few. We want a Cameroon that does not shuffle into this new millennium with fear and uncertainty of the future, but strides into it with confidence.
We want to renew our country’s faith in the ability of its people, its government and its politics, so as to handover this New Cameroon for future generations. We want to do it by making some important sets of objectives and achieve them within the period of our mandate. This is the purpose of the bond of trust we are proposing to Cameroonians, in which specific commitments are put before you. Hold us to them. They are our covenant with you.
We want to renew faith in politics by being honest with all Cameroonians about what we have and must achieve in the months and years ahead. Some of the things which this current regime got right, we will not change them. It is where they got things wrong that we will make changes. We have no intention or desire to replace one set of dogmas by another.
We want to renew faith in politics through a government that will govern in the interest of the many, the broad majority of people who work hard, play by the rules, pay their taxes but feels let down by a political system that gives the bread of their sweat to a few, to an elite at the top who are increasingly out of touch with the rest of us.
And we want, above all, to govern in a way that brings our country together, that unites our nation in facing the tough and dangerous challenges of a new world economic system in a changing world in which we all are called to live. We want a Cameroon which we all feel part of, in whose future we all have a stake, in which what is good for one child, should be good for all of our children without any discrimination.
BY: PRINCE MICHAEL NGWESE EKOSSO.
So far, the Cameroon civil society has been confronted with problems of political apathy, lack of organisation, a sense of direction and leadership. Generally, democracy requires organisation. Organisation requires an interest in public affairs. The failure of the Nation-State to be the liberator of the people since independence and particularly from the 1990s prompted Cameroonians to adopt a cynical and distrustful attitude towards politics and the State.
Even though the Second Republic under President Paul Biya introduced communal liberalism and advocated for change, the damage had already been done as the slogan of “rigor, moralization and democratization” was more or less used to tarnish the image of the First Republic rather than putting into action the true meanings of the above concepts. The misuse of these concepts became part of the system, and used as a false passport for personal accumulation of the country’s wealth while bleeding the nation to death economically, socially and politically. The youths and civil society in Cameroon must become vibrant once again in order to create a new political agenda and landscape in respect to what I see as the youths and civil society strengthening the democratic process in respect of:
• Containing the power of the State through public scrutiny ;
• Stimulating political participation by citizens ;
• Developing such democratic norms as tolerance and compromise ;
• Creating ways of articulating, aggregating and representing interest outside political parties, especially at the local level ;
• Mitigating conflict through cross cutting or overlapping interests ;
• Recruiting and training political leaders ;
• Questioning and reforming existing democratic institutions and procedures ;
• Disseminating information.
The political landscape in Cameroon today is not very much different from that of the 1980s and early 1990s. The past decade has witnessed little or no progress towards democratic and economic reforms. With the collapse of communism, democracy has reached or touched nearly every region of the world for the first time in history, and in the words of Huntington, democracy has become “the only legitimate and viable alternative to an authoritarian regime of any kind”.
The youths and civil society in Cameroon has been a cause and consequence of this process the construction of a new political formula for the country, and even though the emergence of a genuine democratic government has yet to see daylight in Cameroon, the first step has been taken in that direction. The move towards democracy provides the much needed political space to develop new forms of governance whereby social capital can be constructed.
A democratic culture of participation, moderation, accommodation, tolerance, and restraint is critical to the consolidation and long-term stability of democracy. The youths and civil society has a role to play towards the realization of such goals. Here lies the challenges this generation of Cameroonians confront how to adopt a confrontational approach towards the State. In other words, defending individual liberties against the State and upholding the principles of civil and political rights of individuals at any price. It could be argued that taking such an uncompromising approach towards the State may undercut the overall objective of building social capital and strengthening civil society.
The other aspect is that of balancing State power. That is how the State can be made to loosen its grip over society. As earlier indicated, this may involve two factors.
1- Reducing State monopoly over resource mobilization and allocation and
2- Decentralizing developmental responsibilities to local self-governing institutions (Effective Decentralization).
This strategy entails a parallel devolution of political authority to local government institutions as well as to grassroots in order to enhance the chances of influencing public policy making.
What is vital is the compatibility of political and economic liberalization. Both politics and economics constitute complementary processes, with each impacting on the other in many and varied ways. The challenge confronting the youths and civil society in Cameroon is that the Cameroon government has degenerated into a system of personal rule, strongly influenced and supported by ethnic constellations and patronage networks since, between 1966 1990s, the country lacked a strong and coherent youths, religious, and civil society necessary to hold the State accountable for its actions.
The youths, religious and civil society during this period was co-opted and coerced into the ruling organ of the party and State machinery. These became captive, weak and constituted nothing short of a hand clapping or praise singing body that does not reflect the interests of the people, but played and danced to the tunes of the government and its offspring the ruling party’s hegemony.
The challenge, therefore, is for the youths, religious, and civil society to reverse existing trends that of the regime displaying rent seeking, corrupt and authoritarian behaviour, or creating, and establishing as well as institutionalizing an environment that can hardly promote a dynamic economic and democratic governance.
The other factor is to regain and institutionalise its lost or fast diminishing hegemony. That is establishing the enabling environment necessary to foster greater political and democratic participation.
Creating the necessary political agenda that spurs up people who had gone into slumber because of the dark years and who, until after 1990, still have little or no experience in social and democratic structures of governance. In short, to institutionalise popular participation and responsibility. Presently, current rhetoric concepts of “popular participation” avoid the people most affected, namely the grassroots and the suffering masses. The rich have jumped on the bandwagon to continue to take away from the have-nots (poor people).
So far, the policy and slogan of popular participation ignores an important stream of democratic theory traceable to Aristotle, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Alexis de Tocqueville and a host of others on the prescription that participation involves: “a containing inter relationship between the working institutions and the psychological qualities and attitudes of individuals interacting with them”.
Rephrased in another way, popular participation involves not just policies but equally the development of social and political capacities of each individual. Schmitz states that “support for democratic participation therefore should mean empowering the people to make their own decisions not engineering the forms of good governance which other elites are expected to undertake”.
In other for such concepts to have its full meaning, this generation has a vital role to play to deconstruct existing power structures of the regime and to put in place an alternative strategy that is more authentically democratic. The new agenda of USDP is that of democratizing existing authoritarian structures. To begin with, this should involve, accepting that development is more than economic growth and institutional structures of governance.
According to Tim Broadhead, development is: “a process of realizing potential, maximizing choices and allowing people thereby to become more fully human”.
The state of political impasse and urban violence, ethnic cleansing that ravaged Cameroon at the start of the democratization process in 1990 is traceable to the absence of views expressed by Broadhead. The youths and university students were denied their rights people were prevented from participating and sharing in the democratic and economic liberalization process. The wealth of the nation became the prerogative of a selected few who felt they were doing the nation a favour by constructing roads or providing social services and other amenities to the society. In reality, funds for these development projects which are the sweat of the suffering masses were hijacked by the governing elites as their personal properties. Selfish interest has replaced the common interest, thereby, destroying the sense of belonging amongst the excluded group of people within the society.
A State versus Civil Society accord has to be established for the country to move forward. This requires the provision for increased opportunities for greater popular participation, the re-evaluation of existing policy strategies and the role of dominant players who, for personal reasons and self-interests continue to stifle national development, exclusion of the youths, and the emergence of genuine democracy within the society.
It is imperative that the entire structure of the existing development agenda and political calendar of the nation be re-evaluated and reconstructed to reflect the political, economic and social aspirations of the people, not that of a selected few who have created an “isolated island of privileges” and continue to bleed the nation to destruction and moral decay.
Now that some form of quasi political pluralism and media freedom is attained, what impact has this on society? In short, has anything changed from the days of a captive, hand clapping and weak parliament to that of an institution sharing power with other branches of government, especially the executive? Who participates, when, how and to what effect in the emerging new political dispensation, is enormously important to the depth and durability of the democratization of the nation.
By and large, the new political dispensation should imply removing the obstacles (economic, gender, tribal, ethnic, cultural etc.) from existing power structures to persons and communities and developing the capacity for democratic governance. So far this is not the case. What continues to exist is the total absence of the necessary political mechanism to aid the transition from authoritarian to democratic governance. Incumbent power brokers continue to thwart such mechanism to prolong their stay in power to maintain existing status quo even in the wake of a new political wind blowing across the continent.
Existing power structures continue to perpetuate the dissemination of ideologies that entrench their grip on the State, on the structures established immediately after the attainment of political independence. Largely also because the developed democracies and the Bretton Woods Financial Institutions for all their invocation of politically correct language, have shown that they are not ready to surrender control over agenda setting to local democratic forces. Western dominated development agenda constantly defines the parameters of development and behaviour in Cameroon as well as in other countries under transition. France takes the lead in articulating and setting the pace for such behaviour. Here, the external and internal ideologies of the ruling elites converge to destroying and placing the society in a state of perpetual poverty and underdevelopment.
Bratton and Van de Walle correctly argue that the “diffusionist and structural interpretations partly explain recent political events in Africa in the course of transition, the major participants and the dominant influences in every case have been nationals”. Who articulates policy strategies and measures for the destruction and not construction of the society? In all the development trajectories and strategies of post colonial Cameroon has been either a reflection of, or a reaction to the agenda set by the strongest international players. Cameroon became vulnerable following the collapse of the First Republic and on account of pressures exerted on the Second Republic by the very doings of those who control the New Deal Regime.
Flowing from the preceding paragraph is the challenge of the Cameroon society standing up to the difficulties which may spring from international systems. Admittedly, while the revival of civil society has received encouragement from the international community, the global impact has also been the downfall and weakening of civil society which for a number of reasons beggs and dances to the tunes of these international bodies, just as State governments and the regime have done all these years.
The youths, religious, political actors, and civil society could gradually become a captive and weak instrument of external forces. The challenge is how to exert autonomy and independence towards its objectives. So far, the question is whether Cameroon can be divorced from its international and trans-national connections that do not contribute positively to the nation’s natural and human potentials and to resist the presence of dominant and authoritarian financial actors.
Another challenge for the overall survival of democratic governance in Cameroon is to understand the issues of global connectedness that the management of development and democracy in Cameroon will move toward more democratic and developmental connectedness when these issues are coherently appraised and incorporated into a common policy framework.
So far, the Cameroon Government under its present constituted leadership cannot provide that connectedness with the impact and consequences which the society suffers and trails behind in the democratization and economic liberalization processes. On top of that, the country’s image keeps declining within the international arena as the leader of the nation has presented himself as an “absentee President”.
The challenge today, and henceforth, is to unite the various communities and fragments into finding and creating a connection between the State and citizens to reconstitute civil society as an inherent way forward to sustainable democratic governance and socio economic development system.
The legacy of the dominant one party politics and centralized bureaucratic set up is likely to persist stubbornly in endless petty and profound ways far deep into this new millennium. Breaking it requires intensive education and empowering of the victims of the system as well as re-educating the advocates of the system, and, of course, promoting dialogue between the various political and economic stakeholders. Political, religious, and civil society associations, in various ways, have a crucial role to play in the process of political change, curbing political violence, limiting the politics of ethnic hegemony through mobilization of all available societal resources (natural and human), mobilization of community participation and vigilance, and adopting, articulating and aggregating a policy of reconciliation, consensus, dialogue and participation between the various contending political forces, given the new level of political knowledge and democratic understanding among the widest segment of the population due to the many decades of the legalization of a dominant monolithic political system that excluded the politics of general participation.
The mass and social media has during the past half decade, played an important role of awareness creation and education amongst the people. That effort should not be allowed to decline. Rather, all civil society, religious, and political associations should join forces to advance the return to democratic governance and good management. This implies “reinventing government” where the entire governmental system and structure is made to work better and cost less.
Throughout the years in Cameroon, ordinary people are calling for a second independence. This time from the indigenous leadership whose socio-economic and political mismanagement, together with brutal repression, have made mere survival an up-hill task for most of the citizens especially the youths.
Moreover, there is an increasing awareness among Cameroonians that the monopoly of power enjoyed by a status quo leadership has to be broken in order that power can be transferred to the people. That is why demonstrations for democratization in Cameroon persisted in the 1990s in spite of repression, and may continue to do so as long as civil society organizations can find a growing and reliable base in Opposition Parties. The question of course, remains: for how long will belly politics reign?
The regime is very effective and efficient in spoiled politics of “divide and rule”. This, it applied in 1992 and split the UNDP into two blocks. And of recent, the same strategy was adopted in splitting the SDF. The countervailing forces of the State should not be under-estimated in the process of destabilizing opposition parties.
Presently, the democracy movement and train for political reconstruction in Cameroon is a powerful objective and a historical force, as it continues to express the desire for the ordinary people to gain power and material improvement quality living standards for all. There are indications that the desire for material gains is fuelling the democratization process in Cameroon. This has far-reaching consequences.
Firstly, this implies that the feasibility of democratization will depend partly on the correlation of this process with better economic prospects.
Secondly, the critical importance of the economic factor in the Cameroon democracy movement will mean a change of emphasis from abstract legal and political rights to social and economic rights, from laissez-faire and the tolerance of economic inequality, to the acceptance of considerable economic intervention in the market-place in the interests of growth and redistribution of economic wealth.
USDP is revitalising itself to playing a more fundamental role to further the course of economic and democratic liberalization. The creation of a democratic and developmental culture remains crucial and constitutes the only way forward to building a vibrant and sustainable society. Cameroon is currently facing growing crises in health care, welfare and housing conditions, unemployment, economic, social and security instability among other critical issues. The resolution of these issues by the current regime, even though with a seemly increase in budget allocation, is not at all clear.
Yet these gordian knots form the stuff of the recovery of the economy of Cameroon. It is even clearer, given the failure rate of the government, that they cannot be resolved in conventional terms and forms. The key in finding the way out is a return to certain fundamentals of re-creating civil society through community values and citizens working together with the State. What this entails is that of the civil society shifting the emphasis on government as “problem solver” to the development of civic muscle and local communities and institutions in the community contributing to creating a safer and enabling environment.
So far, peace and tranquillity has reigned in Cameroon; it is an envy of other States within the Central African Sub-Region. Implying that a strong civil society in Cameroon can equally be a catalyst for radical changes political and economic in the Sub-Region. Now that the urgent challenges of breaking the back of the single party has passed, there are massive new requirements and challenges for the nation to intensify efforts in the re-democratisation process. Democracy is more than the sum of its institutions. A healthy democracy largely depends on the development of a civic culture.
And culture here refers to the behaviours, practices and norms that define the ability of a people to govern themselves. A democratic society shaped by the freely chosen activities of individuals and groups for the common good.
Democracy has to be re-created in the context of the given realities and in political arrangements which fit the cultural context, but without sacrificing its values and inherent principles and sovereignty. In Cameroon, this is likely to entail, among other things, a “co societal” arrangement the use of every ethnic group, social class, communities as the constituencies for representation. There is need for the establishment of a highly, yet representative, decentralized system of government with equal emphasis on individual and communal rights. It has to be understood also that democracy in Cameroon is not something that will emerge from a rational blueprint; it must emerge from practical experiences and improvisation in the course of the implimentation of value-based principles.
The process towards democracy and economic liberalization in Cameroon must be shaped by the singular reality that those whose democratic participation is an issue are the ordinary people of the country the “buyam and sellam” group, the marginalized poor, ¬many of whom are illiterate, and almost all are poor, rural dwellers in an essentially pre industrial and communal society.
The international community must develop an obligation to support the Cameroon democratization process, not to support existing power structures focused to achieve only the democracy of alienation power not to the people but to the existing powerful and exploitative classes.
Therefore, reconciliation, understanding, tolerance and mutual respect should be fostered and bridges constructed across the various economic, ethnic, and political divide. In short, there could be real hope for democracy and economic liberalization in Cameroon, as long as a strong civil society is put in place. And that function must be appropriated within the framework of protection of values like truth and reason, peace and harmony, justice, good morals, freedom, family lifestyle, honesty and accountability, trust and care and on the reflections of a just and democratic politics.
The fact remains that these multiple, diverse and pluralistic foundations of a generation of civil society actors that are emerging are capable of forging, changing and reconstructing their society and culture that can have a chain effect in redressing existing situation of authoritarian regimes in other parts of the Central African Sub-Region.
To sum-up this introduction, it will be relevant to state that, broad democratic legitimacy cannot be established unless democracy is able to work and function properly to improve the appalling conditions of the lives of the vast majority of the marginalized population. A change in that direction can be effected provided we are all willing to see democracy and other changes triumph over authoritarianism and corruption.
Religious, political, traditional, and other stakeholders can help the people realize that they themselves are a resource. In other words, it is a matter of building a society of people who are willing and conscious of their potential and power as a group, over the power holders. It will enhance not only their political rights but also their spiritual, socio-cultural and economic rights. Powerless people are not only powerless in a political sense but even more so in a socio economic sense. The poor are often badly treated even by others like them or slightly better off. Empowering the poor through building their human capacity through proper civic, social and political education constitute one major role of political and civil society actors in bringing progress in the society. The lack of education and skills makes it more difficult to help out their poverty and much effort and creative thinking is still needed in that direction.
The challenge which USDP is willing to take will be to re-build democracy and capitalism on a more human scale, ensure good management of both human and natural resources, and to expand the capacity of citizens for self governance and public problem solving. Civil society enables people to be positive about the future. Being positive, means creating sustainability. Sustainability is inevitable and the Cameroon population must not allow its cultural heritage to collapse, but to use culture as the framework and basis for developing and sustaining an emerging democracy and management.
Certain core aspects, such as, participation and pluralism, honour and trust, reciprocity, tolerance and inclusion, constitute key concepts and values of eliciting inputs, participation and consensus embodied in the values of democracy and development. The act of developing these values is an act of civic responsibility itself. Religious, political, traditional, and civil society actors must bring together peoples and groups at the various levels of society to identify core values and, sharpen their focus on strategic programmes so as to assist in realizing their aspirations democratic governance and quality improvement in living standards. The following points constitute the areas through which all stakeholders could influence change:
• State/Civil society harmony constitutes a healthy sign for the growth of authentic democracy.
• Religious, traditional, and civil society organizations are crucial instruments for democratic change and socialization because they function as continuous instruments of participation and mobilization.
• Religious, traditional, and civil society organizations contribute to the development of democratic culture in many ways which can be used by the State for awareness creation. The more pluralistic and coherent religious, traditional, and civil society organization is, the more it benefits democracy.
• The State must bear its responsibility of ensuring balanced development and providing the needs of society equitably.
• National reconciliation is never constructed or consolidated by ignoring others or by shouting them down.
• The legitimacy and authority of the State is more enhanced through a transparent, accountable, participatory regime form.
• Spirituality, politics and economics are inherently linked and progress in one requires the support or progress in the other.
• There is an urgent need for “reinventing government” in Cameroon and to ensure total quality management as instruments for moving the country in the right path of sustainable development.
• Cameroonians must articulate and aggregate policies that fight against ethnic disparity and other dehumanizing corollaries, and put in place mechanisms for living together as a diverse people in a one and indivisible Cameroon.
• There is also the urgent need for reinventing citizenship ensuring shared values that stress a balance between rights and responsibilities of citizens democracy being “of the people by the people and for the people” in the words of Lincoln, and not against the people.
• Democracy itself guarantees nothing. It offers instead the opportunity to succeed as well as the risk of failure. Yet building on Thomas Jefferson’s shrewd phrase; the promise of democracy is: “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
Government of and by the people implies that the citizens of a democratic society share in its benefits and in its burdens. And of course, must take the responsibility for the failure and fate of the State hence, a country gets the government it deserves. As for United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP), our case is simple: that Cameroon can and must be better.
The vision is one of national renewal, a country with drive, purpose and energy.
In each area of policy, a new and distinctive approach has been mapped out, one that differs from the old conservative centralized system. This is why United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP) is new.
United Socialist Democratic Party (USDP) is a party of ideas and ideals and not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works. The objectives are radical. The means will be modern. This is our contract with the people.
We believe in Cameroon. It is a great country with a great history and a great future. Cameroonians are a great people. But we also believe that Cameroon can and must be better: better educational system, better medical system, and better ways of tackling crime, of building a modern welfare state, of equipping ourselves for a new “world” economy where the taxation laws and the banking systems open doors for every ambitious Cameroonian and for foreign investors on 50/50 profit.
We desire a Cameroon that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege; we will run for political office for the many not for the few. We want a Cameroon that does not shuffle into this new millennium with fear and uncertainty of the future, but strides into it with confidence.
We want to renew our country’s faith in the ability of its people, its government and its politics, so as to handover this New Cameroon for future generations. We want to do it by making some important sets of objectives and achieve them within the period of our mandate. This is the purpose of the bond of trust we are proposing to Cameroonians, in which specific commitments are put before you. Hold us to them. They are our covenant with you.
We want to renew faith in politics by being honest with all Cameroonians about what we have and must achieve in the months and years ahead. Some of the things which this current regime got right, we will not change them. It is where they got things wrong that we will make changes. We have no intention or desire to replace one set of dogmas by another.
We want to renew faith in politics through a government that will govern in the interest of the many, the broad majority of people who work hard, play by the rules, pay their taxes but feels let down by a political system that gives the bread of their sweat to a few, to an elite at the top who are increasingly out of touch with the rest of us.
And we want, above all, to govern in a way that brings our country together, that unites our nation in facing the tough and dangerous challenges of a new world economic system in a changing world in which we all are called to live. We want a Cameroon which we all feel part of, in whose future we all have a stake, in which what is good for one child, should be good for all of our children without any discrimination.
BY: PRINCE MICHAEL NGWESE EKOSSO.
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