The silence of the opposition in the face of some of the most burning issues of the nation is a most disturbing sign. We regret to observe that one by one prominent opposition figures are surrendering to the Biya regime to settle down for some appointment. The silence of the SDF for whatever favour is clearly a monumental error. Politics is power and only a relationship of power will save Fru Ndi and his party; not compromise and begging for Biya’s pity which he doesn’t have anyway.
More than one week after the government announced the law detailing the functioning of Elections Cameroon, Cameroon’s new election management organ, opposition parties have remained surprisingly silent
Must it be that the law is considered by all the parties as fair and acceptable? Even then why wouldn’t they acknowledge it as such? Or is it indifference out of utter disgust with the endless manipulation by the authorities?
If it is indifference out of disgust, that must be all the more disturbing because it signifies surrender. Why should the opposition surrender when the war continues? Does it matter if so far they still do not feel victory near?
Isn’t it quite strange that not a single party has issued a statement to express its disagreement with the government over the heavily defective law? This silence is not only limited to the Elecam law, the opposition also turned their eye away from the issue of the irregularly long absence of Paul Biya abroad, a behaviour that defied all responsible leadership and good governance!
Why would a responsible and conscious opposition ignore such matters that are the very substance of partisan politics? Seeing the enthusiasm, and even desperation, with which the SDF and UPC fought the repeat council elections only last month, it is all the more surprising that the same parties would be so unconcerned about the instrument to govern future elections!
In the coming weeks twelve members of the Elecam board will be appointed but that wouldn’t matter much anyway because the new law already clips their wings, relegating them to a secondary supervisory/advisory role.
The real functional master of Elecam is the organ’s Director General who alone is directly responsible for electoral operations, keeping territorial administration minister informed as he goes on, and using the services of divisional officers as he sees fit.
The DG of Elecam does not have to be politically neutral nor independent as the board members of Elecam, neither does the law require him to take an oath of office. That opens the way for Paul Biya to appoint any CPDM partisan of his. Moreover, the provision to renew members’ tenure does not augur well for absolute independence.
Political will
These main objections and other minor ones render the new law unacceptably defective. The sad thing is Paul Biya has not seized the opportunity to come off clean and clear. Given the long, long history of flawed elections in Cameroon that is what Cameroonians and Cameroon’s foreign partners would have expected of the president. The least anyone can say of the president now is that he lacks the political will to correct things.
Could the opposition really afford to be indifferent to all this? This is not believable. Or could they have traded off their attacks for public office appointments and other favours? That possibility is very real. Biya often likes to bring potentially harmful adversaries to harness, in the name of peace and consensus. Examples abound.
One surprising case is Garga Haman Adji. Virulent and sometimes uncontrolled in his hostility to the Biya regime, the former public service minister and arch-critic of the government has since been effectively silenced since being appointed a member of the anti-corruption commission in 2006.
Another eloquent case is Jean-Jacques Ekindi who since went quiet in his anti-Biya speak after he entered the national assembly as a parliamentarian. His dramatic change of attitude is reinforced by his expectation, it is widely said, to be appointed into the long-awaited new government.
One of the more dramatic changes of political camps is former transport minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary. After long years of bitter attacks at the government, he yielded to the regime’s quest for support for Biya’s mandate extension.
Another noteworthy case is A F Kodock, the UPC faction leader. Quiet during his long years as a senior member of government he resumed his legendary attacks and threats against Biya after losing last year’s parliamentary election and falling out of government.
Matters were already getting out of hand when Biya reportedly urged him to calm down and wait. You don’t hear him again.
Bouba Bello Maigari will never make the error again to have Biya drop him from the government. To remain in the good books of the regime he often breaks ranks with his own party the UNDP on important issues like Biya’s term extension. No doubt he could never challenge the Elecam law and it is just as well that the party isn’t saying anything on the law.
Adamou Ndam Njoya and his CDU have never been friends nor real enemies of the Biya regime. Financially sufficient, thanks to his membership of the assembly and of being mayor of the Foumban council, Ndam Njoya is not tempted by the government’s overtures.
In his independence he could do much to challenge the government in its arrogance. But Ndam Njoya seems to lack the guts for a fight. Too bad!
No surrender
What can the SDF and its chairman John Fru Ndi do in the present situation? In spite of their many problems it is still possible to do something and not just surrender as their silence over current issues now suggests.
SDF’s silence is being interpreted as a bargain with Paul Biya to let off Fru Ndi from the hook of the murder case. As such Fru Ndi and his party have avoided attacking the government over Elecam and Biya’s undue stay abroad as a condition for securing Fru Ndi’s release!
But if Biya respects such agreements he wouldn’t in the first place have held Fru Ndi over the case. The ‘peace pact’ of 2002 would have come to play. If it didn’t save Fru Ndi how does Fru Ndi believe Biya to keep to his word on this occasion?
Politics is about power: fighting to get it and using it or abusing it. What is, and will always be, at stake in the relationship between Biya and Fru Ndi is the balance of power between the two men (better call them enemies because that is what they are).
In the beginning it is Fru Ndi who was the stronger. That balance is, and has for a long time now been, in Biya’s favour. Without necessarily being on top, Fru Ndi must always summon his last energy to face the regime and avoid engaging in any behaviour of weakness.
Fru Ndi, for instance, threw away a good opportunity of tackling the regime wholesale after Marafa accused him without evidence as having instigated February’s uprising. Who knows if a well-calculated attack wouldn’t have frightened Biya from coming up with the case which is evidence of how weak he perceived Fru Ndi?
That is why it is a mistake even NOW to throw away the wonderful opportunity offered by the Elecam law and Biya’s escape from work abroad. Those are the actions of power which the SDF must not miss. Going on his knees to beg Biya only portrays Fru Ndi as now completely helpless.
The way Biya treats his former aides, now locked up in prison, does not suggest that he has any pity to offer anybody. On the contrary if the SDF could be mobilised to shake up the country for whatever reason, that would be a powerful way of speaking to Biya.
At that time it is Biya who would be seeking Fru Ndi to talk peace. Power will then be talking to power. That we think is politics; not compromise, surrender and begging for pity.
Unless the opposition and the SDF will rise up and summon their last strength to do their work uncompromisingly as opposition parties, their present slumber will easily lead to death.
Source:The herald
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