Hurarah, Victory of the people

Masses force concessions out of Biya, weakened by strike

In frightened reaction to last week’s strike which the president himself referred to as a nightmare, Paul Biya announced measures to sue for peace with the masses. The question remains if he will now adopt a pro-people policy

By Douglas Achingale
The Herald

At the height of last month’s strike, President Paul Biya was booed and jeered by the nation including his partisans, when hiss to the nation portrayed him as being totally out of touch with the people. But last weekend it was applause to the president even by his critics after he made major concessions to the downtrodden masses. For the first time ever in all his 25 years in office, Paul Biya took a decision directed specifically to the welfare of the public who have suffered hardship and penury because of deliberate neglect by his regime.

The measures, in their very nature, were short-term. A challenge before the president is to follow through soon with measures of economic expansion and job creation. This would no doubt involve important investment in small business loans and social projects like more and better schools, medical services, rural roads, etc.

Unless the president is willing to follow through and soon with these measures and others, he will discover that he has awakened an appetite that in failing to satisfy only turns the wrath of the people more and more against him. Regularly, the president did not act out of strength. It was clear that the strike which proved so successful had exposed the government and him as vulnerable. Indeed the masses found a new strength in themselves to the point where a fresh wave of strikes was being rumored.

A salary increase which public sector workers have repeatedly asked for over many years and the cancellation of customs duty and value added tax on foodstuffs and a wide range of essential commodities were, in fact, welcome with much applause by the public. But this was perceived more as a victory over the government and the president rather than a freely given act of policy by Paul Biya.

It is this new relationship between the government and the people that the president must be careful about. With the balance of power shifting in favour of the masses, Paul Biya will need to make more and more economic and political concessions to the masses. The government will also be forced to strengthen its ability to speak convincingly to the masses as a way of getting them along with it where it does not have the goods to deliver.
On the political side, Biya must be ready to make democratic concessions. One thing the government must know in its new relationship with the people is that the easy resort to coercive power, i.e., the language of bullets, is increasingly less potent and dissuasive.