Power to The People.

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

Democracy is usually defined as government by the people for the people. In spite of this definition, many "democratic" political parties around the world proclaim as their principal mission, the giving of power to the people, for good reason. Judged within our own context in Cameroon, the definition is an abstraction managed by those in power to protect their positions while leaving the people with the illusion of power. It is one of the distortions of politics to which the people have fallen victim.

Those who coined the above definition adopted constitutionalism as the trunk road of democracy. And the constitution, wherever, whenever and however it is drafted and adopted, always has as its opening statement the redundant "We the People...", to give the impression that it is the product of the will of the people. The people are said to retain sovereignty, to constitute the state that they authorise to act on their behalf, to be omnipresent, to only delegate their power to legitimate political representatives for specific ends.

The reality, however, is something else! In Cameroon, the constitution ends up being just rules and procedures to regulate the affairs of those who have power – the "legitimate representatives" of the people - giving the impression to the powerless people that there is wisdom and justness in their powerlessness.

In whatever manner the "legitimate representatives" obtain the delegation of power from the people, once they get on the stage, the people remain just pawns in their political "power" game. The people no longer say what they say; they say what their representatives say they have said. They no longer are what they are; they are what their representatives say they are.

In the end, the people count for nothing except to go through the mill of pre-established and well regulated rules and procedures to keep those who have "power" in power! Former pillars of the "power" structure like Ahidjo who are no more, are remembered through some lifeless, harmless gadget - a football field, a road, an airport – that bears their name. But some like Um, even lifeless, remain a threat! Such remembrance does not depend on the opinion of the people; it all depends on what the name brings to mind: continuity or change; colonialism or independence; neo-colonialism or freedom!

"Power" in our country is little more than ephemeral – manipulative, tenuous, fluid, and threatened – because it is not derived from an empowered people. It is more about indulgence – big chauffeured- cars, guards, servants, embezzlement, corruption, greed – or the liberty to bully, humiliate, take revenge. It is permanently under siege, under the spell of evictions and successions. Such "power" derives from invisible, neo-colonial forces whose interests are at variance with the interests of the people. From their position of empty power, the "powerful" celebrate the fulfilment of petty ambitions, and engage in narrow, selfish calculations.

The only thing that actually links the people to "legitimate representatives" is election – the vote. Yet, this professed value of democracy and freedom is undermined in Cameroon, and in the process, the people are undermined. We have moved from election to election, leaving the people in anguish after each cycle, while the "powerful" go about their business as if they enjoy the confidence of the people!

In principle, empowering the people is supposed to mean providing them with health, education and skills to produce goods and services, providing them with regulated markets for their goods and services, providing them with infrastructure for moving the sweat of their labour from farms and industries to markets, providing them with opportunities for gainful work, providing and enforcing protective legal frameworks in an open system, providing a social net to cushion incidental missteps and mishaps.

Empowering the people means providing them with an electoral system that allows them to get rid of unrepresentative "legitimate representatives" , unpopular governments, and ineffective party leaders in a rapid and direct manner. When empowered people vote, they expect that the representatives that come on stage will move the country or the grouping in the direction they want it to go; they feel that their votes count, that they can influence the decisions that affect their lives.

Central to the success of democracy and the economic and social development it brings, is the total engagement of an empowered people to make things happen according to their will. The sovereign people are the only significant, long-term threat to the hegemony of the "powerful" that confiscate their power.