Our Political Parties are Failing Us: Let Us Consider and Independent Candidate

An open letter to Cameroonians at home and in the Diaspora

By Christmas Ebini
 
My dear brothers and sisters: I would have loved to address you my fellow Cameroonians but the last time I used that phrase on camnet (our online internet discussion forum) I ran into some problems and this is not the time for us to waste valuable time on avoidable problems with each other.  I think we should together face patriotic responsibilities and obligations.

I am writing this letter to you because I think it is time we started taking a more serious practical look at our future, that of  posterity and our nation. We have experienced some very trying and difficult times but we should also remember that we had a past that was less difficult and promising. It is easy for a people and thus their nation, to be weaken in spirit and give in when confronted with difficult times. But I have faith that, if we see our nation through the present eye of the storm we find ourselves in  today, the future would reward us with pride and dignity, as a people and a nation.

I say this because I have devoted my time on looking for answers to our problems. I have had great opportunities to associate with Cameroonians at different levels of our community life: our cultural groups, old student associations, children groups and many others, and in all my interactions with my brothers and sisters, I see promising signals of a people who can work together and live together in progressive peace and harmony. I see a people ready and yearning for leadership they can trust, depend on, and which can bring together the different units of bridges they have built and are still building. I have seen a people who are determined not to be victims again, like their parents, to the divisive gospel of self-serving politicians and political agenda. I have seen a people who take pride in their cultural diversities, but who share and celebrate their different cultures together, pushing down the=2 0invisible barriers politicians have built to help themselves stay in undeserving lucrative political offices.
 
We all got engaged with great force and hope in the new political era that swept our nation in 1990. A people who were already deprived of the benefits of their cultural diversity by dubious political intrigues were captured by a tempting new political dispensation whose only qualification for political leadership was based on being bold enough to stand up to the powers that be, resist intimidation, and organize loud  rallies that would pull the crowd. Unfortunately for all of us, pulling crowds to political rallies is one thing, steering the crowd to patriotic resourcefulness is quite another. That which was intended to provide tolerance, progress and democracy, is leaving us with a showcase of intolerance, stagnation and undemocratic practices. As much as we needed multiple political parties to accommodate diverse and even opposing political ideologies for the advancement of a progressive and democratic nation, political parties in themselves cannot be democratic and progressive, if those who create them and run them are not democrats themselves.

From all indications our well-intended 20 political parties have become symbols of undemocratic practices because those controlling them still have to master the democratic tenets themselves. That which would have been the forum for teaching our people how to live with political differences and to understand where to draw the line between national interest and partisan interest, has become centers for creating enmity and hate along partisan lines. For those who ascribe to the party in government, everything and everyone of the opposition is evil and must be squashed.

For those who are members of the opposition, everything and everyone of the party in government and of the government is evil and must be squashed, even at the risk of destroying the entire nation. Brothers are not talking to brothers because they belong to different political parties. We don’t have to control the government in  order to have the  power to be patriotically dutiful to our nation. We don’t have to be the president to teach civic responsibility to people who listen to us. Bitter political rivalry that builds barriers between a people and set them up against each other is no ingredient for development, neither is it the stuff that would bring true democracy to any nation. We must start looking for true democrats to advance our democracy. We must stop supporting political leadership on the basis of an unwise view that they are from our ethnic group, even when we know that there are other mo re effective leaders whom we know would secure the pride of our country for all our people.
 
In this light, I will suggest to all of us that we consider and push for an independent candidate for the president of Cameroon in 2011. We need someone who is not tied and hemmed in the dragnet of  existing  political structures that have not been able to provide any hopeful direction to our country. Cameroon needs some fresh air in its political culture and we can only get this by completely overhauling the manner in which we perceive political engagement.

We should all come together with a strong resolve and determination to retire the old political lords and usher in people who have had nothing to do with the existing political system and parties that has corrupted and stolen from us the hope and courage to stand up and fight against that which is wrong. An independent candidate will have a free hand (with nothing to fear or hide) to pu t in place a national constitutional conference for all the sons and daughters of our nation to come together and map out a new structure and direction for our country.
 
 I have spoken to many of you about our collective responsibility to see that Biya does not continue as president after 2011. Many of you just will not believe that Cameroon will ever be without Paul Biya. I am assuring you the time has come for Biya to leave. This can only happen if we all come together and stop this man who has ruined our beautiful country and taken advantage of our good people.
 
Let us support an independent candidate and reclaim our country and pride from the fangs of Mr. Biya.

Christmas Ebini blogs at http://christmasebini.globalchildrensvoice.org/

Comments

[Ma Mary]

Good luck saving la republique, brother.

[Che Sunday]

The problem with Cameroon is not finding a viable presidential candidate. The problem is convincing the electorate whom has gotten used to voting with their stomachs instead of their thinking. Everybody in Cameroon is out to swindle his or her neighbor. Honesty has become a euphemism that is just rhetoric with no substance. It signifies nothing. Corruption could mean added meat in the pot, a chance to fatten a bank account or send a relative overseas, or a job at a well-placed point of maximum extortion. Tell me why a man or woman on an empty stomach should believe that the solution to his/her suffering is grooming and sending another politician into office? To save Cameroon, you need devine intervention. A complete house cleaning that will rid the country of its current crop of politicians. You need a reminder that will burn into the psyche of everyone who might dream of bringing back these dark days of Cameroon. Left alone, this country stands a zero chance of rectifying its wayward ways. Its too deep into mismanagement to start charting a course for self redemption.

[DANGO TUMMA]

NO THE PROBLEM IS US,OUR FALSE NOTION OF A CERTAIN COUNTRY CALLED CAMEROUN
A COUNTRY GOOD AS IT SOUNDS,JUST DOESNT EXIST.
WHAT EXIST IS WEST CAMEROON AND EAST CAMEROUN

FRENCH CAMEROUN AND ENGLISH CAMEROONS OR AMBAZANIA. TAKE IT OR LEAVE. 2 INDEPENDENT COUNTRY, UN TIED. ANY ATTEMPT TO JOIN THEM ONLY BLEEDS BLOOD.

[Adolf A Agbormbai]

Fine piece, Christmas