For good or ill, CPDM is the political party of Cameroon, the dominant political force…the political reality of the day.
Around CPDM everything revolves on the home front. This is fact and not fiction. As such, any person who desires to contribute to nation-building in any way, shape or form, at least for now and the foreseeable future must first come to grips with this and, then, join the party.
It is by no means an exaggeration to infer that forward movement—that is, progress—outside of this reality cannot but be cumbersome, even stagnant, if not retrogressive, for the non-adherent. Essentially, when CPDM members proudly speak of their party in glowing terms, painting it as an entity imbued with a god-like élan, their expressions must never be taken for granted. Given this reality, the pragmatist will submit to practicality and the idealist to harboring dreams of grandeur that might never come to fruition during his/her lifetime. Confronted with this reality, the choice between realism and idealism is one that many Cameroonians would have to make. It should surprise none whatsoever that the majority has gravitated towards the CPDM party.
The pull toward CPDM is in fact politically logical. Indeed, in our times when one can only hope to have an active, productive life up to age 75 or thereabout, delay in succumbing to reality cannot but spell doom for the dreamer. Life is short. The work of nation-building cannot be consigned to the distant future, a future lived in dreamland. Thus, any Cameroonian with political ambition who aspires to contribute to national construction will do well to disabuse himself of revolutionary pipedreams and join the only functional political party in the country.
The Political Climate
Politics, the mainstay of some confused Diaspora Cameroonians, who find solace is playing long-distance oppositional politics, is hardly a topic of discussion in the streets of Cameroon. This social activity has been relegated to the television screen. It is no longer an activity of interest to the ordinary citizens; neither is it the subject of discussion in popular culture. The average Cameroonian citizen, the ordinary non-elite, is tired of politics and has given up. Politics has become an elite game played on the realm of high culture by the educated and seemingly enlightened. On CRTV party men and women, politicians as well as academics jockeying for position, open and close every single statement with infectious praises for the head of state. Rather than tackle the seemingly intractable problems confronting the country, which the president has publicly summoned them to fix, these men and women spend inordinate amounts of time singing praises about the president that he does not necessarily care for.
While the people of high culture are awash in politics, it seems as though ordinary Cameroonians have resolved to withdraw from politics and to undertake the construction of their personal economic empires, no matter how small. They may return to the political arena at a later date, someday. But for now the entrepreneurial Bamileke spirit appears to have taken hold of many. This new spirit, which contrasts sharply with the pen-and-paper political activism of some Diaspora Cameroonians, I am compelled to think, is a good development. Yet every good thing also comes with its evil side effects. Consequently, in their scramble to build economic empires the people have lost the virtuousness that characterized the Cameroon in which some us were born and raised. To this new development the flourishing of corruption can be traced. Although it may be hard to believe, the truth is that many political leaders have been caught unawares by this cancerous phenomenon that is consuming the Cameroonian soul. Frankly, the political leaders do not know what to do about this pandemic. But none is willing to cry out for help, which may lie in the hands of Cameroon’s sons and daughters presently residing abroad.
Not surprising is the fact that President Paul Biya is courting the active participation of the citizenry in the political affairs of the country. Mr. Biya knows that his vision for Cameroon, which he articulated in Communal Liberalism nearly a quarter century ago cannot be realized without the participation of the populace. How to connect the president with the people is in fact a daunting task because between the president and the people stands the men and women of the CPDM who are milking the country dry and getting fat while at it.
New Emphasis on Results
In his first meeting with the newly formed government of Prime Minister Philemon Yang, President Paul Biya reiterated his commitment to the primary objective of developing the country and improving the living conditions of the citizenry. This objective is subsumed under the policy of “Greater Achievements.” According to this policy, an undertaking is considered an achievement if the objectives that triggered its conception are attained. Given this definition of the policy of “Greater Achievement,” the now defunct government of Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni failed because it did not produce the envisioned results. This failure prompted the cabinet reshuffling that augured the appointment of Mr. Yang as Prime Minister.
With the advent of Philemon Yang as the head of government, the president outlined some specifics of his economic policy that included special emphases on the need for developing the nation’s energy, agriculture, infrastructure and industrial sectors, including research and exploitation of mineral resources. In these areas, the president believes, lie the ingredients of economic development. Significantly, Mr. Biya acknowledged that the desired results can not be attained without the vigorous participation of the citizenry in combating corruption and the customary inertia.
By his statement to the new government, President Biya made it abundantly clear that it was the people, and not the men and women appointed as ministers to lead the country, who were responsible for national development. Although the clarity of the president’s statement is not in dispute, it is not so clear how the Cameroonian people can overcome the traditional disjuncture between ordinary citizen participation in national development and the positional authority of those who control power and budgets. It is in this murky area, where powerless citizen contribution to national development can bring about substantial changes for the better, that Diaspora Cameroonians can make their mark.
Photo (c) Orock Eta



This is political "realism" at its best... or worst, depending on where one stands ideologically. In any case, Machiavelli will be proud of Konde...
Posted by: Walters | Tuesday, 11 August 2009 at 03:35 PM
Mr Konde, the elite who speaks smugly of his peers of ruling CPDMers makes for wonderful comedian.
Hear him: "The pull toward CPDM is in fact politically logical. Indeed, in our times when one can only hope to have an active, productive life up to age 75 or thereabout, delay in succumbing to reality cannot but spell doom for the dreamer. Life is short. The work of nation-building cannot be consigned to the distant future, a future lived in dreamland. Thus, any Cameroonian with political ambition who aspires to contribute to national construction will do well to disabuse himself of revolutionary pipedreams and join the only functional political party in the country."
Thank god in their day, individuals in as separate worlds as William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglas along with nameless others thought differently and did harbor and acted on their revolutionary pipedreams. Let me not even mention you know who, with his I HAVE A DREAM blah blah blah.
I wonder were we'll all be, or what our status as black Africans (yes including Konde) will be in this Diaspora that we inhabit without these idealists, to paraphrase Konde, who harbored "dreams of grandeur that never [came] to fruition during [some of their lifetimes]"
Posted by: TAGRO | Tuesday, 11 August 2009 at 05:02 PM
Emmanuel kunde,barely looking at the eyes of the youths in your write-up caption,i can see distance and frustration.This clearly defines the fact that in Cameroon politics of the stomach due override collective action toward a positive economic and human growth.Kunde,it puzzles me when you made mention in your write-up that the connection between the Cameroonian people and the president is infact a nightmare,as result of some men and women.Who are the men and women who are not members of the central commitee?shame.It is instructive for you to note that Biya is the supreme commandant and reserve the exclusive right to progress the democratization process in Cameroon.please do not tell me this scrap.He has failed for 27yr he has posed as an absentee landlord.I do not see the men and women who will impede the progress of things in cameroon.He is one of the most insensless and insensitive head of state i had known in life.Woodcock.Kunde please you are only helping to disseminate ignorance bros.
Posted by: Asafor valentine | Tuesday, 11 August 2009 at 06:43 PM
Targo,
I don't think you got a handle on what Konde has written. What he offers is what exists in Cameroon today. Its not what he would advise every Cameroonian to buy into. His satirical line of life expectancy and the need to make the best of one's time is a look into the pysche of the average Cameroonian on the street. This is what has given rise to the seemingly acceptance of corruption by the public as a necessity.If a political party has an abyssmal record such as the cpdm, yet continues to receive public endorsement both from elites and average citizens, what will you conclude to be the reason(s) behind such behavior other than the adoption of the Machievelian concept of getting there is what matters, and not how you got there?
To the average Joe on the streets, reality is that there is no government assistance forthcoming without dorning a CPDM t-shirt and singing the praises of the president. Ideally, they will love to send him to the gallows. That option is far-fetched. It will take donkey years to benefit from the spill overs that might come as a result of that option. They are left with one option, join the gang and some trimmings will be forthcoming. It is calling a spade a spade without asking anyone to see it differently. He is not singing the praises of the system and asking anyone to support it, but letting us know why our kin folks gravitate towards a cancer we all know too well its destructive capabilities.
Posted by: Che Sunday | Tuesday, 11 August 2009 at 07:15 PM
Targro, your message went through but very few will digest your poetic language my dear brother.However join me to say communal liberalism was a paper political discourse that ended up in the utmost abyss.If the ordinary Cameroonian retired from the politics of lies telling and killing,rigging of election,it is because faith and confidence has been lost in the political set up in Cameroon.(It goes without saying that if you cannot fight us then join us)thus the corruption syndrome continues.Today we talk participatory democracy and not politics of toe the lines,party politics,yet Biya's communal liberalism fits werbers theory of power top down.joining CPDM is like engaging into a suicide mission.kunde wake up man.may God bless Cameroon.
Posted by: Asafor valentine | Tuesday, 11 August 2009 at 07:23 PM
We are gradually drifting towards a one party system and we still brand it as democracy. Well, it's the choice of the people. The irony about life is that when you seek to be important, you're most likely to end up not only less important but very contemptible. At this point in time, Cameroonians are facing the greatest challenge in half a century. If we cannot sail through this without staining our personalities, if we cannot recognise this period as a tempting one, if we cannot en masse denounce the status quo, if cannot forecast the proceeds that will accrue from our sacrifices, then we risk to stay in this mess for another quarter of a century.
Posted by: Bob Bristol | Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 03:01 AM
What Post are you vying for Mr. Konde. Is there not already enough praise singers on CRTV and Cameroon Tribune? Please let us breath fresh air. With the resources Cameroon has, we ought to be much richer than countries like South Korea than recieved aid from us in the 70s. But thank to the CPDM and her praise singers we are light years away.
In this light, a responsible writer would not go around singing praises but try to help people listen to their conciences - exept he himself dosen't have one that worries him after a wrong doing. Please let the private media remain private and publish this chunk in Cameroon Tribune or other CPDM papers.
Posted by: Ndanji Mutia | Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 04:03 AM
Mr. Che Sunday,
frankly speaking I do not know what to make of Dr. Konde's write-up. Is this a satire or an endorsement of the CPDM? Reading between the lines, I am of the opinion that Dr. Konde is not only an affiliate of this party but one of their propagandists!
He talks of communal liberalism, a dead letter, a failed idea borrowed from the Chinese! Is it after 27 years that these ideas will become realisable? He also talks of "the entrepreneurial Bamileke spirit" which to him is a new development against a backdrop of some customary inertia!I can only suppose Dr. Konde has been away from his people for far too long to understand the daily grind they go through to make ends meet! Had they succumbed to this malaise, Biya and the CPDM's inertia, the real pandemic would have set in, resulting in death and a diminishing population!That is not the Cameroonian I know. S/he is a feisty person.
However much Dr. Konde thinks of realism, there will always be some of us who believe in idealism! Thanks to Yondo Black, the late Albert Mukong, Ni John Fru Ndi and a host of others, we have a fledgeling democracy. We should not sacrifice this for "belly politics"!
As Mr. Bob Bristol points out above,
"We are gradually drifting towards a one party system and we still brand it as democracy."
Should this happen, this will be our tragedy.
Posted by: Danny Boy | Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 07:41 AM
"Targro, your message went through but very few will digest your poetic language my dear brother."
The signs of a resigned populace! Ah go run oh! The ranks of the 'man no run' have been hijacked the likes self-loathing opportunists like Konde.
Posted by: Hahaha | Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 08:48 AM
Not at all, Ha ha ha. The likes of Konde are just part of a CPDM offensive which will be destroyed. Up Mountain has invited people to blog. Nobody needs to accept CPDM triumphalism. They think they have thoroughly depleted the people of optimism and idealism, and now they think the people are zombies following their every stupid command. Ha ha ha! They will be shocked.
Posted by: Oyez | Wednesday, 12 August 2009 at 09:21 AM
Bo Sung:
Dear Rexon and Mishe Fon,
Please do not be fooled by Konde Emmamuel's pseudo intellectual claptrap. Lurking underneath the pathetic and pitiful lament he dishes out these days is just the same old intellectually shaky ballast it has been his wont these many years to provide to the sinking ship that is trying to take the whole of Cameroon down into mediocrity with it called the CPDM party-if one can call this cult of corruption and pettiness a political party.
Every third rate dictatorship has always had its intellectual rationalisers, concocting dodgy theories, fudging facts and distorting historical analysis to obfuscate the reality of oppression experienced by citizens every day. Prof Konde is true to form in this sense.
As you have pointed out Rexon, it speaks volumes about his analytical abilities that he is incapable of distiguishing why people such as Um Nyobe and Felix Moumie should leave behind them a resounding legacy while purported fathers of the nation, imposed on us like Ahidjo by the french should exit with barely an echo in the national consciousness. Biya that Konde supports would clearly exit after more than a quarter of a century with at best an aftertaste of stale shit.
I want to assume that Konde is just naive and that in good time he will come around to understanding and appreciating the burden the Cameroonian people are carrying on their heads, held hostage in their inability to realise a promising future for themselves and their progeny.
I do not want to assume that he is just cynically justifying the peace he has made with himself and CPDM, that he is just positioning himself for a position as a party intellectual blood... He sounds genuinely stricken by his recent experience in Cameroon to make me think that.
The capitulation and surrender to petty tyranny that Konde preaches and promotes here in his CPDM is the only game in town and you better play it approach stands in embarrasing contrast to the position of another US based prolific Cameroonian intellectual, Celestin Monga who has consistently promoted positive liberating engagement for Cameroonian ordinary citizens to recapture their state and country from the clique that has been sitting and shitting on our heads these several decades (see Monga's most recent interview in Le Messager)
Let's see if and how Konde's thinking evolves and if he is veritably capable of correctly linking the personal and the political.
Pa Njakri
Konde:
I am compelled to respond to the verbiage you spewed forth because people like you, who have are new to civilization, a nonresponse would be interpreted as some kind of victory. So let me begin by clarifying that I have not claimed intellectualism in my postings; it is you who raised a simple report on selected contemporary developments and politics in Cameroon to the status of an intellectual treatise.
The distinction between "what is" and "what ought to be" can be made even in a non-scientific report. Consequently, the notion of whether or not the scientific method was employed to the task of composing my report is irrelevant. Your primitive passion is unleashed because I did not mention your sectional-tribal party, the SDF. If not, then you must have read my report in English but understood it in your native dialect? Hence, your confusion?
There was once a potentially fledgling political party in Cameroon known as the SDF. But because it was sectional and tribal, it accordingly reduced titself to a feather that fluttered for a while and then fell in the Atlantic Ocean and was washed away by the greed of its leaders. Note that the SDF has traveled a political road long treaded by the KNDP and politicians like John Ngu Foncha and Solomon Tandeng Muna. And if you, Mr. non-pseudo intellectual wants to, perhaps you can undertake a "scientific study" of how Muna and Foncha sold out and contributed to the making of the oppression in Cameroon that you now decry. But, no, you would rather to resort to old tricks, always reaching down that filthy raffia bag of yours to pull out those outworn, infantile tricks.
"Facts," wrote Vladimir Lenin, "are stubborn things to dispel." It is only the stubbornly undiscerning mind that would argue that the CPDM party is not the only game in town. And it is the willfully ignorant who, by choice decides to perpetuate ignorance on self, and entertain the untenable position that the CPDM would disappear any time soon from the political stage in Cameroon. Wishful thinking is the harvest of unfertile minds.
During my sojourn in Cameroon I did not witness any incident of oppression that would have lent any credence to my report. That is not to say such incidents do not abound. In fact, the hotbed of political oppression in Cameroon is the remote northwest hinterlands, where some of your villages are located, and where mere mortals are worshipped by their kind through kneeling and prostrating of self whenever in the presence of the "divine-ruler. " Could political oppression be any more severe than this? Or, it it aceptable to you because it is your tradition, and out of ignorance, you know no better? Perhaps you can begin by dislodging those autrocrats before moving to the center to do away with the CPDM. Is it not said that charity begins at home? Well, clean your own house first before embarking on preaching cleaniness to others.
If you understand the Queen's language at all, you would have recognioed that in my three postings of Cables from the Fatherland, I sought neither to philosophize nor moralize. It was not my intention, and I definitely did not try, to pass judgment on the CPDM. I merely reported on my observations and discussions with realCameroonians. Surely, the difference between reporting and analyzing is simple enough. But it seems to have eluded some of you, who have positioned yourselves as my permanent but irrelevant and inconsequential detractors.
Again, there is a stark difference between "what is" (that which exists) and "what ought to be" (that which we wish for or desire). I am by no means opposed to those who wish for Utopias or political paradises, who would rather discuss "what ought to be" and project the figment of their imagination on reality.
Posted by: I love Konde | Saturday, 15 August 2009 at 12:04 PM
No matter how long we can hide the truth,it would come out at last.The naked truth has been revealed about you mr konde.Mr contry Fowl has done a good job by pointing out the hipocritical deadly breed in you Konde.We still have the likes of Hitler today.Consequently,whatever you may say about whoever holds no grounds since it is only natural for you to protect your party C.P.M.D while hauling insults at others which is only normal.I now fully understand your passion.What appalls me is that you pretended to be neutral untill contry fowl timely revealed your camp.whom were you afraid of?Didn't you know that Biya and his subsection presidents like you do everything with impunity?After all you are only a grain of sand in an ocean.
Posted by: The herald | Monday, 17 August 2009 at 05:43 AM