Cameroon: Celebrating May 20

By Tazoacha Asonganyi(pictured) in Yaounde.

May 20 is an anniversary date shrouded by cynicism. It is the handiwork of (former President) Ahidjo for whom "democracy" was anathema and "national unity" a prize he sought greedily. He can be said to have decreed May 20 as a national day single-handedly, without due consideration for the complete history of the entire Cameroon.

In the landscape of the united country that was born following the UN supervised plebiscite of 11 February 1961, May 20 1972 like February 4 1984, fall in the constellation of the conceit of nationalists of the "Republic of Cameroon" that formed the union with Southern Cameroons.

In spite of everything, the union of the two Cameroon has made history for the last 47 years. Such history is only useful when it teaches lessons. Therefore, as we celebrate May 20 this year, it is useful to look at some signposts in the road that lays behind us, in the hope of building on our past.

One-man rule in a one-party regime has characterized the united country for the better part of its life.Whether the side of the party coin was named CNU or CPDM, the party usurped the authority of the state. Indeed, the party has been more harmful to the country than useful. The arrest and detention of barons of the party for embezzling huge sums of public money is testimony of the conspiracy of the leadership of the party against the state!

The suspects being arrested and thrown into jail are hard-core party barons and strong believers in the new deal regime, like many others, who profited from a long history of impunity of party barons and confused state coffers for their purse. The regime allowed corruption to become so entrenched that, in the present clash with the formidable network, the regime consciously makes it impossible to find the truth, and extremely dangerous to seek it. The "truth" lies with shady documents mounted against the chosen few from the sea of heads in the corruption fraternity. What we are witnessing is not a fight against corruption but a struggle to acquire window blinds to provide shade for the entrenched fraternity. Whatever the case, the pressure has been unleashed and the tide could become so strong that it overcomes even the worried circle of men who hold court in the new deal...

Many people are applauding, not so much for any effort to fight corruption as for the reality of the saying that what goes up must come down. By their applause, they are comforting themselves that all of them without exception will eventually come down in one way or the other. They are sending the clear message to the regime that it shall not be allowed to go away with half measures on corruption.

Unfortunately, it is clear that in much of what the regime is doing; it is placing perception ahead of reality. Lack of seriousness can be judged from the refusal to apply article 66 of the constitution on thedeclaration of assets. It can also be judged from the weak and confused law no. 2003/005 of 21 April 2003 laying down conditions for the organisation and functioning of the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court that is supposed to keep watch over public funds; the law sets aside important sections of Ordinance no.62/0F/04 (modified on 19 April 2002 by law no. 2002)

If history means anything, the regime would have borrowed from the past in this fight againstcorruption. Indeed, it is history that in Southern Cameroons as far back as 1958, a Commission of Inquiry Ordinance (Cap 36 of the 1958 law) existed and empowered the Prime Minister to appoint commissions of inquiry to publicly investigate wrongdoing in any department of government. In turning a blind eye to present and past frameworks for checking corruption, the regime has refused to de-personalise and de-politicise the fight, and so allowed continuing, persistent and serious breaches of the public trust across all arms of government.

Further, the regime has failed to pay enough attention to the "small" thieves that populate our ministries, like in Public Service and Finance. Instead of undercover police agents going around and listening to the small talk of citizens in bars, the regime would have mounted and introduced "documents" into the system for the agents to "follow" for purposes of identifying and dismantling the "spiders" in the cobwebs of fraud, bribery and corruption that entangleoperations in the ministries and frustrate citizens daily.

As the barons of the regime join in the celebration of May 20 this year, they should not only think aboutthese issues of corruption. They should also remember that Southern Cameroons experienced a democratic change of government as far back as 1959 with Foncha taking over from Endeley; and thatunification-citizens of Cameroon have never experienced a change of government leaders based onindividual choice, since 1961.

As they lead the celebrations, they should also remember that the last thing we need in the 21stcentury is another form of the same old thing we have lived through since the advent of the unitary state.

When people are elected undemocratically and they emerge on the scene to play the democrat, it isnothing short of the of the single-candidate-per-post elections of the one party days. Those to be appointed soon into ELECAM after May 20 will have the advantage of having lived through failed elections with piles of reports from the NDI, the Commonwealth, IFES, NEO and others to draw from. They would also have received recent lessons from similar structures in Kenya,Zimbabwe and others...

Our union is already 47 years old. Forty and over is a time for reflection. It is the duty of the regime thathas governed us in different shades since 1961 to create the appropriate environment for serious reflection on the future of the united Cameroon. The strength of politics is that it can create formulasthat allow people to break with past failures and move beyond seemingly insoluble problems. The special symbolism attached to May 20 should not be the show of empty force of arms and militants, but a show of compassion for past errors, and a new determination to move forward as a strong, just and united country.