Politics and Freedom of Choice

By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.

All politics is about power: the power to shape society to fit individual views; the power to create or deny equal opportunity; the power to facilitate or frustrate the exercise of individual freedoms…; the power to determine the conditions of the exercise of power in all domains of society…

A few politicians appear on the scene once in a while, and cause a people or the whole of humanity to experience the important role of politics in their lives. Such are usually remembered with volumes upon volumes of history books and biographies, to celebrate their lives and achievements. The rest of the teaming lot that seeks to have a foothold on the political league are easily burnt on the stake, or quickly disappear from memory.

The few politicians that are celebrated when they leave the stage usually make their mark because of their knowledge of human nature; because of their familiarity with the virtues and infirmities of politics, and because they understand that ambition is a strong human passion that could be insidious! They have the humility to deal with strong human egos, to be tolerant of divergent views, and to always put themselves in the place of others to experience what they are feeling; they understand the motives and desires of others, so they easily overcome personal vendetta, humiliation, and bitterness.

Because of the nature of ambition, politics is and has always been a competitive endeavour, with the people as the coveted audience! At the core of this competition is an urge to meet the expectations of the people and to exceed them, far beyond the “politics” usually referred to as a “game” in which you “win” or you “lose”.

A consequence of the competitive nature of politics is the ritual of running down real or perceived opponents! Depending on whether the politician is one of the few and far-fetched or part of the teaming lot, such ritual can be played out elegantly or inelegantly; reluctantly or with relish, but the finality is that it is always played out! Indeed, our political landscape is littered with debris from such little battles...

The unfolding drama of “crossing-overs”, resignations and the depressing political repartees that are in the news today are just part of the ritual, but such are the handiwork of the teaming lot…

With the much water that has gone under the proverbial bridge in Cameroon since 1990, we are expected to have moved away from the sterile politics of using “poaching” and “crossing-overs” to prove the goodness of the ruling party; now is time for showcasing the concrete actions and achievements of a 30-year old regime, beyond the usual empty noises about peace, security, national unity, and democracy that are more on the lips of the teaming lot than measurable outcomes on the ground.

With nothing to showcase after an obviously tiring 30 years, the space is being filled with distractions like “I will never fail… we are patiently building our country on solid foundations” of peace, stability and unity…; and recognition of “appeals and motions of support as eloquent signs of encouragement…” It does not matter that all of these have nothing to do with “pillars of nation building”, which have always hinged everywhere in the world on strong institutions and the freedom of citizens to choose their leaders through credible elections.
As the clock ticks on and time becomes a pressing factor, all our “politicians” seem to be moving towards the inevitable destination; towards where the story always ends for the teaming lot: creating illusions. They create illusions through engineering resignations from other political parties; through changing key words like “poverty reduction”, to “employment and growth” in strategy documents; through voting inflated budgets that serve embezzlers more than they serve the policy of reducing poverty and providing employment and growth; through changing Prime Ministers that always remain the same toothless bulldogs; through changing managers of a dysfunctional electoral system whose sole purpose is to serve one man…

The Cameroon society is clamouring more urgently today than ever before for “change”. Although some “politicians” continue to claim that the “change” advocated has no palpable content, content no longer really matters because the central issue is to bring on the stage the few and far-fetched politicians to guide the laying of a solid foundation for the concrete and effective peace, stability, unity and democracy needed by the Cameroon of the future.