Marafa Hamidou Yaya was arrested and put on
“preventive detention” in April 2012, with Ephraim Inoni, a former Prime
Minister. In the process, we are learning again that it is not free,
independent state institutions that are playing their role of investigating,
arresting, and detaining suspects; it is all at the pleasure of one all
powerful man, Paul Biya, President of the Republic. Reason why motions of
support to Paul Biya are with us again to praise him for the arrest of Marafa
and Inoni - from CPDM MPs, the National Youth Council, Mfoundi CPDM, and many
more probably to follow in the days ahead...
Like for many political parties, “democracy” is also
the pet “slogan” of the CPDM, which they included it in the name of their
party, but their militants seem to have very little idea of what it means.
Party solidarity cannot be allowed to endanger the rights of the individual
member whose free will must remain realised and promoted by the party. Since
Marafa published his letters, the CPDM has promoted the politics of personal
destruction – visceral, mean-spirited campaigns to destroy him in public
opinion – which I find disheartening and bad for the present and future of the
country. I know in the jungle of the politics the Cameroonians play, the
importance of putting one’s self in the place of another – empathy - to
experience what they were feeling, and to understand their motives and desires
is never as strong in us as in other societies we look up to.
In Africa, the individual is not yet liberated from
the traditional bonds of community, and from the representation of the world as
an organic hierarchical totality. This is why we usually hear appeals, like we
are hearing from the CPDM to ethnic, religious, traditional or party bonds of
solidarity to dampen society’s self-interrogation and self-critique, as
characterised by the Marafa letters. To those who spend their time asking why
Marafa is only making his revelations today, there is no privileged standpoint from
which such revelations can be made; and there is no appropriate moment.
Marafa’s letters indicate that the official political
expression we discern in public – motions of support and all - does not
necessarily represent popular sentiments. It is those who lost sight of this
that were surprised at the speed at which the Marafa letters emerged in the
wake of his arrest. Without focus on the underlying meaning of the behaviour of
individuals, it will always be difficult to predict the evolution of a political
system like Cameroon’s. I have always known that individuals might find it
advantageous to hide their true political sentiments from officialdom, so
political values should never be judged on the basis of publicly observable and
quantifiable measures of support, since the mere existence of motions and
rallies of support does not infer popular support, especially for aging leaders
that have spent too much time in power! Indeed, in a regime like ours, true
political values are hardly ever expressed in public; the landscape usually
looks calm and tranquil when it is rife with subterranean discord.
Newspapers are reporting that following Marafa’s
letters, Paul Biya instructed the SG at the Presidency to open investigations
into the bribery allegations linked to the CAMAIR maintenance contract. But the
documents on which these instructions are based were available to him since
2001 because they were provided to Cameroon by Advanced Technics Trust Ltd to
enable Cameroon to win its case against South Africa Airways, as per the
agreement signed between the two parties on 26/06/2001. This is why another
contribution of Marafa’s revelations is the further exposure to the rest of us
of the manner the country has been run since Paul Biya took over from Ahidjo in
November 1982; he has kept recycling corrupt people in his governments, in
spite of his knowledge of their dirty files, and so emboldened them to turn
Cameroon into a corruption fraternity in 30 years of his reign. In doing this,
he turned government from an expression of leadership, to the service of slaves
to a master, as so aptly put by one of his sycophantic university don! He
failed to follow the advice that a party leader, like an army officer cannot
expect to impose discipline on his subordinates unless he is capable of
accepting and working to the same discipline himself; he cannot successfully
fight corruption within the ranks of his party and regime, unless he is an
example of the incorruptible. This is why we witness daily a curious discrepancy
in the behaviour of the CPDM: what they say and what they do seem to always
exist in separate compartments!
The CPDM Newspaper l’Action No. 254 of 11 July 2012
waded into the 32.5 billion case against the government, “after several weeks’
investigation on the whereabouts of the money.” Their conclusions reveal the
blurred mindset of the CPDM related to corruption. The paper writes: “Following
negotiations, Transnet SAA accepted to pay the sum of 26 million US$ (14
billion FCFA), which Cameroon accepted. The 14 billion were naturally deposited
in the account of Cameroon in SGBC central branch in Paris. Part of the money
served in the payment of the results allowance, part served to pay bailiffs and
other witnesses that helped the commission to assemble its evidence, the rest
was transferred to government coffers...”
L’Action further informs the rest of us that account
no 00078013914 was opened in SGBC central branch in Paris in the name of the
Republic of Cameroon to take care of legal fees. The Cameroon government
obviously put money (how much?) into the account even before the money from SAA
was deposited into it. What was the total sum in the account following the
deposition of the money from SAA? We need these details of how taxpayer’s money
was spent, but l’Action newspaper that carried out investigations “for several
weeks,” failed to give us, hoping to clean the image of the CPDM government and
regime without much effort!
The crash of Cameroon Airlines Boeing 737-200 (Nyong)
is related to the commissions (bribes!) given to Cameroon government officials
to derail the purpose of the contract of maintenance of Boeing 737 and 747 of
Cameroon between CAMAIR and Transnet South African Airways because it was
effectively the non-maintenance of the planes that led to the crash, and the
loss of lives. Indeed, it is the crash and loss of lives that brought the
bribery crimes to the fore and caused Cameroon to pursue South Africa Airways
for non-execution of contract!
L’Action newspaper does not seem to know that the 32.5
billion have become the microcosm of the budget of Cameroon, and Cameroonians
are interested in knowing how each franc of the money was spent. If l’Action
newspaper is interested in answering the question “What happened to the 32.5 billion”
which constituted the purpose of the “several weeks” investigation, they should
know that by now, the rest of us want to know the exact amounts that served
each purpose...
Mental health is the ability to adapt to the stresses
and misfortunes of life; the ability to cope with anxiety and depression in a
healthy way. An outstanding feature of successful adaptation is that it leaves
the way open for future growth. Marafa has shown himself to be totally on top
of such afflictions; his response through his letters is virtually an
exhortation to some of his colleagues who are suffering the same fate as
himself to stand up and play the man. He has shown that just as it is usually
necessary to sacrifice peace if freedom and justice are to prevail, it may usually
be necessary to sacrifice loyalty for freedom and justice to prevail. He has
shown us all that in the arduous task of building a new Cameroon, there are
many who should not be pigeon-holed; and he has shown that he is a man for all
seasons and all reasons...
*Tazoacha Asonganyi, is Professor at University of Yaounde 1 and is former Secretary-General of SDF,Cameroon's leading opposition
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