By
Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.
Shakespeare’s
villainous Iachimo may also advise us “to leave unspoken that which, to be
spoke, would torture thee.” Nobody asked Paul Biya to express worry about the performance
of his government in his December 2013 New Year address. Since he did so,
Cameroonians expected him to proceed immediately to form a new, more effective
and efficient government, especially because it was not the first time he was
complaining about the performance of government.
The
government had been regularly discredited not only by scandals, but also by the
appearance of its being incapable of meeting the tasks of the day, most of
which were undreamt of in November 1982. Government had cut the image of a
quarrelsome lot working in dispersed ranks; it seemed to have lost sight of its
“core business.” Strategic thinking for the urgent transformative actions
needed seemed to be absent, but all mind-readers were predicting that the
“overall” boss, when he would decide to act, would only move ponds around the
chessboard, as usual.
All
of 2014 was a long enough wait, but to extend it to 2015 seemed to be too much!
Since nature abhors vacuums, the long wait filled the vacuum with doubt and
complacency; the government seemed to be doing nothing, just resting on its
laurels, waiting for the unknown. Inertia became the order of the day, and
society became restive. The best option seemed to be to put pressure from
outside to precipitate action. Dozens of “leaked” governments were published in
the press. Stories of wrongdoing in the presidency were spun into sources of
leaks of new governments. Protests by our valiant soldiers for their dues were mockingly
linked to the advent of a new government. And. so expectation of a new government
became the talk of the town.
It
is usually said that public opinion allows the nation to participate in its own
affairs because it is an invisible power that rules even in the palaces of
kings. Even if the limited political experience of the “opinion” makers caused
public opinion to be dominated by general and speculative ideas, this did not
diminish its power. It was all like our traditional smoking of the rat mole out
of the comfort of its hole with the smoke of public opinion.
And
so the new government was smoked out at last!
As mind-readers had predicted, it involved mainly the movement of ponds around
the chessboard. It did not include the SDF and UDC that public opinion had so
pompously included in the government. It did not also include those that feed
on the carcass of Um Nyobe in total disregard of his legacy and his heritage.
Once
the list of the “new” government hit the public place, the paradigm of opinion
shifted to critique. Most critiques and analyses have been directed more at
individuals for their disobedience or corruption or lack of solidarity, less at
systems. Politics may be more about the citizen than the private individual,
but solidarity, whether between members of a government or between individual citizens,
is the foundation of politics. If critical public opinion finds those who lost
their ministerial posts guilty as individuals, it will mean that they were
ill-prepared to be ministers; if they are guilty as ministers, it will be a
condemnation of the whole system.
The
“new” government will most obviously continue to waste the time of the country
because it will be operating in the same system. It will face the same internal
struggles against entrenched bureaucratic interests and a power-distribution
architecture that encourages fraud and corruption. It will enter the same
self-serving routine that is usually blind to outcomes.
Systemic
institutions need to be strengthened by large-scale overhaul in government and
public-sector agencies. Clear, enforceable rules of discipline that create a
meritocratic environment and ethical behaviors that are friendly to creativity,
innovation, and talent have to be present in all fronts.
The
“new” government needs to shed its CPDM divisive mindset and build a social
consensus around growth-oriented strategies and policies by providing equal
opportunity to all citizens, irrespective of political opinion, area of origin,
gender, or religion.
If
there are clear, transparent rules that can detect errors and fraud fast
enough, the fallouts can be managed on a continuous basis. “Epervier” should no
longer work in tedious cycles but on a continuous basis. With all the people
that populate the prisons today because of corruption and fraud, there should
be much familiarity with the tools and methods they used; these should be
exploited to correct and strengthen existing systems, and to design tighter
security of public funds. This will meet the common saying that prevention is
better than cure. It will end the wasteful and shameful practice of punishing
after the fact; of using the process to punish potential rivals.
The
visionaries and the all-knowing humans variously called proletariats,
Bolsheviks, communists that Karl Marx and others envisaged that would be produced
and would only speak the fact, not argue or convince, eventually failed to
emerge where the experiments for their production were conducted. They
nevertheless emerged in Africa around the ‘60s at the head of the new countries
that came to being at that time. Although they emerged without the “lightening
of thought” that Marx said would cause their emergence, they have endured and
prospered till today in Africa!
And
so one of the problems with our “new” government is that like the one before
it, the members will consider themselves as “creatures” of this type of being,
and will work in fear and total submission –with the being representing their
own “specter” that will haunt them throughout their ministerial tenure.
Societies
can be governed only with ideas. Government must be open to itself and to
society as a whole, so that governance ideas can be bounced back and forth to
increase their chances of producing the good. All governments need strong
leadership not only from the top but from all its members.
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