True the world has changed. Changed in the sense that since
September 11,2001, the world can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to
destabilizing enemies of the people, whether as racists, religious fanatics,
anti-Semites, ethno-centrists, ideological fanatics or brutal dictators who
come up with social orders that need to imprison, torture and impoverish the
best brains of the countries they are repressing. Their presence or even
control of power for a limited time is an affront to humanity. The social
orders such enemies of the people create are profoundly wrong, making it the
responsibility not only of the citizens of the country, but also of the world
at large to ensure that these evil dictators are deprived of the power and
means to continue oppressing their people and making the world unsafe for
mankind.
Good the world is taking a stand. There was Manuel Noriega
of Panama, and yesterday, we had Saddam Hussein and Charles Taylor. It should
continue. But then, the drive to rid the world of these enemies of the people
who cannot be rid of by the people they have held hostage, should be an
impartial global responsibility.
This is the moment for a credible opposition led by
Cameroonian union-nationalists to press hard on the French-imposed system that
is being led today by the Biya regime. The Biya-regime has exhausted its
political options of deceit, election rigging, kleptomania and ethno-centrism.
The fact that it has misruled Cameroon for twenty years and presided over the
worst brain-drain rate in Africa is an insult to the progressive nature of
Cameroonians. The system as a whole and the Biya regime in particular has caused
the replacement of the great Cameroonian optimism with despair and cynicism
instead. That leaves Cameroonians with the task of giving the regime in power
the final push so that the stinking corpse of the anachronistic French-imposed
system should be buried once and for ever, and so that for the first time in
the history of our potentially great nation, Cameroonians would be able to
choose their leaders and let the nation take its merited place in Central Africa,
Africa and the world of progressive nations. Just like Iraq, Cameroon shall one
day be free; and just like Saddam, Biya shall go. People never stick their
necks to the end for an absentee dictator. Just like Saddam who faked a
referendum, scoring 99%, Biya's efficient election rigging machinery, which
gives him overwhelming victory even before ballots are cast, will be smashed,
and the extent of the falsehood of his rule and the malicious intent of his foreign
patrons shall be fully revealed for the rest of the world to see.
We should always remember that Chirac once said that
"What Africa needs is food and not democracy", leaving
progressive-minded people of the world to wonder whether democracy is the
preserve of the French, or the wealthy, or Europeans etc. France should stop
backing dictators, especially in Africa and allow the return of Africa’s exiles
so that they can work with other progressive minded Africans to start the hard
and merciless task of moving Africa into this century.
But then, Cameroonians, should know that our collective salvation
rests only in a total and complete commitment to the betrayed dreams of our
forefathers, the unifying idea of Kamerunism otherwise known as
union-nationalism that embraces all Cameroonians, irrespective of ethnicity,
tribe, religion and race, a unifying ideal that aligns the Cameroon destiny with
the progressive path of a free and integrated Africa which is committed to the
universal values of human rights, progress and social solidarity.
JanvierTchouteu
September 01, 2002
