CAMEROON SHALL BE FREE

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

Disciples of Fortune

by Janvier Chouteu-Chando