There is pent up anger in Cameroon which can be summarized as no more corruption, no more power cuts, no more Biya, no more flawed elections, no more price hikes, no more joblessness. .. By the constant refusal to let the people have their say during elections, the regime gave legitimacy to this anger. By converting power from a competitive business to a privilege guarded by a monopoly, the regime gave legitimacy to this anger. By taking liberties with the law and the constitution, the regime gave legitimacy to the anger. By locking up private media houses and repressing public manifestations, the regime gave legitimacy to the anger. By trampling on the cause of the common person, of the humble members of society, of the underprivileged, of the poor, the regime gave legitimacy to the anger…

The will of the people is always expressed through the democratic process. Everywhere there is injustice, including in totalitarian regimes, there have always been protests.

The regime had to know that with many private resentments building up in the people, there was need for the resentments to be voiced from time to time, through demonstrations in the streets as much as appeals to conscience. Since appeals to conscience failed, the people decided to win their rights back by demonstrations in the streets. Since peaceful demonstrations were banned, they decided to vent their anger in ways uncontrollable by the regime!

The people have lost control over elections and the electoral process; they have lost their sense of participation and rights. At the heart of the upheavals across the country is this anger, deriving from a feeling of hopelessness; guiding it is the similarity of the feeling across the national territory.

It is to give vent to such feelings of frustration that the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and protest is secured for everyone in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the United Nations, The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and all other related international conventions duly ratified and affirmed by the Constitution of Cameroon. These instruments give everyone who has the intention of organising a peaceful demonstration the right to do so, in spite of the possibility of violent counter-demonstrati on or the possibility of extremists with violent intentions joining the demonstration or the feelings of persons opposed to the ideas or claims that the demonstration seeks to promote.

The regime thought the decision to modify article 6.2 of the constitution would ensure a longer stay in power for Paul Biya; instead, it cracked the people’s tolerance of his stay in power. The regime decided to control the press to contain the people; instead, it precipitated the spilling of their anger.

Inexperience with conflict resolution and an instinctive inability to adapt to diversities has led the regime to mistakes; it will eventually lead it to its demise! The street protests have caused the regime to panic. Panic is a burst of insanity; in it, they sought to create fear. But the laws of fear are unpredictable because in fear, people may turn and fight or turn and flee! The regime has probably learned this to its peril!

A government that refuses to contemplate the possibility of being turned out of office by constitutional means will almost certainly end in disgrace. Paul Biya has put in his mind that he is significant only because of the office he holds now; he has to borrow a leaf from Jimmy Carter, Al Gore… and why not Alpha Oumar Konare? He should guard against throwing the Cameroon baby out with the bathwater of one-man rule!

It is only when the powerful soviet communist regime suddenly collapsed like a house of cards in the early ‘90s that many people understood that within the soviet regime, there had always been an invisible network of small protest groups bound together by shared values, that laid siege for decades and finally caused the seemingly all pervasive communist system to give way so easily in a matter of months.

In the communist system, the regime monopolised public life. Civil society that persistently seeks to define itself as distinct from the state, despite efforts from the state to prevent it from doing so, could not be visibly created. Therefore it acted outside the public arena, consistently challenged the values and authority of the state, and struggled underground for political change.

Like in the soviet communist regime, there is an alternative political culture in Cameroon that has bloomed during the past 25 years of dictatorship and repression, and fueled periodic, angry ruptures. Cameroonians of all shades of opinion and of all origins meet regularly in small, informal groups in the many bars across the country and discuss politics, sport and all. Because such discussions usually include the PMUC, they can now distinguish true affection from that of a jockey to his horse! Such regular meetings and discussions connect them to power. Slowly, they have become a critical mass that can let go at the spark of ignition. With daring ones to throw their bodies and their courage at the resistance of the regime following each spark, getting the critical mass to grab power through protests will soon become common place.

This time around, the protests led to discussions and curious declarations from the Government Delegate of the capital city of Cameroon, and the Head of State! Sadly, all these were at cross-purposes because the two sides - the regime and the people - were looking at each other through different social telescopes: the regime from the feel-good position of those who buy nothing from their pockets; the people from a position of the desperation of those who struggle daily to have a meal on the table while paying heavy prices and taxes for everything they manage to afford. Petrol, kerosene, electricity, water, little food items, taxi fares…are items that either barons of the regime do not need or they get for free; yet these are necessities that move ordinary people.

The debate about whether or not to modify the constitution has become intellectual; events have since moved on. The regime may have the guns, the money and the brute force, but morality and people power count for more!

Written by Professor Tazoacha Asonganyi
Former Secretary General of the SDF
Yaounde.