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Monday, April 25, 2011

Cameroonians In The United States Beg Paul Biya To Remain President

There is a well edited video making the rounds on the internet. The video purports to show a rally that took place in Washington, DC., organized by members of the of Cameroon's ruling party resident in the United States. In the video, they claim that Cameroon is the best run county in Africa and one of them even describes Paul Biya as savior of Cameroon, a Moses. They recount what they see as achievements of the Biya regime, the first of which is the negative but untrue claim that there are no political prisoners in Cameroon. Even if this were true, it would not be an achievement because not having political prisoners is not a sign of progress. They also recount a series of achievements that Paul Biya has had in the Northwest province, none of which is evident on the ground. They make much of the 25,000 jobs which the government announced and which we have had occasion to discuss in this blog. They beg for peace in Cameroon, saying that Cameroon is not Tunisia or Egypt, as if Cameroon is now better than these countries. In fact, the standards of living in Tunisia and Egypt are light years ahead of that in Cameroon. The video manifests contradictions in many places as the leaders of the group appear not to know exactly how long Biya has been in power.

Some questions kept coming to my mind as these leaders of Biya's ruling party rallied in Washington, DC.: If Cameroon is so wonderful, why are these leaders living outside the country? Would it not be great if they had stayed in Cameroon and enjoy the peace and prosperity that Paul Biya has so far created? Or are they just deceiving Cameroonians to continue to tolerate the rot while they live sumptuous lives in America? As they sing the praise of Paul Biya as the bringer of freedom to Cameroon, are they aware of the recent Freedom House report that ranks Cameroon as one of the unfree countries in Africa? One of the characteristics of lack of integrity in the ancient world was incoherence. People who made claims that so glaringly lacked coherence were also seen as people who lacked integrity. In this regard, the video of this rally speaks for itself. It is a very long video, but if you have time, watch it. It will not disappoint in its chicanery.

1 comment:

Jos said...

At least this is a group of people with concern for their fellow brothers and sisters back in Cameroon. They know only President Paul Biya can lead the destiny of Cameroonians for the mean time. They have experienced life in Cameroon and in America and have made here a concrete judgment and did allow themselves to be manipulated like those who went marching in the streets in Canada requesting that President Paul Biya should leave power, they do not want the progress of their brothers and sisters back in Cameroon.