Cameroun - Political Martyrdom: A Cameroonian's Specialty

Me Momo thinks that the widespread criticism he receiving for his endorsement of the Dictator Paul Biya is a sign that he is a “serious” and “sincere” politician. He cites his work in Rwanda as the proof of his commitment for human rights. Cameroonians are known to fight other people battles with passion be it Laurent Gbagbo or Emmanuel Macron during the last presidential election in France.

However, it does not matter what ordinary Cameroonians say about Rwanda or Gbagbo if Paul Biya (85 years and 36 in power) stays in power forever. Indeed, throughout Biya’s 36-year dictatorship, this kind of “sincere” and “dignified” politics is nothing but a national spectacle that served as “guardian of sleep” for the regime. Thus, while Biya tightens his grip on power, the spectacle of this kind of cosmetic opposition serves to put people to sleep. This self-professed “revolutionary” and political martyr to the Cameroonian’s people does not prefigure salvation but, in fact, help to lull a national audience into political slumber.

This kind of political spectacle is nothing but a personal tool of survival in neocolonial Cameroonian society, and use it as a literary strategy that exploits and subverts people’s legitimate desire. On the one hand, it is an indictment against collectivized passivity–a political reminder that, as Debord puts it, “Those who are always watching to see what happens next will never act: such must be the spectator’s condition”. On the other, this kind of self-consciously performative show put on by the like of Momo is itself complicit in an oppressive politics of spectacle.

It is fitting to note that the spectacle by the like of Momo hides real political martyrdom in Cameroon. It wipes out clean the responsibilities of the Biya’s regime in the disappearance of the Bepanda 9 for instance. More, the judicial martyrdom of the political prisoners who have suffered, at the hands of the Biya’s gigantic apparatuses of oppression where the law have been used by the government as the instruments of a policy of repression and deterrence. The case of political prisoners recognized by the CL2P stands out in the record, alike in the gentle innocence of the victims, and in the ruthlessness of the determination of the Biya’s regime to strike down on anything perceived as disloyal.

What the like of Me Momo is doing is worse than taking money. It is to provide the Biya’s regime with a moral virginity it does not deserve and if we all go along with that, then we are really doomed as peoples because the nation is also a moral construct where ordinary people give themselves the laws of their own choosing. It is also a spiritual concept that express what kind of bullshits we are willing to endure while being able to save our souls at the same time.

The Committee For The Release of Political Prisoners – CL2P

http://www.cl2p.org

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