Editorial: The CPDM and growing indiscipline

The celebrations marking President Paul Biya’s thirty-second anniversary in power, which the ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, spearheaded were full of many lessons.

Firstly, it is that our country is still very much polarised to the extent that the head of state’s anniversary is being looked in the direction of one political prism. Many more Cameroonians have remained very passive on the president’s anniversary in recent years.

It is very difficult to tell whether this nonchalance is as a result of the long stay at the helm of the nation which has bred lassitude or it is the result of disenchantedness with the regime. Whichever way, it means we have failed as a nation to build a strong across-the-board synergy among the entire national movement around what is supposed to constitute the symbol of the nation.

A second more poignant lesson is that all is not well within the CPDM nationwide. The fissures within the party are widening everyday and this is boiling over to the public glare. For long, the party seemed to have been like an impenetrable fortress, difficult to break into and in which militants were like held in bondage. The tight discipline within the ruling party looks to have been blown up as militants in many sections are challenging party hierarchy in many respects.

This is nonetheless understandable. After the party was almost extinct in the early nineties, many a Cameroonian now seem to be making safe landing in the ruling party.

With the prospect of the opposition climbing to power getting glimmer with each passing election, those with inordinate political ambitions are more convinced that the only platform on which they can easily ride to political positions, is the CPDM. The result is that old political turncoats and new comers have been entering the party in droves. The new CPDM is therefore made up of men and women many of who are very empty on the ideologies of the party and even on democracy.

The resultant effect has been a steep rise in indiscipline and all sorts of vices. For fear of not losing militants, the party has for long overlooked indiscipline within its ranks, boasting that it was a party of tolerance. It even went ahead to ridicule other parties within strong internal disciplinary mechanisms.

Matters, however boiled over during last year’s municipal and legislative elections. There was open rebellion in the party in many areas before and after those elections. The party was forced to create a disciplinary committee to handle the many cases of indiscipline recorded nationwide whose results were made known a few weeks back. Those sanctions do not seem to have put off the fire completely as the party continues to be rocked.

We have on many occasions in this newspaper called for a deep reform in the party’s modus operandi. The party’s current structure and organisation is too unwieldy and operates more from top to bottom not both ways. More autonomy has to be given to local structures which can act expediently rather than waiting for months for the Central Committee. The Central Committee itself must loosen up and be more open and accessible.

The question many have been asking is what really is the role of the over 300 Central Committee members and what criteria was used before they were appointed. After the last congress of the party in 2011, a fresh impetus was expected to have raged through the party. Since then, it has been more the same.

The party, in many respects is not showing the right example as a leading party. Going by the statutes of the party, reorgainisation of its grassroots structures should have taken place in 2012. Here we are at the end of 2014 and the hierarchy of the party has remained tight-lipped over the issue. It is the same manner with which the party approaches the holding of its congresses, failing to respect deadlines.

This does not bode well for internal democracy within the party and for the nation’s democratic evolution. It gives the wrong signals and creates unnecessary strife and bickering. Most of the internal strife within the party now is as a result of the delayed reorganisation process.

As the leading political party in the country, what goes on inside the CPDM has direct bearing on the nation, therefore the party owes Cameroonians the responsibility of better management and the respect of democratic norms.