When Protest is Called “Disorder”

October 16, 2011 

By Juliette Abandokwe 

Douala, Cameroon 

On October 4th, five days before the general election, seventeen of Mboua Massok’s young militants were arrested as they were disseminating invitations for the next pre-electoral meeting to be held two days later. Mboua Massok, also commonly called “Acting Combatant”, has become over the years the symbol of resistance to the trivialization of the intolerable and ruthless rule of Paul Biya. 

According to the newspapers, the seventeen arrested youth are facing charges for having caused disorder; their trial will take place on Monday 17 October. 

A young 22 year-old Cameroonian on Facebook commented this arrest by saying that “they weren’t fighting for liberty but for disorder (according to the newspapers). The next one who’ll act in that sense will be punished and charged”. 

It is nice to know that in Cameroon one is punished first and then charged! 

This kind of talk just shows how well Paul Biya’s rule is using young Cameroonians in his efforts to disseminate terror, by convincing them to believe how bad it is to have a different opinion, and to stand up for it. These youth are then left to criss-cross all over the place for systematic intimidation and demonization of independent thinking. The warning of this young man is just drenched in abuse of power and impunity, supported by the climate of terror instilled by the brutal national system of repression. 

Biya's newspapers and television: A very efficient and well financed brainwashing scheme 

To protest against the high-jacking of basic liberties, against institutionalized brutality, and against the rape of a people's right to chose its leader freely, is not "fighting for disorder" as the Cameroonian state controlled media are proclaiming. That is the language of coldblooded dictation, aimed at the destruction of any attempt for self-determination. 

For the sake of their business, Paul Biya and France need a system in Cameroon where Cameroonians are superfluous. They would lose too much money if the people of Cameroon succeeded in standing up to ask for more justice and fair partnerships. So all heads must be kept down, and any head that comes up will be chopped off. That is in essence what the state media are telling Cameroonians. 

In reality, the self- and France- proclaimed part-time president has declared war on “his” people, by continuing the 51-year old denial of the right for the Cameroonian people to organize an efficient, coherent thus strong opposition. The global picture of today’s’ opposition is the direct result of a systematic psychosocial destruction of society, operated mainly through imported and well used propaganda methods. 

As protest is called “disorder”, everybody naturally agrees that is has to be put in order. That is part of the brainwashing procedure. In reality, Biya is forcibly suppressing any kind of protest, with the support of a completely rotten "justice" system, where it is his friends who are in charge. As he considers the Cameroonian people as superfluous, it would be contradictory if he cared about their fundamental rights. 

Biya, “The Choice of The People” 

For Paul Biya, the people of Cameroonian have no rights; his has done the utmost efforts to prevent them from asking for their civil liberties, by managing to make them believe that the misery they are living in, is what is called “peace”. 

Intimidation, repression and propaganda will not stop the wheel to turn round. When the “too much is too much” will have gone over the brim, the time will come when a miserable tyrant called Paul Biya will himself be punished and charged in the bitterest way. That moment is slowly coming, however sarcastic people think about it. 

That is except if he runs off without paying his bill, which at his age can happen anytime.

Evil ruling never lasts for ever