By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde
The travails of the "opposition" since the wind of change blew across Africa in the early 90s have reduced them, especially in Cameroon, to the impotence of numbers: of parties, of media outlets, of trade unions, of associations…
All opposition to de facto one-party rule has become nothing but window dressing, and the resultant proliferations of laxity, inertia, corruption, one-upmanship, and total public disgust in the selfishness, cronyism and unresponsiveness that characterise state power.
The gesticulations of the opposition during and after the recent elections in Gabon resemble those of the opposition in Cameroon in 1992, 1997, 2004, and possibly in 2011; they show clearly that they have learned little from the "People Power" Corazon Aquino (RIP) gave birth to in 1986, and which produced the wave of "colour revolutions" that swept through Eastern Europe and other regions of the world, and liberated the people from the fangs of communism, and from the clutches of failed elections managed by dictatorial regimes.
Aquino achieved her revolution by organising and teaching the people about the benefits of selflessness, courage, and determination, and the helplessness of tanks, guns, truncheons, water cannons and other tools of oppression in the face of masses of a determined people. Indeed, Aquino’s revolution triumphed on the mutual lessons learned by the political elite and the masses: the elite learned not to fear popular participation because it is controllable, and about the effectiveness of coalitions; and the popular masses learned about the pleasures of political action, and the effectiveness of their own power!
Aquino knew how to teach the people about the ever continuing confrontation between power, (the state/dictators), and freedom, (the people), with power always wanting to expand, and freedom always seeking to contain it; republican government, initially believed to be the incarnation of triumphant freedom had turned around to be an incarnation of the people’s oppression, so the people needed to re-establish their sovereign freedom.
She knew how to make the people aware of the futility of asking dictators to establish what the people usually refer to as a level playing field; instead, she encouraged the people to focus on dealing with the reality of their situation, as it was: the people had to focus on the goal of overthrowing dictatorship, not get distracted by obstacles which the regime had put on their way! The people came to know that with totalitarian regimes, election fraud is inevitable because any regime-sponsored candidate must steal votes to win.
Therefore, rather than indulge in the illusion of winning at the ballot box, they formed coalitions, identified appropriate leadership, and an inner core of strategists to formulate strategies and tactics for turning election fraud to an advantage, and using it as a trigger for mass protests in… especially the political capital!
Such simple teachings empowered freedom (the people) to rise against a despotic regime, and overthrow the entrenched power of Ferdinand Marcos!
A number of colour revolutions followed Aquino’s revolution, including Viktor Yushchenko’s Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004. Like Aquino’s, it involved mobilising the people through their specific strategies that included: empowering the people to identify and combat electoral fraud, and in the process, sharpen the engagement and commitment of thousands of actors; organising a marathon rock concert that was planned and impeccably executed to bring Kiev, the political capital, to a standstill after elections, until the people’s victory was won; keeping information about various activities in distinct compartments so that very few grasped the complete picture; doing good arithmetic on troop numbers and tactical operations on distribution of tracts, use of FM radio stations and other communication avenues to ensure that about 200.000 people came out in Kiev to outnumber the 15.000 strong troops. At the final count, not just 200.000 people turned out; but an estimated 1.000.000 people flooded the streets and defeated the Viktor Yanukovych regime candidate!
What is going on in Gabon betrays opposition ignorance of the nature of power. In the face of the struggle between freedom and power, power always knows how to be patient because it knows exactly what it wants. It can outwait slogans, disorder, prayers, destruction, condemnations… At the end of the day, power always triumphs over the disorganised force of freedom!
The Aquino Revolution has so far triumphed only where freedom got organized, and surreptitiously launched its attack using as stepping stones, elections organised on the imposed terms of dictators. Invariably, the ensuing non-violent struggle always overcame water-cannons, tanks, guns and police truncheons and overthrew dictators and their cohorts. It does not matter that the regimes humbled by these revolutions were backed by the whole state machinery: the administration, the judiciary, the armed forces, the laws, the state treasury, and neo-colonial powers…!
General strikes, sit-ins, and civil disobedience are the weapons of these revolutions, but they are not about selling after the market! The burning and destruction in Port-Gentil are very similar to the holing of the opposition, and the burning and destruction that went on in the native "province" of the opposition leader following the 1992 elections in Cameroon. Power knows how to outwait such disorganised acts of freedom! The evidence is there for all to see: Gabonese power is already globe-trotting; disorganised freedom has only its eyes to weep!!
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