Reference Documents for the Social Democratic Front

The Cameroonian People have come to the crossroads of their history The SW believes that the upcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections will permit the Cameroonian people to choose between complete change or continuity with a regime which has shown its bankruptcy, its gross incompetence and general insensitivity towards the common good.

For 15 years today, Mr. Biya and his Party, the CPDM, have been ruling Cameroon, claiming that they are promoting a New Deal. The catastrophic record of the regime is here for all to see:

an autocratic state displaying the vistas of a fallacious democracy;

a government that is not only highly inefficient and prebendary but which also violates human rights;

an illegitimate government, elected from a fraudulent electoral process and a government with little feet for the plight of Cameroonians;

a government that has split the country into its micro-ethnic components and one wherein tribalism has become the tradition;

a country where the notions of solidarity, unity and the sense of national community are fast diminishing;

a country where citizens no longer have rights, only obligations especially the obligation to obey;

a country where the citizens are under the yoke of impossible taxes, poverty and misery in spite of its incredible wealth;

a country which long ago lost every sense of development.

This is the catastrophic situation, which the SDF, the incarnation of the struggle for progress and freedom, plans to redress ﷓ if we have your trust and your vote.

Cameroonians today have a legitimate aspiration for change. Cameroonians want to change every aspect of their lives: politics, the economy, society and culture. Our commitment is to build a new society anchored on all the principles of genuine democracy. What we set out here are areas that will be reformed through laws and other instruments put in place by the SDF parliamentarians you are going to vote.

On the Political Front.
The political domain shall be the main focus of the SDF and all its Parliamentarians. History has taught us that a healthy political environment is a prerequisite for all social and economic progress. Here, the changes will apply to state institutions, the Nation, its Citizens and international relations. Our guiding principle on the political front will be the golden words "Power to the People", that is power to citizens who have finally won back their freedom and their sovereignty.
1. The State:
  The reform of the state institutions will be done in a Constitutional Conference, whose members will be representative and whose work will be endorsed by the Cameroonian people through a referendum. The reform of state already elaborated in the SDF's Manifesto and its Federal Constitutional proposal for Cameroon will have the following objectives that will ensure good governance:
  
  making Cameroon a democratic state wherein the rule of law is respected;
  guaranteeing a rational equilibrium in power separation between the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, so that these organs fully assume their responsibilities;
  guaranteeing Human Rights by elaborating a National Charter on Human Rights and Freedoms;
  guaranteeing electoral transparency by adopting a single Electoral code; creating an Independent Electoral Commission and Instituting two rounds in Presidential Elections;
  preserving the independence of the judiciary, as a major instrument in the promotion of a state of law without which there can be no genuine democracy;
  fostering a balanced and an equitable federal state with the aim of equitably sharing the national cake and, especially, with the aim of giving Cameroonians the possibility of participating fully and efficiently in the management of their lives and of finally curbing the domineering role of the central government;
  putting in place a Code of Local Government with the aim of guaranteeing the autonomy of democratically﷓elected local government officials and also with the aim of giving the means of development to local councils;
  Adopting a Media Code and setting up an independent audiovisual council that promotes the use of public media to enhance the empowerment of the people rather than serve partisan interests;
  Creating an independent Constitutional Court, an Accounts Court and a High Court charged respectively with verifying the constitutionality of laws, the management of public property and the prosecution of state officials who betray the public trust vested in them.
2. The Nation:
  To combat tribalism, which has now been institutionalised and exploited by the CPDM, the SDF affirms its attachment to:
  
  National Unity and solidarity; and
  the equality of all citizens within the National Territory
  
  Cameroon's new Constitution "will be devoid of all discriminatory and anti﷓democratic references. Patriotic values will be honoured and Cameroon's history will be objectively refurbished, for it is only in history that a nation gathers momentum for the future.
  Beyond the emphasis on political and administrative decentralization emphasis will also be laid on those socio-cultural factors that reinforce 1 national unity and solidarity. Culture, tourism and sports, which permit the intermingling of peoples, will be encouraged, and will receive the necessary infrastructure and equipment.
  Measures will be taken to guarantee genuine bilingualism, genuine cultural integration, and general harmony of our traditions and the development of cultural infrastructures.
  The SDF plans to encourage trans﷓ethnic organisations especially Syndicates, Human Rights Defence Groups, Youth and Women groups and also to educate Cameroonians on their rights, thereby helping them fight against abuses from government and traditional authority and also to develop patriotism and eventually halt the observed collective resignation to our fate as injustice triumphs.
  No nation can survive without a genuine democratic and republican culture. Consequently, the SDF intends to take steps to ensure that the army, the police and the administration protect and promote the constitution and respect human rights. These institutions shall be non﷓partisan, neutral and permanently at the service of the nation and its citizens, at the service of its development and its security.
3. The Citizen:
  An SDF administration will guarantee the equality of all citizens before the law. Not only will the citizens enjoy their rights and freedoms but also they will individually or severally, bring up Cases regarding constitutionality of laws. Public opinion surveys will be encouraged so as to create a direct interaction between government actions and the will of the people.
  Equality of the sexes will also be underscored so as to create Equal Opportunities for Women. The youths will be adequately trained so that they take up their roles as future leaders.
  The citizens will be given the chance to organize themselves in order to defend their interests and their rights. Giving back power to the people means giving the people the means to check their elected officials as well as the means to defend individual and collective interests.
  Emphasis will be put on moral and civic education through a National Civic Service, which are unimpeachable steps towards bringing up responsible citizens'.
4. International Relations:
  No Nation can survive as an island in today's global context. Cameroon should, therefore, make its presence felt at all levels of the World theatre and maintain cooperation ties with all countries.
  At the dawn of the 3rd Millennium, it is self-evident that belonging to regional, continental and global economic and technological networks is quite in order. Also, at the end of the colonial era, Cameroon's participation in these bodies is a priority and the cornerstone of a progressively democratic, independent and stable Africa.
  Our country's relations with other continents will, consequently, be a priority. Our bilingual heritage as well as our religious and cultural diversity are sound tickets to other world organisations whose designs are not to subvert Cameroon's interests and sovereignty.
  An SDF administration will always defend the interests of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations Organisations.
  As a general rule, diplomacy, as conceived by the SDF shall contribute not only to Cameroon's dignity but also to her national economy.
  In short, peace, cooperation, national economic prosperity and the restoration of the credibility and dignity of Cameroon, tarnished by the New Deal will be our priorities.
The Economy:
The total bankruptcy of Cameroon's economy calls for rigorous adjustment and corrective measures. This is why the SDF has proposed a National Economic Salvation Programme (NESPROG). Briefly:
1. The SDF accepts economic liberalism, private initiative and private ownership of property as the most effective way of empowering the individual;
2. The SDF will promote social economic liberalism which implies the creation of an environment conducive to the flourishing of the business sector In fact, the need for a democratic and liberal economy started with the informal sector. This was a clear, outward manifestation of the bankruptcy of the private sector as well as a manifestation of the determination of Cameroonians to take care of themselves. The lesson from this spontaneous display of the proverbial Cameroonians ingenuity is that our survival depends on liberating initiative, making maximum use of our potentials and inventing a purely endogenous development.
3. In as much as macro﷓economic adjustment is a priority: structural adjustment programmes will be fashioned to include sound social dimensions. Privatisation will also be remodelled so as to preserve our sovereignty and the nation's patrimony; we will ensure that privatisation gives Cameroonians a chance in the purchase of state corporations.
4. Economic development presupposes better management of public financial and monetary policies. The SDF will guarantee a healthy banking sector. The SDF will also create a Stock Exchange so as to secure savings and capital, and, in the long run, ensure greater monetary independence. The advent of a single European currency demands that we begin thinking about an independent currency.
5. Budgetary policies will be based on the actual needs of the state and the national Economy. State budgets will heretofore desist from sumptuous expenditures, which only foster rackets, graft and corruption.
6. The SDF condemns Cameroon's chronic indebtedness as well as her complacent acceptance of debt rescheduling. A healthy Public Administration and relaunched economy should help alleviate the debt burden.
7. The SDF does not subscribe to economic theories, which preach that Cameroon's economy can only be jump﷓started by a dynamic agricultural sector taking the example from East Asian countries, we will opt for an ambitious technology programme. There can, be no development without industrialisation and Industrial development can only begin with a sound agricultural sector. The development of agricultural productions and natural resources will receive full attention. Natural resources will be exploited to benefit the Cameroonian people; revenues accrued thereof will be included in the budget and will be used to modernise and ameliorate living conditions in the rural areas so as to curb rural exodus.
8. These broad sectorial orientations will centre on:
  1. Monetary reforms to create alone, or in collaboration with neighbours, a currency:
  2. Reforms of the banking system by:
    
    ensuring that all citizens in every in Cameroon region have access to financial institutions;
    promoting low-interest loans for small productive industries.
    re-enforcing the independence and role of banking control agencies;
    introducing deposit protection;
  3. Reforms of fiscal policy to steer the economy in a new direction. Current fiscal policies do not permit savings and household consumption, let alone financing initiatives. A healthy fiscal policy will help economic operators relaunch their activities by investing confidently in the economy for the common good.
  4. Stimulation of the mining and power sector by:
    
    redefining modalities of exploration and management of the oil sector in Cameroon;
    promoting the production of other types of non﷓oil minerals;
    encouraging joint-ventures by small and medium size enterprises in this sector;
    restructuring SNH to make its management transparent and accountable;
    encouraging investment to promote the exploitation of by-products of the oil sector;
    removing monopoly on the supply of water and electricity;
    encouraging the exploitation of solar, wind, and other forms of energy supply to provide low cost energy to Cameroonians.
  5. Reforming the Agricultural, fisheries and animal husbandry sectors by:
    
    promoting an integrated development of agriculture, fisheries and animal husbandry;
    applying norms prescribed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation;
    encouraging cooperatives and NGOs to provide more effective support to rural populations;
    providing road infrastructure to move products from farms to markets fast and at reasonable costs;
    launching a food security programme for Cameroon.
  6. Protection of the forest while deriving maximum benefit from it by:
    
    ensuring the strict implementation of legislation on log exportation; ensuring sustainable management of the forest;
    promoting of use of wood for construction;
    promoting of medicinal plants research and search for other natural products like restriction enzymes, genes of rare species, etc.;
    promoting of plant genetic research;
    limiting felling of rare species of wood; ban their exportation;
    promote the use of abundant species;
    imposing mandatory reforestation in compensation for felling of rare species.
  7. establishing a vigorous transport and communication programme to ensure
    
    the physical integration of the country;
    the stimulation of agriculture, tourism, etc.;
    the reinforcement of trading links with neighbours.
Globally, development programmes will be democratic so that priorities will not only be defined by consensus but will also be based on the exact potential of local communities, the real needs of the community and also the option' to curb Centralism. The SDF will opt for a truly endogenous economy.
On the Social Front
True to its ideology of Social Democracy, the SDF will pay priority attention to the following :﷓ Education, Health, Jobs, Housing, and the Environment.
1. Education
  The total decay of our school system is the direct consequence of a failed political, economic, social and moral landscape. Taking cognisance of the very important role education plays in nation﷓building, its rehabilitation is primordial and urgent. To save the education system and make it play this primordial role, the SDF will adopt an Education Charter for Cameroon centred on a completely new orientation. Generally, the SDF will:
  institute a minimum education rate payable by Cameroonians according to their means;
  ensure that every child goes to school for at least 7 years;
  undertake massive expansion in infrastructure to bring classroom populations to a maximum of 45;
  train large numbers of quality staff to bring the pupil teacher ratio to 45: 1
  respect hierarchy, experience and qualification and improve on the status and reward of teachers to ensure maximum motivation;
  introduce the teaching of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The African Charter on Human Rights and Freedoms and the Cameroon Constitution as a core course unit to ensure that end products have respect for human rights and freedoms, promote their advancement and are imbued With tolerance, love, friendship, understanding and civic responsibilities;
  Institute democratic school, governance that involves all the interested parties;
  Establish an equivalence system that allows learners to progress to higher levels from every point in the Education System as well as move freely within the whole system through:
  instituting certificates and credits for all parts of the system, assessing and recognising skills gained both formally and informally;
  Establishing a Qualifications Board that uses the equivalence system to reform the present confused certification set﷓up, manage accreditations, certifications and equivalence and carry out general and continuous evaluation to ensure the maintenance of standards;
  Make adult basic education and training an integral part of the Ministry of Education and ensure that: it has institutions, teachers and officers,
  - it leads to equivalent exit levels,
  - it emphasis literacy, numeracy, hygiene, basic health and civic responsibilities;
  promote nursery schools and day care centres to ensure'. the welfare of the family;
  encourage religious bodies and other private initiatives with proven track records with infrastructure, equipment, salaries, etc.;
  recognise that technical education is the basis for industrialisation and modernisation; orientate talented students to technical and vocational education.
  encourage and promote basic and applied scientific research in all domains;
  SDF reforms will enhance the teaching profession, will modernise educational programs and equipment. These reforms will place our educational and university systems at the centre of national development so that not only will we guarantee jobs for the youths but we will also ensure the intellectual and creative aggressiveness necessary for the scientific and technological mastery indispensable for the conquest of technology. These reforms will draw upon our cultural heritage and promote the identity and dignity of our people and so serve as the basis for our contribution to mankind.
2. Health:
  The SDF recognises health as a basic human right. We are aware that Cameroon's Health system is disastrous. It is crucial to reform our Health system so that it meets our needs and our means, the purpose being to ensure fundamental health care to the most needy. To achieve this the SDF will adopt a health charter for Cameroon that will:
  
  create a minimum health solidarity tax payable by Cameroonians according to their means;
  Promote a primary health care approach that emphasises community participation and community empowerment;
  Promote and protect community health committees that plan, manage, deliver, monitor and evaluate their health services;
  Promote and protect the institution of sanitary inspectors in councils;
  Cut prices of drugs and health equipment through elimination of duties and taxes and the diversification of importing sources;
  Rehabilitate the disabled, drug addicts, abandoned children, the old, etc.;
  Adopt guidelines for donated drugs; apply the Bamako initiative;
  Encourage religious bodies and NGOs with proven track records in health management with essential drugs, equipment, infrastructure, vehicles, etc.;
  Improve the working conditions of health personnel; undertake massive extension of health infrastructures, especially in the rural areas; train a large number of quality health personnel to cover the health of the whole population.
  Sustain medical research and integrate traditional medicine. Encourage health insurance not only by para﷓statals but also by private companies and village cooperatives.
  Reform the CNPS to guarantee that its management is in the hands of, and responsive to workers
3. Employment:
  Jobs, especially for young Cameroonians, will be a primordial Preoccupation of the SDF There is no doubt that a reformed education system and a blooming economy will guarantee jobs, ameliorate workers salaries and the general living conditions of Cameroonians. The SDF will:
  
  Establish an inventory of human resources and their rational use on the basis of merit and competence.
  Reform the civil service to make sure that it is development oriented;
  Ensure that government protects the fundamental right of individuals to create enterprises; this will stimulate creation of many enterprises and therefore many jobs;
  Engage actively in major projects; promote tourism and industry as well as assure the maintenance of our infrastructure so as to guarantee economic, social and cultural development and stimulate job creation;
  Promote job creation and training especially for the young through the national civic service;
  recognise the contribution of women and improve on their status in the job market.
4. Housing and the Environment:
  The SDF notes that speculation in Real Estate has not helped Cameroon define a veritable Town planning policy and general care of the Environment. Ghettos live side by side with sumptuous edifices. State institutions have done precious little for Housing, Town﷓planning and the Environment, confiscated as they are, by privileged groups at the expense of the less favoured. The SDF will:
  
  Promote a rigorous town planning policy;
  Define policies geared towards, ensuring decent low cost housing in decent environments to all Cameroonians.
  Ensure security of land tenure and promote productive use of land;
  Promote the use of cheap local material (red soil, wood etc) for building;
  Promote industries that manufacture building materials such as light bulbs, tiles, toilet fixtures, window louvres, iron bars, etc.
  impose an environment rate on companies whose activities affect the environment adversely.
  
  The SDF attaches great importance to the quality of environment, which guarantees a healthy life for Cameroonians. To this effect the SDF will adopt an Environment law with the following objectives:
  
  Cleaning of towns and villages;
  Preservation of the environment, especially forests;
  Take measures to prevent industrial pollution;
  Encourage communities to participate in the promotion and upkeep of the environment.
  Respect of International norms on environment.
  
  Be it in health, jobs, housing, or economy, our policy will be to guarantee social justice founded on:
  
  basic education for all;
  minimum food for self﷓sufficiency for all
  a minimum social welfare for all.
  
  In one word, social justice ensuring Equal Opportunities for every Cameroonian.
  Whatever way you look at it, the Cameroonian problem is essentially political. We should resolutely say enough is enough to a government that has:
  
  no will to institute democracy
  no economic plan for Cameroon
  no desire to cater for the well﷓being of Cameroonians.

We should say enough is enough to an anti﷓people, antipatriotic government.

The SDF believes that the institution of veritable democracy shall help obliterate the Cameroonian drama. This is why we are asking you to join our efforts, to join the SDF so that together, we will win the battle for freedom and democracy in Cameroon, without which there can be neither progress nor change. Join the SDF effort so that we can, at last, restore power to the people and guarantee happiness.

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