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OPEN LETTER
To the Administrative Authorities
and the Armed Forces
From the time Council elections were announced, Cameroonians have been living in an atmosphere of high political and social tension, the recent confrontations between the army and the people in Limbe and Kumba being its most dramatic manifestation.
These confrontations resulted in deaths of both soldiers and civilians, wanton destruction of property belonging to the Party and Party militants by the so called "forces of law and order", arrests and torture of hundreds of innocent civilians and a systematic manhunt of SDF political leaders resident in those areas. A classic replay of the 1992 presidential elections.
These events are of extreme gravity and undoubtedly constitute the forerunner of a major internal crisis which could easily become uncontrollable.
To avoid such a tragedy, the SDF is addressing this open letter to the main actors whose duty is to ensure public peace.
Firstly, this letter is to you: District Heads, Sub-Divisional Officers, Senior Divisional Officers, Governors and your staff. You are Cameroonian citizens who freely chose to administer the people. You ought to do this without bias.
Your first duty is to ensure respect of the rule of law in the interest of everyone. But you are not the law itself and less so, demi-gods above the law.
In the Cameroon of today, the success of health, sanitation, education, communication and production policies at the grassroots, depends largely on you. Social peace and harmony also.
Through you as the vital link, the character and the strength of the people shall be reflected in the State, which shall serve as a genuine tool for the fulfillment and greatness of the Nation.
You are not there to spoil, subjugate and destroy but to diffuse, regulate and construct. In the final analysis you are messengers between the people and the summit of the political hierarchy. You are servants of republican institutions. You therefore cannot be fanatics.
But, it has been observed that, as heirs of a colonial administration, you have just been imitating the colonial administrator, behaving as if you were in conquered territory, taking pleasure in victimising your fellow Cameroonian. And because the present regime allows you to display such instinct, you have readily become members of the third annex organ of the CPDM as agents of a totalitarian state. So much so that in all elections organised in this country since 1992 people have been complaining about you, trade unions have been complaining about you, Political parties, except those of the anti-democratic and anti-patriotic coalition gravitating around the CPDM, have complained about you. You intimidate and you mislead. At the end of the day the democracy that comes out of such behaviour of yours is completely perverted and the basic human values that you are supposed to protect weather away with each of your numerous violations.
Because of you, see what has become of the national economy, the public administration, the day to day life of the citizens! Just crisis and misery!
With these council elections, major disorders are in sight which could plunge the whole country into a devastating turmoil.
Meanwhile you know that you are administering a country within the context of a world at the threshold of the third millennium in which artificial intelligence is likely to confer on the technological man the attributes of some sort of demi-god.
Do you think that with your conduct and governance the Cameroonians of today are being prepared to become those demi-gods of tomorrow?
"Mr. Administrator, please have pity on our descendants. Do not make them the slaves of robots of the future".
In concrete terms, today, would you please let the Cameroonians live their freedom, enjoy standard democracy and use their creative genius in transforming their environment. Give the elected ones the chance to play their role without you substituting them in Council Offices, National Assemblies and elsewhere. Let Justice prevail. Then you would have been useful to the nation! Then you would have re-established public authority! Then you would have won the respect of your fellow citizens.
Secondly this letter is to you: you who wear the Uniform and carry weapons of war for the sole and specific purpose of defending our national territory and ensuring the protection of life and property of the people. You did take an oath to die if need be in carrying out these missions. You are the shield of the people, the wall behind which the people develop and the nation asserts itself. Your role is one of the most noble as regards the existence and future of our fatherland.
But see what they have done to you! They have made of you enemies of "the enemy within the house" just like the colonial masters of yesterday who treated us like mere animals. No! Cameroonians are not "the enemy within the house" as Mr. EMAH Basile and his likes will want to make us believe.
Those who took over from the colonial masters are forcing you to turn your guns, to use your offensive grenades and your bayonets against those whom you are expected to protect, your kith and kin.
They want you to hate democracy when for sure, you too must be hungry for freedom and sovereignty, dignity and respect.
For Heavens sake, join the people! You are part and parcel of them! Defend them against all their covert and overt enemies! Shield them from invaders and protect them against disunity! The SDF has said it again and again: TAKE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES!
What happened during the last council elections is a big shame for you and for all of us. It should never have happened! It should never, never again happen in this country! Do not allow yourselves to be used to destroy our fraternal bonds. True enough we are known to have over two hundred ethnic groups, each with its specific culture but we do have but one flag, one anthem, one motto, in short one patriotic cord that ties us to our national identity.
Other elections are coming and they might once more try to use you against the future of our country. Think about it!
Our country is at the cross roads! From now on it depends on you to push it into chaos or to take it on the path of harmony and happiness.
We seem to know what your choice had been, what your choice is and what your choice shall be. The SDF thanks you for that.
Tomorrow will be a better day.
Long live Cameroon.
Done at Bamenda, 11th March, 1996.
NI John FRU NDI
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN
The end
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