The year 2001 was the first year of the new millennium. It has just come to an end! In other places, one would say that our achievements during this first year are a presage of what the decade, the millennium holds for Cameroon. Unfortunately, we cannot do the same for our country that seems to be in the stranglehold of predators who have been around for the last forty years, and who seem to be doing everything possible to continue to hang on. Thanks to the SDF and all the patriotic forces in our country, it can be said that they are living their last days!

During the year 2001, I continued my visits to the people in their various villages. I started my ninth tour of Cameroon by visiting the West, Northwest, Far North, North, Adamawa, East, Centre and South Provinces. I will complete the round with the Littoral and South West Provinces early in New Year 2002. Like several others before it, this was an education tour. During these tours, I educated the people on the AIDS pandemic, on the dangers of drug abuse among our youths and on the importance of sending children to school. I am proud to have done all this with the meagre resources of the Party and my own personal resources. This considerable achievement can be appreciated against the backdrop of the billions of francs that are now circulating within government circles for the fight against AIDS and ill-prepared business forums. Instead of using this money to meet the people in their villages to talk to them about the growing problem, they use ill-adapted advertisements and programmes on television and radio that are hardly ever watched or listened to by an overwhelming majority of the population! The importance of what I have been doing in the villages of these provinces lies in the fact that I was not out to talk “politics” as such! I was out to talk to the people about their very survival; about the threat of AIDS to the very survival of our country; about the importance of a healthy and educated population to the future prosperity of our country! The presence of my wife, Rose, by my side during most of the tours was a strong message to the women folks that the problems we were addressing in the field, face women as much as men. I thank the people for their response and understanding. I thank them for their hospitality.

During all these visits, we have become more and more aware that the DO, SDO and other administrators in the field, rather than being facilitators, have become obstacles to the development of our country! In several villages, we met with an unfriendly administration! We met with an administration that feels that their role is to protect the villages as reserves for the ruling CPDM and its President Paul Biya and fight against the intrusion of the SDF and other opposition political parties! Such behaviour is not good for the unity of our country; it is not good for the democratisation of our country; it is bad for community education, which is necessary for the very survival of our population against the threats they face today!

Our response to this behaviour of the administration in the field is indicative of what the future holds for them. We shall not allow a handful of individuals to hold our country hostage. We shall not tolerate any form of intimidation in our country. All of our country belongs to all of us, without discrimination!

Fellow members of the SDF
Fellow Cameroonians.

During the year that has just ended, we continued to hear about a National Good Governance Programme. We were repeatedly informed that the programme is in place, that it is already operational! These are proclamations, platitudes, and not reality! The corruption that this programme says it is fighting against has only got worse. Indeed, Cameroon, which was the seventh most corrupt country last year, fell back this year to the 5th most corrupt country! It is slowly moving back to the first position it occupied twice successively in 1998 and 1999. This is not surprising, judging by the level of the generalised corruption that is in government circles. Government officials are some of the richest people in Cameroon because state resources continue to be at their mercy. It is for these reasons that the CPDM regime has refused during the last five years to implement section 66 of the Constitution on the declaration of property and assets by government officials and top civil servants. It is a shame that with all these riches, most of these officials do not invest some of these stolen monies in their villages, most of which have no drinkable water, no electricity, no health centres and no all-season roads!

In the year 2000 we graduated to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries’ club, to the jubilation of the ruling CPDM regime. We were informed that this qualification would bring development and reduce poverty. During 2001, we expected to see the first “fruits” of our belonging to the club. But the programme did not quite take off, firstly because the corrupt CPDM regime was reluctant to integrate the private sector and civil society to ensure transparency in the management of the funds! Secondly, the projects proposed for the various sectors supposed to benefit from the earnings fell short of expectations and were not selected for funding. All these compounded to block the use of the resources.

During 2001 the hardship, suffering and stagnation that has characterised the New Deal Regime for the last twenty years were the order of the day.

· Several families lost loved ones through AIDS and other causes of untimely death;
· In spite of pressure from the SDF and civil society, the Bepanda families remained without any news about their 9 children who disappeared; instead, some pretentious trials were started;
· Torture and degrading treatment continued to be widespread in Cameroon;
· Many Cameroonian citizens continued to suffer deprivation or feel marginalised because the Cameroon government continues to treat the English language and its related cultures in Cameroon with disdain ;
· The Judiciary remained under the influence of the Executive in the interpretation of the Constitution and other laws, to the extent that the Executive refused to respect court rulings and punished Magistrates who acted with a certain independence of spirit;
· The National Assembly too continued to be manipulated by the Executive, to the extent that private member’s bills from the SDF Parliamentary Group and other opposition parties remained unexamined!
· Police and gendarme check-points on our highways continued to be a serious obstacle to free movement; it is a pity that youths are recruited to man some of these check points;
· Decentralisation continued to be considered by Mr. Biya as contrary to national unity, rather than the driving force of national unity that it is;
· Government Delegates continued to be appointed to lord it over elected councillors, in violation of Section 55 of the Constitution; · Political intolerance continued to rise, with CPDM Mayors and D.Os blocking the caravans of the SDF and other opposition parties in their areas of jurisdiction;
· Scheduled elections continued to be postponed for flimsy reasons;
· Poverty continued to rise;
· Corruption continued to rise;
· Unemployment continued to rise;
· Armed robbery continued to rise;
· The number of Generals in our army continued to rise;
· Tribalism continued to rise;
· But the total population of Cameroon continued to fall due to the rising death rate;
· But the price of farm products continued to fall;
· But the standard of living continued to fall;
· But the number of children in school continued to fall;
· And the number of registered voters continued to fall…
Fellow Militants of the SDF,

Municipal Elections were postponed last year for one year. As the Year 2001 comes to an end, the elections have been postponed for another six months. Since the launching of the SDF, we have continued to say that at the very heart of all multiparty democracies are elections. Democracies need free and fair elections to be stable. Free and fair elections mean good electoral rules respected by all and sundry; they mean neutral referees capable of implementing the electoral rules without fear or favour. No football match with a referee who is the coach of one of the teams will ever be credible. We all look forward to be entertained by the African Cup of Nations, and the World Cup bonanza. This is because we are confident that every team will face the other on a level playing field, with neutral referees that will ensure that the football rules are respected to the letter by all participating teams!

What is true about football or any other game in which teams and individuals compete, is also true of elections. Only clear election rules that are binding on all participants can attract respect. And only a neutral referee, call it a commission, that ensures the strict respect of the electoral rules by all the participants can lead to free and fair elections.

As we have said several times before, an independent electoral commission can best enforce electoral rules. This is why we continue to insist on the creation of an independent electoral commission to organise elections in Cameroon.

During this year that has come to an end, the SDF continued to use all democratic avenues available to it to demand for the creation of an independent commission to organise elections in Cameroon. However, Mr. Biya who seems to find the idea of an independent electoral commission repugnant, used the CPDM majority in parliament to impose a National Elections Observatory (ONEL) on the Cameroon electoral system, already discredited by past electoral fraud. Although the law was promulgated right in December 2000, a presidential decree appointing the 11 members of ONEL was only signed recently. Nearly all the 11 members are active members of the CPDM! Thus, the decree violates the spirit and the letter of the law setting up the Observatory. This is why the SDF wrote to Mr. Biya on 31 October 2001 asking him to set aside his decree because it violates the law. If he does not do so, the Administrative Bench of the Supreme Court will have to rule on the legality of the decree. In any case, Cameroonians are now fully aware that ONEL is a toothless bulldog. We expect very little from it.

But it is important to say here that our contest now is against the members of ONEL, not ONEL as an institution. Since the recent SDF National Convention in Bamenda decided by resolution that the SDF will participate in all elections, no matter the circumstances, we are going to work with ONEL. But we cannot count on ONEL to fight electoral fraud for us, because they have no powers to do so. We cannot also count on the courts, judging by the manner in which they treated the conflicts from the 1992 presidential elections and the 1996 Municipal elections. We can only count on ourselves! Therefore all structures of the SDF and all SDF militants and sympathisers should get ready to fight electoral fraud by all means at their disposal. No person involved in the electoral process should be allowed to go away with fraud. What we accepted yesterday, we shall not accept today! We expect that our determination to fight election fraud will not only be taken very seriously by SDF militants and sympathisers but also by other opposition forces, and the administration, which organises elections.

Fellow militants of the SDF
Fellow Cameroonians

We are ready for all elections, be they Presidential, Legislative or Municipal. If as the rumour is going now, Mr. Biya wants to precipitate Presidential elections, let him know that we are ready to take on him. We shall take on him with all Cameroonians, with all true opposition parties. Let him not deceive himself about the so-called division in the opposition. Let him be sure that he cannot exploit this to perpetrate his stay in power.

As for Legislative and Municipal elections, our Parliamentarians, Mayors and councillors have done better than those of any other political party in the Country. Cameroonians are aware of this. They will not hesitate to give the SDF another chance. This is why I say we are ready! Our structures are ready! Through our primaries, we shall select the best people to look after our country in Parliament and Councils.

During 2001, we renewed most of our structures. We also held our 6th National Convention in Bamenda. This was the first Convention in this Century, in this millennium. I cannot fail to use this occasion to thank all members and sympathisers of the SDF who made the Convention a huge success. We used the Convention to once more call on those who have left the SDF family for any reason at all, to come back to the fold. We want to win and govern this country as the family that started in 1990. Let none of them hesitate to come back to the fold. Let us finish the last lap together, the way we started the first lap. All they need is a simple letter of intention to rejoin the family addressed through me to the National Executive Committee.

Fellow Cameroonians

We have said before that the new information and communication technologies are at the centre of modernisation and wealth creation in all countries today. They are therefore at the forefront of education, of enterprise and of job creation! This is why we asked for the suppression of all taxes on materials and equipment in these domains, in order to promote their vulgarisation in schools, in households and at the workplace. Ensuring that our schools are provided with these modern technologies should be based on a blueprint that indicates clearly the process and the rate at which our schools throughout the country will be supplied with these technologies to make them part and parcel of their education. They should not be treated like elitist equipment for a few select schools in the capitals of provinces, donated through the goodwill of the President of the Republic!

Further, encouraging the creation of enterprises by a government is a very serious matter because it is at the centre of job and wealth creation for a nation. Contests for young business promoters that are being advertised as the offer of the President of the Republic, should be part of a broad scheme for promoting the creation of enterprise. At the centre of such a scheme should be:

· The understanding that the right to create an enterprise is a fundamental right of the citizen;
· The government should :
- Create a friendly environment and a clear legal framework for the operation of enterprise;
- Accept decentralisation and reinforce local councils with the capacity to promote the creation of enterprises by citizens;
- De-politicise the state and the tax system, reduce the tax burden on new enterprises, provide tax breaks and tax incentive and tax moratoriums;
- Facilitate access to funds by paying the internal debt, causing the quick release of the savings of citizens from liquidated banks and provide backing for financial institutions to give interest free loans to youths and others to start their enterprises;
- Ensure that the education system gives the children the right skills through mastery of modern technologies.
- Be a neutral arbiter based on the rule of law, not the rule of cronies;

Indeed, enterprise creation should be seen as an endeavour that is at the centre of our hope for the development of our country.

Fellow Cameroonians

Let me end with hope and prayer for all of you in New Year 2002. We pray for less deaths and happier and better days.

There is poverty all around us. There is corruption and repression all around us. All this has brought untold suffering to most of us. But it could have been worse. Let us pray for the people of the USA who lost several families through international terrorism. Let us pray for the several innocent people in Afghanistan who have paid for acts that they never committed. Let us pray for the people of the Middle East, so that God Almighty can help them to find peace in this New Year.

Let us pray for all leaders of our sub-region, and indeed our continent, that they may pursue the course of democracy more seriously, because there lies the solution to most African problems.

As we hope and pray, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! We thank God, the Almighty, for keeping and protecting our families during the year that has just gone by. We trust that He will let the souls of Mongo Beti, Rene Philombe and other loved ones that departed before the New Year, to rest in peace.

We send a clarion call to our churches and mosques, not only to join us in these prayers, but also to participate actively in our fight against the AIDS pandemic through education of their congregations and moral rearmament.

Finally, to the Indomitable Lions that are soon going for the African Nations’ Cup and the World Cup, we can only promise them our prayers and our usual unflinching support. We trust they will remain the reliable ambassadors they have always been.

May God bless and protect us all.

The end