The secretary-general of the Popular Action Party, PAP, Fabrice Lena, has wept for Cameroon’s “failed parliament.”
In a missive following Thursday’s first ordinary parliamentary sessions, the firebrand politician regrets that members of the National Assembly and the Senators have never called out the failing policies of President Paul Biya’s government.
At a time when the country is facing multiple crises, Lena observes that the National Assembly and the Senate are yet to find solutions.
“I learned as I was growing that, a parliamentary motion is an official statement in which (one or more) members of a parliament usually as representatives of one or more parties—ask the government to carry out some specific action, usually a change in policy to a plaguing problem, or engage in discussion on specific issues affecting the country,” he said.
Lena adds that: “We were told in the years of green that to apply laws to us, it was only reasonable to consult us on them (Parliamentarians), that the Parliament of a country is the repository of the sovereign will of the people, and its successful functioning is a joint responsibility of both the government and the opposition. That dialogue is the essence of parliamentary politics.”
The PAP scribe maintains that lawmakers worth their names would have put the Anglophone crisis on the agenda of legislative business.
His words: “But from what I have experienced in Cameroon about Parliamentarians and the Parliament since I became politically conscious is; Parliamentary obstruism, obstruction of debates, bills on people’s rights, obstruction of debate on burning issues (Anglophone Crisis), and the main cause of the problem, the question of the form of state, bill on constitutional amendments are the characteristics of our advanced democratic parliament.”
Lena opines that Cameroon can only boast of handclappers and belly-seeking lawmakers.
“But our dear Parliamentarians lack all the qualities of people’s representatives: decency, politeness, courtesy, objectivity, and justice. The budgets used by Parliamentarians in Cameroon are individually based in purpose, as a sort of compensation for covering up the wanton decisions of the conscienceless executive arm, the defunct and failing government,” said the PAP secretary-general.
“There’s no collective interest in their agenda, they used income for discussions of pertinent issues to obstruction of justice and of freedom, and yet they say Cameroon is an advanced democratic country with democratic institutions.”
Lena ends by urging the political class and the masses to take on their responsibilities.
“At this juncture, a people’s platform with the objective of challenging the so-called Parliament and Parliamentarians will somewhat induce them to think, to act. In Cameroon, there are no protests, no rights, no protests, no grants, no protests, no positive reactions from the leaders the managing authorities, to the people,” he said.
“The people first!” he concluded.
