Workshop/seminar on the communication plan of the Reform Movement Theme: « What kind of communication towards building a democratic changeover » Opening speech of the Comrade Chairman Samuel BILLONG
Ladies and gentlemen, dear comrades,
I would like to tell you that I am very happy to be here with you today for this seminar on the communication plan of the Reform Movement.
I would like to thank Patrice, our Secretary General for the organization and, in particular, the quality of the welcome he gave us today at the party headquarters in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
At our last meeting of the Political Bureau, I gave instructions as far this seminar is concerned and due to be held the end of this month. Let us congratulate the Secretary General and all his collaborators who have made it happen.
I would also like to thank all the participants to this seminar. Especially those who have travelled to Yaoundé today. My special appreciation goes to Albert Dieudonné, our Deputy Secretary General and to the entire delegation from Douala.
Prior to getting down to the specifics, I would like to invite you to have a deep thought for our populations plagued by the coronavirus pandemic, especially for those who have lost loved ones and for the entire medical professionals at the front line of the war against the pandemic.
Let us wish the patients a speedy recovery, protect ourselves and one another by respecting hygiene rules and social distancing After a period during which, the Reform Movement made of choice of observations, brainstorming, assessments and internal consultations instead of carrying out public activities, the Political Bureau of May 2, 2020 decided to re-mobilize the party authorities and , aside for this purpose, planned the organization of this seminar on the communication plan of our party. This seminar has two main objectives. On the one hand, it provides the general secretariat with the material for an efficient reorganization of the party’s communication unit and, on the other hand, it empowers the party’s communicators with the guidelines and principles of communication for the Reform Movement in a national context where political communication turns to violent confrontation and without any control over the progress of the nation. The viral video of a sub-prefect threatening the trembling village chief of MINKAN in the South, the recent controversial press release from the Ministry of Communication related to an international media, or an outcry of government officials following the disclosure of the first information on the Ngarbuh massacre, are proof of the fact that government officials manipulate social communication with the lack of transparency, the deny of contradiction underlying the instrumentalization of communities and the subservience of citizens.Furthermore, Communication is engulfed by almost permanent propaganda and manipulation without any dimension of civic or republican responsibility. Organizations and certain citizens are constantly in the confrontation, the verbal outrage, and in some instance, the call for the uprisings against the institutions. In short, everything hinges on it, without any limits there is no longer any room for respect, including respect for privacy, indeed, for life merely. It looks as if the only possible answers to the lack of transparency and the deny of contradiction are terror, irreverence and inelegance “What kind of communication towards building a credible changeover” This is the theme chosen by the General Secretariat. I actually approved this theme because it is not addressed on the national political scene, a credible changeover of power that still dominate the political scene with 152 members of parliament out of 180 in the National Assembly and 316 mayors in 360 municipalities in the country. As I just demonstrated, this theme is all the more appropriate that the current situation cannot give rise to a democratic changeoverThere can be no real democracy if the citizens are constantly pitted against one another.However, there is no doubt that given the failure of successive cabinet reshuffles, the vast majority of our populations in villages and towns aspire to something else. Election frauds conducted by the ruling party and the inability of opposition political leaders to truly work for the change so desired by the people, contribute to making them hostage of the ruling regime.It is therefore essential for the Reform Movement, our party whose vocation is to transform and strengthen republican institutions for the benefit of the populations, to build and propose a new communication relationship between the populations and the institutions. The seminar-workshop should recall or re-specify the main principles of our party’s communication. The Reform Movement is a republican and democratic party. We must remain faithful as much to our reforming ideals as to the motto of our party “Unity-Freedom-Modernity”. Ladies and gentlemen, dear comrades, On June 25, 2011 at the MEUMI HOTEL, here in Yaoundé, during our participative conversation, I said: “We refused to align ourselves with systematic opposition to the ruling regime as we cannot provide blind support to this latter. We have chosen to go our own path. Our ideological positioning at the center of the national political spectrum gives us the opportunity to bring together all Cameroonians without distinction. The Reform Movement is the way of frank and sincere dialogue between all Cameroonians. And I really mean all Cameroonians. We are the way of the unity of the country and the Nation.We made this choice to be free. We are free and independent for our ideas, for our reform project. And today that everyone chooses confrontation; our positioning makes us the rock that protects the people from the throes of division and war»As you can see, the political environment in the country has remained broadly the same, with some leaders today having simply taken the place of those who were there yesterday without any change in the daily life of our people. This speech is highly topical and your seminar-workshop should take it into account.
The communication plan that you are going to propose to the Political Bureau must allow citizens to clearly identify the reform project of our party and as such, it is essential to know that we are not a front movement of individuals whose the only individual ambition is to benefit from power while waiting for the night of the long knives. We are not utopians either. In real life, when you’re dead, you’re really dead. In the Christian belief system, one can die and be reborn. But in politics, the concept of rebirth is necessarily a utopia. The Reform Movement, the party that advocates a profound transformation of our institutions for collective well-being, is the future of our dear and beautiful country Cameroon. Ladies and gentlemen, dear comrades, The main mission for the coming months as defined during the last session of our Political Bureau is to finalize the establishment of our party in the 58 subdivisions of the country and in the diaspora. It is indeed illusory to consider competing with the party in power with a weak territorial anchorage. Our communication must bring citizens beyond the members of our party to back us in this desire to build a credible changeover of power. It is a very big challenge insofar as the Reform Movement has from its creation made the choice to be the party of all Cameroonians at the antipodes of some who indulge in regionalism or communitarianism. On the national level, the Political Bureau of May 2 paid particular attention to the drama of the populations of the North-West and South-West regions. In particular, it appeared that in addition to the government’s mismanagement of this crisis and the politicization of the original social crisis by certain extremist groups, the indifference of the populations of the eight other regions of the country to the suffering of our brothers and sisters in these two scarred regions is a significant factor in the stagnation of this drama. Our communication plan must enable us to sensitize very widely the populations of the whole country so that the Nation as a whole contributes in an efficient way to the end of the so-called “Anglophone” crisis.As it appears, the Political Bureau of the Reform Movement sets by my voice a strong ambition for your seminar. I am delighted once again with the quality of the participation and wish you a very good seminar, expressing to you straight away my confidence in the importance of the results after your work.
Ladies, gentlemen, dear comrades,
Thank you for your kind attention,
Long live Reform Movement,
Long live Cameroon.
Samuel BILLONG
CHAIRMAN OF RM