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Philemon Yunji Yang: who is the new Prime Minister? 01/07/2009 Philemon Yang was born 14th of June in Jiketem-Oku, in the Bui Department of the Northwest Region of Cameroon. After studying law at the University of Yaoundé, he became a prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Buea in January 1975. He was later appointed Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration in the government named on 30th June 1975 and then Minister of Mines and Energy on 8th of November 1979. On 23rd of October 1984 he was appointed Ambassador to Canada and later became High Commissioner when Cameroon joined the Commonwealth of Nations in 1995. During his stay in Canada, Yang Philemon was designated Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Canada for about 10 years. The man returned to Cameroon after serving as high commissioner for 20 years, when he was appointed Assistant Secretary General N°1 of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, 8th December 2004. It is this astute Diplomat who is new Prime Minister of the Republic of Cameroon. Music News Michael Jackson, 1958-2009 June 26, 2009, 2:10 AM EST The King of Pop is dead By Jonathan Zwickel Special to MSN Music The King of Pop is dead. Michael Jackson, the world's most successful entertainer, died Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles of apparent cardiac arrest. He was 50 years old. There is no questioning the gifts Jackson gave millions of people around the world. His humanitarianism is well documented, going back decades. (In 2000, he made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Charities Supported By a Pop Star." The number was 39.) His sales figures -- records, videos, concert tours -- are unparalleled. He never underestimated his audience or lived to any standard higher than his own. His music was always joyful, even at its darkest, and smart, even at its most accessible. It was the pinnacle of populism, the source of his royal title. Over the past decade, Jackson fell victim to America's orgiastic cult of celebrity -- a gutless opportunism he unwittingly helped spawn. Personal problems and public scrutiny overshadowed the image of pop genius he cultivated during the 1980s. For the last year or so, Jackson was a recluse and an invalid, shepherded via wheelchair by a phalanx of handlers, seemingly enlivened only by his three young children. But for all the exaggerated reports of weirdness and allegations of sexual deviance, Jackson, or at least the idea of him, remained magnetic. Earlier this year he sold out 50 concerts at London's O2 Arena -- some 1 million tickets -- in a matter of hours. Whatever the news, his fans believed him still capable of magic. In considering the meaning of MJ, the difficulty is that, over the course of one of history's most public lives, the individual became inseparable from the myth and the myth became inseparable from the media machine that fostered it. In this sense, Jackson's life is both a catalyst and mirror of American cultural habits

over the last 30 years, fraught with all the associated triumph and dysfunction and isolation. An entire nation watched him grow up before a live studio audience, foreshadowing the voyeurism/narcissism hardwired into the age of Facebook. His first No. 1 hit, "I Want You Back," came out on the Motown label in 1970 with his band of brothers, the Jackson 5. Michael was 11 at the time. He followed with several successful solo albums throughout the '70s, but it was 1979's "Off the Wall" that put him on an unmatchable ascent. From there, he achieved colossal stardom during the Golden Age of Pop -- an age he came to define. That Golden Age brought our other remaining pop icons, Madonna and Prince. It also brought MTV, where his video for "Billie Jean" was one of the first by a black artist to air in regular rotation. From there, Jackson's rise coincided with the channel's, his big-budget, radically choreographed concepts like "Beat It," "Thriller," "Bad" -which was directed by Martin Scorsese -- and "Smooth Criminal" forever elevating the production standards for music videos. Along the way, MJ let loose some of the baddest dance moves known to man. The '80s were Jackson's heyday, and it's accurate to view the decade as a simpler time. Celebrity journalism hadn't devolved into the lowest-common-denominator turkey shoot it is now. Rumors of Jackson's eccentricity -- a pet chimpanzee, a hyperbaric chamber, the Elephant Man's bones -- were spread playfully by Jackson himself. During this period, pop was in its primacy and Jackson truly was the king. It's an overlooked fact that his music was effortlessly progressive: from the disco-pop doubletime of "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" to Eddie Van Halen's hard rock riffs on "Beat It" to the electro-goth of "Thriller" to the astro-soul of "Smooth Criminal." Now entwined in the pop music canon, these songs stood out as wildly innovative at their vintage. Though Jackson still produced great music, videos, and concert performances through the mid-'90s, he never fully recovered from 1993 accusations of child molestation. He felt betrayed by the public -- his public -- and the greater his exposure, the deeper his reclusion. Music changed in the '90s: Alternative rock altered the perceptions of mainstream success, and gangsta rap offered criminality as entertainment. Culture in general changed, and we, as consumers, changed with it. By the time of Jackson's second child molestation trial, in 2005 -- which found the singer not guilty -- he had become a punch line. Oversaturated, underempathized, cynical, we were cowed by sensationalism and unproven allegations. Heedless to truth, we wanted the tabloid story, mainly because it was all that was offered. If we danced to his music, it was with an ironic wink. But we still danced. Even his death is a reflection of our age. The news was first reported on tabloidstyle gossip Web site TMZ.com; His name was his name instantly elevated to Twitter's top hash-tagged search item; capsule tributes were posted on blogs and Web sites minutes after his passing. Last year, on the occasion of Jackson's 50th birthday, biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote a heartbreaking piece for the British newspaper The Daily Mail. He quoted Jackson: "It all went by so fast, didn't it? I wish I could do it all over again, I really do." Michael Jackson's music speaks for itself. It's some of the most infectious, ebullient pop music ever made. Michael Jackson, for whatever reason, failed to speak for himself. His legacy, greater than words or numbers can convey, is entangled within our own media-fed obsessions and assumptions. We will always celebrate his art, but we should also learn from his life. Jonathan Zwickel writes about music for the Seattle Times and is working on a

biography of the Beastie Boys. In Memoriam: Michael Jackson Press Release Mamfe High Court Slams Five Months Jail Sentence on Chief Ayamba E. Otun, Nfor Ngala Nfor and Enow Enow John. The Mamfe High Court on 27th May, 2009 sentenced the National Chairman and National Vice Chairman of the SCNC, Chief Ayamba Ette Otun, Nfor Ngala Nfor as well as another activist Enow Enow John, to five months imprisonment for running the SCNC, which they said is a “foreign” organisation. Chief Ayamba, Nfor Nfor, Enow Enow, were arrested along five others in Mamfe on Sept 27th, 2002. They were charged with importing arms from Nigeria and for writing and circulating a book “The Truth of the Matter”, which according to them contained false information. During the prolonged trial which suffered about 30 adjournments in seven years, the original charges were dropped and recently the new politically motivated and trumped up charge of running a “foreign” organisation was preferred on them, a charge which was eventually used for their conviction. Barrister Eta-Bessong Junior, Counsel for the accused, has filed an appeal against the sentence at the South West Regional Court of Appeal in Buea, calling on that Court to “reverse the judgement, conviction and sentence”. After the conviction, Mr. Fedelis Chinkwo - SCNC Secretary General, traveled to Mamfe where he found Chief Ayamba, Nfor Nfor and Enow John in very high spirits and in good health in their prison cells although molested by hardened criminals. When Chief Ayamba, Nfor Nfor and others were arrested in September 2002, they were severely tortured and Nfor Nfor was urgently compelled to undergo two major surgical operations within a week. Albert W. Mukong, another suspect now of blessed memory, died in July 2004 as a result of severe torture inflicted on him while in detention. Communication 266/2003 of the ACHPR It will be recalled that Chief Ayamba and Prince Mbinglo Humphrey had just returned home from Banjul – The Gambia, where the ruling on Communication 266/2003 was highly anticipated. The said ruling was however not delivered in Banjul because they were told it must first be presented to the AU Summit before the complainants and respondents are served. We have every reason to believe that the ruling will certainly be presented at the next AU Summit due to be held in July 2009. SCNC is not a “foreign”organisation What puzzles us is the fact that la Republique du Cameroun has always been represented in the matter of the said Communication 266/2003 by a government Minister Mr. Dion Ngute and eight lawyers, whereas back in local courts of la Republique du Cameroun the SCNC leaders are jailed for leading a “foreign” organisation. We want to ask by which authority la Republique du Cameroun should call the SCNC a “foreign” organisation when in effect we know that there are two distinct Cameroon states! The SCNC is a nationalist Southern Cameroonian liberation movement with well-defined objectives and methods of approach.

Calling the SCNC as a “foreign” organisation indicates the annexationist ambitions which la Republique du Cameroun has over Southern Cameroons and confirms the prophetic words of Marino Busdachin (UNPO Secretary General) who on the occasion of the release of Nfor Ngala Nfor from detention in 2007, predicted that politically motivated charges could be framed on the SCNC leadership in order to get them imprisoned. This is what has just happened. While we call on SCNC activists and supporters both at home and in the diaspora to stay calm and wait for the outcome of the judicial process, we appeal to the international community to bring pressure to bear on la Republique du Cameroun to stop any further acts of intimidation, arbitrary arrests, illegal detention, torture and harassment of peace-loving Southern Cameroonians who are simply clamouring for their inalienable rights to sovereignty, justice and freedom. Done, in Bamenda, this 29th Day of May 2009

UK: MP Welcomes Asylum Seeker Deportation Delay Stockton North MP Frank Cook has welcomed the decision to delay the deportation of an asylum seeker who could face death if he is returned to his native Cameroon. Anselme Noumbiwa has lived in Stockton since 2006, when he fled from the West African country. He claims he was tortured and faces death if he returns because he refused to marry his dead father's wives. Mr Cook called on Immigration Minister Phil Woolas to halt the deportation, due to take place on Friday, so the latest evidence in the case can be considered. He said: "Quite rightly the plight of Anselme has caused enormous concern in the Stockton area, especially amongst his many friends in the local churches where he worshipped before being taken into detention prior to deportation. "I have made the strongest possible representations to the Government about the need to reconsider the deportation decision. "If he were to be forced back to Cameroon, it would be a disgrace and a shocking betrayal of our long-held tradition of providing comfort and shelter to those facing persecution, torture or worse." Originally published in the Northumberland Gazette See also: Deported African chief Anselme Noumbiwa back in North and Someone Please Explain why Mr Noumbiwa needs to be outside Cameroon, let alone in the UK? Deported African chief Anselme Noumbiwa back in North Nov 30 2008 by Pauline Holt, Sunday Sun AFRICAN tribal chief Anselme Noumbiwa is back in the North while claims that he was beaten up by British security guards during deportation are investigated. Earlier this month we reported how Anselme feared he could be killed if he returned home to his native Cameroon for refusing to marry his dead father’s

wives. After hearing of his plight, hundreds of people across the North signed a petition and MPs and religious leaders, including the Bishop of Durham, joined the battle to allow Anselme, 32, to remain on Teesside. This week he said “thank you” to some of his supporters at the Stockton, Teesside, headquarters of anti-deportation organisation Justice First. He said: “I would like to say ‘thank you’ to everybody in the community because they have supported me and spoken on my behalf. They make me know I am not alone.” Anti-torture campaigners are to press former police ombudsman of Northern Ireland Nuala O’Loan, who is investigating the alleged abuse of failed asylum- seekers, to look into Anselme’s case. He claims he was assaulted on two separate occasions by security men, first in July after he refused to board a Kenyan Airways plane and again on October 23 when he says he was beaten by five security guards as they tried to get him on to a British Airways flight. On that occasion he narrowly escaped deportation after he was transferred to an Air France aircraft in Paris and passengers refused to take their seats until Anselme’s pleas for help were answered. Frances Groves, 70, of St Mary’s RC Church in Stockton, who has stood bail for Anselme when he was previously detained, said: “I am very glad he is back. He’s a very, very sincere and very devout young man. I don’t know how he has managed to keep his faith in these circumstances.” Pete Spence, 57, pastor of Portrack Baptist Church in Stockton which Anselme attends, added: “To be honest there are some folk whose storylines are suspect but this guy has integrity and we feel he is very genuine.” Anselme fled Cameroon in 2006 after he was made chief of the Bamileke tribe and ordered to marry his father’s wives, even though he was like a son to some of them. After refusing, Anselme was tortured, a claim verified by the Medical Foundation for the Care of the Victims of Torture. NEWS » FUSI EMMERENCIA NGOU Was there any real lesson for Cameroon in South Africa’s general elections? Deficit of political will in Cameroon! Was there any real lesson for Cameroon in South Africa’s general elections? The lesson for Cameroon from the recent general elections in South Africa was not so much that they were free and fair but that the S.A. government had willed that elections be so. A similar will for credible elections has also recently been expressed in successful elections in other African countries. How is it that Cameroon is still unable to summon a similar will? Still, the absence of political will has permeated the entire fabric of the Biya regime, making Cameroon more and more of a shadow of its more successful early start in Africa. The will is that human faculty that decides. It is a decision that gives purpose and prescribes a course of action. But having a will does not always mean using it, and doing so in a purposeful way. Where the will is withheld from where it was expected, its absence denies progress. It is common to hear it said that most of Cameroon’s problems arise from the absence of a political will, meaning Paul

Biya’s unwillingness. As soon as he got to work a fortnight ago, Samuel Fonkam Azu’u, ELECAM’s board chair went off to Pretoria, on invitation, to witness South Africa’s general elections that took place the same week. The question on many lips as he left was what he had expected to learn from the elections which passed off so well. Not surprisingly Fonkam didn’t make a statement upon his return, given his publicised departure. That quiet return was only understandable. The real lesson from the recent and other elections in South Africa was not how transparent they were and have always been. The real lesson for Cameroon is the political will that decided that elections would at all times be transparent and reflect the voters’ will. No doubt Fonkam Azu’u didn’t have to be personally present in Pretoria to learn that fact. Before the South African elections there were local elections in Senegal in which the ruling socialist party of Adoulaye Wade lost hands down. The government was defeated in almost all major towns, including Dakar the capital. Where did Senegal find the political will to organise transparent elections? Even before then Ghana had had a credible election that led to a change of president. The new man happened to be an opposition candidate who won by a razorthin margin. How did the Ghanaians summon the will to run a credible election? The same question can be asked of Sierra Leone and Liberia who emerged from long years of civil war to summon the political will for clean and clear elections whose outcomes reflected the people’s will? After the controversy about the strong CPDM membership of ELECAM, sources close to the electoral organ say the members have expressed determination to do all in their power to have future elections in Cameroon transparent. Isn’t that understandable; perhaps even encouraged by the government? Wasn’t that the same scenario before the flawed legislative elections of July 2007? With everything clearly not going well with the preparations Paul Biya encouraged Marafa, the MINATD chief directly responsible for the elections, to try with all his intelligence to fool western diplomats to believe that all was fine and that the elections would be free, fair and transparent. Regime bashing We know what became of the elections and particularly the western diplomats’ bashing of the regime over the ‘elections that were a lost opportunity for democratic advance’ in Cameroon. The point about transparency in an election is that it is first and foremost a decision taken by the government, and in the case of Cameroon by Paul Biya. Until that will is expressed the rest counts for nothing. This is a fact that Fonkam Azu’u must reckon with. No matter how over brimming may be his and his colleagues’ goodwill to work honestly, the truth of the matter is that they are already compromised; their hands are much too tied for them to act otherwise. What can they do to change Paul Biya’s unwillingness to have transparent elections? Had the president lived up his promise to have transparent elections in Cameroon he would have created, as he also promised, an ‘independent election management organ’ as different from ELECAM. ELECAM is as such a counterfeit of the real thing.

The very structure and functioning of ELECAM point to the result expected of it. And to make assurance doubly sure Paul Biya further appointed members who did not only belong to the CPDM party but also owe it a debt of gratitude for their careers and other big favours rendered them in the past. If Paul Biya is as clear as crystal in what he wants, let him also acknowledge that no one is fooled. Not even the determination of ELECAM members to be honest makes sense to anyone. The inescapable conclusion is that ELECAM is a translation of the absence of Paul Biya’s will to have credible elections in Cameroon. Isn’t it foolhardy and even dangerous for Fonkam Azu’u and his colleagues to think and even say that they can change things through the use of their goodwill? The reason for the president’s unwillingness to have credible elections is every Cameroonian’s knowledge. Paul Biya and his CPDM party will be the instant losers in any credible election in Cameroon. They have remained so long in power and done so poorly that the voter wants a change. And isn’t it only fair game to have a change after 29 years (by 2011)? The problem of the president’s unwillingness to change things for the better is not limited to elections. Paul Biya is unenthusiastic about reforming other key institutions such as freeing the courts which continue to be under government control. It is also not understandable why Paul Biya is reluctant to clean the system of human rights abuse. Why does he refuse to free the national commission for human rights to fight the extensive abuse of citizens’ rights that are mostly perpetrated by law enforcement agents? Furthermore, why does the president refuse to order the systematic emptying of prisons that are three-quarters full of detainees who have spent months and years uncharged or untried? How does that hinder Biya’s grip on power? Ahmadou Ahidjo And that is still not all about the lack of political will in Cameroon. Disturbingly, Paul Biya does not have a good record of socioeconomic development. This newspaper is by no means an admirer of Ahmadou Ahidjo. He established many of the prejudices and injustices that have since shaped the Cameroon of today. Yet it must be admitted in fairness that in spite of his self-imposed limitations, he did his best. For almost all of his twenty-two years as president, Ahidjo kept the economy growing at a steady 7% of GDP. He had many wrong priorities. He invested too much in developing a mammoth public sector at the very high cost of the private sector that he deliberately neglected because he feared that he would in the process benefit and strengthen Anglophones and the Bamileke of the West, which two groups had an early start in business. Ahidjo did not build roads nor did he pay enough attention to primary and secondary education. His emphasis on food self-sufficiency was good but he would have put this in the hands of the private sector. All said, Ahidjo put Cameroon far ahead of other African countries, especially the Francophone ones, when it came to economic development. He called his economic model the contradictory name of ‘planned liberalism.’ Flattered by foreign press reviews and fellow Africans, Ahidjo even dreamed of an economic take-off (after Rostow’s stages of economic growth) when he organised a

huge celebration in 1970 to honour ten years of independence. When he retired in 1982 he handed over a healthy economy at 7% growth rate, a robust treasury and a negligible foreign debt. Under Paul Biya much of Ahijo’s initiatives were abandoned and un-replaced. Decline set in almost immediately followed by a steep recession that lasted about twelve years. Economic growth the decade-long late 1990s, has reality of that

has been much too feeble to pull the country out of the effects of free fall of the economy. Growth rate, once at about 5% in the since been falling steadily and presently stands at 3.2%. The rate is that Cameroon is in socioeconomic decline.

With the recession came poverty, the acceleration of unemployment, disease, crime and the galloping cost of living which further intensified misery. Since 1997 the government acknowledged poverty as a national problem but has so far been unable to resolve it. The answer to the fast shrinking economy and all those unhappy consequences would have been a bold stimulus package to give the economy the means of growth and expansion. That, we are sorry, is unlikely to come in the near future. For that to happen there must first be a strong will to move the economy in the right direction. Shock therapy Last year the government was unmoved by a nation-wide anti-government uprising by the masses against deplorable existence, what many still consider was shock therapy. The measures adopted were too few, too superficial and ineffective. It will probably require a greater shock to shake the government out of its lethargy. The absence of political will seems to have permeated the entire Biya system. Even after long years of complaints about a grossly inefficient administrative system the government has refused to budge on the matter. It takes more than a year for a foreign company in Cameroon to begin business. The same absence of political will is at the origin of the absence of cohesion among the countries of the central African sub-region. The unwillingness to apply signed and ratified conventions makes CEMAC a wasted effort. It takes a truck of goods from Douala port sixty days or more to travel to neighbouring Chad, twice as long as the freight time of the goods from Shanghai! At stake is the non-respect of conventions and corruption. It may not appear obvious yet it is Paul Biya’s failed political will that is still fundamental to the decline of Cameroon’s football. A month ago Cameroonians suffered a rude shock when Togo beat the Indomitable Lions in the CAN/World Cup football series. The unexpected defeat sparked fears that Cameroon might not again qualify for the 2010 World Cup which it failed to do in 2006, the first time in about two decades! The defeat also served to bring home the painful reality, which had been much avoided in the past, that at last Cameroon’s football was clearly on the decline. Not only is the government in a leaden slumber, its strict centralised and sluggish administrative structure denies any decision taking at any level other than at the very top. That makes the government unable to act in time on any situation. The result is that the government never anticipates or takes charge of

any situation until the full damage has come home. In the final analysis the lack of political will to modernise Cameroon in all key areas of socioeconomic development have held the country much too far behind on its development. The early lead that Cameroon had over other African countries even with the faltering efforts of Ahmadou Ahidjo has been erased. At international conferences it is common to meet fellow Africans who remember Cameroon as the leader others looked up to, lament over the failure of Cameroon. Why does Paul Biya deny Cameroon its necessary modernisation? Why would he define his political survival in so narrow and self-centred way that imperils the nation’s progress? Source: The Herald