POINT OF ORDER

By Amindeh Blaise Atabong  

Don’t provoke gentlemen again! 

It was Richard Bach who once said: “We choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one...”

Biya and his ardent subordinates seem not to have learned their lessons and continue to give the impression that they do not know the Commonwealth working language is strictly English.

It is still in mind that shortly after joining the Commonwealth of Nations in 1995, the then Cameroon minister of external relations wrote an appreciation letter to the Commonwealth secretariat. The letter which was written solely in French was not only disregarded, but parcelled and sent back to Cameroon; an indication that the Queen’s language is supreme.

As if to retaliate for that action, Biya during the official launching ceremony of the 60^th conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, CPA addressed over 700 delegates of purely English-speaking expression only in French language.

It is almost certain the president’s action was intentional because he has on different occasions uttered words in English. May be Biya wanted to see if the Commonwealth agents will send back his slightly above 12 minutes speech, just like they returned the letter from his minister.

This was outright provocation of a people who share a common culture – English language, the most widely spoken. And several were CPA delegates who expressed frustration and others visibly struggled to manage the few available headsets, though many of the sets were technically defective.

Prior to the official launching speech of the Commonwealth confab in French, Biya’s mouth piece, sorry, I mean the state-owned Cameroon Tribune had already put the provocation on the rails.

Last Thursday and Friday, CT maintained its age-old editorial policy by carrying their banner headlines on the CPA event in French. One of the banners read: “60ème conférence du Commonwealth Parliamentary Association: On y est” what ever that means!

I want to believe the trend was only reversed last Monday and yesterday following an agitation by some daring CT English language editors who have always been coerced into submission.

The provocation of the gentlemen who are converging on Cameroon did not end there, tags in some of the meeting venues were placed in French while the organising committee made use of liaison officers, hosts, hostesses, drivers, protocol officers, security agents and so on; who could not understand the delegates, talk less of fairly speaking English.

Some misguided people should not hide under the guise of Commonwealth respecting the specificity of nations to put French at the forefront and relegate English to the background thereby provoking our guests from across the world.

CPA delegates are indeed gentle people of the Gentleman’s Club. In fact, gentle people do not get angry or react easily; but when they do, the consequences can be colossal.

Jessica Park tells us in her book, Flat-Out Love, that: “Normal people can become very annoying if put in annoying situations.”  Drawing from this, our president, parliamentarians, ministers and other personalities who are directly involved in the 60^th CPA conference should no longer do or say things that will put our Commonwealth delegates in such annoying situations for these last two days. Else, the reaction of the CPA, the Queen and even the Commonwealth of Nations at large may be undesirable for Cameroon.
From experience, deliberate or unintentional provocation entails a lot of dangers that must not be underestimated. The head of state and others should not undermine the dangers that abound following the provocations.

Biya as our leader should apologise in the name of the people of Cameroon to the Commonwealth parliamentarians for offering them French as though it was La Francophonie. A stitch in time saves nine!

Anyway, let’s wait and see when Cameroon will host La Frachophonie if Biya or the head of state will offer them English!