30.10.2009
President Biya’s Youth (PRESBY): On the Use and Abuse of Grassroots Propaganda
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French Abstract
Un phénomène à la mode au Cameroun est la création soudaine des clubs de propagande : President Biya’s Youth (PRESBY), Jeunesse Active pour Chantal Biya (JACHABY), Club des Amis de Barack Obama, Club des Amis de Nicolas Sarkozy, et le Club des Amis de Christopher Fomunyoh. Dans cette logique, rien de surprenant que des Clubs des Amis d’Ali Ben Bongo et de Michèle Obama soient en gestation par des Camerounais. Prenant appui sur la reine-mère de ces mouvements mythiques – PRESBY -, l’auteur revisite les fondements des clubs de fidélité dans le paysage socio-politique Camerounais. Faisant abstraction des querelles de leadership, tripatouillages électoraux et autres malversations qui ont émaillé récemment le fonctionnement de la PRESBY, la question des motivations réelles ou supposées des initiateurs et sympathisants dudit mouvement est abordée. On y adhère non pas par conviction idéologique mais pour avoir certains avantages sociaux. Ce faisant, l’on assiste, au sein du fer de lance de la nation, à la naissance d’une majorité silencieuse - celle-là qui observe, corrompt, s’abreuve, conçoit des motions de soutien, applaudit mais vit en déphasage complet avec des problèmes d’envergure nationale.
The advent of the President Biya’s Youth (PRESBY) movement in the Cameroonian social fabric deserves further inquiry. From a political sociology perspective, the rise of civil organizations like PRESBY is evidence that Paul Biya’s ideas, values, and principles are spreading their wings to various occupational sectors, particularly in the vital areas of thought control: national education, academia, university students, corporations, traditional rulers, regional and divisional elites, opposition leaders, diaspora, national commissions, communication agencies, and the mass media just to name a few. In this context, friendly clubs from all walks of life politically align themselves with the head of state’s ideology and mode of governance which, given their secretive nature, are obviously unbeknown to the vast majority of her/his followers and close advisers (Mattei, Le Code Biya).
This analysis argues that the emergence of social movements like Presby should be seen as a form of propaganda from below. Unlike earliest forms of propaganda that were vertically dictated from above by charismatic leaders to reinforce their authority and influence over their subjects, PRESBY and its corresponding entities emerge in a completely different context in the sense that such networks forge a rapprochement with central power nexuses. In this respect, Presby members blindly and unanimously endorses state and ruling party (CPDM) made policies irrespective of their social implications for themselves, the country, and future generations. On a practical level, the movement’s functioning coalesces around countering anti-Biya messages, correcting the prevalent false impressions of the regime, answering the malicious attacks of independent development and human rights agencies, and flirting with influential decision making channels. PRESBY, therefore, becomes a means by which to create psychological invasion – the infection of the youth with Paul Biya’s ideology.
PROPAGANDA IN WORLD HISTORY
The use of propaganda as a tool of political expression is an inherent component of world history. For Adolf Raskin, propaganda means spreading, divulging, assisting, convincing others of ideas and cognitions, and fighting on the battlefields of the mind to preserve an individual/ideology by all means (A. Raskin, “Dramaturgy of Propaganda,” Handbuch der Deutschen Rundfunks, 1939 – 1940). Given the interconnection between political propaganda and kingship, there is no doubt that propaganda has some royal attributes. King Edward, for instance, pressed his image of kingship upon his subjects in his quo warranto proceedings (T. F. T. Pucknett, Legislation of Edward I, 103). His laws, which moved into his society’s vitals and which had effective agents of dissemination in the courts in which they were heard and the cases they shaped, were in fact acts of royal propaganda. Likewise, the growth of Christianity, the barbarian invasions, and the changes brought about by the political and social structure of the Roman Empire in the early moments of the Christian heritage naturally favored propaganda and defense (H. D. Lasswell & als, Propaganda and Communication in World History Vol. I, 552 – 590, 575).
In pre-World War II Germany, Baldur von Schirach created youth clubs that claimed close to eight million members by 1939. By March the government ordered conscription of all boys into the Hitler Youth. Education and training coalesced around völkish core values such as drill march, nationalism, community service, camping and mold soldiering. Membership of a youth club was a prerequisite for admission into special elite education programs namely designed to prepare the younger generation for political leadership.
The establishment of the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda in 1933 was, arguably, the most important step of Germany’s propaganda regime. Headed by Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), this strategic department was technically in charge of foreign and local media, publishing
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outlets, pamphlets, parades, and youth movements. In his conference memoirs, Goebbels described propaganda, inter alia, as (1) the art of keeping silent about uncomfortable facts unless, of course, the truth had reached the public in other ways; (2) the art of lying credibly, remembering that the continuous repetition of a lie, which need be limited only by its credibility, frequently worked wonders; and (3) the art of reproducing facts with an air of objectivity but tendentiously colored by their selection and manner of reproduction (W.A. Boelcke, The Secret Conferences of Dr. Goebbels, xvii).
PROPAGANDA IN THE CAMEROONIAN CONTEXT
In centrally hierarchized political groupings and closed institutions like the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), propaganda could be read as the creation of a unified political will around the personality of the Chief. The ultimate objective centers on strengthening faith in their leader and state/party leadership. Factions make extreme assertions and huge donations in the forms of financial and material pay outs to achieve their control of the system, mobilize the civilian population, and generate the most efficient frenzy against enemies of the nation, what has been recently referred to as “apprentis sorciers.” The strategy also consists in breaking down for good the morale of so-called opponents and their will to continue the democratic battle.
Toward neutral individuals and vulnerable categories like youths, students, businessmen and academics, the purpose is to win their collaboration and, if possible, their entry to the political community while limiting their support in the form of sympathy and economic/financial rewards denied to hostile organizations and individuals. Well prepared community mobilization around the Chief’s ideology, the CPDM brain-trust believes, could produce such a strong mental current that both political consumers and observers may be induced to common action.
An interesting aspect of the debate is the normative justification for the sudden growth of politically motivated fan clubs in the Cameroonian landscape. Besides well-known movements like Presby and Jeunesse Active pour Chantal Biya/Active Youth for First Lady Chantal Biya (JACHABY), we have witnessed the birth of parallel associations: “Club des Amis” de Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Christopher Fomunyoh respectively. It is worth mentioning, however, that people do no join such movements because they share the ideology of the charismatic leader but because they are in search of opportunities and self positioning.
ENGINEERING A SILENT MAJORITY IN THE LONG RUN
At the outset, it is trite law that the vast majority of Cameroonian youths have no leeway over the functioning of their political market. Four major elements can back up this assertion: (1) the legislative ban of the early 1990s that elevated the electoral majority at 20 years old; (2) the voluntary disengagement from elections as model of political participation; (3) the administrative hurdles that surround the voters’ registration; (3) the widely accepted belief that voting would neither change the outcomes of elections nor their daily fate; and (4) Paul Biya’s famous dictum “L’école aux écoliers, la politique aux politiciens.”
The intellectual wisdom of PRESBY is simple as possible. Fears of isolation from the national cake and the continuous encirclement by the ruling oligarchy have developed in Cameroonian youths an atmosphere of insecurity despite their country stronger human capital, economic, mineral, and agricultural output. PRESBY’s golden membership of 10,000 FCA, so central to self positioning and social privileges, becomes both an effective propaganda devise and an intrinsic component of the entire Cameroonian apparatus. Presbyans, therefore, represent this special category of privileged and blessed youth in the individual and collective mindset.
By committing themselves to movements like PRESBY, youths unconsciously enter into what I may call a “silence row phenomenon.” Instead of getting their voices heard by laying positive and concrete demands on the state, they are rather bound to keep their mouths closed or face the group and/or ruling party discipline. In so doing, most PRESBY sympathizers generally expect an economic return for their 10,000 CFA membership package, namely a backdoors admission into a prestigious public service training school, a promotion within the party leadership, or other unclassified academic/professional privileges. It remains to be seen, however, whether such legitimate expectations are fulfilled upon membership.
In the final analysis, it is the contention of this writer that grassroots propaganda networks like PRESBY have built a retrogressive Cameroon, which is a complete departure from the earliest days of the Republic. Otherwise stated, propaganda has led to an extremely bureaucratized society and set the tone for a commanding and hierarchical kind of rule based on the personality and personal ambitions and affinities with the circles of power. Like any group motivated by personal gains rather than the collective interest, PRESBY lacks any intellectual foundation and has no theoretical framework for a multidimensional society.
Christophe DONGMO
chrisdmo23@yahoo.com
Camerounlink.net
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Mr DONGMO Christophe
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