Sunday 26 June 2016

Calling the peoples’ bluff:



Gov’t imposes obnoxious Penal Code on the citizens
Rejected outright by the Cameroon Bar Council and condemned without reserve by opposition parties and the wider public, the bill revising and supplementing the 1965 Penal Code was Wednesday voted without qualms by parliament.
By Ojong Steven Ayukogem in Yaounde
Minister of Justice, Esso Laurent
In what can be interpreted as calling the bluff of the Cameroon Bar Council, MPs of the ruling CPDM party on Wednesday 22 June 2016 voted the bill containing the revised and supplemented Cameroon Penal Code.
                The new penal code was voted in a plenary session presided over by the Speaker of the national assembly, CavayeYeguieDjibril.
                The majority CPDM MPs voted the bill even as their colleagues of the opposition had staged a walk out of the parliament hemicycle.
                The opposition MPs protested against the adoption of the bill which they described as obnoxious and hurriedly drafted.
                SDF MPs said some portions of the bill needed to be deleted notably the section granting judicial immunity to government ministers. They argued that ministers, unlike MPs and the President of the Republic, are not elected by the people of Cameroon; they are only appointed by the president of the republic who uses his exorbitant discretionary powers to do so.
                Because ministers are appointed and not elected they are not answerable to the people but to the person that appointed them, the opposition MPs argued, further expressing fears that judicial immunity will only give the ministers latitude and the lee-way to stealing from and plundering the public till, as most of them are wont to do.
                The protest by the SDF MPs only served to reinforce and supplement that of the Cameroon Bar Council that had earlier called for a withdrawal outright of the bill from parliament to enable for a re-reading to be done on it by all stakeholders concerned with the execution of the law in Cameroon.
                Meeting for an emergency conclave in Yaounde, the Bar Council issued a strongly-worded communiqué condemning the bill and calling for its immediate withdrawal from parliament. The president of the Bar and some of his collaborators also later met with the Speaker of the NA to explain their grievances to him.

                The Bar Council not only complained that it was not consulted prior to the drafting of the bill, it also pointed out several lacunae in the revised and supplemented Penal Law.
Bar Council members observed for instance that the English and French versions of the bill were incongruous and feared that this could lead to divergent interpretations in different parts of the country.
                Besides, the Bar Council argued that the Penal Code ought to be a consensual tool, whose drafting should take into account the opinions and sensitivities of all segments of the population.
                Unfortunately, the plea of the Cameroon Bar was undermined at best and rubbished at worst by the majority CPDM MPs, who voted the bill without qualms.
                But it can be understood why the CPDM MPs voted in spite of the sustained protest and condemnation of lawyers and opposition MPs. They did so in respect of the doctrine of their party which compels them to ensure party discipline and to take whatever comes from their party hierarchy as dogma.
                For their part, commentators have wasted no time in noting that the voting of the obnoxious and highly repugnant penal code by parliament only demonstrates the preponderance and condescendence of the executive over the legislative arm of government.
Needless to mention that in Cameroon, by virtue of the constitution the President of the Republic (executive) also enacts laws by way of ordinances, apart from being the Supreme head of the Magistracy (judiciary).                                                Then the president also single-handedly appoints some members and the president of the senate and even that of the national assembly (legislative). This virtually puts the Cameroon president above politics in his country. Habba!!


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