Certainties and deafness
Audio 04:24
Jean-Baptiste Placca, jury member of the Ghislaine Dupont-Claude Verlon 2020 Grant, on the set of “7 billion neighbors”.
RFI / Anthony Ravera
By: Jean-Baptiste Placca
9 min
While President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is preparing to run for yet another lease at the head of Congo-Brazzaville, the minister spokesperson for his government defends, with all his being, the regime of his country, which he believes, in its perfectibility, comparable to "centuries-old democracies".
Publicity
►Andréane Meslard: less than two months before the next presidential election, in Congo-Brazzaville, this week, right here, on RFI, power and episcopate have crossed swords, from a distance. Guest from Africa, the spokesperson for the Episcopal Conference urges electoral governance not to repeat the mistakes of the past. This is answered by his alter ego of the government, with the same liveliness that we will find among listeners, in “
Calls on the news
”.
You conclude, however, that the Congo's problems remain as they are.
Why is that ?
Because the spectacle proposed by the Congolese is, alas !, only a superposition of monologues and, while everyone speaks of national cohesion, each one locks himself in his certainties.
The bishops, the first to speak out, are the least rigid.
Although some of the unchecked arrows can hurt.
Monsignor Victor Abagna Mossa, Archbishop of Owando, said he was concerned about the consequences of an election with dubious transparency.
Sure of his own doing, Thierry Moungalla, Minister of Communication and Media, government spokesman, concedes that Congolese democracy can be improved, but finds no credibility problem.
The prelate had foreseen everything, who said he could conceive that one could think, around the manger, that all was well.
But, he poses the almost taboo question of alternation, in this country led by a man who came to power in 1979, and who is still there ...
… For the government spokesperson, alternation cannot be decreed, and Denis Sassou Ngesso knows how to bow to the verdict of the ballot box, as when he was beaten in 1992.
When we choose to invite history to such a demonstration, we must always take care - question of credibility - to integrate all the facts, all the nuances into the analysis.
Party by the polls in 1992, of course!
But, returned by the arms, in 1997, to put the democracy in fallow, during long years.
In addition, all the elections won since, were organized by bodies inspired by him, which feared him, and these polls have, almost all, led to a challenge, often violent, forcing more than one challenger to exile, or sending them to jail.
The episcopate is therefore not very daring, claiming that the people lose confidence in this electoral process in which he, the president, systematically wins.
When he wants the Congolese to be able to have electricity, seek treatment and educate their children, the prelate uses a language that is perhaps a little ... simple.
But a country where these needs are met is a State which brings together the prerequisites to take off, a nation ready for development, and which will develop.
The Minister does not dispute any of this ...
Perhaps.
But his dexterity in justifying everything the government does is dazzling.
Sometimes too much.
So much genius to prove that no election has ever weakened national cohesion or tainted the country's image abroad, leaves us perplexed.
Just as wanting to return all the blows that one receives or believes to have received is perplexing.
Power versus opposition.
Power supporters versus opposition sympathizers.
And each camp strives to justify itself, to defend itself, sometimes, even before having been accused!
The slightest suggestion is seen as a criticism, if not a questioning.
Accuse and defend yourself.
The answers are sometimes even ready, to anticipate the criticisms.
Thus, when we hear the minister explain that no democracy in the world is perfect, and that there are, "throughout the world, examples of post-electoral crises which speak sufficiently to us, including for centuries-old democracies ”, one wonders whether this reflection arose before or after a certain January 6, 2021.
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Congo Brazzaville
Denis Sassou-Nguesso