CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Tshibambe Lubowa, Congo RDC, October 1999
THEME = POLITICS
Democracy is still looking for a place in Congo RDC
At a time when everyone is agreed that all those involved in the civil war must sit down together in a national dialogue to try and sort out the situation and reach a political solution, the authorities in Kinshasa are still setting up monolithic structures. Since 30 September, the Comités du Pouvoir Populaire - People Power Committees (CPP), officially established by an Order in Council Number 236, 6 July, as an executive government structure, have had new leaders. The one in charge is Mr Raphael Ghenda who used to be the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL)'s propaganda chief, and also Minister of Information and the Press, in Kabila's first government.
Raphael Ghenda was sacked from Kabila's government in May 1998 and imprisoned in Makala (Kinshasa) Prison for more than four months. The reason for his arrest and imprisonment was "bad management of funds allocated to his ministry". Now, he's become the CPP's secretary-general, and this at a time when the government has just provided the CPP with 210 million Congolese francs ($46.6 million) from the 350 million francs credit budgeted for the economy. Mr Nestor Diambwana is a member of the CPP's management committee and vice-governor of the Central Bank of Congo. In Circular number 1428 of 28 September 1999 addressed to registered banks, he has given precise instructions that the CPP must be given every facility to have access to the government's loan programme - "Support the Economy".
This surprise move by the government raises the question: What are these CPPs which seem to have so much power that they can launch small and medium-sized undertakings and thus have access to loans' programmes? Does the government want to establish, through the CPP, a new class of business people, as happened under former president Mobutu with his concept of "Zaïranisation" and radicalization?
In general, the CPP is a political movement copied from the Libyan model, established to replace the transition AFDL, which President Kabila now regards as "a conglomerate of adventurers and of opportunists, made up especially of people from other nationalities who made themselves out to be Congolese refugees leading the revolutionary movement".
President Kabila says the CPP is another way of governing - giving power to the people rather than leaving it in the hands of political groupings or a clique of individuals. The CPP is non- partisan and power will be fully exercised from the grassroots level, thus implying the exercise of direct democracy. The CPP has as role: "To determine the policy to be followed by the public services, to ensure that the policy is carried out, and, if necessary, to supervise its implementation". Since March 1999, the CPP has been funded from the public chest to enable projects considered "priority", to be carried out. Local CPPs in the universities, institutes of higher education, the districts and the communes of Kinshasa have thus profited from funding, necessary for carrying out work deemed to be "in the public interest". But the lack of expertise and bad management means it's been more a question of prestige projects than anything else. There's even been internal feuding by various persons in charge of the CPP at all levels, over funds allocated.
The various CPP groups have thus become a real hotchpotch of projects and ideas. They form the civil defense; they keep an eye on the UN mission to Congo. They also ensure that the government's measures prohibiting financial dealings in foreign currencies, are carried out.
It's not easy to determine the relationship between what the public sees of the CPP and its connection with the government? In any event, the population doesn't yet see where democracy comes in, when there's a movement such as the CPP controlled by a Head of State, who would like to wield all the power.
Kinshasa thus provides the rebels with any amount of excuses for continuing the war.
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CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction
authorised, with usual acknowledgement