Custom Search
Wikileaks made a major dump of confidential US government diplomatic cables on Cameroon on August 30th 2011 - roughly five weeks before presidential elections in this African nation. The effect has been immediate.
Members of government who enjoyed the prestige of access to Western embassy staff stationed in Yaounde now find themselves open to ridicule as the public pores over what transpired in private meetings. As it turns out, CAMGATE has revealed that government officials in Cameroon are distrustful of each other and prefer to make complaints to the US embassy staff, who in turn can push the right buttons to get the wheels turning. It is a strange arrangement but it worked.
Now, everyone would be mum, wary to find their private conversations in print. The lack of an effective middleman to whom pent up rage can be vented is not the ideal outcome.
Watch for a systematic purge of the most unrepentant offenders in the coming days, and a major reconfiguration of the ruling CPDM machinery goes into effect in the coming days. With so little time left before the presidential elections, it is unlikely there will be a cabinet reshuffle. However, the people to watch for are the members of the regional campaign delegations, as these will harbor those who will emerge as frontrunners in a post electoral CPDM.
CAMGATE makes for compelling reading as the discreet characters who lurk in the shadows of Cameroonian politics are brought to live by the insightful analysis and prose of the helpful but puzzled US embassy staff in Yaounde. Grab a copy if you can!
Wikileaks made a major dump of confidential US government diplomatic cables on Cameroon on August 30th 2011 - roughly five weeks before presidential elections in this African nation. The effect has been immediate.
Members of government who enjoyed the prestige of access to Western embassy staff stationed in Yaounde now find themselves open to ridicule as the public pores over what transpired in private meetings. As it turns out, CAMGATE has revealed that government officials in Cameroon are distrustful of each other and prefer to make complaints to the US embassy staff, who in turn can push the right buttons to get the wheels turning. It is a strange arrangement but it worked.
Now, everyone would be mum, wary to find their private conversations in print. The lack of an effective middleman to whom pent up rage can be vented is not the ideal outcome.
Watch for a systematic purge of the most unrepentant offenders in the coming days, and a major reconfiguration of the ruling CPDM machinery goes into effect in the coming days. With so little time left before the presidential elections, it is unlikely there will be a cabinet reshuffle. However, the people to watch for are the members of the regional campaign delegations, as these will harbor those who will emerge as frontrunners in a post electoral CPDM.
CAMGATE makes for compelling reading as the discreet characters who lurk in the shadows of Cameroonian politics are brought to live by the insightful analysis and prose of the helpful but puzzled US embassy staff in Yaounde. Grab a copy if you can!
