(PHOTO 1: Kinois reading newspapers in April 2012)
(PHOTO 2: Opposition MP Jean-Pierre Lisanga Bonganga)
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At midday this Monday September 16, Speaker Aubin Minaku opened this year's second session of the National Assembly in the presence of both houses convening in congress, of members of diplomatic missions accredited to Kinshasa, and of Justin Koumba--speaker of the National Assembly of Congo-Brazzaville--who also delivered a long-drawn-out speech as the parliamentary special guest.
Though this session has to deal mainly with budgetary matters, this September session, as Speaker Minaku reminded the audience, is taking place in a "particular context": it overlaps with the National Consultations in which are taking part 85 members of Parliament; and the ongoing aggression by the Rwandan proxies of M23.
These proceedings were carried live on all state-owned television channels of the "RTNC" system, though I'd surmise that most Kinois watching TV at the time didn't actually bother to follow these droning speeches, but flipped through channels to catch some Nollywood yarn.
My surmise is somehow validated by today's publication of the opinion survey of Kinshasa denizens on the National Consultations carried out by the daily "La Prospérité" and the polling company "Les Points"--though the poll results have to be taken with a grain of salt as the methodology the survey wasn't detailed.
Be that as it may, the survey finds that a whopping "70% of Kinois polled don't follow the conduct of business [in the National Consultations]. In the 22% that are interested in them, only 9% said they were following on a continuous basis as opposed to 13% that follow in an occasional manner."
(http://www.laprosperiteonline.net/affi_article.php?id=337&rubrique=POLITIQUE)
This poll could even be part of the national trend.
Charly Kasereka, who blogs from Goma, claims--albeit without taking any survey--that "90%" of the city residents aren't pleased with the way these National Consultations are conducted, and accuses Kinshasa politicians to have hijacked the proceedings for financial gains. (Each participant is paid a daily stipend of $400!)
(http://actudukivu.blogspot.com/2013/09/concertations-nationales-kinshasa-ou.html?m=1)
Amid this universal indifference laced with acrimony, a controversy erupted last Thursday within the thematic group "Disarmament, demobilization, social reintegration and/or repatriation of armed groups" that risked snarling the proceedings of that group altogether.
In that "thematic group," opposition MP Jean-Pierre Lisanga Bonganga questioned the absence of the very culprits, that is, representatives of armed groups (including the M23); refused to be lectured by so-called "experts on armed groups"; and threatened to pull out from the talks if this question wasn't solved.
The Presidium--Speaker Aubin Minaku and Senate President Léon Kengo wa Dondo--went to Hotel Invest, the venue where this group was meeting, and convinced MP Lisanga Bonganga to continue attending while this matter of the actual participation of armed groups was still pending.
But MP Lisanga Bonganga remains unyielding and threatens to withdraw from the National Consultations barring the personal intervention of Congo-Brazzaville's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso.
In the streets, people who'd even bother to speak about the consultations, shake their head in disbelief and excoriate the profiteering political class.
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PHOTO CREDITS: John Bompengo via radiookapi.net
