Election ethics watch

Now that we know the date and time, the next big question is “Will this date and time mark the beginning or an end?”  Everyone that you talk to about the elections wish for a free, fair, transparent and peaceful election.  But wishes will never relieve an oppressed people of their pains and agony, only action would do so. At this point in the life of our nation, we actually need  concerted and coordinated efforts towards national redefinition and nation building. We must move beyond talking to actions. We must denounce our national ills and other visible actions around this election deemed to be counter productive to our national peace and stability from whomever and from whichever direction.  Isn’t it more dignifying to stand and die for what is right than live for what is bad and evil? There are thousands in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Yemen, in Syria, in Bahrain and in Libya now in their graves with absolutely no blood in their hands.  Thousands of others are moving the streets freely with human blood dripping from their hands.  This is the paradox of the evil nature of the human mind. Remember these words as they were echoed by Dr. King Jr. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that”.

In a nation like ours where State institutions are overrun by selfish and individual interest, where our past hunts us and blind our eyes from seeing and understanding the truth, where self pride and respect means nothing as compared to our evil voracious thirst for money and power, we can expect nothing but shameful manipulation of people and the law at this time.

I know how valuable a cup of rice is to a mother whose children cry daily for food, I know how valuable a thousand Francs is to a woman who is unable to pay school fees or hospital bills for her children.  So I fully understand that the weak human spirit will always push such persons to see more value in what they get in times like this than the evil that has pushed them to become scavengers in their own country, a land flowing with milk and honey.

For the past seven years since the last presidential election, the poor people of Cameroon have not received little or nothing in line with the many presidential campaign promises from both the party in power and the opposition. It is therefore evident that there is a trick in this whole game.

The trick seem to be “keep them hungry and poor enough over the years so they will hang onto anything during elections”

The time has therefore come for another round of lies-telling, empty promises and shameful donations.  Some say it is the ruling party, while others say it is the opposition. The truth is, it is both of them,  we Cameroonians are part of the problem.

As we drive this campaign,  we do not care who is who, we just need the truth and nothing but the truth. We want to know and publish the true story and the story behind the story. We want to follow them during this election.

Please join the Name and Shame campaign by following all the candidates and their campaigns by documenting all financial and material donations as well as promises. Please keep an eye on the use of state property like cars etc during this election. Make reference to the following obligation of the civil servants in Cameroon …”Civil servants are bound by the obligation of reserve in the discharge of their duties. For a civil servant, this obligation consists in abstaining from publicly proclaiming his/her political, philosophical, religious, or trade union opinions and in not performing services on the basis of the said opinions”.

Soon government offices will soon run dry as civil servants will spend time campaigning for whoever – God knows. Oppositions will be hard at work negotiating for a share and ministerial positions instead of educating the people on their rights to be part of the process. It’s shameful.

Send pictures and the stories to shame@mycameroon.org and read your story online at www.mycameroon.org

52 candidates in for Cameroon presidential elections

The election was announced and 51 candidates filed in their candidatures. Anybody with a sound mind would have not gone to sleep on Monday the 5^th without realising that something is seriously wrong with our Cameroon politics. In a country of less than 20 million persons with more than 50% aged 0-20, how realistic can it be that 51 persons want to be president. It may be important to note that political parties do not pay taxes and so the cost of maintaining a party is nothing more than few hours of thinking about when elections will be organised. Elections in the context of Cameroon are a good way to make money.  For presidential elections, paying 5 million is what anyone can do knowing that he/she will get far more than this from the state for campaigns.  Another source and sweetest of all is when you are ready to wed with any party that has the highest amount to spend for the wedding and that will accept to go along even for a few years.  During these few years, the bride can siphon as much from the family income knowing that it was a conditional love. No doubt some of the candidates know first hand that they just want to make a name as “former presidential candidate”. Others want to be called the runner up. Some are simply put in place for a purpose.

If all 51 candidates have the nation’s interest at heart, why is it that they are so blind to see where their ideas croses and so join forces to build the nation. When I took time to go through the list, it down on me that some of the candidates may be known beyond their villages or even family cycles. I combed my city and region to see if I could find regional representation of these parties, sub divisional and divisional bureaus and could not find them.  Whom are these  If I had the money and the power, the best thing to do would have been exactly what has hapended.

Double registrations on the electoral list

As the days unfold, I feel so disappointed that ELECAM missed an important opportunity like our project to make good the mess they have made this far. Distribution of vote cards is so disorganised and many seem to show no interest in going for the cards.  Some who ever develop the courage to go receive vote cards with the wrong polling stations etc.

If ELECAM ever allowed reason to play, Cameroonians would have known via sms which polling stations they are going to vote in and may even chose to go to those polling stations on the day of the election and then pick-up their cards and vote.
With less than 10 days to go, less than 5% of Cameroonians who registered have vote cards. Instead of sending vote cards to the various polling stations with a permanent team to work in the polling stations during this distribution, people are called to specific locations to collect vote cards. How many Cameroonians are willing and have the money to pay a taxi just to go and collect a vote card?

Looks like the game is over!

Mrs Paulin Biyond even concluded the whole game by confirming the popular outcry that ELECAM is a branch of the CPDM central committee by actively campaigning for the CPDM.

The opposition on the other hand is so weak and senseless to continue wasting their time instead of putting pressure for the resignation of this ELECAM member.  I was at the regional delegation of the ELECAM office to put my pick-up truck at their disposal for use in the distribution of voters cards after I some of them complained about lack of means of transportation. To me, Cameroonians should do everything to stop ELECAM from finding any excuse for not doing their work. This offer is still in good faith like we wanted to do with the sms system.

During my meeting with the Delegate of ELECAM, I was surprised that he was as bitter when I brought to his attention the fact that members of elecam are campaigning for a political party.  He even showed me photocopies of the newspaper article while lamenting that her action has completely made them at ELECAM look stupid and speechless ( see copy of our offer letter attached)

Many of the political party leaders never showed up for the meeting on Tuesday. Only Paul Aya and the representative of Admaou Ndam Njoya showed up but the exchange with them was excellent

126 SCNC arrested in Buea

I went to Buea yesterday Sunday to witness it first hand and actually talked with some senior police officials. Those arrested are actually not in the cells but are kept within the confines of the police premises. 126 is the number at the Mobile police unit alone.  Many more are at the central police office and then some at the Nigeria consular. As of this morning, all of them are still within the police compounds. No food has been served to them by the state. Relatives are however allowed to bring food to those arrested.  This morning, they were requested to enter the police truck for transportation to a new centre but they all refused instead opting to walk to wherever they wanted to take them to.  I tried to find out where they were being taken to but no police official will comment.  But by the time I was leaving the station this morning, all of them where still at the different police stations.

Just next to the same police station is a group of old men and women who are former workers of the Cameroon tea estate bought over by Ndamolo some years back. These estranged workers are demanding payment of their dues which the government and the buyer of the estates promised to pay years ago.  It is sad to know that while these poor men and women have been sleeping in the open for weeks under the biting cool of Buea, the same guy who owes them donated over 100 millions to Biya’s campaign.  The same Biya’s campaign took place few meters from where these helpless Cameroonians where and no one paid any attention to their problem.  When I extended a hand of sympathy this morning by offering 50,000F CFA to help them buy some food, they greeted this with tears of joy and I felt so bad to see this in a nation flowing with milk and honey.

I think this nation need a fearless and sustained governance program outside the window dressing programs of the state to start exposing and addressing some of these ills.  I will never run away, I will be here until the sun shines for all to see and celebrate true freedom and sense of national belonging. Mindful of the short life we all have to live, I pray God should allow me to be born again in Cameroon if I ever had the chance to be born again. It is more fulfilling to be where there are problems to solve than wasting in affluence knowing that there are unsolved problems in the world.

checking executive powers

By now I know exactly in which direction the polls will go and so it’s about time we start thinking of how to restructure the national assembly to check the powers of the executive.  A look at the Cameroon national assembly for the past many years will remind us that it has been nothing more than a collection of signature holders ready to sign laws whose content they basically have no idea about let alone understanding the impact of such laws on the people of Cameroon. I think it’s about time we flush the national assembly and begin to build a truly nationalists assembly that will lead this nation out of its current social, cultural, political and spiritual casualty. With over 200 hungry, focus blind political parties, I think the civil society in Cameroon must stand up to help direct the nation to a safe return to social justice, peace, the rule of law and development.

Looking at the work of the civil society this far, I must say that though weak and heavily infiltrated by destabilising forces, the number of meetings and declarations, warnings and predictions around the current presidential elections are evident that the Cameroon civil society is growing. I personally think that for the first time, the civil society has demonstrated a sense of unity and direction.  

The major work in the months ahead will be to help put in place a national assembly made up of men and women who will for once think beyond their narrow selfish and party interest.

Any “victory” tomorrow that will not be check by a carefully calculated and constituted national assembly in the months ahead will always be remembered as the day Cameroon sank in her own tears.  

I read from some web pages that Mrs. Paulin Biyond was appointed as the representative of the civil society.  Let me clarify here that she was NEVER appointed as a representative of the civil society. She was appointed as a Cameroonian on the basis of her misguided trust by the head of state and so in no way can be quoted as representing the civil society.  After this trust was abused, the same head of state removed her which is but normal. The civil society to the best of my knowledge was never consulted before appointing the two members. Her dismissal from ELECAM should as a matter of fact open serious investigation to the level of impartiality of all the members.  The known trips abroad by some members should be investigated as well.

CIVIL SOCIETY/SYNDICATES FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY( The Bamenda Declaration)

CIVIL SOCIETY/SYNDICATES  FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY

The Bamenda Declaration

The Civil Society/Syndicates Forum for Democracy in its 10^th session holding in Bamenda on August 20, 2011,  and after profound reflex ion on the current electoral process in Cameroon, hereby makes what will hence forward be referred to as “The Bamenda Declaration.”

The Forum, having monitored the build-up to the up-coming elections, holds that in the current circumstances, a fair, free and transparent election is inconceivable, as evidenced by the following facts:

1)    The organisation and set up of ELECAM gives more powers to the Directorate, which is not answerable to the Board, its supposed policy making organ. That the Director General can take decisions and only inform the Board later seriously compromises the Board’s independence.

2)    The hasty and questionable process of the Diaspora registration leaves many doubts as to the actual intention behind the Diaspora vote. It is impossible for ELECAM to register 04million voters within two weeks in a wide and dispersed Diaspora when it could not register 02 million in Cameroon within one year.

3)    The August 2011 law granting voting rights to Cameroonians in the diaspora is in contradiction with the 2006 law creating ELECAM as the sole organ in charge of organizing elections and referenda. While it is a law that created ELECAM, it is a decree that defines the rights and conditions of the diaspora vote. This makes the diaspora vote illegal.

4)    We note that government’s hostile reaction to Transparency International’s efforts to boost electoral registration demonstrates the fact that it is the government that is actually in control of the electoral process and not ELECAM. In fact it casts shadows on the sincerity of government’s interest in a massive voter turn-out during this election.

5)    The announcement by ELECAM of the registration of 07million voters instead of approximately 02millions, implying its rejection of the popular outcry against the controversial registration list of 5 million voters it inherited from MINATD, is evidence of its intention to manipulate voters’ lists and the entire process.

CAUTION

6)    Following intelligence pointing to imminent interference with social communication networks during the election period, the Forum warns all telecommunication service providers and authorities against any such infringement of the people’s freedom of expression and communication. Whoever carries out such infringement must be prepared to bear full responsibility for its outcome.

In the light of all the foregoing, the Forum calls on the Head of State to take prompt and meaningful steps towards ensuring free, fair and transparent elections at home and in the Diaspora. These steps logically include revisiting all recent laws and Executive decisions which are not consonant with fairness and transparency.

As a reminder, the Forum calls on ELECAM to:

a)     Start a completely new registration process

b)    Make accessible its electoral data base to the public

c)     Provide access to registration centres to all stakeholders

d)    Provide access to its election software to stakeholders.

Done in Bamenda this 20th August 2011

Victor Epie’Ngome (Steering Committee member)

Technology and democracy in Cameroon

It is interesting that ELECAM thought of using a real database in the electoral process. The database donated by UNDP whose functionality is not known to the political actors and which was unfortunately widely publicize seem to us the civil society and syndicates to be a democratic suicidal pill delivered to Cameroon by UNDP. We have observed with disappointment active effort of the UNDP to promote and uphold the database irrespective of the public complains and request to access and asses the effectiveness of the system.   

There has been no meaningful dialogue between stakeholders and ELECAM as to the application of modern technology in the advancement of democracy. From simple voter verification by sms to voter registration promotion by sms has been either delayed or out rightly refused by ELECAM and intrusively by the state.

The civil society and syndicates must therefore double efforts in the use of technology in the electoral process by pushing ahead discussions, supporting and reviewing proposed solutions together with ELECAM and other experts to eliminate the fears and suspicions that now give sleepless nights to the ELECAM team.

The following systems are in place as technology towards the elections and should be jointly reviewed and adopted by the proposing organizations/institutions, ELECAM and the civil society:

1.      The Database donated by UNDP

2.      The voter verification system proposed and tested by LUKMEF

3.      The voters registration by Transparency international Cameroon

4.      The Ushahidi event monitoring system by LAGA and Kick-corruption

Based on the current situations, it is likely that the internet and mobile communication networks may be tampered with around the election days. Remember that twitter has once been targeted for shutdown in Cameroon and that discussions have also been held targeting other social medias.

We must therefore be ready for such worst case scenarios.

THE STATE OF THE VOTERS REGISTRATION

STATE OF THE VOTERS REGISTRATION

Less than two months to the elections, no one can say with certainty how many Cameroonians are effectively registered. We have noted with disappointment the careful and systematic exclusion of the civil society in the registration process by carefully frustrating any efforts by the civil society to promote and monitor voters’ registration. The list inherited by ELECAM from MINATD which they openly admitted has many inconsistencies and needed to be cleaned has not been cleaned many months after inheritance and few weeks before the elections. The software being used in the process remains a mystery to many political actors, the civil society and the syndicates as no one has been granted official access and assessment of the system. The president of ELECAM  is in record for publicly stating that there may be no way to fully eliminate double registrations in the list. While ELECAM refused total recompilation of the list on grounds that there was limited means and time, President Fonkam has been again in record saying they hope to reach 9 million voters registration by the end of August even making shameful reference to Nigeria where over 73 million voters were registered in less than two months in the electoral list.  It must be noted that all figures given by ELECAM are based on figures from the unclean list plus new registrations which in many cases are still individuals likely to be in the old list.  Understandably, there is double counting in the figures being made public by ELECAM.  Mindful of these contradicting and confusing statements and statistics, the civil society and syndicates call on ELECAM to come clean and do good to grant unrestricted access to information relating to the electoral process.

Government crakdown on civil society actions towards democracy

Hope you are reading these reactions and trying to help to advance our national democracy. We must know that while some of these guys are trying to frustrate every effort to advance our democracy, there are also good guys among them who think positively. Some of these guys are simply caught in a web where they are fearful of nothing but fear of the unknown. Let us understand that change can come through one individual even in the pool of those who want to maintain the status quo. All we need is a free, fair, peaceful and transparent election whose outcome is accepted by all Cameroonians.  I understand that we as the civil society do not have preference to who gets up there provided he/she understands, protect and advance our national values.

The current panic and frustration is to me understandable when you think of the life some of our statesmen have been living and now risk it to transparency and accountability.  I have cautioned many times that we must not always qualify everyone in the same category when people who should protect the law and the civic rights of citizens choose to violate them.  We have seen many acting without instructions from above using the state authority for their backing.  Such will not continue at least now that we Cameroonians are fully aware of the fact that there are only some few individuals who are manipulating the laws for selfish gains.

Once again I will like that we keep the spirits high but must understand that our national peace and unity is a priority and we must protect and promote it at all cost. We must show love to those who try to provoke us into any type of unlawful actions. Whoever is trying to cover-up in chaos must be assured that peaceful and patriotic resistance to evil and committed moves to uphold our national pride and values is what Cameroonians are interested in now. We must promote dialogue even in situations that some may consider as doom. We are Cameroonians and remain Cameroonians till death. We must understand that we are not always completely right nor are our opponents always completely wrong. This is to remind us that in the most difficult of situations, there is a window of opportunity to resolve it somehow.  Let’s keep looking for that window of opportunity by actively engaging all actors (the government, the civil society, the syndicates, ELECAM, the Citizens, our Cameroon Friends and God). We must learn to pick up the stones thrown at us by those who hate us and use it as supportive corner stones of peace and love.  Never throw the stone back at the enemy.

Let us keep some of this in our Bamenda agenda tomorrow.

checking executive powers

Dear Friends,

By now I know exactly in which direction the polls will go and so it’s about time we start thinking of how to restructure the national assembly to check the powers of the executive.  A look at the Cameroon national assembly for the past many years will remind us that it has been nothing more than a collection of signature holders ready to sign laws whose content they basically have no idea about let alone understanding the impact of such laws on the people of Cameroon. I think it’s about time we flush the national assembly and begin to build a truly nationalists assembly that will lead this nation out of its current social, cultural, political and spiritual casualty. With over 200 hungry, focus blind political parties, I think the civil society in Cameroon must stand up to help direct the nation to a safe return to social justice, peace, the rule of law and development.

Looking at the work of the civil society this far, I must say that though weak and heavily infiltrated by destabilizing forces, the number of meetings and declarations, warnings and predictions around the current presidential elections are evident that the Cameroon civil society is growing. I personally think that for the first time, the civil society has demonstrated a sense of unity and direction.  

The major work in the months ahead will be to help put in place a national assembly made up of men and women who will for once think beyond their narrow selfish and party interest.

Any “victory” tomorrow that will not be check by a carefully calculated and constituted national assembly in the months ahead will always be remembered as the day Cameroon sank in her own tears.  

I read from some web pages that Mrs. Paulin Biyond was appointed as the representative of the civil society.  Let me clarify here that she was NEVER appointed as a representative of the civil society. She was appointed as a Cameroonian on the basis of her misguided trust by the head of state and so in no way can be quoted as representing the civil society.  After this trust was abused, the same head of state removed her which is but normal. The civil society to the best of my knowledge was never consulted before appointing the two members. Her dismissal from ELECAM should as a matter of fact open serious investigation to the level of impartiality of all the members.  The known trips abroad by some members should be investigated as well.

Cameroon Civil society - Before the Doom days

The freedom of association law of 1990 and other related laws that followed gave raise to an Association/NGO boom in Cameroon.  If you want to call it a boom, then you better think again. I simply mean here that the registers at the DO and SDOs are experiencing a registration boom that is unfortunately not reflected in the number of active Associations/NGOs on the ground. If you are getting this mail, then it is either evident that your Association/NGO existed, exist or is about to start existing.  Even up to this point, we still need to differentiate existence from being in action. Not even this writer can be made the judge to do this differentiation. Key questions and individual actions as you read this mail can start to differentiate between doom existence and purposeful existence. Eg when was the last time you spoke or wrote to someone about your organization’s unshakable position about some burning social, political, cultural, and economical and development issue in the life of this nation? When was the last time you got out of bed before day dawn to take notes about your thoughts on how this nation can be saved for posterity?

If each and every one of the over 55,000+ Associations and NGOs in Cameroon could say a phrase each time something happens OR an elected official takes a decision about the life of this nation, then we will have 55,000+ analytical ideas to put on such actions to give safeguards. 

I refused to endorse the spirit that when an elected official takes a positive action, we say its but normal and his responsibility to do so. When he takes a bad decision we say he is irresponsible or simply grumble in the dark corners of our offices because we fear reprisal.  

An active and responsible civil society will take a position whatever the decision or the outcome of the actions of our elected officials is. We must learn how to say “congratulations…But…” as well as should be able to say “ …we total disagree on xyz…So…”.

 By analyzing a situation and saying what we think is our civic rights and clear sign of patriotism.  Today I received a group of young Cameroonians in my office who complained bitterly about the recruitment procedure for the 25,000 “youths” into the public service.  They think the shift of date is purely political and worried aloud if such recruitment will ever be effected.  I looked at them with a lot of petty and interest and so  took my time to explain:

1. I refused their point of view that pushing the date to December was political.  It seems to me and clear to my thinking that the reason is technical, financially logical and legally meaningful for a number of reasons:
1. If it effectively took place in June, then a financially  transparent and responsible government plus our MPs should have had to explain to Cameroonian where the money was by the time they adopted the budget for 2011
2. Our government underestimated the level of unemployment in Cameroon and hopefully has learnt a lesson and has built good statistics from this.
3. The government underestimated the level of corruption in Cameroon as evident from the already thousands of fraud cases among the applicants
2. No government creates jobs by increasing the size of the public service which to my simple understanding of ABC of economics is a consuming service. Pick up your calculators and lets do a simple math:
1. If the state effectively recruited 25,000 new workers by June 2011, and assuming an average salary of 100,000 FRS CFA/month, then the state would have needed to raise 15 billion to pay salaries for the last six months of 2011. Thank God the state managed to get out of that illegality by pushing the date to December
2. Think carefully now.  In December, the state will need 30 billion each year to pay salaries for the 25,000 workers (at an average of 100,000/worker/month).  This puts the total budget burden to 150 billion within the next 5 years.
3. If instead of employing 25,000 for the first year the state decided to finance these graduates at a start-up/Tax free sum of one million Francs CFA to start a business, then the 30 billion per years would have put a total of 30.000 youths in Business for the first year. Should each of these young aspiring Cameroonian business men/women employ one other Cameroonian, then 60,000 Cameroonians will be employed within the very first year of investing 30 billions.
4. Let us project in five years; 60,000 x 5 = 300,000 Cameroonians employed within five years
5. If our good government decides to start taxing these young businesses after five years at 2% è 2% x 150 billion  = 3 billion/yearly recovered back into the state coffers. Call me a bad economist because I am missing some facts, but the truth is as above…

Warning: I have made a number of assumptions here.

1.      those who get the money and fail to reach success levels cannot enter the public service

2.      Those with marked success can get more government loans

3.      Apart from those funded by such a program, the state may also review the Tax policy including the import/export licensing

4.      Review Custom duties

5.      move from political incrimination to visible anticorruption actions by Multiplying the current anticorruption campaign by 10-20 folds

6.      Many programs have been put in place in line with this thinking someone will argue. I total agree, but what are the results, why are people not being brought to book for not delivering?  Think about the national employment fund and you will develop heart attack, think about….

So what went wrong OR who never played their roles in designing our national policy on reducing unemployment?

Get ready: within the next few months, more bags of rice will fly around, bags of salt, cubs of soap, bottles of beers and in best cases a few thousand francs will fly around.  This is how cheap Cameroonians have become in their own land, a land of plenty. GOD WHERE ARE YOU?  

If you give me the chance to blame someone, I will blame myself and then my colleagues of the civil society for not being proactive enough. We are about 55,000 in the books but our voices seem too small to be heard.  Thank God it’s getting bigger by the days.

When the African heads of states met, It meant nothing to me because it was the same old song that generated no echoes. But the lesson I learnt from them is that people of common interest must meet regularly to either make real impact or simply relax away from the heat of change in their respective countries and in our case as civil society from the heat of our inactions.

Based on this, I am beginning to think strongly that commissioning a yearly Cameroon civil society conference looks like an idea.  Once a year we meet to take stock of the life of the nation and feed-in to government actions and make sure we are fully aware of the direction of the tides before they sweep us unaware.

The Cameroon Civil society Yearly conference should have as objective to share lessons, learn, showcase, network and grow as a constructive voice to be respected. It should bring together individual organizations and networks; it should help define how we are seen by the state and by the partners. We must move fast from the position of donor/recipients concept to a partnership concept where our role is seen as vital to the continuous existence of organizations/governments in the North just as theirs is to our existence in the South. North-South partnerships should be seen as strong as our south-south partnerships. We must move our nations from the current artificial positions of heavily indebted poor countries to that of independent African nations in its truest sense.

If you disagree or agrees, let me know your own point of view, this is where we talk of freedom of expression, democracy and the respect of fundamental human rights.

Stay Blessed

Christian

ELECAM Apointment

Like many of you,  I am happy with the appointment of members of the civil society into ELECAM. But the fundamental problems of ELECAM remain and must never be overlooked or over shadowed by such appointments. Few months to the elections, the fundamental questions that need urgent response and action is building the required popular trust and confidence in the institution. It requires this noble institution to move fast from a remote controlled type of voiceless institution to one that is ready to actively engage the public, learn and build credibility across the board. It is often said "if you do not have what you like you should like what you have" in applying such a saying we must be careful not to swallow a lethal  pill just because we do not have the right pill for our illness. I think 3 months is enough time to turns things around if the political will is there.

I trust in the members of the civil society appointed and hope they make all that is possible to stand clean of the known concienceless dance of our pointed official