Clement Mierassa: he is one of the most honest and courageous
political leaders in the Congo. By profession, he is an economist, specialized in
statistics, hence he is hated by President Denis Sassou Nguesso because, and
whenever he advances figures, in particular in relations to corrupt practices
in the country, they are accurate. He is also one of the four individuals that
the President doesn’t want to see on TV or within the media landscape of Congo.
Like most, he was former minister under
the first government of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. However, he is today one of President Denis
Sassou Nguesso’s most implacable adversaries. I have met and interviewed him on
several occasions and I noticed that, he is not only a hard working and
patriotic, he is humble and kind. He also has a mastery of regional, African
and world affairs. Ideologically, he is leftist. But what I have not been able
to distinguish is whether he is truly a leftist or his choice or ideological orientation
was done by chance. What also stoke me with him is that, for a Congolese or
French-speaking black African politician, he is not pro-French or pro-American
or pro-Russia. He is nonaligned. His main focus is how to improve the lives of Congolese
and which he thinks can only happen, if Sassou Nguesso leaves power.
His focus is Congo and
also the fight to end of the long reign of Denis Sassou Nguesso’s regime, which
he qualifies as the most corrupt in the history of Congo. He also accuses the
current Congolese government of having destroyed the health and education
systems of the country. In short, in his opinion, Denis Sassou Nguesso has
destroyed the basic fabric of the nation. He is also one amongst the many who
are vocally against the change of the January 2002 constitution that will allow
the president to stand for a third term of which he is constitutionally barred.
He is a meticulous and a hard working man who is perhaps the most feared by the
ruling party and its supporters. Operating within the so called radical wing of
the opposition of which, he is a member, he is the ideologue. In reality the so-called radical wing of the
Congolese opposition are in the group that represents the will of the majority
of the Congolese people. Besides working
as a team, he has his own political party. He is the head of a political party
called: Partie Sociale et Democrate Congolais or Congolese Social and
Democratic Party abbreviated in French as PSDC. It is a party that sadly lost
the 2012 legislative elections to an affiliate party of the ruling Congolese
Workers Party abbreviated CPR and headed by a certain character that only the
ruling party can produce called Aime Hydervert Moungny.
In spite that
electoral set back, Clement Mierassa is perhaps the most dangerous adversary of
the system. Hence, Jean Francois Ndenguet who is fronting for Jean Dominique
Okemba, the nephew of the President and also his special adviser, once wanted
to use Francois Bikindou, a journalist and publisher of a newspaper sponsored
by Jean Francois Ndenguet called Le Troubadour to try to convince Mierassa to
break away from the so called radical opposition wing. In spite all the
attempts to make him decamp from the opposition that has always failed, the
government mindful of his creative and intellectual capacity has not ceased to
invent ways and means to try to buy him over. Unlike others, he has resisted all
attempts of taking or buying him over by the system. He is a man of dignity and
integrity. The fact that all governments attempts at corrupting him have failed
is a unique prove and testimony of his integrity in a country where it is very
easy to corrupt people. Another evidence
of his strategic way of thinking, is that, he was the one along with blogger
and prodemocracy activists such as Patrick Eric Mampouya, Wifried Kivouvou, politicians
Guy-Romain Kinfossia and Mathias Dzon behind the creation of an
anti-constitutional change campaign group called Convention Citoyen pour le
Respect de l’ordre Constitutionelle. He also played a grand role for its
spokeswoman called Gilda Rosemonde Montsara Ngambo to be selected.
He is excellent at
pinpointing the excessive corrupt nature of the government and all this with
proves. However, his only handicap is that,
he is not rich as his friend Mathias Dzon. If he were a wealthy man and being
courageous as he is, he would have been able to organize daily protest marches
every day in Congo. Clement Mierassa is therefore a force to be counted upon in
the new Congo after Denis Sassou Nguesso that the opposition will painstakingly
attempt to build. But unlike Clement
Mierassa who is ready to die, the rest of the opposition is not ready to pay
the ultimate price. Most want to go to heaven but, they don’t want to die. And that is the problem of the Congolese
opposition, which it must be said, is not only weak but disorganized and full
of people who are ready at all time to betray. Fortunately, it has people
within it such as Clement Mierassa.
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