Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas MP: Profile of the one presented as perhaps the best politician of his generation

Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas MP: he was until his dismissal from office, because he was openly against President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s plans to change of the constitution, a government minister. He was heading the ministry of Public service. He is still an MP for the centre right MCDDI political party.  His political formation is the second biggest intra parliamentary opposition after UPADS of Pascal Tsaty Mabiala. He might not be flamboyant politically, but he has two assets: he is the biological son of Bernard Kolelas. Late Kolelas was one of Congo’s most controversial but nonetheless, respected nationalist and staunchly opposed to Communism. The opposition of late senior Kolelas to Communism forced him into exile on several occasions and he also was jailed by almost all post independent political leaders of Congo.  Bernard Kolelas, the father of Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, was former prime minister of Pascal Lissouba, former MP for BasCongo and former lord mayor of the Brazzaville Greater City Council. The second asset of Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas is that, he is a native from a region that has perhaps the best trained or the most educated people in Congo with a high sense of tribal or ethnocentric unity. The people of the Pool region, because of their high literacy rate are considered Congo’s second colonial masters after France. Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas ethnic group is known as the Laris. They are the largest ethnic groups in the Pool region. Because they are not only better educated, they are also one of the most hardworking tribes in Congo, hence they are present all over the country.

During colonial times or period, they were mostly used as auxiliaries of the French, hence they are known as Congo’s second colonial masters. Furthermore, while about 80% of the country is Christian, the Pool is the only region in the country that has been able to produce its own indigenous religions that exist alongside Christianity. They also the proponents fashion or dressing style called “la Sapoulogie”, which has become one of Congo’s greatest cultural identity and export, besides music and literature. This shows how advance the people of the Pool region are, as compared to other parts of the country. Mindful of all the aforementioned regional and filial advantages, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, knows that, he has a future in Congolese politics with or without Denis Sassou Nguesso. There are some observers such as Leon Juste Imbombo who thinks that, by comparison with his cousin, Hellot Matson Mampouya, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas has no future without the alliance singed between his late father’s and Denis Sassou Nguesso. Personally, I think Leon Juste appraisal of Guy Brice is not honest or outright biased. But Alphonse Ndongo, a journalist, shares my point of view and thus has a different perception from those expressed by Leon Juste Imbombo. Alphonse Ndongo thinks, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas is the best political personality of his generation. And he adds: The fact that, he is calm and respectful and also slow to react on national or international issues, does mean that, he is weak or politically naïve.

As for Arlette Soudan-Nonault, she thinks that, while Guy Brice might be a formidable politician, he doesn’t respect, the political pact signed between his late father and Denis Sassou Nguesso. In the opinion of Mrs. Soudan-Nonault, Guy Brice is trampling upon or reneging on the memory of his late father and to her, it is not African such an attitude. Guy Brice rejects such accusations and says, he is not duty bound to honour any pact signed by his late father with Denis Sassou Nguesso, especially done in the weak position that his late father was and which might today not be in the interest of Congolese.  Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas is in my opinion unpredictable, which some might regard as a weakness, but it only adds to his mythic and political capital that he has inherited from his father. Unlike his father, he is not tribal or regionally oriented, even though as of now, his party seems regionally based. However to his discharge, the present political dispensation in the country where there is no free and faire elections might be the real deterrent to his party to expand beyond its Pool and Brazzaville fiefs. He is also different from his father not just because he is better educated, but more because he is open minded and tolerant, for his wife is an ethnic Mbouchi from Bondji and not from the Pool or Brazzaville regions as is the custom of many from his area.

The Mbouchi and the Lari are two enemy tribes in the country because of the opposing views of two of their best known contemporary sons: Bernard Kolelas and Denis Sassou Nguesso. Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas is a member of one of the country’s best known and well respected political dynastic family and who has been able to show that, he can make his way without the support of his late father. Behind his calm and efface demeanor, hides a formidable political phoenix. The eyeglass wearing and soft spoken man goes in trance, whenever he is addressing a public rally. Furthermore, he also masters macro and micro economic policies and has a clear cut economic programme for Congo. He is also one of the rare political leaders, who have a clear cut political ideology, for his party or the party that he inherited is a centre right movement. He is a practicing Christian and married. His party, abbreviated MCCDI, is a centre right political formation, in a predominantly communist oriented and centre left leaning country, at least as portrayed by most political leaders and their parties.