AFRICA/DR CONGO - Parliament members support Congolese Bishops in observing that the country is not being governed

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – The difficulties that the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing have been addressed by the Bishops in a public statement issued at the close of their Plenary Assembly (see Fides 14/7/2008) and were later analyzed in a report presented by the National Assembly. The document, which is a synthesis of 5 special commissions, each formed by 12 representatives, is based on the statements (over 500) made by members of Parliament in their electoral colleges. The various representatives collected the information on the present situation and drafted a statement that along with the others served to offer an overall view of the country’s situation.
The results of the study are not encouraging: all the provinces are showing signs of the weakness of the legitimate government authority, characterized by local and federal government workers that often use their position for personal advancement. The lack of precise laws that regulate the balance of powers between the central government and local entities, the absence of a law on de-centralizing and disorganizing of various administrations, the persistence of areas that are still beyond the control of the government...are all factors that widen the gap between the people and institutions, so much so that oftentimes, the Congolese feel abandoned to their own strengths.
“The DRC is not being governed: Parliament says the Bishops are right” was the headline of the journal “Le Phare,” which presented the Parliamentary report. The journal points out that both the Bishops and Parliament have indicated corruption as the main cause of the country’s hardships. In the Congo, the article reads, everything is for sale: national sovereignty, court sentences, academic titles, administrative documents, mining permissions, even Congolese citizenship.
The fact that these evils are being denounced by members of Parliament is, however, a good step in the right direction. As the Bishops stated in their message (which just so happens to be entitled “It’s time for us to wake up”), now is the time for all Congo’s people, beginning with those who hold public office, to do their part in building a better Congo. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 16/7/2008)