MPs flummoxed by Government Action Program presented by Premier Augustin Matata

The National Assembly held a marathon 10-hour plenary session that

started in the afternoon of Monday and ended at 00:20 of Tuesday.





(As mandated by the Constitution, the prime minister introduces

members of his new cabinet and exposes the government action plan to

the National Assembly, which then approves or rejects both--after

questions and a debate by MPs chosen by their parliamentary groups.

The premier has then from 24 hours to 72 hours to respond to MPs'

queries.)





Members of foreign diplomatic missions accredited to Kinshasa were

present in the first part of the session--lasting about 2 hours--in

which PM Augustin Matata Ponyo introduced his cabinet members and

exposed his action plan.





Matata's action plan--called Modernity Revolution (Kabila's campaign

"vision" for the country)--is very ambitious, as it aims at ushering

the DRC into the club of emergent economies by the end of Kabila's

term in 2016!





Matata claimed the objective of his action plan is to build an

"inclusise system"--Wow! Did the guy read Why Nations Fail?--an

objective with 4 main constituents:





1) To build an efficient state;





2) To develop basic infrastructure and to improve services rendered by

the state;





3) To revive floundering major production sectors; and





4) To build the capacity of human capital and to improve the

population's social welfare.





MPs, including those of the Presidential Majority, were flummoxed by

the plan's glaring lack of numbers and clear benchmarks, its failure

to detail its sources of funding and its heavy reliance on

speculations about foreign contributions to the plan. (Matata put the

cost of the plan at more than $40b spread out over 4 years.) In the

words of one opposition MP, "No statistics, no fancy charts, no

graphs, no histograms. A hollow plan!"





Opposition MPs savaged both the government lineup and the action plan.

One opposition MP said the government didn't reflect the country's

diversity (with "30% of the ministers coming from one province") and

found its make-up to be a striking display of "regionalism, tribalism,

and nepotism"--a jab no doubt at the minister of justice who also

happens to be the prime minister's sister-in-law.





Another MP charged that this cabinet was the "parallel government"

coming out of the closet at long last!





UDPS MP Sammy Badibanga even wanted to see the CVs of the new cabinet members!





Rabble-rouser MLC MP Jean-Lucien Busa called the government action

plan an anticipated "chronicle of an announced failure."





Most opposition MPs were particularly incensed by Matata hoarding his

ertswhile finance ministry--naming his former assistant, Patrice

Kitebi, not as finance minister, but as "Minister Delegate to the

Prime Minister, in charge of Finances"--in effect a fancy name for his

personal aide, one MP quipped.





"Who do you think you are?" an annoyed MP asked the Premier. "Do you

think you're the only Congolese technocrat able to manage the finances

of this country?"





Pro-Kabila MPs countered this argument by arguing that this shows that

Kabila and his new prime minister aren't joking this time around. They

mean business. And the one sure way of meaning business is to tighten

the state's pursestrings and to keep a close watch on the government's

capacity in financial resource mobilization.





Other opposition MPs openly mocked the first constituent of the

government action plan--building an efficient state--at a time when

Jean-Bosco Ntaganda's militiamen and other armed groups

continue--unabated--to wreak havoc in eastern DRC.





Throughout the session, whenever there were harsh attacks against

Kabila, there were cutaway shots to his siblings who are members of

Parliament: his twin sister Jaynet; and his baby brother, Zoe.





At the end of the session, Speaker Aubin Minaku gave Matata 24 hours

to craft his answers to MPs. The plenary session is to resume on

Wednesday at 11:00 Kinshasa time (GMT + 1).





Despite opposition MPs' calls to vote down the action plan, it's a

foregone conclusion that both the cabinet and the action plan will be

approved--Kabila's coalition enjoying a comfortable majority in the

National Assembly.