During the past year, the slogan ‘Leve, debourye’ (Get up and work) has become the favourite of James Michel. This was the response to the SNP call of ‘Larg lanmen Seselwa.’ (Free the hands of the Seychellois). So, these days, any initiative that a person takes to do a business, work overtime or even do a second job because of the present hardships, is described as a ‘Leve, debourye’ initiative.
This has led me first of all to reflect on the obstacles that the same government has always put on local initiatives and how these have set our country back, even to the point where many serious businessmen have left our shores to invest overseas. At the same time, there have been a lot of foreign investors who have come here through good connections to venture into businesses that have literally robbed Seychellois of good opportunities.
The biggest obstacle that this government placed on this nation was to allow a currency black market to flourish during so many years. The irresponsible way of borrowing way beyond our means and burdening us with unsustainable debt caused this nation to come to a grinding halt. Everyone suffered.
Yet both Mr. René and Mr. Michel kept saying that everything was fine. They described it as a ‘small problem that would be resolved in 3 months’. When the whole extent of the ‘small problem’ was revealed, we discovered a bankrupt country with an unsustainable debt of over 800 million dollars!
Our people have been fooled and made to believe that calling in the IMF was a brave initiative of Mr. Michel, when in fact he had no choice since he was stuck between a rock and a hard place! We can also look at the way the same government, basically a bunch of control freaks; have interfered unnecessarily in the lives of our people. At one point, you needed a licence for everything. A retired teacher wanting to give extra tuition to students needed a licence, a person sewing clothes needed one…. It went on and on. All these controls simply scared Seychellois initiative, and in the process we developed a people bent on doing the minimum and waiting on government assistance. And today the same government describes the people as being lazy!
The recent announcement by the SLA inviting everyone who may have been running illegal guesthouses to come forward and their situation would be resolved is yet another example of government obstacles. I have a friend on Praslin who did whatever he could to run a tourist facility. He was denied a licence, brought to court, fined, threatened, had his furniture confiscated etc… Yet he persisted. If the system had not blocked his efforts all this time, he would be way ahead today.
We must not fool ourselves about the present. Even though there is a semblance of big openings, we must never forget that control; victimisation and favours are still very much on the agenda of Mr. Michel and his team.
As we ponder on our programme for government, the thought that drives me is how do we remove these unnecessary obstacles and allow our people to get on with their lives. This includes making it easier for the people of Seychelles to change their government peacefully if they are not performing. True democracy is where controls are necessary not to hurt the people, but to protect and let them get on with their dreams. Let every potential in this country be allowed to flourish. Let the sky be the limit for every Seychellois.
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