Our little country has known all types of turbulence in its political history. The French and the British capitulated our islands to each other on a number of occasions. From that time we read of lies and deception. For example, not knowing who was in charge of Mahé, French warships floated the British flag just in case the British were. This resulted in the burning of the Jardin du Roi by the French themselves. Quéau de Quincy, whom the British had placed as the administrator is known to have flown the French flag once the British turned their backs.
The modern history of our islands begins with Constitutional talks for Independence. There again, lies and deception abound. Mr. René was not sincere, but he managed to fool Mr. Mancham in accepting what he, Mr. René, wanted. Mancham accepted in the name of peace and stability, only to find himself 11 months after being kissed goodbye in the very same way that Judas did to Jesus.
Our people were fed the biggest lie on the 5th June 1977 when Mr. René declared that a group of people had overthrown Mancham and had asked him to form a new government. Everyone knew that he had organised the coup because he wanted to be the president. From that time, the same party has continued to fool the people of Seychelles with lies and deception.
Government should be a beacon of light to a nation. It is there to show the way forward and lead a nation in truth. But unfortunately, too often, political expediency takes over the agenda and the so-called leaders blatantly lie to the people. The lesson to be learnt there is that the people are not fools. People see through those lies. Unfortunately it is not always that they then go on to sanction the government through their vote. Seychellois have yet to understand the full power of their vote.
This week in the National Assembly, Minister Meriton misled the House into believing that a small playground at Anse La Blague, Praslin, was being regularly maintained. Either he lied purposely to the National Assembly, or those responsible lied to him. Whatever the case, the finger points at ethics in government.
The reason he gave that answer however was very calculated. He had given orders for that playground to be tidied up last week in time for my question in the Assembly. This is called deception. It cannot be tolerated as an accepted standard. As the number 3 in our country, he needs to adopt a higher standard. If nothing happens, we will have another glimpse of the standards accepted by the present government.
When Minister Morgan comes on national TV and proclaims that all the GOPs for ASCON workers have been cancelled until a settlement has been reached and then the same government orders para-military police to stop any demonstration by the residents while those same workers continue with the contract how can we describe this? Of course it is a continuation of the politics of deception and lies.
A couple of years back, Minister Dugasse came to the National Assembly to justify a transaction by the Seychelles Marketing Board. They had imported beer, yet they had declared it initially as pipes for the Coetivy Prawn Project, then it became toilet paper! For the Minister, everything was in order. In any country with a good Customs Department, the whole consignment would have been seized with the importer severely dealt with. But not in Seychelles. The importer was probably praised for being full of imagination!
Our country needs to enter a new era of transparency and accountability. The SNP believes that we need a ‘Freedom of Information Act’, through which Government will have to give true information or face the consequences. We also need to go in the direction of having an ‘Accountability and Transparency Act’, which will give the people the possibility of knowing what is happening in their land.
This is the way forward. ‘The truth shall set us free.’
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