I hope that President Michel will do me the courtesy to note my comments, as the elected MNA for Anse Etoile, as I have noted the remarks he made after his visit to the district.
Mr. Michel said that all elected MNAs should be sensitive to the needs of the residents who elected them. I couldn’t agree more! However, if he is sincere, he should lead by example.
If this was the message he wanted to proclaim, or if he wanted to take a new approach when visiting districts, there was at least one thing he should do, that is, to invite the elected MNA for that district to accompany him. The elected MNA should even have been part of the organisation of a visit by the President to the district.
Mr. Michel chose to include the Parti Lepep MNA in his delegation last Saturday on La Digue, as he has done elsewhere, but he deliberately excludes any SNP MNA. When he chooses to do that, he shows that he is partisan in his duties as President. Thus he weakens his moral authority to give any lessons on how leaders should do their work.
Mr. Michel likes to say that he was not aware of a given situation. For instance, he was not aware of the suffering of the La Misère residents. I would like to bring to his attention that elected SNP MNAs are still left outside the various district structures. The DCC, which was meant to include MNAs, is basically a dead body. If it meets at all, SNP MNAs are not invited. Please tell me, Mr. President, how are we to bring forward the needs of the district when we are excluded all the government structures?
When I send questions to Ministers and 3 years later they have not yet been answered, does that not show clearly that the structures need renovating? When Mr. Michel says we have to be sensitive to the needs of the residents, and women complain of the non-existent lighting in their village, and government does nothing when the MNA raises the issue, what should the MNA do?
Mr. Michel should start listening a little bit more to what the SNP says. He should know that whenever he is to visit a district, a great effort is made in cleaning the area just to impress him. At St. Louis, they repainted the wall around the district administration office. At Anse Etoile, they cleaned all the gutters, and even had a special team to clean the Old People’s Home. Staff from Praslin hospital were sent to La Digue just to help clean the hospital for his visit. Mr. Michel should not be fooled.
If he wants a true picture of the country he is leading, he should announce his visits an hour before he goes, and then he will know what people experience.
I would like to point certain very important points which Mr. Michel should have been included in his visit, which as MNA I happen to be aware of.
- At Quincy lives Mr. Cupidon, whose elderly wife is in hospital with a fractured arm, and broken hips after being assaulted by police officers.
- Ma Constance the roadis in deplorable state and needs urgent repairs.
- At Pointe Conan, retaining walls are a danger to residents and the public and their owners, but are still not repaired nearly a year after they were damaged.
- At Hangard, a talk with residents would have helped him to understand why I keep asking for a regular bus service for the residents up there.
- At La Gogue dam, he could have seen how bad the water situation is, not only for Anse Etoile but for the whole nation.
- At ‘Kan Bibouk’ he could have seen the polluted stream due to defective sewerage system at the flats. ( I wonder whether Mr. Michel was even told that these residents still don’t have treated water).
The last point for which I have space here concerns the remarks Mr. Michel made on the state of the Old People’s Home. You should be aware, Mr. President, that the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees is your party’s main activist at Maldive, a senior nurse at Fiennes Institute caring for the elderly. The cleanliness of the place was supposed to be assured by the District Administration. But guess what? The very person who failed the residents of that establishment, for which you expressed your dissatisfaction, is the one you have chosen to stand as your party’s candidate at the next election.
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