A Seychelles where Everyone is a Winner: Actions speak louder than words

In 2004, when Mr. René stepped down and handed the presidency to Mr. Michel, the new president declared, 'Judge me by my actions.' The speechwriter had basically paraphrased the proverb which said, 'Actions speak louder than words.' Since then, we have had a lot of examples where the opposite has in fact proved to be true, and indeed words have been shown to be louder than actions.

Listening to a press communiqué from State House on the SBC last night made the point. Mr. Michel was condemning the Libyan authorities for the use of force against peaceful demonstrators. Beautiful words, but unfortunately what hypocrisy!

Let us look at his record against peaceful demonstrators in this country.

On October 3rd 2006, a peaceful crowd had assembled outside the National Assembly to sign a petition against the amendment to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Act. The crowd was comprised of about 40 people, half of whom were women and no-one was armed. They signed the petition and chanted 'We want our radio.'

What did we see next? About 100 SSU officers armed with batons, tear-gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition charged on that crowd, and without pity or warning, started assaulting us. Many were taken to hospital. I was among those who ended up there with head injuries. Jean-François Ferrari had 27 sutures on the head for his injuries.

It was Mr. Michel, the man today condemning Libya who gave the orders. To prove that he was in favour of what happened, upon his arrival from a visit to the Pope, he declared to the SBC that he congratulated the SSU for a job well done. Following that, all the officers involved in the assault were promoted. The man in charge of the operation, Mr. Roucou, was proudly promoted to Chief Superintendent.

The subsequent inquiry, which Mr. Michel was forced to establish because among the victims was a diplomat from the British High Commission, ruled that the police overreacted, used excessive force and that the whole operation was heavy-handed. Years later, the government accepted liability before the Supreme Court and agreed to pay damages to the victims for this gross violation of human rights.

Last year Mr. Michel proved to us again that he was no different to Muammar Gaddafi in the sense that he is ready to use whatever force against peaceful demonstrators standing up for their rights.

Some 300 residents of La Misère, affected by drinking raw sewerage from the construction site of Sheikh Khalifa's palace, mounted two protests to press for the compensation due to them. These protests stopped work on the construction at La Misere, and could have led to  a final settlement. However, Mr. Michel gave in to the pressure coming from Sheikh Khalifa himself, who demanded that his palace be completed.

What did our Gaddafi do? First of all he had spies infiltrate the organising committee of the residents leading the protests. To stop another demonstration,  he gave orders for anti-riot police armed with tear-gas, batons, rubber-bullets and live ammunition to take positions where the residents were to assemble. They were given the order to disperse any crowd using whatever force was necessary.

These two episodes are good examples of how we should judge Mr. Michel, using the standards he has established himself. His behaviour shows the contradictions between words and actions. The two are miles apart.

Gaddafi has been brutally repressing the people of Libya for years, during which time he has been a friend for Mr. Michel, even paying off arrears in membership at the African Union so that Mr. Michel could attend a meeting in Libya.

"Judge me by my actions". Well, actions have spoken.

Australian High commissioner calls on Mr Ramkalawan

The SNP Leader, Wavel Ramkalawan met with the newly accredited high commissioner of Australia to Seychelles, Sandra Vegting, today.

The visit was Ms Vegting's first to Arpent Vert. Mr Ramkalawan described their talks with as very “cordial and useful”.

The economic reforms and budget planning were their main topics of discussion. The new taxation system deigned by a group of Australian consultants was also discussed.

Ms Vegting also expressed Australia's support for Seychelles in the fields of Education, environment protection as well as climate change.   

A Seychelles where Everyone is a Winner: Organising elections in Seychelles.

The Constitution of our country provides for the organisation of elections in the Seychelles. Its provisions stipulate the qualifications to be a candidate or voter, the term of tenure of office, and the period during which an election has to be held if the term is fully served by the incumbent. The Constitution goes further to give the President the power to dissolve the National Assembly or personally resign, thus to call for early elections.

Many countries have the same system as ours. Until recently, the UK was one such example where the Prime Minister could call snap elections. We remember how Mrs. Thatcher did so, and won after the Falklands War. The UK system has now changed, and instead they have adopted the US system whereby the date of the election is fixed. Every American knows that on the 19th November every 4 years, Presidential elections are held, and on Martin Luther King Day in January, the elected president is sworn in.

There is much to be said in favour of the American system, and the newly adopted UK system. The most important aspect is political stability. There is no speculation as to when the elections will be held and all the parties are given the same amount of time for preparation. No one has a trump card, businesses can plan ahead, and the population is not held hostage by any group of politicians.

When you compare that to what we have experienced in our short history since the return to multi-party democracy, I can only describe it as 17 years of speculation, uncertainty and doubt. In 1993 and 1998, both Presidential and National Assembly elections were held together. But then Mr. René decided to call for early Presidential elections in 2001. This meant the two were no longer held together.

Later the ruling party decided to dissolve the National Assembly. Then we had Mr. René step down and hand over to Mr Michel, who in turn, barely one year later dissolved Parliament in order to get what he described as a ‘serious Assembly.’ The result was the Seychellois voted for an Assembly with the same representation, to the great disappointment of Mr. Michel.

Today the same doubts abound. We all know that there will be presidential election by the month of May. However, three months before the event, no one knows the dates. Just imagine if a football team about to play a most important final is simply told to prepare itself, but the date of the game will be announced later! The Electoral Commissioner proudly announced that his committee would decide on the date since last week, but so far nothing has come out from his office.

The truth is he is also in doubt, and he is taking precautions just in case the President decides to dissolve the National Assembly, just as he did in 2006, after he had made his speech on the State of the Nation. So he doesn’t know whether he will be organising two elections or one. This surely says a lot about the very state of this nation.

I believe that our country needs to have greater stability in the way elections are organised. For one, I believe the time an election can be held should not lie in the hands of politicians. The date for Presidential elections should be a fixed date at the end of the term, and the transition process provided for. And if the president decides to step down, then his Vice-President should step in. The President cannot play with the country as if it is his personal little toy.

It is also high time that our country realises that it cannot leave one of the most important components of our democracy in the hands of one man: an electoral commissioner. We need a Constitutional amendment to provide for an Independent Electoral Commission. Greater transparency is required. It will only give greater confidence to our people in electoral procedures that will lead to free and fair elections.

And so, the people face the most important decision in their democracy with doubts that are completely unnecessary. This election is also about eliminating such doubts in the future, for a system with greater transparency and participation. This is part of the choice before the people of Seychelles in 2011. Let us rise to greater heights. I know we can.

A Seychelles where Everyone is a Winner: Votes Must Not Be For Sale.

Money is a powerful weapon. But it is immoral to use money in some cases. One of them is to buy votes for an election.

I have no doubt that we will see a lot of this tactic. It has been used in previous elections and it will be used again. But Seychellois now know that when they sell their vote, it is bought with their own money. If it is like in the past, the bill will come later as it did after the 2007 elections when the IMF had to be called in.

We can already see the distribution of goods and contracts taking place. The money for this comes from the Seychellois people, in one way or another. Take the proposed renovation of the Social Security Building. In the past, this kind of contract was given just before an election to refund a friendly contractor for a contribution it has made to the SPPF campaign.

When Government money is used to give some things to some people, the money has been taken directly from the people. Every citizen has a right to services or facilities that is available from Government funds, whether it is building materials, loans or welfare assistance. These things are not gifts from a candidate or a political party. They are from the wealth that we have created for the nation through all our work. So, people can accept these things with a free conscience. They should never see this as an obligation to one candidate or a party.

Then there may be money or gifts distributed from private funds. These too, in the end, are paid for by the people themselves. Even if it is provided by rich Arab sheikhs, it has only been provided in return for what Seychelles offers. It is our land and the beauty of our islands and surrounding ocean that are the bargaining chips for this money. You may not have given these precious treasures away, but somebody else has given away things which belonged to you.

Seychellois must not let the outcome of the elections be decided by goods. If a voter is offered goods which he needs, there is nothing wrong in accepting. But it would be wrong to make such things the condition for a vote. Instead, Seychellois should ask what we have been through in the past five years.

Seychellois should see any kind of bargaining for their vote as an affront to their dignity. Your vote is sacred and has no price.

Money has always been a factor in every election that we have had. The ruling party derives an enormous advantage from their control of government finances and from private cash. But despite this, the SNP has reached almost 50% of the vote in previous elections. This is proof that money does not rule everything or everyone.

The vote is there for people to decide the future of their country. People have to remember the past. If they have suffered for five years, they should not forget all of it when some goods are offered. As our well-known Creole saying portrays it, such gifts are only a taste of honey to mask the vinegar of the past five years.

Young people especially must bear in mind that money for a day of fun will not be a substitute for a future. A piece of land in your home country to build your own home in the future is more important than a gift given to influence your vote.

Our people know what is right and what is wrong. I am very confident they will do what is right.

A Seychelles where Everyone is a Winner: Looking forward to elections.

Elections are upon us again. I, for one, am looking forward to them. In the life of a politician, elections are the time frame in which we work. It is true that we must not look on elections as the only thing which determines what we do, but they mark the important steps by which we assess what we are doing.

The SNP has always insisted on the ballot as the cornerstone of our democracy. Looking at the events in the Arab world today, we are reminded again of the importance of timely and fair elections. Such things as are happening in Egypt could also happen in Seychelles. We must not think that they are out of the question. When people are frustrated and their system does not allow free choices, they will take to the streets.

These events also remind us of the value of a responsible opposition. In our history, we have seen that political parties do not always live up to their pledges. Mr. René and Mr. Michel had publicly and solemnly sworn to respect the will of the people, and they were part of the Government, when they staged the coup d’etat.

The events remind us also is that it is always the people who are the principal actors in politics. Sooner or later, it comes down to what the people want. They may suffer, even suffer in silence, for many years but eventually they will say enough is enough and make their voices heard.

Many people are worried about what will happen later in Egypt and the other countries facing popular uprisings. There is the danger that they will turn to more autocratic regimes which will deny freedom even more than the ones that exist today. But what we have to remember is that it is the regimes that exist today that have brought their countries to the present situation. It is they who had the responsibility to avoid all the chaos, by allowing freedom of expression, the right to participate, and by allowing the will of the people to be translated into practice.

In Seychelles, we must look to the will of the people. In the coming elections, they will have another opportunity to choose their leaders. People must know that they hold in their hands the key to what happens in the country later. It is no use complaining and grumbling if you do not then take the opportunity to set things right.

This of course calls for elections to be free and fair. Manipulated elections only give a false reflection of the people’s will. Only a couple years ago, Mubarak was elected with a large majority, but look what is happening today!

So, I hope the people of Seychelles will see the coming elections for what they mean in our democracy. It should not be an opportunity to get some money out of a political party that wants your vote. It is an opportunity to make democracy work, and to decide your future.

This is something that we can all be excited about. Let us look forward to the opportunity.