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.
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