Last Tuesday Night the President of Seychelles, Mr. James Michel, in an interview commemorating 365 Days of being sworn in as President after an election, told the People of Seychelles to their surprise that the economy of Seychelles was Booming and that we were well on our way to doubling our GDP over just Ten Years as per his Strategy 2017 Plan.
In the interview, Mr. President mentioned that our Reserves have suddenly ballooned to $110 Million in no time. He did not mention to us that the money was primarily from a single deposit by a person, buying land in
The play goes something like this: A person falls in love with
All those who have played out this script over the last 30 years have two things in common.
Number One: They think that they can do business with the SPPF and succeed where others have failed. Nobody can do business with Communists. Why? Because they always change the rules. Example: when you start little Seven Star Resorts in the marsh, they tell you the Official SPPF Government of Seychelles says “you can keep all your foreign exchange in exchange of course for your dear investment in Seychelles. Then after you open, they will tell you, “ah, you misunderstood; we said we can keep all your foreign exchange for your dear investment, you can have all the Rupees you want”. This has been the rule for 30 years in
Number two: They think they can ignore the impact of 30 years of Communist Rule and its impact on a divided Country. Of course, they find out the hard way and the education they learn cost them Millions. In the meantime, we get a little milk and cheese or perhaps some fuel which we do not pay for at market prices of course.
No sooner had Mr. President declared that Seychelles has been Booming since 1995 did Mr. Captain Guy Adam from SEPEC goes on SBC in an interview with Mr. Kevin Malbrook and reveals to the People of Seychelles that if the price of Fuel is not increased soon we will collapse. On Tuesday we were Booming. On Sunday Evening we were told we were heading for a collapse. The statistics Captain Adam shot at us are alarming. He said, “I do not see how the price of fuel cannot change”. Captain Adam also told us that if SEPEC was a regular company it would have closed down by now. This is maybe true, but Captain Adam has also gone on SBC to tell us SEPEC was quite successful and its fleet of Tankers were successfully subsidizing our Fuel Bills. It was the first time I heard that we borrow money to pay for Fuel. Can you image a family borrowing money to pay for gas to put in the family car? This is what SPPF does.
Somewhere along the way the Law of Supply and Demand has given the CEO of SEPEC a bad headache. It is not good to toy with Supply and Demand, especially when the Leadership does not trust Supply and Demand. Now the people will have to pay the price for the SPPF mistakes.
It will cost in the Millions of Dollars. Many Real Seychellois companies will closedown. Tuna Fleets will go where labour and fuel costs are more competitive. IOT will give us less Dividends. WE will pay less of our Bills. Interest on our Bond will eat us alive, until we will have to sell our Tuna Factory to Lehman Brothers or some other risk venture capitalist. In a word, the Gloom will be short. Doom will then follow.
However, the People of Seychelles must recall well this week another Election Promise Mr Michel made last July – “My Government will not raise the Price of Fuel we will continue to absorb this cost to facilitate more economic growth in Seychelles”. Well Mr. President, there you have it, an Election Promise: “Keep it”.
PUC sounded off, claiming R. 260 Million to run its generators and a shortfall R 40 Million to keep its operations going. Mr. Afif the new Principal Secretary of Finance when questioned about the Government’s position on Fuel prices danced and danced and danced the night away. Poor bloke, you can’t really blame him. He just took over as PS. It’s not really his fault; he has just inherited someone else’s fault lines who choose to remain silent and fake it. At least Mr. Afif was honest enough to tell us, he will not be the person, making the decision. In any case, the Election Promise not to raise Fuel charges is Mr. President’s Promise to us. It will be up to him to break the promise. As he breaks, we too will break!
On Wednesday SBC aired an interview by Mr. Antoine Onezime and Vice President Joseph Belmont, the new Minister of Internal Affairs. In case anyone missed it, Mr. Onezime had a laptop in front of him, the cameraman shot it a couple of times…Mr. Onezime’s laptop was turned off the entire interview. No Human Resource Development issues for Internal Affairs. Instead the focus was introducing IT to Immigration and selling Passports to foreigners as if it is a normal course of action the Government of Seychelles under SPPF undertakes. The selling of Passports is not a normal course of action for any Government. Any person that buys a passport from a dubious Government under less then straight forward circumstances, wherein there maybe Bribery, Fraud, Misrepresentation, or failure to meet time requirements for Naturalization, runs the risk of loosing the same Passport if a Government changes hands in the near future.
SPPF want us to believe passport selling is normal. It is not. In fact, the selling of Passports has landed our Country into numerous tight spots internationally. The Economic Development Act, 1994, et al, has bought its fair share of embarrassment unto the good People of Seychelles. Real Seychellois cannot be displaced in the process. Do not let the Private Jets and fancy watches kid you, SPPF. While these People have fallen in love with
Since we forgot to say thank you, “thank you Sir for the last 17 containers of food. We enjoyed it.”