Troukler
NEW GOVERNMENT MINISTERS
James Michel has added three new ministers to his cabinet after his election as President recently. They seem to be in the main, removed from the SPPF political machinery although it is to be expected that they have some kind of political opinion.
In the past, whenever a new minister has been to serve in a SPPF government, he or she is quickly pushed into the central committee and before you know they are to be seen in the district buying opposition T-shirts for Rs. 500 or during the cooling-off period undertaking the new role of ‘taksi pirat’ ferrying impressionable voters to and from a shopping trip to the village corner shop. It goes without saying that they end up footing the shopping the bill. Now, I can’t imagine Bernard Shamlaye or Marie-Pierre Lloyd doing this. I hope that they are some of those intellectuals who recognise when they have overstayed their welcome and prefer to go away quietly.
On the subject of Bernard Shamlaye, a lot of attention is set to be focused on his ministry to ascertain whether he will shake off the political tag that came to surround things educational under Danny Faure; simple things like the award of a scholarship on the basis of one’s extra-curricular activities (translated as SPPF-related activities) as opposed to academic qualifications. I think it is high time we moved away from this attitude, right Bernard?
COMPOL: EXCESS TO REQUIREMENTS
I am surprised that President James Michel has gone out of his way to create a special post of Security Advisor at State House for the former Compol. This post did not exist before and it is now abundantly clear that Compol is excess baggage to the government. After he was unceremoniously replaced by the much younger and more qualified Gerard Waye-Hive, it was the perfect opportunity for President James Michel to get rid of Compol and pay him all his compensation as he did recently for the top police officers whom he deemed politically incorrect. In a time when President James Michel is calling for a lean and efficient government one questions the wisdom of creating a special post with a fat salary for someone who has clearly reached the twilight of his career and is of retirement age.
Talking about retirement, the Employment Act makes it an offence to employ someone who has reached retirement age. If this happens, both the employer and the employee are deemed to be committing an offence under the law. If Compol is of retirement age, is he therefore above the law or is there one law for some people and another for others? At least President James Michel is demonstrating that he has a heart for one Seychellois although the compassion he is not showing for some of the 46% that voted against him leaves a lot to be desired!!!
THE NEW SMB
They say that old habits die hard. This is especially true of President Michel. He had hardly finished announcing the resignation of Mr. Mukesh Valabjhi than he was busy making plans to create a new SMB. I am talking here of his advanced plans to direct the imports of goods and other functions previously discharged by SMB to Spinneys, the Dubai-based company that owns SupaSave. The plan is for local retailers such as Teemooljee, MPS, Mohan etc to buy their goods from Spinneys. The allocation of foreign exchange, SMB-style, has already been discussed with the governor. For those who want to chart an independent path, well they can basically just forget it.
FISHING PORT REPAIRS
It looks like the SFA has finally decided to undertake repairs to the fishing port used by the industrial fishermen. So far the Oceana side is being taken care of but the rest of the jetty all the way up to Sea Harvest looks to have been completely overlooked. If the Managing Director of the SFA were to walk down there personally, he’d see for himself what a hazard it is to the fishermen unloading their catch! So come on guys, get off that leather chair and do something before you earn a victimization label. I believe that when Prez mentioned every Seychellois he also meant every fishermen!