Pagetemplate

Is Kenneth Nalletamby making a business out of his past association with DP?

Hotelier-turned- taxi-driver Kenneth Nalletamby, turned up uninvited at the Democratic Party Headquarters on Wednesday supposedly to attend a meeting scheduled for that day. Upon his arrival, he was informed by the Party Leader, Paul Chow, that he had not been invited to attend the meeting and in any case he was not welcome; therefore he will not be allowed to enter the meeting room.

Mr. Nalletamby replied that ‘nobody is going to stop me from attending the meeting.’ At this point Ralph Volcere intervened and allowed the other committee members into the meeting room and locked the door leaving Nalletamby outside. The police was then called to have him removed from the premises.

The police duly arrived and asked Mr. Nalletamby to leave. He, however, insisted that he would not leave unless he was arrested. He was then taken away to the Mont Fleuri Police station where it now turns out a People photographer was conveniently waiting.

Why Mr. Nalletamby felt he needed to attend a DP executive meeting remains a mystery. After his outburst at the Mahé Beach followed by his lengthy interview with SBC, Mr. Nalletamby himself opted not to attend DP Executive Committee meetings, even if he was invited. If that did not disqualify him from being an executive committee member, then his decision to grant an interview with The People newspaper, in the run up to an important election, without the consent of the party leader, should have. It was during this same interview that Mr. Nalletamby lauded his mentor, Albert Rene, President and Leader of the SPPF. After that, one bemused critic had written to this newspaper asking why Mr. Nalletamby did not just go back to his ‘red berkay’ since he thinks so highly of the SPPF.

After the SBC and ‘The People’ episode it became clear that Mr. Nalletamby is somebody with a preference for doing things in a blaze of publicity and in full view of everyone who cares to look. It therefore came as no surprise to learn that Mr. Nalletamby, in full SPPF garb, formed part of the motorcade that drove round Mahé to celebrate Michel’s election ‘victory’ on July 31.

That sounds like a serious offence for an executive member of any party, let alone the DP, to commit, even by Mr. Nalletamby’s lofty ‘standards’. One would have thought that Mr. Nalletamby would have had the decency to quietly leave the party himself. But it seems decency is a not a trait that Mr. Nalletamby is gifted with. Apparently, his cronies in the SPPF, his friends and close relatives only learned about his decision to leave the SPPF in 2001 to join the DP, where he was accepted with open arms, on the front page of the Seychelles Weekly! Clearly Mr. Nalletamby is a man lacking in principles, amongst other things. No wonder his colleagues in the executive committee want to keep as far away from him as possible. The million rupee question that still begs an answer is why should Mr. Nalletamby find it necessary to maintain any links with the DP; a party that he has systematically betrayed?