Is President Michel Standing by Chang-Leng and Accepting Full Responsibility? 

Two issues ago Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly in a front page article posed the question: “Has Chang-Leng Bankrupted the Country?” – We are happy that both Regar and The Independent responded and have now joined the debate on, who is, if truth be told, responsible for our current economic predicament. Last week in its issue Vol. 17 No. 29 dated August 22^nd 2008, in an article on the second page Regar also posed the question: Who’s really to blame for bankrupting Seychelles? If one did not know better one could easily assumed that the article was written in defense of the governor of The Central Bank, Mr. Francis Chang-Leng. “In the media so far, the blame has been laid on Central Bank governor Francis Chang-Leng, who is reported to have authorized the bond issue. But it is hard to conceive that this was done without the knowledge of President Michel and finance Minister Danny Faure?” Regar asked.  

This is the question we all want an answer to. Who is really to blame….? The establishment has gone dead silent on the issue of default on repayment of interest and principal on junk loan of 54.75 million euros and the credit rating down-graded to SD (Selective Default) by international credit rating agency Standard & Poor. Apart from a brief appearance by Ahmed Afif, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance to explain that the reason the SPPF government has defaulted on the loan is that because they did not receive all the money, diplomatically referring to it as “irregularities”. The question that begs an answer is where did all the money go then, Mr. Afif? President Michel, Minister Faure and Francis Chang-Leng are all behaving like ostriches burying their heads in a sand storm except that theirs are buried deep in economic quicksand with the hope that it will all blow away just like a real storm. Unfortunately, for us this will never be the case. The economic catastrophe will not pass over time unless the political leaders in power confront it head on by addressing the problem with vigour and diligence. However, their capability of pulling the country out of this quandary having tried for the last ten years is seriously being questioned by expert observers and everybody else for that matter..

Irrelevant of who is to be blame for the current economic malaise, the responsibility now lies squarely in the hands of our President. He can choose to protect close associates by prolonging their control over the financial matters of the country or he might choose to distance himself from them. But the people’s patient is now wearing thin. The Comoros islands are already in uproar because of unkept electoral promises, price increases and nepotism. Lest Seychellois begins to have the same ideas!