Restructuring or Victimisation?

Over the last few weeks the Government has been laying off workers under the guise of a restructuring programme supposedly on the advice of the IMF. Ministers have been appearing on SBC TV explaining the position of their Government; President Michel as yet remains speechless on this issue. He jetted away to Madagascar on the first wave of sackings and on the second wave of dismissals went on a family shopping spree to Singapore. There is no doubt whatsoever that the public sector and state-owned companies have been carrying a lot of excessive weight for the last fifteen years. It was a deliberate ploy on the part of former President Rene and President Michel to win elections.

Therefore, they cannot now just sack people right, left and centre without any consideration of its implications. This exercise is now looking more like persecution rather than restructuring. The oppression the victims are going through can easily be compared to the holocaust, the ill-treatment of Jews by Nazi Germany. This exercise by the Government of President Michel is grossly unfair and discriminatory in its implementation. The people losing their jobs have children to feed, commitments to meet, such as loans, rent and other day to day expenses. Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly condemns in the strongest terms possible the actions of this Government in the way it has been handling this matter.

In any civilised society redundancies are carried out in a manner that does not rip the heart out of the victims, it is done in a controlled and humane way. Unfortunately this has not been the case here. The process should have been one of voluntary redundancy to start off with. Secondly the last in first out method should have been employed. No recruitment should have been carried out immediately after laying off employee on the basis that their department was being down sized. This Government if it had “A heart for every Seychellois” as it often claims should have waited until the end of this year, 2007, before effecting any redundancies. The budget for 2008 could have provided for the people being laid off; at least twelve months salary could have been allocated allowing the people losing their jobs ample time in which to find new employment.

The manner in which this exercise is being carried out is pure victimisation on the part of this Government and President Michel cannot be excused from it. The leader of his party, former president Rene did say in a political rally in Victoria that Jj would clean up the snakes within the government after the elections. “Ti dir pou annan pa ti dir keler”. Unsurprisely, it came only three months after the National Assembly elections. “Judge me by my actions”. Michel is fully responsible for bringing misery upon the families of the people losing their jobs!

Calling Seychellois Nationals snakes for voicing their constitutional right shows the true colours of the SPPF. A dictatorship dressed in all its evil and destructive values. Restructuring should have a sound, logical basis for all to understand. What is happening at present has no reason, there has been no formal announcement of the government’s intentions or what it hopes to achieve – in other words there is nothing positive in its actions. It should be remembered that one reaps what one sows. This type of action does not reflect well on the Seychelles government and our citizens – especially our children, our treasure and our future!