Page 4 Last Dice

A LAST CAST OF THE DICE

The ruling party having realised that they have failed to convince the electorate in seeing situations in the country from their perspective will use the festivities during the month of June to influence the people. They are hoping that drinks, food and music will erase the scars of bad governance of the last 29 years. Having consumed the free burgers and booze, I am confident that the people will go to the polls sober with their minds made up to do away with the clouds of corruption, cronyism, lies and all the other bad practises which have been hanging over our heads for far too long.

Mr. Michel during his tenancy at State House has promised a lot: privatisation, lower costs of living, a better health service to name a few. In reality Mr. Michel has only but scratched the surface of everything that he said he would do. SMB will still be under the full control of Mukesh going into the election. The privatisation promised at SMB has not happened and with Michel playing second fiddle to Rene I cannot see it happening even if he is awarded a new mandate. The foreign exchange control regulations will be lifted come the end of the year Central Bank announced recently. Why wait until after the election, people have been asking. “Everything will be OK in two years”, SPPF is saying. The same was said in 2004, 2002 and 2000.

Last year we were promised an investigation into the loss by the Ministry of Land Use and Habitat of 4.5 million US dollars. This money was apparently given to a representative of a construction company contracted to build low cost housing on ‘Perseverance Island’. Information on the findings so far amounts to nil. What is Mr. Michel doing about this situation? Has anyone been disciplined about this loss? Not to my recollection.

The Health Service admittedly got a lot of attention from the President. The improvements at the Victoria Hospital and clinics around the country are marginal in comparison to the publicity Mr. Michel receives on attending these institutions. Lives have been lost unnecessarily and the hospitals and clinics still lack basic equipments and medicine. Morale is still at its lowest amongst health workers; more have deserted the profession altogether.

Having failed on most of his promises, Mr. Michel threw fiscal prudence out of the window with his 2006 budget. I have never seen a government so generous, which begs the question, why now? No it cannot be because of the Presidential election this year; Mr. Michel is simply redistributing the wealth of the Nation accumulated in the two years that he has been President. If anyone of you believes that than you need your marbles checked.

Mr Michel has not done enough to change our lives positively in the two years that he has been in charge to deserve a second crack at the whip. Mr. Michel is as guilty as anyone else in this government for the messy situation in which we find our economy.

Bye bye Jj.