The special relationship between President Mancham and the late Prime Minister Gandhi

Letters to the editor

The special relationship between President Mancham and the late Prime Minister Gandhi

Former President Mancham with Prime Minister Gandhi when she visited Seychelles.

Sir, I was glad to read in your last issue your account of the reception recently hosted by H.E. the Indian High Commissioner to Seychelles on the occasion of India’s 58th Anniversary. In that article you showed a photo of founding President James R. Mancham in discussions in New Delhi with the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Perhaps you would be interested to publish this photo taken on the arrival of Prime Minister Gandhi on an official visit to Seychelles as guest of the former President.

Yours truly V. Chetty

China’s ambitions in the region

Sir, I have read with interest in the international press that the President of China will be visiting Seychelles. I think it will get people thinking about your part of the world, and China’s ambitions in the area. We have seen her take up positions at both ends of the Panama Canal, and commercial entities (Hutchison Whampoa) said to be closely allied with the Chinese military, are operating one of the largest container ship operations in the world at Freeport, Grand Bahama, just off the Florida coast. They are also busy setting up facilities at Malta and the Straits of Hormuz, choke points which could be useful for possible future military operations.

Hutchison’s billionaire Chairman, Li Ka Shing, is also involved with AsiaSat which carries the Star television service and communications circuits for Chinese military units and military-owned companies. He tried to buy the defunct Global Crossing which had control of vast networks of fiber cables worldwide, but that attempt was blocked.

HW’s aggressive telecommunications arms is poised to offer services in India which might tie in with efforts to jumpstart competitive services to Indian Ocean areas of interest to China, almost certainly including Seychelles.

Your Honorary Consul in New Delhi, Sunil Bharti Mittal, is also Chairman of India’s leading telecom conglomerate, so it would not surprise me to see some interesting development, perhaps tying in with your IT Training Centre.

Yours faithfully

J.R. Smith

London W1

Well done France Bonte!

Sir, I don’t know whether Mr Bonte resigned voluntarily or was forced to step down by President James Michel. Irrespective, I think Mr. Bonte deserves our congratulations and applause for resigning as Chairman of the powerful C.A.A. I can name a lot of people who should do the same courageous act simply because it is the right thing to do, if not for any other reason. For instance, our MNAs’ who also work as Civil Servants and gets two or three salaries from government should also resign from their “extra jobs”. Is it not true that they are also guilty of the same “conflict of interest” rule which Mr. Bonte has been accused of and which the two professors said were “indefensible”.

What about the people who are in charge of our outer islands but at the same time have interst in the companies building and managing the five star hotels on the these islands. Is this not a conflict of interest too? The list goes on and on and these people know very well whom they are. Why don’t they have the honesty and decency to resign too?

Anna Lize