Seychelles: Reshuffling the Cabinet into a circle
It is evident, starting from the Presidential elections of 2006, the events of October 3, 2006, the State of the Nation address and concluding in the National Assembly elections of 2007, that the experiment of building a democracy within the framework of a mixed economy, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-party society has failed in Seychelles. Instead of encouraging Seychellois to walk the path of democracy and move to a new dispensation free of poverty, ignorance, intolerance, disease and the threat of state tyranny, Seychelles current President, James Alix Michel, seems determined to undermine the interests that inform any progressive nation.
The journey that Seychelles is supposed to travel under the stewardship of President James Alix Michel, judging from his address on 18 June 2007, was expected to be an exciting journey full of challenges and opportunities. The restoration of sovereignty to the people of Seychelles at independence (June 29) was surely meant to ensure that citizens would never again be victims of their own creation i.e. the One-Party state, Second Republic. Events in Seychelles are speedily proving otherwise. The Constitution is being trampled underfoot, whilst economic chaos beckons on the horizon.
The business climate is negative. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and other events of the late 1980s and early 1990s may have proved to countries like India and Vietnam once and for all that capitalism was a better system than socialism/communism, but it appears that these events did nothing to settle the debate about which model is best suited to Seychelles. Rather than learn from her peers and neighbors, the Government of Seychelles skirts around issues of democracy, accountability and transparency with lip-service arguments and no action at all.
At the time of India’s independence, the UK government was socialist and there was widespread belief (like in Seychelles and others in the non-aligned movement) that the state could bring greater prosperity to the working people and the wider population if it controlled the means of production. We now know that after many attempts around the globe, that governments are not actually good at running anything or protecting the interests of the vulnerable and poor. In the UK, it took about 30 years before the winter of discontent and a realization that there was a better way of running a country. This has been proven in countries like China and India. It is only through genuine policy shifts that Governments can make a positive difference on their nation.
It is clear that the SPPF will not accept that at the core of the Seychelles problem is policy bankruptcy and lack of leadership. However, from a national perspective it is important that Seychellois bite the bullet and have the courage to say: “enough is enough”. Seychelles needs its government activities at all levels to become known for efficiency, integrity, meritocracy and transparency. This requires new and strong leadership to achieve. For the past 30 years, Seychelles has failed to produce such leadership and the scale of the challenge is such that no one in SPPF is up to the task. The recent cabinet reshuffles serves to emphasise the nightmare of the reality that Seychelles faces. Our government is going around in circles with no beginning or end in sight.
