Christopher Gill's Column

With SPPF Our Pensions Disappear

Christopher GillA Pension Scheme System is needed in every Country to provide financial security to workers and individuals who have contributed to a country's national development and advancement in the course of their most productive working years. Seychelles is not an exception. Every Government does what it can do for it’s Pensioners. But how a Government earns wealth for a country to maintain a Pension Scheme is where the lines are drawn between Communist SPPF and the Free Market oriented Opposition. Some Governments have better ideas than others. Some Governments succeed in providing Pensioners with a great living. Others fail and Pensioners’ twilight years become the worst of their lives, instead of being the best years. Our Pensioners count on good ideas to make the economy work and therefore make their Pensions retain value. Bad ideas and mismanagement mean the Pension Fund will become worthless over time. With SPPF, your Pension will disappear over time (short term). You can believe that.

 The Promise Is Broken

What Pensioners must understand today, for your Pension to remain valuable to you in retirement, your money and your economy must also remain strong. If you earned Rs. 4,000.00 per month as a worker in your active- progressive years, and your Pension garnished you Rs. 3,000.00 in retirement, you would want that Rs. 3,000.00 to have the same purchasing power it had when you were able and worked or maybe even more purchasing power, meaning your money today would buy you more then it did when you were working. For Example, if it cost Rs. 5.00 for a liter of milk when you worked full time, you would want the same liter of milk to remain Rs. 5.00 or become even cheaper, say Rs. 3.50 in your retirement. If your Electricity Bill was Rs.200.00 while you worked, at retirement, you would want it to stay the same or drop to Rs.150.00 which would reflect your hard work and contribution to your Country. Every worker who has trusted a Government expects a Government to do you right and keep it’s promise. SPPF is breaking their promise to the Pensioners of Seychelles today.

 Pensioners open your eyes and see the breach of trust for yourself. No invitation to a birthday party and little presents of things you cannot afford yourself from someone who has stolen your good comfortable retirement through his debunked policies over the years, will fix this broken promise in your lifetime.

Your Pension Will become Worthless Under SPPF

The problem today for Pensioners is this. SPPF Pension gives you money that is worth much much less than when you were working. Every month that goes by, your Pension buys you less and less than it did the month before.

However, the President tells us he is committed to a strong Rupee which would if it was true, protect our Pensions value and ensure our retirement after working all our lives. Pensioners want to believe those nice words Mr. President says. Pensioners want to believe that the Rupee will remain strong and all our Pensions will remain valuable under SPPF. In fact, many Pensioners vote for SPPF because of this single promise. The promise is a lie. It is fake. It will never happen. Pensioners have a bad dream ahead with the SPPF system managing their Pensions. The bad dream has just started.

Most recently, the Rupee has devalued almost 40% against other currencies. This means your Pension has 40% less value than before Mr. President was elected last August 2006. If you do not believe it, go to Supa Save, an SMB outlet, or some other retailers and compare the prices of goods. Don’t blame Supa Save, or the Indian Shop keeper, blame SPPF, SMB and their system for the loss of value in your monthly Pension. If the Shop keeper sides with SPPF, blame him too since he has elected to become part of the problem.

Pension Fund Invests Not Saves For Our Future- A Bad Gamble

The Pension Fund over the last couple of years has embarked on a spending spree of investments in buildings and what not, to find ways to protect your investment in the Fund as the Rupee devalues. The logic is this: invest your Rupees in buildings and rentals. As the Rupee devalues, we can just raise rent to offset the devaluation. Hence, protect Pensions. The problem with that is this: it just does not work. Mr. President went moaning about high rents in Victoria and this inhibits economic growth in the Country. Mr. President said that this inhibits small businesses from starting. He is right about that. As rents go up, small business will become unprofitable in Victoria. But Pension Scheme investments will not keep rents down at adequate profit levels required for Pensioners to keep pace with a devaluing currency. The Pension Investment Schemes cannot be used to plug holes in Mr. President failing sinking economy. Pensioners must get best value for investments. The failing economy is failing because Mr. President is maintaining a policy of artificial consumption to prop up more failure his Party must face.

If you do not believe me, count how many buildings around just Victoria are unfinished and un- occupied today. Social Security Building is a Rs.75Million investment, but only a grocery store in it: Supa Save. What’s wrong with Capital City the building opposite Pirates Arms? Remember the phrase “Ozordi Pou Demen”. This Project is over 15 years old. “Demen” has already become “listwar” (History). This Building must be another Rs.70Million investment just sitting there. Those two Projects combined amount to about Rupees145Million lying around in town property business rentals.Mr. President wants to invest in town rental property when we cannot even finish what was started 15 years ago, in spite of not having any shortages of money. Right. If so, this Christmas....it will snow... in Victoria!

Opposition Needs Pensioner Support To Make Rupee Strong Again

The road ahead is a long and hard one. Some Pensioners will not see the end of the journey before the Lord calls them. But for the sake of your Children, who will be Pensioners soon enough under SPPF; we in Seychelles today need to reverse the trend of our Pensions and our Rupee falling and failing us in our moment of greatest need. We in the Opposition need the Pensioners vote and support to reverse this downturn trend created only by Rene’s failed SPPF. Our future has been entrusted into the hands of a group of People who have spared no energy at filling their own pockets at the expense of your well deserved retirement. In the process, they have ruined hopes for a decent retirement for us all. This cycle can only be changed by Pensioners joining the ranks of voices for change. You owe this to your Children and their Children. We the younger Seychellois still able and strong, owe you our best effort to rid our Country of the source of its failure today. However, under SPPF like under any Communist system, we all age faster then under a Free system, so time is not on our side while you decide whether or not SPPF has kept it’s promise of an adequate Pension in your retirement...just feel your pockets after walking out of a store and count how many plastic bags of goods you have. If you are not happy, join the ranks of the voices for Freedom in Seychelles.....say good bye SPPF!

 May God Bless All Our Pensioners Who Value Freedom over Chains!

July 13, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles