Editorial

Justice in Seychelles? Well, forget about it

Dear Editor,

The recent appointments made by President James Michel of Mr. Jeremie Bonnelame to the post of Chairman of the Constitutional Appointment Authority (C.A.A) and Mr. Francis Macgregor as President of the Court of Appeal prove once again the hypocrisy and bad faith of the President. The man doesn’t miss an opportunity to claim publicity that he believes in democracy and putting Seychelles First. Like always, these words are more rhetorics and not to be taken seriously. President Michel, like his predecessor Mr. Albert Rene, believes in total control of all the independent democratic institutions by placing his party activists and supporters to head those offices. The President’s appointments show us yet again that he places his party interests above that of the country. SPPF is first, Seychelles is second on the President Priority list it seems. Now, Mr. Michel’s party SPPF has control of the Ombudsman’s office, the Auditor General’s Office, the CAA, the Judiciary, the Nation newspaper the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) and so on. The only institution that still exercises some independence is the Public Service Appeal Board (PSAB). The Chairman of the board Mr. John Renaud is known to be doing a wonderful job with fairness and impartiality. I wonder how long the SPPF hierarchy will tolerate this situation before it finds Mr. Renaud too independent for its liking and decided to replace him with one of its own activists.

As for the post of Chairman of the CAA, there were two names put forward: One was Mr. Jeremie Bonnelame, a former SPPF Cabinet Minster as well as a member of the ruling party Central Committee. The other name was none other than the highly respected fair, honest and charismatic retired Archbishop French Chang-Him. If you put the two names in front of a hundred people in the street to find out whom between the two individuals is more suitable to head this important institution I’m certain that Bishop Chang-Him will come out top with an overwhelming majority support. However, this is not how the SPPF hierarchy thinks. It only believes in control rather than respect for the Independence of Democratic Institutions.

If the SPPF doesn’t have control of a democratic institution, then the head of the institution is faced with two options basically one is that his/her contract is not renewed when the time comes and the other is that he/she is put under intense pressure to forcecibly resign and leave, like it happened in the case of former President of the Court of Appeal Judge Ramodibedi.

As for Mr. Macgregor being the President of the Court of Appeal, I really and honestly don’t believe he will continue to run this important institution independently and free of political considerations, as it has been run up to now under Judges Ramodebedi and Bwana respectively. Mr. Macgregor has shown us time and time again when he was speaker of the National Assembly that he couldn’t cut himself from the tie of political consideration and be impartial. He had repeatedly curtailed important debates and questions by opposition members of matters which were deemed embarrassing to the SPPF government. Consequently, I don’t believe this new appointment will change Mr. Macgregor’s attitude in any way in that sense. Thus, I call on all opposition newspapers’ editors to be extra careful when you publish informations relating to immorality and corruptions by highly placed public figures, or else you will be faced with inumerous lawsuits. These public figures will use their favourite lawyer (you know who) to sue you for defamation of character. Then their lawyer’s favourite judge (you now who again) will, without much ado, find you guilty as charged and fine you exorbitantly of many hundred thousand rupees in an attempt to shut you up permanently. And when you appeal against the ruling, you might find out you’re wasting your time. Justice in Seychelles? Well, forget about it. We now have SPPF justice. And you know what it really is all about: don’t talk, don’t listen, don’t complain, and don’t do anything that might offend your SPPF masters …. or else!

Yours faithfully W.J.B