Letters to the Editor - Distorted and Confusing Concept

Letters to the Editor

Distorted and Confusing Concept

SIR, please allow me space in your paper to comment on and question, even belatedly, Mr. France Albert Rene’s distorted and confusing concept on how an opposition should behave once it has lost an election. He claimed on more than one occasion recently that after having lost the elections, the opposition should reside itself by sitting on a bench and wait for the next election in 5 years time. Isn’t Mr. Rene’s thinking not only outdated, but silly and confusing as well? Both Mr. Rene and President Michel have the knack of lecturing on how other people should behave while they themselves do things differently albeit ridiculously and shortsightedly at times. Let me, for example, ask Mr. Rene these pertinent questions: when you, Mr. Rene were in the opposition during the 1960’s and 1970’s, why didn’t you sit on the bench and wait for the next election? Why did you continue being active, destabilizing the country by organising strikes, marches, protests which eventually lead your supporters to commit acts of violence like throwing stones at Mr. Mancham’s office in National House and at his car, as well as putting a bomb in a hotel?

Furthermore, why did you plot the overthrow of a democratically elected government in which you as leader of the opposition formed part, as its Prime Minister? And why did you shamelessly lie afterward that you did not personally have anything to do with the coup d’etat? Mr. Rene, if you are honest to yourself, at least once in your political career, you will undoubtedly see that when you were in opposition you were far from sitting on the bench and waiting for the next election. You were a troublemaker to the core Sir. Even though you and President Michel nowadays, do not waste time when the opportunity arises in collusion with SBC of course, to label your political opponents “troublemakers”. Seychelles is a blessed country at this point in time to have an opposition that is responsible and believes in the power than in people through the ballot box, rather than in marches, general public disorders, bombs, coup d’etat, arsons and other forms of violence like murders and disappearances of opponents.

Thank you for the space and may god continue to bless our country and its people.

M. Adela

Air Seychelles Staff voicing their FEELINGS

SIR, I and some of my colleagues Air Seychelles sat and listened to Capt Savy when he presented and update at the last AGM before the National Assembly elections, which in our opinion was a political play.

Mr. Savy seems to believe that Air Seychelles is his and we who have worked many years, some over 30 years, cannot have no say in the running of the company. He is very selective to whom he speaks and has no time for the lower ranks in the company. He has shown a liking for expatriates or people with important positioned families in Seychelles. He plays “politics” when he wants to but deep inside him, he does what suites him personally.

Mr. Savy holds multiple jobs in this country. He is the number two in SPDF, a position that he holds fulltime, gets all privileges that goes with this position not to mention the many boards he sits on, again being paid for the time he spends on their business as well as for the hotel company of Mauritian where he fully compensated for his role, travels to Mauritius to attend its board meetings etc. All this when he is being paid a fat Euro Captain’s salary by Air Seychelles when he does not even fly!

Yes, Mr. Savy, Air Seychelles has and is surviving, but thanks to all the small people with small rupee salaries who put in long hours for the company but who can hardly enjoy the benefit of privileged travel because we cannot afford the hotels as we are not paid in “Euros”! We see you board and arrive with your families from long holidays, we are supposed to be equals, but we are not.

Now let’s look what Air Seychelles Ltd is for. We have heard over many years that we are here to support the tourism industry. Yes we understand this and the reference that we are the insurance policy for the industry; yes we agree with this.

Why did you put up such a fight when President Michel allowed Qatar and Emirates to operate into Seychelles, a position you and your Mauritian Advisors objected to. You even issued warnings of up to 400 people would be laid off; you made representations all over the place that this decision would kill Air Seychelles and its staff. Mr. Savy you were more concerned about yourself and your Airline Kingdom, not we the little workers and you were prepared to deny the tourism industry its opportunity, to which you now are praising with glory!

Yes, Mr. Savy, you showed your true colours, David Savy first above all! We have put up with it because speaking out would mean loss of our jobs.

When you talk of profits, yes we are happy, but what is important? Profits? And at what costs? You almost killed the tourism industry with your childish reaction against Qatar, Emirates and other airlines you continue to object operating into Seychelles. You talk that these profits never happened before, Mr. Savy go and check the records for we were told, back in the early 90’s we had made profits, unless the Board and Government were lying to us and the people of Seychelles.

Yes we are proud to be Air Seychelles staff because we know where we come from. When Air Seychelles joined with ASL in 1988, it was but a small operation with two B707 Super Qs. What a disaster, yes and the EC then continued to sit on our board, oblivious of his past mistakes. Yes there was no computer system in Air Seychelles. Jason Charles would send a “telex” to London to seek a seat on Air Seychelles! Imagine the relief when he and others were introduced to computerized reservation system, etc. and when the check-in at the airport went to computers. Yes Mr. Savy we made all those sacrifices, people like you were trained to be captains and who do you think paid for all this? We the small people with small rupee salaries!!

How have we survived? Through hard work, but it appears you are more interested to show profits at all cost, so that you as CEO can be recognized. Mr. Savy, many of us in Air Seychelles know the struggle we are going through. We know we have serious problems, shortage of spares, no money for buying what is needed to keep aircraft flying safely. Yes when you told us that we were to receive the visit of IOSA people, we were worried and why did we not get the “IOSA” certification following their recent audit. We participated in this audit so we know the position.

Why suddenly do we need to employ 4 additional expatriate Captains when we have the same number of flights, routes? Is it not because the IOSA people told us that we are not meeting safety standards? Mr. Savy we were there, we know. Why do the Shorts, which you made such a fanfare about, stay on the ground more often than they fly? The simple answer is your Mauritian Advisor sees only dollar signs on a computer but he has no knowledge on trying to operate a 20 year old plus aircraft.

Yes why did we sell the two best twin otters for two outdated scrapped Shorts and now we are going back to Twin Otters? Mr. Savy how much have these decision cost us? Please explain to us and why do you still retain your Mauritian Advisor. Mr. Savy a lot of us were against the Shorts but we could only discuss this amongst ourselves, when a decision was taken by you and your Mauritian Advisor, we refer to him this way because he was and never is part of us and he conducts himself in a manner to show he is above us the hard working Seychellois, that helps to generate the profits.

Mr. Savy, many of us will work for our Company but we are angry when we see that some of us get special treatments. Take a look at Captain Jackson. He works when he wants, selects what he wants to do and why do you put up with it? Is it because he rents your house and pays you in Euros, a statement heard from him? You see sometimes we become too comfortable and we say things without any concerns for the feelings of others.

Yes, Mr. Savy, our so called Creol Spirit House, why did we not build our own office? The money we pay every year, would this not pay for our own office or it is, because the owners of the building are more than just owners to you. Show us that it would be wrong to build our own office against renting this expensive place with no parking facilities. Is it not the same issue when we operated the B757 for certain interests in the Maldives and it was after much pressure that you had to stop?

Mr. Savy, Air Seychelles belongs to the people of Seychelles and we the Seychellois workers want you to accept this. Stop saying one thing and do another and please do stop threatening people with political actions!

Names withheld.

PS. Whilst we would have gladly provided our names, you can well appreciate why we dare not do so and we anticipate our open expression will be accepted for printing as a contribution for the benefit of all.

“A diabolical plan to denigrate the Assembly”

The following letters have been edited and abridged to remove the very overt partisan and petty political attacks by the senders. We have published them to demonstrate to supporters of the SPPF that we believe in freedom of expression and the right to express contrary views, unlike the People – the organ of their party, which spent considerable amount of ink and paper in an attempt to denigrate, vilify and defame the leaders of the Democratic Party. Evidently, the writers of the letters not only enjoy reading this newspaper but also appreciate its philosophy of openness and truthfulness, otherwise they would not have bothered to put pen to paper even if it is in criticism of us.

Sir, I refer to the contributed article published in Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly of last week entitled A diabolical plan to denigrate the Assembly, because as an avid reader of all newspapers in Seychelles, I find the Weekly becoming more and more revolting and lacking in savoir vivre and good taste. In fact I may go as far as stating that I am surprised to see that in an age where all social and racial barriers have been broken, the Weekly is taking an extreme right position, which borders heavily on racism, and sexism.

To describe Ms. Vicky Theresine (although her name was not mentioned we all know who your paper was referring to) as a bingo girl with no “relevant education” is both an insult and revolting to many youths of this country. My child happens to be one of those who are under the care of Ms. Vicky as she is indeed a qualified teacher who is now working with school’s curriculum to incorporate environment education into their every day teachings. It takes both effort and education to attain that. And if my child is growing to be a responsible, mature and environmentally conscious person, the right citizen so to speak, it’s partly due to dedicated teachers like Ms. Vicky.

That she chooses to be a bingo caller as an aside job, I salute her, because at least she chooses to earn her living in decent manner, at least she is not dependent on welfare, nor is she involved into shady dealings.

Name not provided

Sir, I am writing to you following the letter regarding the appointment of Vicky Theresine as a proportional (sic) member of the National Assembly for the SPPF and entitled “A diabolical attempt to ‘denigrate’ the National Assembly” which appeared in your last issue. My family are SPPF, but I am also a relative of Vicky Theresine.

To say that the presence of such a person in the assembly will denigrate and reduce the importance of the National Assembly is another racist and irresponsible statement no matter how unqualified or ignorant the person could be.

For your information Vicky is an educated, well-trained qualified Science teacher, and she has not been nominated just because she needs a job as she is employed full time in the Ministry of Education Headquarters. Vicky has always been bright and has always achieved very good grades at school.

Vicky is one great SPPF activist, she has been a member of the SPPF youth for as long as I can remember , she is a member of the executive committee of the SPPF youth council, she has been an active member of the English River SPPF branch. She is the best female youth representative that the SPPF could have nominated. I am sure that you will all be a witness to her intelligence and capacity in the National Assembly.

The only reason Miss Theresine has been picked on is because she is black, comes for a poor family and she is not a lawyer or some degree holder - she calls out Bingo numbers on SBC only because she enjoys it and it is a hobby for her.

Thanking you for printing my letter.

Y. Wirtz