Troukler

Private Business versus Public Business

Two weeks ago the People Plus pulled out their poisoned pens! This was done in an attempt to draw attention from the pressing issues at hand. After having failed to win a strategic majority in the National Assembly, important to their Machiavellian plans of attacking democracy, they now turn to individuals. In true hypocritical style, they now turn to calumnious attacks on representative of the Opposition in the National Assembly. By speaking of personal debt, they conveniently forget “un homme tres peux de sous”! In the same instance, they wish to try and make-believe that the election loss they have suffered at the hands of the electorate is some linked to their warped knowledge of debt.

Speaking of debt is something the SPPF find extremely difficult to adjust to. Figures of the Public Debt, run up by James Alix Michel are a state secret! These are only given in hush, hush conditions. Why? The answer is simple – thievery. Seychelles coffers have been plundered dry by this corrupt government under the leadership of James Alix Michel and his predecessor. The number of white elephants cannot be counted. Yet, although these debts should be made public as its name implies – PUBLIC DEBT; “People Plus” and its sister rags will never, never, never come clean on the issue. Instead they revert to attacking private business debt and private business decisions.

The political meltdown that will occur with the revelations of public debt is unimaginable. Other controversial issues affecting the Seychelles public are also buried as “no go areas” because of the true effects on “Jj spirit”. Using public resources as private resources is an SPPF strategy that has divided this country for thirty years. In this newspaper we have continually said doing the same wrong thing in the hope of one day eventually getting it right is madness.

The controversial Economic Development Act is still haunting many in the SPPF camp. This is a public issue but where are the guardians of public interest? There are none in the SPPF. Bad economic planning and the ensuing ruinous debts have become synonymous with the name James Alix Michel and yet the SPPF, like the “capon” they follow, really are not able or in fact capable of doing anything about this.

Look at the foreign exchange crisis. James Alix Michel goes and brings back a Saudi blue blood to build a palace in the Seychelles; does he think that the giving away or selling Seychellois land will solve the foreign exchange crisis? Not a single Seychellois in the SPPF will openly question this decision. Note that such actions and bad business decisions in the public domain controlled by the SPPF do not attract the necessary and required accountability, transparency and responsibility.

Air Seychelles has undergone yet another re-organisation. This is after it has published its final accounts for its last financial year. No mention was made of this in the supposedly “independently audited accounts”. Where are the accountability, transparency and responsibility that People Plus fanatically demands of individuals, and does not do so of Public Officers, who are supposedly serving the nation “for the love of Seychelles”? On the same note, the SPPF and its political mouth-pieces should really follow the advice of President James Alix Michel; “Work hard and seriously for Seychelles”.

Going on in the fashion they are currently doing does not portend well for the future. In fact their direction is the highly mismanaged 20 year, International Solid Waste Management Contract – the dump site at Providence unfit for the purpose it is being used. Using public resources to make deals among friends is not, to all intents and purposes, sound economic planning. Neither is it prudent business practice. It is time for the SPPF to grow-up. A thirty year learning curve points to a certain and extremely serious lack of capacity. This is surely not through the lack of trying – “You can teach an eagle to soar but, you cannot teach a turkey to fly” - even after thirty years of trying.