Political commentary

ALBERT RENE DEVELOPS PERSECUTION COMPLEX IN OLD AGE

Former President and Marxist dictator, Albert Rene, seems to have developed a persecution complex during old age. The former President, France Albert Rene, who turns 72 later this year, has suddenly developed a persecution complex in the twilight of his life. However, he does not feel he is being persecuted today, but more precisely over 30 years ago. The symptom seems to have been repressed all those years it appears.

Rene admitted to this rare psychological condition in a 10-minute speech to a gathering of youngsters dressed in red T-shirts and caps on Sunday 3rd June. The rally was organised by the SPPF – the party that he founded and still leads after 30 years, to mark the 30th Anniversary of the coup d’etat, which actually took place on 5th June. That was the occasion when three people were killed in cold blood in order that Albert Rene and James Michel could become the president of the Seychelles.

According to Rene, those who had persecuted him all his life were first, the British colonialists then the Grand Blanc and afterwards the Merchants (not necessarily in that order). The persecution complex, which Rene seems to have recently developed, is still being diagnosed by the experts. It may help the experts if we shed some light on the reality of the former President’s life that we know of.

Rene was born on the island of Farquar, a coral atoll situated nearly 300 miles from Mahe. His mother was living there because her husband was working as manager of the island. The island was owned by a grand blanc. A grand blanc, for the uninitiated, was a person of white complexion generally accepted to be a descendant of the original settlers of French origin who laid claim to the land of Seychelles some 400 years ago when it was uninhabited. Rene too is of white skin complexion. Indeed, based on his complexion alone Rene would pass for a grand blanc when he was ostensibly being persecuted.

The grand blanc, when they came to lay claim to the virgin properties in Seychelles, brought with them slaves who were people of darker complexion. These slaves in the main came from Madagascar where slavery was practiced not just by the white colonial settlers but also by the indigenous communities established there. Later, other slaves from the continent of Africa were left ashore in Seychelles by the British Navy as they enforced the ban against slavery along the east coast of Africa. Many of these freed slaves remained on the island and were employed by the grand blanc as cheap labour on the plantations. They were the ancestors of today’s inhabitants of Seychelles with darker skin complexion, although there has been considerable dilution of the different races over the last 200 years since slavery was abolished.

Not all the people of white skin complexion who came to settle in Seychelles during that time could possess land, however. These were principally mariners who had jumped ship or government officials who arrived to administer the colonial territory. They were treated by the other white skinned settlers as aliens although some married into the land owning class of the grand blanc. Over time too, some of the children of the grand blanc became economic failures in the society and lost their land through forfeitures to other grand blanc and the merchants. In order to survive they had to take employment either with their creditors or with other grand blanc or the colonial administration.

Either way, they were treated better than those with darker skin who were similarly employed. A white skin ensured a privileged existence and employment over a person of dark skin in those days, such as being the manager of an island plantation. It is not known if Albert Rene’s ancestors became dispossessed of land because of personal economic failure or that they were recent arrivals that never made it in the big league of land ownership and privilege. It is suffice to observe, however, that when Rene was born it was impossible for a person of dark skin to become the manager of an island or estate. Therefore, Albert Rene was born into as well as grew up as a privileged child of the era.

Rene also had a privileged education when he was young. When Albert Rene was growing up, there was no universal free education in Seychelles. Rene, however, received an education reserved for the children of the grand blanc, although he was not a grand blanc as defined by the society of the time. That is one mystery (or myth?) in Albert Rene’s life that has yet to be solved. Perhaps in the last few years of what is left of his life (to paraphrase his own statement at the rally), Albert Rene will tell the new generation how he managed to get a privileged education which only the child of a grand blanc could have at the time.

Rene was among the first group of youngsters to be admitted to the newly created Seychelles College in 1948. This is an undisputed fact. Unlike when Rene started in politics in 1964, there was no scholarship paid for by the government for the less fortunate but bright students in those days. The Catholic Church, which created and owned Seychelles College, did assist deserved bright children who were not of the grand blanc. Was Albert Rene one of those privileged few? Did the Catholic Church give him a privileged education? This is the other mystery (or myth?) of his life that remains to be solved. While at it, Rene could also explain how Joseph Belmont (and many of dark skin like him) got into the Seychelles College while James Michel did not.

After he graduated from Seychelles College with his internationally recognised secondary school certificate, Albert Rene became a student of a private school in Southampton, in England in order to qualify to join the fraternity of lawyers in London to be called to the bar. He obviously made it without any difficulty. Who paid for this privilege?

In 1958 Albert Rene returned home as a newly qualified barrister. Soon after he arrived, he was admitted as a full member of the Seychelles Club, the grand blanc exclusive club. Rene lived and worked professionally in Seychelles from 1959 to 1961. Did he quit the Seychelles Club of his own volition or was he kicked out for not respecting the rule of membership which required members to settle their bar bills? Were these the years of persecution by the grand blanc?

When Rene was practicing professionally while being a fully-fledged member of the exclusive grand blanc establishment called the Seychelles Club, very few in Seychelles whether white skin, dark skin or a shade in between, could afford to own a vehicle. However, Rene was the proud owner of one, which he obtained on credit from a Seychellois merchant of Indian origin called Adam Moosa & Co. The vehicle was imported from Britain especially for him. Like all credits, it comes with the responsibility of repayment, and when you do not repay your debt, your property can be repossessed. Albert Rene’s vehicle was repossessed. Was that the beginning of Albert Rene’s persecution by the merchants? Was that the reason for Adam Moosa’s premises to become the victim of a terrorist bomb in 1972?

The most enduring mystery (myth?) of Albert Rene’s life was persecution by the British colonialists. Throughout his life, Rene had very little interaction with the colonialists. In fact the grand blanc at the time professed their allegiance to France not Britain. Unlike Kenyatta in Kenya who was imprisoned as an anti-British instigator, no one in Seychelles was ever prosecuted or imprisoned for being anti-British. As we saw in the trial of Guy Pool, the British colonial Administration had all the evidence to prosecute Rene as the terrorist leader who masterminded a series of bomb explosions, but they chose not to for their own reasons. Was the Guy Pool trial what Rene called his persecution by the British colonialists?

Is former President Rene suffering from reverse psychology in his old age or from delayed action paranoia? Yet, from 1978, until he was compelled to abandon the one party state in 1992 Albert Rene persecuted thousands of his fellow citizens as the supreme dictator of the Seychelles. Amnesty International has documented disappearances, imprisonment without trial as well as forced exiles. Seychelles government statistics reveal that, net migration from Seychelles ran at the rate of 1000 a year between 1979 and 1989, a huge exodus for a population of less than 80,000 at the time. All who ran way from Rene’s persecution were Seychellois, born and bred. Many were recognised by the governments of Britain, Canada, France as well as America as refugees.

In his 10-minute speech, Rene had the temerity to call on those who complain about the state of affairs in our country today to leave, as if the country belongs to him. This is the same arrogant attitude he displayed during the one-party state. While many become senile in their old age our celebrated dictator, who murdered his way to power 30 years ago, seems to have developed a reverse persecution complex.