BELMONT OUT DANNY FAURE IN

BELMONT OUT DANNY FAURE IN

All the President's men.

Rumours that Vice President Belmont is due to step down soon has been doing the rounds around the island for some time now. It is now official that VP Belmont will formally step down at the next SPPF Congress to be replaced by the younger and more energetic Danny Faure; the first designated Minister and current Minister of Finance. Danny Faure is known to be the “Golden Boy” of Ex President Albert Rene and is favourite to replace James Michel as President of the Republic. Faure who studied politics in Cuba for four years before returning to the SPPF fold after graduation is known to be very ambitious and admires the likes of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and apparently worship the ground that Albert Rene walks on. He has a leftist/ Leninist leaning and is not very popular amongst the rank and file of the SPPF. However, with the strong backing of Rene, Faure’s political future is assured and unless Rene passes away suddenly he is expected to succeed Michel eventually.

James Michel on the other hand, is weary of Danny Faure and is clearly not comfortable with the relationship which Faure currently enjoy with Rene. Suffice it to say that the two are not the best of friends and many believes that it is only a matter of time before Faure walks into State House to take up the hot seat of the presidency.

The desperate attempt by Michel to induce the electorate during the election campaign by giving away everything that is capable of beinggiven although at first succeeded in handing him the presidency now seems to have backfired. In an unprecedented move unseen before in Seychelles politics, President Michel was seen on TV every night dishing out Christmas presents much like Father Christmas, in the run up to the Presidential election in September last year. He gave away the following without batting an eyelid in what was clearly a shameless attempt at inducing the electorate to vote for him:

1. Houses costing several hundred thousand rupees for free,

2. Exemption from taxation on net profits of up to R.250, 000.

3. R.1000 to every new born baby in Seychelles.

4. R.100 additional payment to senior students.

5. Abolition of trades tax on most goods.

6. Tax exemption and concessions to investors amongst other things.

All these freebies certainly guaranteed Michel the Presidency but at what cost to the country? This irrational policy seems to have back fired as all the old and unpopular policies of Rene seem to be making a come back with a vengeance now. The dreaded “forex police” as they were known, have been redeployed at the Seychelles International Airport searching for forex again. The price control officers are back on the streets harassing shop keepers again. The Commissioner of Taxes has also received strict orders to audit the accounts of private sector businesses and to scrape whatever they can from the bottom of the barrel. The Tax Office has already started to request bank account statements for the year 2005/2006 from businesses to the annoyance of the private sector that not so long ago was being proclaimed as the motor of our economy. A total retrenchment of policies has been ordered from high up contrary to the advice of IMF and other International Financial Institutions.

It seems that for every step that our country takes forward we take two backwards. One wonders, therefore, in which direction are we really heading, if we are indeed heading in any direction at all. One minute we were told that the government will abandon all the previous socialist policies which was characterized by widespread nationalization without compensation, abuse of human rights and a centrally command economy which clearly resulted in total failure and crippled the Seychelles economy. The government declared that henceforth they will opt for capitalist policies such as a free market economy and free enterprise economics (apparently a favourite of James Michel) which has proven successful when implemented in countries like Singapore, Britain, and America. These policies are also credited to have turned China from a back water ailing economic sleeping giant into a robust economic powerhouse. The next minute the government seems to be running back to the starting block instead of towards the finishing line and in the process sending confusing and ambiguous signals to the business community. As the tug of war heats up within the SPPF hierarchy on who will be our next president one is left to wonder who at the end of the day is more equipped to lead our country out of this deepening quagmire as President Michel seems to be heading towards a catastrophic failure although his brave but not fully committed effort, ought to be dismissed as feeble with no clear objectives in mind.