THE STATE OF THE NATION

THE STATE OF THE NATION

We are only eight short months into the new five year term and President Michel is having to deal with a situation which many believe is a consequence of his own actions. During his campaign for State House Mr. Michel gave away everything he possibly could in order to guarantee his election to the post of President. In fact what he did could be equated with standing in Victoria near the Post Office handing five hundred rupee notes to passers-by. This is on top of all the benevolence which took place in the districts, where Ministers gave with the sole intention of preserving power for personal interest. We are now feeling the impact; the economy is in total melt-down. The effect is widespread, particularly touching the lives of the ordinary man, woman and child. The economy is under strain and currently there is no sign to suggest that the over heating caused by the actions of the former Finance Minister and his Cabinet colleagues during the last election will end anytime soon.

Nothing the SPPF has done in their attempt at normalising the economy has worked. MERP has been a total failure; GST introduced to mop up excess liquidity has not impacted positively. The promised closure of resource wasting parastatal is still a distance reality. The fight against corruption has failed to materialise and in spite of advocating a no devaluation policy prior to the Presidential election, Mr. Michel broke another one of his promises and introduced devaluation through stealth, shortly after he received a fresh mandate of five years.

We don’t have to look further than the two months that is now 2007 - to see that things are not right with the economic life of the country. Since January, 2007, we have had persistent shortages of one essential commodity after another in the shops. Ginger, garlic, oil, sugar, soft drinks, vegetable and meat products - ham, hamburgers among others have been in very short supply or better still: “NAPA!”. These are all goods still directly or indirectly under the jurisdiction (total) of the quota system they have introduced for the Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB).

The SPPF have succeeded in giving the false impression that the SMB have relinquished control over the importation of all commodities. They have not! They have simply changed the way control is exercised over the importation of essential goods by introducing tenders and a fictitious quota system. Mr Michel has absolutely no control over this matter as he is not, as it is required by law, the Chairman of SMB. Mr. Rene has made sure that this position went to Danny Faure, his man. Thus denying Michel the opportunity to apprise himself of what really went on at the SMB - under Mukesh Valabhji as CEO and former President Rene as Chairman of the Board. The Rene factor is still in total control over SMB as Mukesh has also succeeded in putting his man, Patrick Vel, at the head of the organisation before his departure. He stayed on long enough after announcing his decision to step down, making sure that ‘Pat’ settled in nicely at the top.

Michel has become a lame duck President in the infancy of his post-election presidency with no control over the two most important element of modern life. The pocket of his people (financial affairs) which is still firmly in the grip of former president Rene through Danny Faure as Minister of Finance, and the stomach of the Nation, again Rene in full control through Danny Faure, Chairman of SMB and Patrick Vel (Mukesh’s man) as the CEO of the Seychelles Marketing Board. The situation is threatening to get worst for President Michel with the coming inauguration of Danny Faure as the new President of the SPPF after the next National Assembly elections. “Qui vivra vera”.