Christopher Gill’s Corner
Laptops In June
The word “desperate” has acquired a new phrase: “Laptops in June”
Mr. President announced on SBC recently that he would be giving out laptops to young graduates. As a token of this gesture, he gave out five (5) Dell Laptops which sell on the world market for about $400.00 and according to him for about Rs. 2,500.00 not Rs.5,000.00 if he went to the black market. Price of laptops of course, is dropping about as fast as our Rupee on the world market. Today, anyone and everyone can have one. Regardless, this is a nice gesture and I thought to myself, wow, the President has realized the value of laptops Great! Our “graduates” can now try to catch up with the seven (7) year olds of the western world that have their own laptops and use it daily to interact with fellow students, teachers and others around the world.
A Conditional Gift
The bulk of the laptops of course, will come in June after the National Assembly Elections, most likely only if his Party gets a majority. If not, the graduates will likely be handed shovels, rakes and hoes in classic communist style, as punishment for not voting for a clear majority for his Party and sent to the “L’Equip lanbelsisman” .
LapTops like Kim Il Sungs’ Gift of Goats To Babies
Having his eye on laptops for a moment, perhaps now, Mr. President will spend $30 Million and connect us to the “Africa One Fiber Optic Connection”, which he could have done in 1997 for only $3 Million. Once this is done, the laptops will become usable in real time and thus effective tools and not merely expensive toys or expensive notepads to take notes on the hiccups shortfall and dips of “Seychelles Strategy 2017” over the next Ten (10) years.
The gesture reminded me of Kim Il Sung giving goats to mothers of new born babies in North Korea to guarantee the milk supply for the babies. However, the goats would invariably die of starvation and the babies would soon follow. Mr. President should re-think his laptop strategy. If he does not connect us to Africa One, the gift will be like Kim Il Sung’s gift of goats to babies in North Korea.
Where’s The Fibre Optic Connection
Mr. President must be publicly reminded, that without the $30 Million fiber optic connection of ‘Africa One’, these laptops are just toys. For those of you who do not use computers, what Mr. President is doing with laptops is the equivalent of giving you a fridge, but you have no electricity to run it. It’s like giving you a washing machine, but you have no water to run and wash your clothes. It’s like giving you a toaster, but there is no flour in the Country to make bread. This is what Mr. President is doing when he gives you a cheap laptop without the now expensive fiber optic connections. He does the cheap promo stunts, we all pay the price for him and his Government not doing what is really necessary.
Cut Waste With Laptops
Mr. President may also consider giving his Ministers a consignment of laptops. Ministries are notorious for not responding to the public in real time with effective “can do, get on with it responses”. The laptops can help Ministers monitor incoming mail and requests and fashion appropriate responses in virtual time. Ministers could then run the Ministry from a laptop and we could move some of these heavy bureaucrats on to the private sector, where they will have to work real hours, like real people and spend less time dining and traveling on the budget of the Ministries, with little regard for the value of productivity in their effort.
Sell Two BMW’s Buy Laptops for School Children
Today, laptops are in use in schools all over the world. Children have laptops to communicate with teachers and other students regularly. By limiting laptops to just graduates, Mr. President is neglecting to bring our children up to speed with the real world. Lack of adequate funding is not an issue. We can source the money from creating real growth in our economy. Since we are about to double our GDP it is not an issue. However, failing that which is very likely, for the price of a couple of BMW Sedans 700 Series, we could buy our children almost 1000 laptops. Hence, give them all a real chance to compete in the world ...that is of course, if you ever come around to connecting us to ‘Africa One’.
Laptops Can Make Communist Efficient At Nothing
Mr. President could also give his MNA Candidates laptops to micro-manage the Districts Sub-Districts, Zones and report back to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Seychelles, in virtual real time to reduce delays and bureaucracy. Then we could get cement to sub-districts quicker to ease cracks in drains and houses. We could get potatoes and onions to the district not having adequate supplies. We could get baby’s milk to mothers in need and maintain steady supply of S-26 Formula for newborns in all sub-districts. With laptops MNA’s could find and locate tin- roofing, timber, nails and organize delivery in real time, to speed up construction and human progress.
This of course is the virtual world Mr. President lives in
Before all this can be done, Mr. President has to fix the economy he destroyed as Minister of Finance and Vice President. That....is “2000 and Beyond him and his Team of self-professed (reference PPB)”Yes Men” who taught us so well how to stand in line for elections and for basic goods we need to live. In their Candidate Poster line up, they seem to be telling us that standing in line is fine ....it is communism at its best...and good practice in case cooking oil ever shows up on the market again. Laptops will not help Mr. President fix the economy and in the end, they will not even be able to maintain the battery packs to play Snake or Solitaire or Dessert Rally on them, much like the Hospital in Mont Fleuri cannot run air conditioners because it does not have batteries for the remote controls, today.
Just Another Election Ploy
The gift of laptops of course, is just another election ploy to lure young voters into believing Mr. President and his team is thinking of them. They are thinking of you. They are thinking of how to fool you and get you to believe in a failed system. Just like when they give out fridges and cookers to someone who until now, has not been able to afford one because Mr. President’s economy does not work well enough for success and material comfort to arrive to the simplest Seychellois. Do not be fooled.
As a graduate, you have excelled in education beyond Mr. President. Do not allow him to turn you into the political bull that will pull.... his failing, political cart. Send him two clear messages: (1) “Your Seychelles Strategy 2017” does not make any sense and we know you are just trying to fool us with your little booklet whose paper and ink is worth more than the words printed in it”; (2) “We want our Freedom unconditionally so we can make the most of our Education, instead of you making the most of us”!.
Long Live All Freedom Loving Seychellois!
YA MAN! YA PAPA!
Could not help notice the “YA MAN”, “YA PAPA” going on in the Political Party Broadcast (PPB). The SPPF call every male candidate “YA PAPA”, and when they go by they say to each other “YA MAN”! Pemba Choppy will have a hard time enlarging our Kreol Dictionary in her next kolok!
“YA PAPA” of course, is a term of endearment Mr. Wavel Ramkalawan asserts is his little name the Pti Men refer to him as. He has taken offense to the SPPF calling all their male candidates the same. He claims a copyright on “YA PAPA”. Sounds like a lawsuit is in the making.
For, whatever you call an MNA, it is important to remember he or she will be an Honorable member of the National Assembly when elected. At that point, we will have to drop the YA and replace it with “Honorable PAPA” or “Honorable MAN”. This in itself gives you a good in sight as to who you must vote for. Vote for the person most likely to retain some honor while executing his or her duties.
Honor means siding with truth. This cannot be any SPPF candidate. In their Political Party Broadcasts (PPB), they are all in denial like their leaders, as to the true state of the affairs of our Country and our economy. To side with Truth, all candidates must be willing to oppose ill-thought of ideas. SPPF candidates have already said they will be siding with the Executive Branch of Government to get things done. That works well in a Dictatorship, but becomes dysfunctional in a multi-party democracy.
The Assembly is there to Check and Balance every move the Executive Branch of Government makes. This keeps the Executive Branch honest. It is not there to conspire with the Executive Branch of Government to decide for themselves how things should be done. This approach does not work in the People’s interest. This the great deception the SPPF have presented in PPBs from the start of this Election campaign. They are in fact banking on one point: People of Seychelles Do Not Understand What a Democracy Is! That is why Rene misinterprets the role of the Opposition in countries like UK, Australia and even Singapore. He thinks the Opposition belongs on a bench. This is hardly a reflection of the reality of any country. Mr. Rene’s instinct for democracy is as dull as those stone axes from the Chrome Magnum Era.
We must show them otherwise!
Behind The Lap Tops
Space95 Gets Vendor Contract
The announcement that Space95, the distributor for Dell Computers, would be importing the laptops for Mr. President’s gift to graduates was announced without any bidding procedure for Tender of Contract being made public. They did say they negotiated a bulk price. The decision as to which company would import the laptops had already been made behind closed doors. If this is the case, it is very undemocratic and shows lack of transparency in spending the people’s money. This is not the first time Space95 is involved in supplying Government without Bidding or Tender procedures being followed.
R25 Million Electronic Government Fiasco
Remember the SR 25 Million “Electronic - Government Project” fiasco. This Project had huge overruns and was nothing short of a disaster. Ministry of Information Technology has taken over the dossier to make some sense of it. Mr. Ben Choppy (Director General of MIIT) is doing his best to put all the mumbo jumbo together. Thank you Ben, keep up the hard work! They have had to change the computer language and Space95 project has been scraped. To date, we have not seen anything by way of Electronic Government to the People, maybe by 2017 where all the promises have been stacked or 2020, we will be able to download an application for a driver’s license from a computer. In the meantime, we pay the price for SPPF waste of our money and failure.
Space 95 is the sole vendor awarded the contract to import laptops for graduates.
Governor Involved As A Rep?
The Director of Space 95, Mr.Bernard Moutia, is the brother in law of the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Francis Chang Leng. Space95 was created from the defunct SPACE Company; Bernard Moutia and Francis Chang Leng have been involved in the effort. Chang Leng represents a company called Charms Pty., holds 890 shares of Space95. Moutia holds 110. Space95 has sold an undetermined amount of computers and software to the Government of Seychelles without bidding procedures being followed.
Where Is The Money
Another point for the Notepad is that the announced price is SR. 2,500.00- 3,000 per laptop. This represents 25% of the cost of the items per unit on the market in Seychelles. Market price will range from Rupees 10,000.00 - SR 14,000.00. Where does all that excess money go? To Boardwalk or Park Avenue (verbal pun from Monopoly) or just to some “space in thin air”?
Jumping The Pipeline
Finally, with the backlog on foreign exchange and pipeline exceeding $75Million, it would be interesting to know where would SPACE95 get the foreign exchange for the purchase. Perhaps from the Central Bank, through the Governor of the same Bank? If so, how convenient an arrangement in the interest of graduates and some business interests of course. Only issue in my mind is who comes first in this deal; the graduates or the business interests?
Just Give Us Money
Instead of giving the graduates laptops of Space95 choosing, why don’t you just give the graduates and all the children of Seychelles and all teachers the foreign exchange so they can go buy whatever they want. After all, DELL COMPUTER is not doing too well and is unlikely to survive much longer as a computer manufacturer. In three years time, where will our graduates find the parts for the computers to maintain them...in the back pages of “Strategy 2017” or the landfill at Anse Royale, our second town with exclusive compliments to SPPF.
