DID OUR CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR FAIL HIS MATHS AT SCHOOL?
Last Friday many viewers of SBC television was left in consternation. If the report had not been entirely in the Creole language, it would have embarrassed all educated and thinking people of this country. The spectacle was the Governor of the Central Bank, Francis Chang Leng trying to convince us that 15% of 100 is the same thing as 15% of 85. Mr Chang Leng was visibly irritated that others could not see the simple mathematical proof of his assertion.
The issue that got the attention of and which irritated the Central Bank Governor, that drove him to the television cameras was supposedly the criticism by some earners of foreign exchange such as the car hire operators, owners of the small guest houses and generally almost everyone who is obliged to declare his or her foreign earnings to the Central Bank. They were complaining that under Mr Chang Leng’s latest foreign currency retention rules, they are being short changed (no pun intended), since the banks would only give them their retention after it had given the Central Bank 15 out of every 100 Euros or dollars first leaving a balance of $85 only.
Chang Leng, as has become customary for government officials since the coup d’etat in 1977, was given unfettered airtime on the State controlled television to refute his critics even though none of his critics were given airtime on the same medium to express their original concerns or grievances in the first place. Chang Leng was behaving in his usual arrogant and unaccountable fashion as he has always done, in the manner reminiscent to the one-party state, critics say.
Interestingly only a few days before the interview, SBC had said in its prime time news broadcast that Mr Chang Leng had accompanied President Michel on a private lightning visit to Singapore which lasted just about 36 hours between the time they took off from Seychelles and the time they landed back. It did not occur to SBC to ask Mr Chang Leng – during the interview that was filmed after his return - what kind of private business he and President Michel are undertaking to warrant a break from their paid employment to deal with it. SBC could also have asked Mr Chang Leng who paid for his and President Michel’s airfares, and whether they took unpaid leave to attend to their private business interests abroad. We hope the Auditor General, will throw light on the matter in his next report.
Meanwhile, there is total confusion as to what will happen from now on with the foreign exchange. Chang Leng is giving the impression that the shortage will be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Banks are privately saying that they are being lumbered with a responsibility of rationing which will make them the fall guys when they will have to say “napa”.
No one we have spoken to believes that the foreign exchange shortage will be corrected anytime soon.