Editorial

The Courts are the place wherein trials are held

The Red Rag, ‘People’, have accused the Weekly of championing the cause of hardened criminals in our country. The inference drawn from the People is that the Weekly, has systematically covered the alleged involvement of State Security in the murders of Damantra Eulentin and Ricky Hermite and others. Whether or not they were all angels is not State Security’s job to determine.

The Seychelles Weekly takes the position that if the SPPF Government had information of criminality involving these demised gentlemen, State Security or any other State apparatus of the Executive Branch of Government should not have conducted themselves as Judge, Jury and Executioner, if they did so as inferred by the red rag People.

If we are to carry the tag “Democracy” and be worthy of such an adjective, we must strive to become a nation of laws and a people that respect the value of the individual in our society. As such, everyone alleged to have been involved in any criminal action must have A Right To A Fair Trial and this must be respected by State Security. The courts are the place wherein trials are held, not the casuarina trees next to Eden Island.

In a democracy, no one is above the law nor is anyone the law unto himself; not a private citizen, not the Police Commissioner, not even a Judge. The Law rises above us all. When this principle is respected, democracies flourish and opposition press have little to say. They preoccupy themselves with more pressing matters at hand.

A private citizen is obligated to respect the law. The Commissioner of Police is expected to set a good example for all citizens and work diligently to uphold and enforce the law without regard to who the perpetrators of crime may be. Our Judges are expected to listen to facts, apply the law to them and give fair, just and transparent judgments without taking extrinsic or irrelevant considerations into account. The status or connection of the person accused and before the Courts are irrelevant. The judges should not allow themselves to be influenced by the Executive and should always maintain their independence and impartiality. It is only by being impartial, independent, transparent and objective that the judiciary will instill and command confidence and respect amongst the public.

Judges also have an obligation to create and develop common law and jurisprudence in order to have consistency in the law and predictability of precedents. Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. Justice must also not be delayed as justice delayed is justice denied, although some have also argued that justice hurried is also justice buried. In any event, the judiciary must always strive to reach a fair and just balance between the two. The judiciary is not a branch of the Executive. They are separate and distinctive institutions with separate and distinct role under the Constitution. They must always act as checks and balances and not be seen to be colluding or conspiring with each other at the expense and to the detriment of the people, as has been hitherto the case or at least in the public’s perception.

Without an independent, impartial and fair judiciary, our country cannot become a democracy in practice. With a Police Commissioner that applies the law differently to different people (selective prosecution) our society will never become democratic and some people will always be treated with preference whilst others will be persecuted and victimized. In the absence of true democracy corruption will flourish, drug lords- ‘Escobars’ will usurped the role of the police and become enforcers of the law. Such a situation is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to fester and flourish.

We at “Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly”, call on the SPPF to be honest and to put the national interest above all other interest at all times. The SPPF should stop behaving as if we are in a Military State where they are unaccountable and act with arrogance and egotism. If SPPF does not know what a real democracy is, fine, we can sit down with them and discuss it, smoothing out the rough edges of paradise which are becoming so apparent. Then we would not have to spend so much time and effort educating you, SPPF, as to what a democracy is not! It is clear that the SPPF has a warped sense of what true democracy is as Mitcy Larue, MNA for Baie Ste. Anne, Praslin, once publicly defined democracy as “work hard, work harder and work harder still” to loud applause from the party faithful. Democracy, as one American President stated, is “A government of the people, for the people and by the people.”(Abraham Lincoln). SPPF should start putting this dictum into practice right now!