“STRATEZI 2017” – The road to hardships à la SPPF (Part 2)

President James Alix Michel (JAM) launched his vision to mask the mess (communist policies) that he has helped perpetrate on our beloved country (Pou Lanmour Sesel!). It is not a coincidence that he presented the little booklet upside down at the recent press conference! Unfortunately, this ‘vision’ will forever be totally warped and remain ‘upside down’…

• Monetary & Exchange Rate Policy (p. 24) – Only two lines to state that the SPPF government is ‘committed to an independent monetary and exchange rate policy”! With the present and past interference by government and the totally biased Central Bank governor whose sole mandate is to cover up all the financial follies of the SPPF, there will never be any independent monetary policies put in place. The recent devaluation and of the Seychelles rupee was orchestrated by the Ministry of Finance and not the Central Bank! It is definitely aimed at national ‘decline’ objectives… Forex pa pe antre dan pei

• Mobilisation of Savings (p.25) – One small paragraph to state the aim of encouraging our citizens to save! How ridiculous when the primary aim of the devaluation of the rupee is to mop up the excess liquidity (too many rupees) that SPPF had perpetrated over the past years of economic mismanagement. How can you ask people to save when there is nothing to save? The massive increase in the cost of living has left the majority of the population completely broke. At the rate that SPPF is mortgaging and selling off our country, how will they Seychellois get a larger equity state in new development projects? Tou forex i ek zot!

Fiscal Policy (p.26) – The more you read into this document, the more you realize that this country is being run by a bunch of clowns! They use big words to impress such as ‘fiscal discipline, stringent expenditure controls’ and yet, the holes get deeper and wider. How can SPPF apply sound fiscal policies when they have been squandering millions to keep themselves in power? There is more than 489 million ‘lost’ in 06 alone, according to the auditor general. What does the SPPF government do about this? Ignore it totally… Judge me by my actions!

Government restructuring & business facilitation (p.27) – Bold & ambitious goals indeed but it is geared to serve the SPPF and not the population at large. Government has taken on the facilitator role after it has shared the spoils among its kingpins. Privatization of the country’s assets is being done amongst friends. They vouch to be ‘transparent’ and to ‘retrench’ but the spending spree continues. The recent budget for 2008 has increased, more subventions for underperforming government ministries and agencies… who are they fooling?? Ser sang, les JJ travay!

Civil Service (p.28) – SPPF wants to ‘reduce bureaucracy, improve service delivery’. They have achieved this in a major way with the ‘redundancies en masse’. Fire all the civil servants in the key posts; this is the SPPF way forward to bring about an efficient civil service… Viktimizasyon fodre arete!

Law & Order (p.29) - The Nation does not have “full confidence in the judiciary”! As long as judges get appointed by the ‘yes men’ of the executive, the judiciary will always remain subservient to the SPPF. If the government is sincere in supporting an “independent judiciary, committed to honesty, integrity and the rule of law”, it has to replace all the foreign & naturalized judges with real Seychellois professionals who rise above politics and do not cling on to the ‘whims’ of the president of the day!

Funny enough, not one mention of the enforcers of law and order – our depleted and demoralized police force. Why? Because the SPPF wants to maintain a military state whose allegiance is to protect the perpetrators of the revolution. Si zot pa ek nou, fodre bat zot!

Utilities (p.30) – More power generation using gas guzzling generators… no mention of any implementation of renewable sources of energy. JJ has finally seen the light and more dams will be built! Desalination plants have drained the economy even further, and escalating fuel bills will be the final nail in the coffin. Competitive tariffs through PUC efficiency is a ‘bat latet’ of the first order… We need a government that is committed to implementing renewable sources of energy to preserve our pristine environment and reduce our heavy dependence on oil. But do not despair, we will soon hit the jackpot and have our own oil wells to sustain our vision of the supertankers! Ou ti kwar napa Sheik Kreol?

Construction (p.31) – In order to bolster this industry, SPPF will increase the quality and quantity of active firms! Where these firms will find adequate labor and materials remains a mystery... We will increase our dependence on foreign labor and continue to queue up for cement and raw materials. Gro pwason pe manz pti pwason!

Our third part review of this key document (pgs.32- 43) will focus on the chapters covering more social aspects, which seems to have less significance judging from its contents & skimp elaboration. Tune in next week!! 2008 has started with a bang – more taxes, escalating cost of living & 100% devaluation, doubling of our energy bills…2017-are we there yet…?

January 25, 2008
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles