IN his valedictory speech after his inaugural in 2006, President Michel claimed he considered himself President of all the people of Seychelles. Most of us on this side of the political fence (DP) know that from our point of view this cannot and will never be true until he publicly says sorry to the nation as a whole for the actions he took on 5th June 1977. For James Michel owes his political career, not from the mandates of his people but from the barrel of an AK-47 on 5th June 2007.
That act did not signify courage, bravery or fortitude. It was an act of treachery against the nation and the people of Seychelles, and it will remain so forever regardless what the official propaganda says. All traitors are cowards. Today, as he laments about the virtue of our Constitution, Michel forgets that the action he took with an AK-47 on 5th June 1977, which resulted on the tearing up of our country's constitution of the day, makes his lamentations hypocritical mutterings.
Let us examine what happened after 5th June 1977. On the 5th of June 1977, there were no celebrations in the streets. There was instead a curfew, enforced by marauding gangs sporting AK-47 and other guns captured from the police armoury. It was only on the Tuesday, two days after the event, that the people were allowed to circulate, but only for twelve hours. 5th of June, 1977 was a nightmare for all the people of Seychelles. It was the day they lost their freedom of movement, speech, assembly, association and even religion for the curfew stopped everyone from going to church. These very fundamental rights had been guaranteed by the Constitution that was torn up with an AK-47.
On the day itself a number of people were murdered. It included the police officer on the beat, Berard Jeannie, at the police armoury at Mont Fleuri. He was unarmed and was doing his duty to his country. He was the real hero of the day, not Francis Rachel, who was part of the gang that killed Jeannie. How Rachel died and who shot him only James Michel can tell us because he was there.
The other victim was Davidson (Son) Chang Him, brother of the former Archbishop of the Anglican Church. He too was unarmed and was no threat to anyone. His only crime was being an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party. He was shot in the back on the steps of the Police Headquarters. Chang Him was a family man with 4 young children.
More people were to lose their lives in subsequent 15 years of the one-party dictatorship that was imposed on us by the barrel of an AK-47. These have been documented by Amnesty International. But more importantly for thousands of people, was the disruption to their lives the coup d'état caused. The one-party state imposed arbitrary rule by the SPPF party. This caused nearly ten thousand people to vote with their feet and leave the country. They were, for the most part, the best and the brightest of our nation. We are now living with the consequences as we rely on foreigners to undertake even some of the menial tasks.
Those who stayed behind or were unable to run did not fare any better regardless what their original political affiliations were. 32 years later, the fruits of the regime that James Michel helped to impose on his people from the barrel of an AK-47 on 5th June, 1977, are today coming to their full realisation. We now realise too, that most of the time they were bitter pills pushed down our throats with sweeteners. Yet, more money has been spent by the SPPF as the government in the last 32 years since 1977 than was spent by all the people in the 207 years since the first settlement in 1770.
This statement is not to pour salt on an old wound. Our purpose is to show just how deep the wound is. Indeed every time James Michel leads his ministers to lay wreaths at the Zonm Lib monument, he is pouring salt on that wound. Albert Rene, Mr Michel's predecessor and mentor, had an opportunity in 1993 to heal this wound. The nation remembered vividly how, during the televised Constitutional Commission hearings, the late Bishop Felix Paul, exhorted Rene to say sorry. Bishop Paul remarked that one cannot expect forgiveness if one is not prepared to say sorry. But Rene did not have the courage to say sorry and he probably never will.
The Democratic Party does not believe that all those who voted with their feet were adherents of our party. But it is worth remembering that the coup d'état did not just deprive our party the right of existence for 15 years but also all the guaranteed freedoms which today Michel and others, speaking for the SPPF, are telling us are sacrosanct. These freedoms are universal values. They were true then just as they are true now.
I, therefore, exhort James Michel to garner up enough courage to say sorry for the sufferings that his actions on 5th June 1977 caused to the thousands of our fellow citizens. As a French writer once said, “More men are guilty of treachery through weakness than through a studied design to betray”. Some of the many dimensions of courage include the courage to face reality, the courage to apologise and the courage to forgive.
I believe I and many of my fellow countrymen have the courage to forgive. Now is the time for James Michel and the SPPF to have the courage to apologise.
