The oldest Member of Parliament in the region, Mrs Ginette Gamatis, outshone both the Leader of Government Business and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly recently. Mrs Gamatis was making her intervention to the State of the Nation address when she accused the Leader of Opposition of not addressing the State of the Nation in his intervention but rather laboured on his increasingly untenable position as Leader of Opposition in the country. Mrs. Gamatis’ criticisms came after the Leader of Opposition spent a large chunk of his speech defending his decision to engage the SPPF in dialogue. He also lashed out at SBC, the national media, who portrayed him whispering in President Michel’s ear at
Mrs. Marie Louise Potter, who was expected to counter Ramkalawan, disappointed yet again when she clearly appeared to have been taken by surprise by Ramkalawan’s unexpected political u-turn. Ramkalawan who had been accused on numerous occasions of being mpulsive and emotional, unexpectedly pounced on the SPPF. Potter was clearly ill prepared and fluffed her speech completely. Surprisingly it was left to Marie Antionette Rose and Mrs Ginette Gamatis to come to the SPPF rescue. The former rose up to the challenge with an inspiring speech leaving the Leader of Government Business in her wake. Rose presented a slick performance and countered the formidable Jean-Francois Ferari there and then without much difficulty; a marked contrast to Potter’s mundane performance. Ginette Gamatis by contrast also directed her arguments at specific point of Ramkalawan’s address accusing him of wanting the media to broadcast what a good looking boy he is and that everything he says and does are spectacular. This came after Ramkalawan had accused the national media of manipulating his pictures portraying him flattering President Michel in public after he had vouched never to engage the SPPF in dialogue unless there are real changes on the ground.
Gamatis goaded Ramkalawan with taunts like “Mr. Chatterbox, how long shall you live just for you to receive” something which clearly irritated the normally aggressive and impatient Ramkalawan.Gamatis was clearly taking a swipe at Ramkalawan after he voted with SPPF to approve the budget which gave him personally substantial financial benefits in December 2007. His hypocrisy was exploited to the full when he appeared to have resigned himself to the fact that voting with SPPF for the first time ever on something as important as the budget had not gone done well with the SNP hardcore. Mrs. Gamatis reminded the Assembly and the public at large that this is the same Ramkalawan who told the National Assembly that the sum of R. 8000 as salary for a Member of the National Assembly was too much in 1995 and promised to give his salary to St. Elizabeth Convent; something which he later refused to do. Gamatis challenged Ramkalawan to hand over his R. 28, 000 monthly salary to charity if he is indeed a man of his words. Ramkalawan who appeared visibly shaken and uncomfortable with Gamatis’ relentless verbal attack was shown repeatedly on SBC television uneasy and ill at ease. His body language spoke volume and gave the game away as Gamatis appeared to be hitting him time and again where it hurts. SPPF was so happy with Mrs Gamatis’ performance that Affif, the Managing Director of SBC, was ordered to re-broadcast the speech again on Sunday at lunchtime to give Mrs. Gamatis maximum exposure to the public at large. Ramkalawan has only himself to blame for this state of affairs as he refused to stage any form of political protest at a budget which gave huge salary increases to politicians but fail to reward the hard working Seychellois public. His decision to vote for the budget clearly smacked of hypocrisy and lost him the respect and support of his hardcore supporters who have sacrificed a hell of lot for him and his party.