Democracy and the Rule of Law

When we attained our Independence in 1976 we did so in style. Changing the guard democratically, creating new democratic structures for the State and local government, and at the same time we preserved a well developed system of law supported by an independent Judiciary of surprising quality and experience. These achievements disappeared with the military coup and decades of abuse by successive SPPF governments that were determined to protect the security of the State at the expense of the rights of the individual...

Since then it has been downhill all the way. Firstly, a number of atrocities have been committed in a savage, secret campaign over 16 years, the SPUP/SPPF regime sought to achieve total hegemony over the political structures of the country. The rules of both democracy and law were flaunted; the rights of many denied, the media controlled and manipulated and both the Judges and the international community went silent.

Once the opposition had been silenced, the State continued its attempts to control and silence centers of dissidence. One by one the key social institutions were infiltrated and subdued until the number of truly independent social institutions in the economic system or in open society at large could be counted on the fingers of one hand. There were flashes of resistance but they were soon snuffed out.

By the late eighties only the Churches remained independent of the State and able to express themselves in the interests of their members and society at large. The State was arrogant and took the view that at last it was totally in control, the One-Party State prevails at the expense of both democracy and the rule of law - the two great achievements of the liberation struggle the early years of SPUP had promised to usher in. Then the opposition took shape and suddenly the world molded by the SPPF looked threatened and fragile. The struggle by the SPPF against the rule of law and democratic forces took on a new meaning and intensity. In the ensuing battle some who support the rule of law and democracy have been murdered, others forced into exile while others subjected to beatings and worse at the hands of the so-called “forces of law and order”.  All the basic tenets of real democracy have been abused and distorted as the government sought to defend its hold on power with increasing ruthlessness and desperation.

And so, in a country that still claims it is a “democracy”, we have spent the past 12 months revising the conditions under the aegis of the events of 3rd. October, 2006 that will allow our people the simple right they deserve - the right to vote under free and fair conditions for the leadership of their choice.   At present we are still battling for conditions that were ours in 1976.

Even as we have been negotiating the very basic conditions as pointed out in the Report of 3rd. Oct 2006 that should be the norm in any sane society, the regime has continued to pound the official opposition to death. Our leadership has been hounded, meetings banned, unreasonable conditions imposed on other meetings, millions of dollars of destabilization money have been poured into the political machinery for the sole purpose of making our lives a living nightmare. They decided the urban worker was the enemy

Many doubt we will even get to an election - let alone have a free and fair contest. I just want us to be able to vote in secret and without any fear of recrimination, as has recently happened after the last National Assembly elections. The people will do the rest.

As for the rule of law, You must be joking! We live in a society where even if you can clearly identify the killers and link them to an incident of political murder, no dockets are opened and no prosecutions are mounted. Not a single political murder since 1993 has been investigated and prosecuted - not a bad record for a so-called system of Justice.

In fact we live in a society where the whole system of Justice has been subverted and citizens have absolutely no recourse when it comes to the protection of either their person or their property. In 1976 I would never have imagined that we would be in this state of affairs some 30 odd years down the line.

November 16, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles