EDITORIAL

Heads of Commonwealth Meet

This past week, Queen Elizabeth II met with heads of the Commonwealth States in Kampala, Uganda. In the meeting, the Commonwealth suspended Pakistan again for misbehaving and mistreating of its citizens and not taking steps to ensure true democracy takes root in Pakistan. It will be a lonely few years for President Musharaf, if he last that long.

In her opening speech at the Heads of States Commonwealth Conference, Queen Elizabeth II reminded the Heads of States, many who are not revered for respecting the rule of law or enshrining true democracy, the value of nurturing true democratic institutions, establishing greater openness and enshrining respect for fundamental human rights in their respective countries.

We, at Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly, applaud the Queen’s comments on enshrining democracy and democratic values in all the Commonwealth States. However, we do not believe Queen Elizabeth II was referring to having the People’s Republic of China building National Assembly buildings for Commonwealth State members, as is the case in the Seychelles today. There is a line we cross when we are too pragmatic...we end up being “dogmatic”, in pure communist style. We trust the Commonwealth will register its disapproval of such an outrageous act welcomed by the SPPF in Seychelles today without regard for the 46% of the population that voted against them in the last Elections.

The SPPF Government has made no distinction between trading goods with China and trading our democratic symbols of State. While we must and should trade in goods with China like most of the world, we must not wholesale our democratic symbols and institution no matter how small we may be. It is in this line of thought that we must not allow China to interfere in Seychelles domestic-internal affairs. China says it gives aid to Seychelles out of friendship. If so, why does it not finance causes of the Opposition, like a printing press for instance which is badly needed, since SPPF took the government printing press and sold it to itself at the return of multi party politics to Seychelles in 1992. A very uneven hand has been dealt indeed. The Paris Club should table that issue the next time Michel asks for debt forgiveness or he makes a delay in settling arrears. Give back the printing press and print everything, without censoring just about everything.

At the next Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting, President Michel may stand up, give a Speech to the Queen and all others present, and say, “in Seychelles, we have adopted a new approach to enshrining democratic institutions in our Country, we make Communist China build everything and it works”. Then the Queen may want to consider Michel for a knighthood for bringing the democratic free world together with the dogmatic communist world...in Seychelles. How pragmatic!

In all seriousness, the Commonwealth should take a closer look at what is happening in Seychelles. The new British High Commissioner, His Excellency Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, will have a full plate while posted here.

The Queen scolded some of the leaders, and told them to treat those under them the way they would like to be treated as well. We do hope Mr. President Michel heard those appropriate words of advice from the Queen of England, the Head of The Commonwealth. We look forward to being treated with some fairness by the establishment and the gang. If the Public has any complaints of mistreatment, they must contact the Seychelles Weekly. We will do our best on our end, as a responsible journal, to get to the bottom of it. This is part of our motto of “Putting Seychellois First”.