Troukler

WHY ARE WE NOT BEING TOLD THE TRUTH!

All these talks about more foreign exchange entering our banking system from tourism and investors are a load of lies designed by the SPPF to fool Seychellois in believing that the economy is growing. If there is one thing that the SPPF’s leadership is very good at, is at lying to the people of this country. Two examples immediately spring to mind.

One is about the re-introduction of multi-party in Seychelles. Remember what Rene told the SPPF Congress in April 1991, that if ever multi-party was to be re-introduced in Seychelles he would packed his bags and leave? Remember what happened when he actually had to announce in December the same year that he was reintroducing the multiparty system? “Maman” fainted they said. While Ti Klod wondered why we needed a thousand parties.

The second one is most recent it is about the devaluation of the Seychelles Rupee. Did Mr. Michel not say publicly on a number of occasions that he would never allow the Rupee to be devalued because it would hurt the most vulnerable in society? This week to buy one Euro from the commercial banks will set you back as much as SR10, more than 40% more. This kind of lie when uttered by politicians is call demagogy.

Whatever anyone from the SPPF leadership says today cannot be trusted. They will say one thing today and do another tomorrow, even if it is the complete opposite. The same goes for the level of foreign exchange coming into the country. Earlier in the year President Michel was beating the foreign exchange drum hard at every given opportunity and now this drum is in shreds. He even proclaimed that our reserves at the Central Bank, in foreign exchange, had reached a record level of US $ 110 million.

The question which arises from that type of demagogy is, with the flood of foreign exchange entering our banking system: a) why is our local currency losing so much value against the US dollar, Euro, Pound and the other currencies? b) why are we still getting only $400 dollars from the banks to travel with? c) Why has the price of fuel gone up? c) and why is the price of everything going up? Don’t count on the SPPF to give us an honest, straight and truthful answer.

The simple explanation is that the amount of foreign exchange coming into the country through the banking system has not improved at all compared to last year. And that is not taking corruption into consideration. MERP was supposed to “mop up excess liquidity”, they said. It failed because this Government cannot keep its word. In theory, devaluation is meant to reduce the spending power of the population. In so doing it should reduce demand on foreign exchange required for the importation of goods.

The problem is, after 15 years of shortages, reducing importation means the collapse of many enterprises, unemployment as well as inordinate hardships on the low paid as well as those on welfare. The shortage of foreign exchange after all these years by itself has already reduced demand below what is required to keep the economy functioning efficiently. If SPPF had simply kept its promise and had the courage to reduce liquidity, devaluation would have encouraged more foreign currencies to enter the country through the banking rather than the black market, thus spurring economic growth rather than economic recession.

The SPPF leadership must realise by now that policies based on lies is synonymous with building a house of cards. When the wind blows, it invariably tumbles down. Unable to make head or tail of the situation they have created, the ruling party is increasingly resorting to what they know best, authoritarianism, intolerant of criticism and hostility to the principles of an open society. People in opposition are being portrayed not only as “enemy” of the ruling party, but of the state too.

The ruling party have great “disrespect for our people”; they want to operate under the one party rule mentality to implement its policies unhindered. These strands, taken together, revealed a state of affairs described aptly in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, in which the “so-called” oppressed become dictators. The SPPF logic is clear: it claims the monopoly on morality; ideas and power. This serves to make the opposition redundant, according to them.

As in Animal Farm, according to the SPPF’s doctrine every man, woman and child in the country must display unreserved loyalty to them. Those who criticise SPPF leaders have been perverted as enemies of the state, when in reality those same people in opposition are the true protectors of the rights of the citizens and the true defenders of the Constitution for a truly democratic Seychelles.  

October 5, 2007
Copyright 2007: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles