THE STORY OF THREE ROLLS ROYCE CARS AND THREE PRESIDENTS

Earlier this year, the Government proudly announced that a foreign businessman who had made Seychelles virtually his first home ever since he first landed as a tourist in the seventies, had donated a Rolls Royce to the Government. The Government mouthpiece, Seychelles Nation was quick to quote Mr Alain Butler-Payette, President Michel’s major-domo at State House, that the vehicle will be used solely to drive visiting dignitaries around.

This is not the first time that the businessman in question had donated a Rolls Royce to the Government of Seychelles. The present donation is in fact his third. The first Rolls Royce car was donated to the government just before independence, in time for the President-to-be, James Mancham, to use to drive into the then Victoria Stadium during the flag raising ceremony on the eve of Independence Day.

President James Mancham riding in the Rolls Royce into Victoria Stadium.

That car was a white Rolls Royce Corniche with a soft top, which could be rolled down to become an open top. The one ordered specially for Seychelles had been delayed on the production line. Those were the pre-Thatcher days when Britain was virtually held hostage by the trades unions. For this model, Rolls Royce had decided to invent a new blue colour, which it termed Seychelles Blue. That was a moment of pride for Seychelles as it showed that its international reputation was at its highest. A Rolls Royce car was the most prestigious car anyone could have.

After the coup d’etat Albert Rene, who wanted to cement his populist and third world socialist credentials, declared that he would never use the Rolls Royce which, according to him, was a symbol of capitalist decadence. It was noted by many at the time that it was not so much the make of the car that he objected to but rather its colour. However, the businessman offered to take back the car and return it to the UK.

Meanwhile, Albert Rene ordered a brand new Volvo from Sweden, which was sent to France to be beefed up with bulletproof armouring. This gesture depicted the change of the regime in little Seychelles. Soon, Rene needed more than just a bullet proof car. He resorted to travelling around with a platoon of heavily armed soldiers, a stark contrast to Mancham who had one police outrider in front and a couple of special branch officers in another car following behind.

While Mancham spent his afternoon swimming at Beau Vallon Bay, Rene would disappear to his secluded fortified estate in the middle of the National Park at Sans Soucis surrounded by gun totting cronies. James Michel was one of those gun-totting cronies. Today, as elected president of all the people in peaceful elections, James Michel has yet to shed the presidential motorcade full of heavily armed soldiers that Albert Rene adopted as his presidential style of governance and live up to the claim that Seychellois are living in peace and harmony in paradise.

The Rolls Royce that Rene refused to ride in after the Coup D'etat.