The Seychelles Column - By Christopher Gill

SESEL POU SESELWA – By Christopher Gill

We are back, in 2010, with greater energy, greater determination, greater support, from Seychellois, and greater fear of imminent change from SPPF (P.P.), to face this era with history, and make our mark as a People, to stand up for what is ours, to stand up for what is, our heritage and our patrimony.

In 2010, I Christopher Gill,  son of Mickey Mancham, a pioneer vinyl record Seychellois recording artist, and stepson of Peter Gill, a founder of SPUP and pioneer in fish export,  say to France Albert Rene, to his second string leader of P.P. James Alix Michel, to communist indoctrinated pupil, born in Uganda Mr. Danny Faure, and to all those who have collaborated in a systematic philosophy of regulating Seychellois to the status of second class citizens, while importing Irish, Russians, Indians, Arabs, Australians, Chinese, South African, French, to make them first class citizens, at the cost of displacing Seychellois in their own motherland, I say to you SPUP, SPPF P.P.:

“SESEL POU SESELWA!!!

 SPPF SELLS CITIZENSHIP AND PASSPORTS

Throughout the One Party Dictatorship and the Third Republic of Seychelles, in which SPPF stole elections through fraud of the electoral roll, the SPPF, then P.P. today have systematically, with great methodology, sold our citizenship to foreigners. These foreigners were willing to pay bribes to SPPF and P.P. and were willing to bow to their corrupt practices, and turn a blind eye to the criminal organization that they are.

To retain power SPPF, now P.P. have had to make “Seselwa Rasin” third class citizens in Seychelles .  Seselwa Rasin today is defined as those who were Seychelles citizens on June 29^th, 1976, who have family buried in the cemeteries across our land for multiple generations and/or those that have a direct family link in Seychelles. They are subject to security clearance, victimized in business and denied housing and proper health care, adequate welfare entitlements and 30,000 of them who now live overseas are denied the right to vote in Seychelles elections.  This includes even our own Seychellois students who are studying abroad!

On the other side, SPPF-PP have fabricated new citizens who will keep them in power, by selling passports, and importing foreigners and making them citizens. These new citizens are today defined as “Seselwa Fabrike”. This new type of fake Seychellois, taxes our health care system and reduces its quality. Seselwa Fabrike overburden the welfare entitlement system and reduce benefits to below the adequate level for Seselwa Rasin. These Fabrike clog our roads and take up space on the bus and in our schools. They receive bursaries for their children to go to university and deny a Seychellois Rasin an opportunity to do the same.

Meanwhile, P.P. teaches our children Kreol in Primary School, in order to slow their abilities and allow Seselwa Fabrike to excel since Kreol is a second language and not their first and only language.

These Fabrike fill technical positions in government that normally would go to a Seselwa Rasin. Hence denying Seselwa Rasin an opportunity to serve his country let alone have a job. Seselwa Fabrike take space on the Providence Industrial Estate which was meant for small Seselwa Rasin businesses. Hence, making it difficult to start a business and compete. Because Seselwa Fabrike regularly pay bribes, they get the land they want at under market prices. The Seselwa Fabrike that pays the most bribes moves ahead faster and gets better service, concessions, favours, contracts and even our sacred land from the government.  They then import more of their countrymen to fill posts that are not available to Seychellois Rasin, and they also import cheap labour so that they can have maids, drivers, gardeners at their disposal and for their own well-being and those of their “friends” in power.  Result is the Fabrike gets richer while more jobs are denied to the Seychellois Rasin!

An Electoral Commissioner Is Not Enough

The Electoral Commissioner Hendricks Gappy is part of this organization to keep the governing party in power. The SNP and NDP must call for his resignation and removal from position as Electoral Commissioner since he is in collusion with President Michel and the PP party, and more importantly, he is violating the Seychelles Constitution by denying our citizens locally and abroad the Universal Suffrage right to vote!

Failing the removal of Gappy, the Opposition must boycott all democratic process until such time a new Constitutional Commission is called to bring our Constitution in line with the aspirations of our People.

This must include systematic, peaceful street protests when necessary in order to send a loud and clear message to James Michel and PP that they are violating our constitutional rights and not governing for the betterment of our people.

The Public Orders Act must be brought in line with the Constitution of Seychelles. Today, SPPF have used a one party state law to prevent peaceful protest let alone a peaceful gathering.

The electoral process must be conducted under the oversight of an Electoral Commission made up of independent individuals who would choose a Commissioner of Elections. The Constitution of Seychelles must be amended to effect this in order that Seselwa Rasin’s rights are protected and not subjugated to that of Seselwa Fabrike’s or to any criminal grouping, be it commerce or political.

Seychelles Bust Sanctions Against Apartheid South Africa

From the early days of when Rene told People of Seychelles that Mario Ricci loved Seychelles and would bring many investors to Seychelles, we have faced the humiliating phenomena of sale of our citizenship to the underworld.

While Rene gave special privileges to Mario Ricci, the Italian underworld made Seychelles its home. Ricci and Rene with Michel’s knowledge and assistance, circumvented the United Nations sanctions and international community embargo against apartheid South Africa by using Seychelles name to tranship oil to South Africa as a final destination.

By running oil shipments consigned to Seychelles, then making onward deposits to the port of Durban South Africa, the Seychelles Government grossly ignored the will of the international community to see freedom for all South Africans, black or white. But Rene’s government sided with the apartheid government of South Africa in order to make dirty money. Ideology was dust-binned and sanctions violated.  Quite similar to Rene and Michel selling arms illegally to abet the Rwandan genocide.  I guess the 800,000 Tutsis who were killed have now become the Jj spirits!

Just in the sanction bust for oil imports, it is alleged that Hundreds of Millions of Dollars were made. While Rene-Michel Government sided with Apartheid South Africa, and kept the economic engines of White South Africa revving,  Nelson Mandela, a true freedom fighter, sat in prison on Robin Island waiting for the day he could be free. In that time, the People of South Africa, suffered the indignation of being ruled by a racist, minority government that had no legitimate mandate. The racist minority government had the help of Rene and Michel. Even Tourism from South Africa thrived in Seychelles while Mandela sat in jail. You did not hear any protests from Rene and Michel. No wonder Mandela refused to meet with Rene when he landed in Seychelles on transit!

Under this period of sanction busting, many Italians with close ties to Mario Ricci in business or family relations, entered Seychelles, and applied for Citizenship to the Republic of Seychelles. The understanding these people have with the SPPF, is that they will turn a blind eye to SPPF criminal activity, and they will support the SPPF and keep them in power.

These people are quiet and prefer to run their businesses and make money off Seychelles while we Seselwa Rasin suffer from their votes, and from their indifference to SPPF policy to make Seselwa Rasin third class citizens in their own homeland.

They run ice cream businesses, manufacturing and retail. They are in the hotel business. Some are here to launder dirty “mafia” money. When government imposes bad legislation that hurts Seychelles and hurts “Seselwa Rasin”, they stay quiet and play along to hurt everyone so they can co-exist in paradise.  In fact, many donations to the Jj Spirit foundation originate from Italy and Sicily!

They “zwe rol” better than any slave could ever do for a meal or a pti payot. When “Seselwa Rasin” call for a room run by these Seselwa Fabrike, they are full or raise the price to 3 times the real price. When you go to their establishments for a meal, they say, ”restaurant is for guests only”.

This has been sanctioned by the Rene Administration and today, the Michel Administration, and the P.P. have endorsed this practice by remaining silent for years.

These ”Seselwa Fabrike “ prefer to have us  “Seselwa Rasin” working and toiling as gardeners, cooks, maids and messengers. Even drivers are Filipinos in their businesses. They do not like Seychellois that are smart enough to see through them. They treat our People as a lesser class in Seychelles today, and this treatment is sanctioned and encouraged by Michel Administration to our indignation as a People.

Seselwa Fabrike look to Zomn Lib as a source of protection, while Seselwa Rasin see him as a source of suffering since 5^th June 1977.  

The Real People of Seychelles, all you “Seselwa Rasin”, I say to you, today in the year 2010, we must demand and fight for respect in our own motherland.  We must tell Michel, his P.P., his fake Spirit and these “Seselwa Fabrike”, we “Seselwa Rasin” will not be happy with only a bottle of Guinness and a reduction in the price of cement!

Seychelles Sells Passports To Hong Kong Residents in 1997

In 1997, when Hong Kong was reverting back to Communist China, the Ministry of Finance set up a trade office in Hong Kong to organize citizenship status sales to Hong Kong residents who were in fear of a mainland China communist takeover.

Countless businessmen came to Seychelles and bought passports from KUMAR DE, an Indian consultant in the Ministry of Finance at the time who worked directly under James Alix Michel.  The program to sell passports to these fake Seychellois (Seselwa Fabrike) was alleged to have been organized by Michel himself, as he was Kumar De’s superior officer. Numerous allegations had been made in the press at that time, and Michel never responded to them. Silence is admission.

Kumar De allegedly collected more than $3 Million Dollars from the passport selling scheme at US$ 10,000 to US$ 50,000.00 per passport.  But Kumar De outsmarted Michel (quite easy to do) and one fine morning, he simply parked his Government Honda Civic at the Stadium Car Park, and just bought a one way airline ticket to India. Kumar De departed our shores with most of the money collected from the sale of passports to residents of Hong Kong who had taken a “nationality insurance” against Communist China taking over the island colony.

The Government of Seychelles never filed any charges against Kumar De. No explanation has ever been given and no extradition papers were ever filed with the local Indian Embassy or India.  Numerous residents of Hong Kong at the time became citizens of Seychelles. One of them had bought a significant interest in Victoria House, the prime office space before State House.

That foreigners had become fake Seychellois, and they were calling themselves Seychellois, did not seem to bother either Rene or Michel as long as the cash kept flowing. They both have of course, remained silent on the matter over the years. Silence is encouragement, or golden for that matter depending on which bank account the money went to!

Meanwhile, Chinese citizens have travelled the World, using Seychelles passports.  When questioned by British immigration officers, these Fabrike referred to Seychelles as “Seeshoo” and could not even point to our islands on a world map when asked to.  Shame on you SPPF, Shame on you P.P, Shame on you Rene and Michel. You have compromised our dignity and pride as a People. But I guess after the 5^th June 1977 bloodshed, nothing should surprise us any more. And I guess now that the Chinese are not buying our passports anymore, land is all that is left and you are on a selling spree to the Arabs now!

Seychelles Offers Criminals Citizenship Under Economic Development Act (EDA)

The SPPF in 1994 passed the Economic Development Act EDA, and announced to the World, that Seychelles was openly, overtly, offering citizenship to individuals, with immunity from criminal prosecution. A number of these EDA citizens that are “Seselwa Fabrike” have made news headlines all around the world, embarrassing Seychelles, and destroying the good name of Seychelles with the full support of the SPPF, Albert Rene, James Michel.

Between the beautiful Carana Beach and the end of the North-East Point beach, we have the testimony of an EDA “Seselwa Fabrike’s” impact on our beautiful environment, where a concrete bunker 8 levels high graces the once majestic Soleil Dor coastline.  It is rumoured by the Seychellois Rasin in the district that the place is haunted and that bodies are buried in the thick concrete!  Thus, not only a mafia graveyard, but an eyesore so colossal that even tourists have written letters in disgust!  And of course, the impotent Government of Seychelles today is powerless to do anything about this monstrosity.

Right next to this concrete bunker at Carana, my personal friend Anne Tirant Janssens niece of Arch Bishop French Chang–Him, applied for construction of a home, and it was turned down by the Planning Authority, while at the same time, her family was put under pressure by these “Seselwa Fabrike” to sell their plot so that the “Seselwa Fabrike” could have privacy when he swims in the ocean.

Shame on you P.P.. You sacrificed the dignity of “Seselwa Rasin” for an arms dealer with a fake passport.

If a “Seselwa Rasin” had built a little shack next to a marsh or a beach, he would have been ordered to demolish the same, fined, and finally, the Seychelles People’s Defense Forces (SPDF) would be brought in with guns and caterpillar machines to demolish the structure. The bill for incidental costs would be sent to the “Seselwa Rasin”.

Evidence of this is not far. Ask Darrel Green, a  “Seselwa Rasin”, what the SPPF did to a little addition on his small take-away at Baie St. Anne, Praslin.

Meanwhile, Michel’s Abu Dhabi so-called friend does not require a building permit and is in the process of destroying the beautiful and quiet hills of La Misere and Barbarons forever by building another monstrous palace on the ex-US Tracking Station site.  A site sold to the Ruler of Abu Dhabi for a measly Seychelles Rupee by no other than our very smart President Michel! Soon instead of going to the La Fete La Misere pilgrimage, the Christian Catholic Rasin Seychellois will be listening to the sounds of blaring calls to prayer from speakers in the Sheik’s minaret.  Our once pristine country and mountainside with all its birds and nature is being raped as we speak!  Shame on you Michel for allowing this atrocity.  At least Rene took 10 acres for himself at Barbarons for SR 60,000. 

Not to be outdone by the Arabs, the Chinese Ambassador has also decided to join the destruction of La Misere and will soon be building a huge mansion not far from the Arab Sheikh.  I guess the ex-Delhomme property at St. Louis was not big enough to house the Chinese Embassy, or else the listening devices must be more effective on top of La Misere!

We Must Cure The Illness Brought By SPPF-P.P. In Seychelles

People like this will never be Real Seychellois and the next government must cancel their passports, cancel their citizenship for fraud and misrepresentation where it is found to be so tainted in the naturalization process.

We must bring back the Land Acquisition policy to correct these injustices created by Rene and Michel and seek the assistance of the European Union to pursue these “Seselwa Fabrike” in cases where their land ownership in Seychelles and citizenship status rest on underlying fraud or misrepresentation in the process or practice. Statute of limitations for such disrespect must be tolled by amendment to the Constitution of Seychelles.

We must not rest until this is done.

Examples of Abuse

My office building, which is an old copra Calorifer built a hundred years ago, was extended and renovated under actual written permission from the Secretary of Planning Authority, a foreign Sri Lankan official of SPPF appointment in 2000. The works actually preserve the building intact for future calorifer use should Michel bring back the coconut economy. I am ready.

After the permission to build was granted, James Michel visiting Praslin, did not like the creativity of a “Seselwa Rasin”, and ordered Planning to issue me a Stop Order. Never did he stop by to ask me what I was doing.

This followed with a Demolition Order, then an Appeal to Minister. Subsequently, an overturn of decision with the caveat that I pay 4 times the fees for planning application, which was never done, because the Secretary of Planning said in writing, it was not necessary.

“Seselwa Rasin” pay and suffer, while, “Seselwa Fabrike” get away with doing what they want in Seychelles. The compounded effect is that we “Seselwa Rasin” are regulated to third class citizens in Seychelles under SPPF and today, under P.P.  Seselwa Fabrike collaborate with the P.P. criminal organization to manipulate the electoral process and keep Seselwa Rasin, under the ground, as living beggars. Shame on you Rene. Shame on you Michel.

The EDA destroyed our reputation overseas.  But even after it was repealed, the effect in our society can be still felt today. Ask SIVA, an EDA “Seselwa Fabrike”, who has been given the high privilege of being made an Ambassador at Large for the James Alex Michel Administration.

The SNP led by Wavel Ramkalawan abstained on this important vote to give way to a “Seselwa Fabrike” Ambassador at Large for Seychelles, although in fairness, SNP did propose that Seychelles’ first President Sir James Mancham be appointed to a similar post.

Since then, SIVA has done nothing for Seychelles. SBC has said nothing. Michel has said nothing.

I have been told US$ 150,000 crossed hands, and was filmed in a penthouse in exchange for the abstention vote. This allegation must be denied or accepted. Silence is deemed to be acceptance.

SIVA has bought land all across Seychelles, using his Seychelles Passport, given to him by James Alix Michel, Kumar De, and France Albert Rene. He has had the tacit silence of the SNP on the matter, while denying millions of rupees to the Seychelles empty bank coffers through land transfer taxes.

Siva was offered the entire beach and property surrounding Grand Anse Mahe, land used for decades for agricultural purposes.  Not a care for the farmers and Rasin Seselwa citizens who live there. However, 3-story flats are built to accommodate the Seselwa like prisoners in their own cages, while the Michel Government tells us there is no land for housing for our own people, and that we have to put them on reclaimed land.

A few minutes drive from Grand Anse, one gets to the ex-SMB Orchid Farm, and once again, the Michel Government has handed this to a Chinese contractor who was supposed to start a hydroponics vegetable farm.  Little did Michel know that the vegetables are for the consumption of the Chinese workers only!  So we take land from our own people and we give this to “bann Fabrike” to work, only to find out that “bann Fabrike” have outsmarted our own smart President once again and just feed themselves.

Then Siva was offered Coetivy Island for a long-term 99 year lease. He professed that he would create the largest tourism development in the region, with 6000 Five (5) Star rooms, an international airport with two (2) runways that could accommodate Boeing 747‘s.   Siva proposed to build a state within a state and apparently control his own immigration, have his own passport stamp (with or without coco-de-mer we do not know), and even fly his own Siva-flag.  Now tell me, where would all of us “Seselwa Rasin” be today with a “Seselwa Fabrike” that SPPF-PP imported into Seychelles if this plan went through?

Because the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Ramkalawan was sleeping on this issue, I took it upon myself to meet with the US Embassy in Mauritius to advise them of this development two (2) years ago. In turn, they did what was necessary diplomatically to bring the Michel Administration to its senses from his brief escapade in the world of Captain Underpants.

Today, control of Coetivy has reverted to IDC under Glenny Savy, a close business associate of the late Mario Ricci and also confidante of Michel. Just like Alphonse, Desroches, Poivre, Platte and the other islands South of Mahe, I am certain that pretty soon, Coetivy will also be sold off to South Africans and Mauritian friends of Glenny so that villa projects can start.  Mind you, no Seselwa Rasin will ever be able to afford let alone go on holiday to those islands ever again.  We are the displaced and the dispossessed, quite similar to the people of Diego Garcia-Chagos Islands.  People of Seychelles, under P.P., we are going around in circles and we are becoming refugees in our own country!

Michel Terminates and Underpays Seselwa Rasin, But Employs and Overpays Foreigners

Today in Seychelles, “Seselwa Rasin” are on the retreat and digging in, because the James Michel Administration has systematically displaced “Seselwa Rasin” replacing them effortlessly with foreigners with substantially higher disproportionate pay that goes beyond any pay scale in Seychelles.  The numbers are outrageous.  The perks are enormous, from rented villas to free airline tickets and paid international school fees.  Millions for the Fabrikay, a few cents for the Rasin!

A quick survey will show us how Michel has regulated Seychelles back to a defacto colony run by foreigners and “Seselwa Rasin” are just figure heads or operate a rubber stamp in their offices.

I will address this issue in future articles as I outline the political philosophy necessary for Seychelles to move forward with “Seselwa Rasin”, successfully claiming what is ours.

In the meantime you “Seselwa Fabrike”, start being respectful to “Seselwa Rasin” and withdraw from any political activities in Seychelles which includes voting and funding the P.P..

You are forewarned. I will present a plan for you “Seselwa Fabrike” who choose to meddle in Seychelles politics in any way.

To you P.P., this year I say to you:

SESEL POU SESELWA!!!     

May God Bless Seychelles and All Freedom Loving Seychellois!   And may God bless us all with good health and true democracy in 2010 and beyond.

Christopher Gill