KOZE SESEL!

Seychelles Servant President

Since James Alix Michel got elected as president in 2006 many supporters of the opposition were enraged with the thought of yet another 5 years of SPPF rule, myself included. Nevertheless, my thoughts were that he should be given a chance to show what he was good for and prove what he was made of. I believe several felt the same way wether is was due to optimism or the though that 'things couldn't get worse'. They did.

When elected, Michel has already been in power a short while after his predecessor France Albert Rene had bailed out leaving his lomg time deputy at the rudder of the small ship called Seychelles. Taking command over a sinking vessel is no easy task and to say that Michel didn't know that the ship he now was captain of was taking in water and had been doing so for a while is to my opinion as naive as believing that the Americans are interested in helping out a nation without oil.

Back then, the country was already under forex restrictions and had been for a while, itself a clear sign of desperation from its leader(s). Shops were empty and the little goods available there were at a price that made even wealthy European visitors wonder how hte local population could make ends meet. We can therefore conclude that James Michel is either plain stupid or knew very well about the state of the nation's economy, but led the people behind the light in order to stay in power. Job well done.

With a Cuba-educated minister of finance, the position James Michel had before he was served the president title on a silver plate, the country's true econimical situation was indeed kept hushed. We all remember that many housing loans to the government were reduced, some altogether, in order to win votes. Those who were fooled by the SPPF's kindness knew little that they soon would have to pay interest at a rate that would make them shiver even in the hot climate of the islands. Little did they know that the loans the government that had kindly reduced were financed by other loans. In other words Michel's government had used one credit card to pay another or to put in another way: Borrowed from Paul to pay Peter.

Michel held the post of Minister of Finance for years before becoming prezident, a teacher turned colonel overnight after fireing a few bullets in the 1977 coup d'état and protegé of a ruthless dictator, thief and murderer we all know as France Albert Rene. Michel was in other words a simple common man and thought accordingly, i.e like a simple common man. We have proof of that in our economy as he handled the country's economy the same way many of us would if we were given the his then position. Some say economics is merely addition and subtraction plus the odd percentage or two, which it is if one is talking about domestic economy. You work, you get your paycheck and after you've paid the house, PUC and the credit you took at the local malbar store the previous month what is left is what you have till you get your next paycheck. Michel knew that as he'd grown up in Seychelles and on numerous occasions also gone the malbar store for provisions purchased on credit. So where did he go wrong?

When taking credit from the malbar, he notes the amount in a little orange or red book and at the end of the month he summarizes it all up and you pay up or ask for more. As lon as you keep on paying your credit is pretty unlimited and what you owed last month you still own this month as the malbar never charged interest. Michel as Minister of finance had therefore obviously no clue of the word or its meaning and until he recently realized what financial JAM he had led the country into, he got a crash course in finance terminology. Some say Michel was only the puppet of France Albert Rene and didn't have any choice when given orders. Well, the nazi officers operating directly under Hitler said the same during the Nürnberg process, but nevertheless they all got the noose. If he saw and knew about the irregularities, he should have resigned there and then. He didn't. Instead he took part of it and continued to make things worse.

The country's debt escalated durirng the years, mostly due to loans that were badly invested and some even pocketed to finance huge private houses and private owned farms in Australia not to mention shares in cement factories in Indonesia. Money that was loaned for development purposes was used to build an army, not a well needed coastguard to protect our shores and vast marine territory. Money loaned to develop industry, was used to build luxury apartments and houses in projects like eden Island. As the debt escalated, the foreign exchange reserve shrank accordingly as creditors impatiently knocked on our door. Our leaders, with James Michel as minister of finance took to drastic measures in an attempt to get some forex.

In pure desperation, forex restrictions were introduced. All forex was to go the CBS via other local banks and having forex was a criminal offence. Michel's naiveity, or stupidity, led him to think that the Seychellois would have cleaner conscience than himself and his predecessor. Wrong again! A black market emerged out of nowhere and flourished as it pushed prices sky high bringing the cost of forex up to three times its CBS rate. Businesses had the choice of purchasing their forex through the bank and getting a limited amount out or buying it on the BM at an exorbitant rate and having to push up sales prices accordingly in order to maintian a profit. The alternative, thanks to the government, was to shut down completely. Always good to have a choice, but with the SPPF in power the choice was often between one disease or another. There is of course no need to mention that the SPPF kept the SR at an artificially low level, in fact pretty much at three times it real value, so that the likes of Rene could get more for their SR when they exchanged it all prior to moving abroad and investing it all there.

As the forex restriction scheme proved to be a failure like most SPPF schemes, the regime desperate needed to find other ways to make quick cash so the void spaces could be filled in. Someone in the system had a brainwave that could give quick short term profits so the EDA was set to life, this despite international concern about what kinds of people it would attract. And it did. Russian mafia, ex Yugoslavian war criminals and other low lives with high limit credit cards and suitcases full of USD, EUR etc came to launder their money in Seychelles which offers 'full confidentiality' without any obligations to allow any foreign power to view SIBA businesses' accounts. Seychelles became a haven for crooks, money launderers and other tax evaders worldwide. We had become a banana republic who has to import its bananas.

The SPPF benefitted well from its EDA investors. People like Radovan Krejcir were not only given Seychellois passports, but also other priveleges like being able to avoid prosecution for crimes that would have sent the average Seychellois to a long vacation at Long Island, the former site of the national prison. These investors truly invested i Seychelles by paying off bribes and supporting election campaigns so to get immmunity in return and not least a place in the sun whilst they cast a dark shadow over the Seychellois.

Another scheme to get quick money was selling off land for peanuts. Several attractive plots of land were sold off to foreigners for teh price of a chewing gum at a local store. This giving away of land was supposed to bring jobs and other prospects to Seychelles as its new owners would invest in the country, but no conditions were made and new companies(hotels etc) employed more foreign labour than Seychellois in addition to operate with foreign bank accounts for their bookings and general payments making only 30-odd percent of their cash pass through the CBS, all with the blessing of the SPPF under James Michel as minister of finance and later president.

Then came the financial crunch and Michel found that it was time for change, that the SR would float so it could be more dynamic as we now were a part of a global village. This could now be done with the blessing of Rene wh had stashed away enough to live happily ever after on his ranch purchased with money that cannot officially be acocunted for. It is amazing that a person on a president's salary in Seychelles has managed to become as rich as Rene. The floating SR drifted and eventually docked at its previous BM rate and has since stayed there. Salaries have pretty much been unchanged since the 80s as prices have risen making it still difficult for the average family to make ends meet.

The financial crisis was the ultimate proof of the SPPF's failure and ignorance. Sworn supporters say that it was entirely the fault of the Lehman Brothers, but I cannot imagine that the Lehman Bros ever forced any SPPF official to sign under papers and endebting the country even deeper into the quicksand that the country was already up to its its chest in. Blaming others for one's own fault is a cowardly act indeed as is taking power by other means that through the ballot box. Then again, that is SPPF in a nutshell: If I can't get it by asking I'll take it by force!

The SPPF had no choice but to call in the IMF in order to perform damage control. Naturally the measures advised helped and slowly the economy got a bit better and inflation sunk from a whopping 60% to more sustainable levels giving families some well needed breathing space. Property prices sunk by half according to sources and projects like Eden Island, another SPPF white elephant, ceased although claims that all aprtments are sold are spread to the public. The IMF didn't however help without conditions so Michel had to start a desperate campaign against corruption, the same kind his predecessor practised at a higher level, but that had now reached the lower levels of our society. Every sector of public service from PUC to the morgue practiced corruption of some sort. Who to blame? Well, people do tend to follow their leaders example right?

The drop however that may have made James Michel's 'Bucket of political sins' to overflow was however his relation with his master Sheik Khalifa. the selling of land at La Misère for one SR and the special priveleges given to the sheik, priveleges Seychellois can only dream about have enraged the public to such an extent that Michel has since been balancing on a thin line. The water pollution incident was perhaps the final straw and never before in the history of Seychelles has the SPPF government taken such a protest as seriously as this one. So serious did they take it that several ministers met the public to explain the situation and perform 'political damage control'. It didn't help as the mess led to a lawsuit and a case that is still ongoing.

A sworn SPPF/PL says that James Alix Michel is no ordinary President. His style of Leadership is ‘Servant Leadership’. The person claiming this attacks anyone who questions the doing of the teacher turned presiden and his allies, i.e he is a typical SPPF old school sterotype as we know them, the type that use verbal abuse followed by physical abuse when opposed. Well, two things are well said there:

1) James Michel is no ordinary president as ordinary presidents work for their people, not for themselves and their friends.

2) James Michel does indeed practice ‘Servant Leadership’, but not the type he wants us to think:

A president is indeed nothing more than a public servant, elected to serv the people, even those who didn't give him their votes. Our president is indeed a servant president, but alas not for the people that elected him. He is however the servant of a small handful of people whom he shows a loyalty to that his own people do not have the privelege of being shown. This handful consists of Albert Rene, The Savy Bros amongst others and Sheik Khalifa. So powerful is the latter that upon command James Michel banned the use of our national immigration stamp, the Coco-de-Mèr that is a symbol of our nation and central in our crest. Our servant president is so loyal to his foreign master that he removed a part of our national indentity, hence a central part of us Seychellois.

So folks, an election is coming up and the ‘Servant President’ will most probably be running for re-election unless he re-shuffles his government and does the same as his predecessor by placing one of his trustees in charge so the people think that the PL has been filled with fresh blood. I won’t be, I can assure you that. Put Faure, Morgan or Jean Paul Adam in charge, it’ll still be the same ‘Servant Leadership’ we’ve seen, the same one that has run the country into economic ruin and will continue doing so, with or without the IMF.

So if you all want to keep losing your national identity, see your rights as Seychellois get surpressed by foreigners who will bypass you, see one beach after another get barred off then keep supporting the PL. If you really want to see Seychelles get taken over by the likes of Ramadoss and get walked over by the Khalifa’s of this world, then by all means vote for ‘Servant Leadership’. And if you want to see the land of your forefathers sold at a price that neither you or your children will ever be able to afford because it is unrealistically high as rich foreigners have ‘bought’ land for SR 1 and sold it for SR 10 Million, then go for ‘Servant Leadership’ and before you know it we will all be servants for foreign masters.


Patrick X