OPEN LETTER TO DR. V. RAMADOSS - BY PAUL CHOW (SEYCHELLES)

On the matter of your antics and corrupt efforts to remain chairman of the SCCI

In a bid to obtain some accolade in our society, you are turning the venerable institution of the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) into an object of ridicule by your antics with your newspaper.

Dr. V. Ramadoss

I make this statement not as one of the candidates in the upcoming elections for officer bearer but as a long standing member predating your arrival in our country.

I wish to point out at the outset that, unlike you, I did not seek these nominations, nor have I contrived to register a hundred or so bogus or ghost “members” at the last minute and to obtain their proxy in order to vote for you and your minions. In a truly democratic society, this is tantamount to rigging an election because in effect this afternoon you alone will be voting for yourself to be the Chairman of the SCCI.

If you were a truly honest and bona fide businessman in a free market environment, who has made a success of his ventures after risking his own money, accolades would be bestowed upon you by your peers (the other members) in recognition not only of your success but also of your leadership qualities.  This is what happens in a civilised environment of a corrupt-free society.

But you are not a bona fide businessman, neither are you honest. You owe whatever financial success not by risking your own capital, nor by legitimate business means. You have been part of and the beneficiary of corrupt practices by corrupt politicians in a corrupt political environment. Let’s face it you are a front man for a corrupt political class and you have no scruples.

You have built a gambling business through state patronage and in a government building which became government property through corrupt means during the one-party state. You alone could have a gambling license at the exclusion of everybody else. It is said, and generally believed by everyone that the proceeds of your gambling interests have been and continue to be used to finance the political activities of certain individuals and groups who have and continue to deliver patronage to you.

You “own” and manage the only printing presses capable of producing your newspaper, in a fraudulent and corrupt manner. It was previously state property, therefore, the people of Seychelles property.  It was confiscated from the people and handed over to vested interest of the same political group to whom you are indebted. 

Unlike you, I came into business at a very early age (1974), without any patronage in a free market and corrupt free environment. In those days you did not need patronage or access to political influence in order to set up a business and make a success of it.  I became a member of the Chamber and rose to become its honorary secretary, a post I held until I was arrested, detained without charge or trial for nine months and driven into political exile, by the very political class to whom you are indebted.  This was the very class who went on to decimate our successful free market system and instituted corrupt practices on a grand scale.

Today, having recognised the virtues of free market capitalism and as they try to whitewash their past history and image as a destructor of the free market in Seychelles, you are, my good friend, not only an embarrassment to them but also a constant reminder of their corrupt past which they are strenuously trying to put behind them.

Paul Chow