I don’t know about you but as far as I am concerned none of the declared potential Presidential Candidates who are asking us to vote for them have declared exactly what they are going to do differently from the past and how they are going to remedy the blunders of the past Presidents and governments who have plunged Seychelles into a terminus precipice of no return. The right person however with the right team and dynamic mind-set can pull us out of this quagmire. So who is going to do it?
We find ourselves in an unacceptable situation where the rich continues to get richer and the poor continues to get poorer and our pensioners are expected to live on a monthly pension of only RS 6,500.00. Our nation is rich in natural resources which are being badly managed and given away for pittance, for example our fish in our ocean is being over fished by foreigners and we receive a miniscule amount of what we should receive. Once the Koreans and the Taiwanese ships start to fish in our ocean we will be eating sweet potatoes and cassava only for dinner.
The new President must cancel all current fishing agreements and negotiate fresh agreements which favour Seychelles. There is no agreement in the world that cannot be terminated or renegotiated. Someone told me we must not upset the EU otherwise we will not get any European Union grants or donations. Come on if the EU does not give us any grants or donations other rich nations will do so. Fear must be taken out of the negotiation of anything in life, Seychelles need a fearless President because fear prevents progress.
Ask yourself how come a tin of tuna containing tuna fish caught in the Macarenhas Archipelago of Seychelles sells at a lower price in the shops in Europe than Seychellois pay in the shops in Seychelles. What on Earth is going on? This is an insult to our intelligence, clearly our current politicians have failed to address this unacceptable situation. We have been misled and robbed beyond our wildest dream and now who has the testosterone or oestrogen to pull Seychelles out of the cesspool we find ourselves in while our past Presidents enjoy wealthy lives?
The new President must renegotiate all our tourism agreements because Seychelles receives only a small proportion of what we should be receiving from our tourism industry. This has been known for years and yet not one Minister for Tourism or President has done anything about it, when you consider that tourism is our main industry, can you believe this? What is the matter with us? The problem is we are a nation full of fears, we do not want to rock the boat for fear we might lose the pittance we are receiving while we take our begging bowl to the Arabs for donations. This era must end and end now.
Who is going to relocate the IOT tuna factory out of Victoria to an outer island to get rid of the stench that lingers over our main city?Which other nation in the world would accept the noxious, decomposing, stinking smell of rotten fish permeating in their main city? Why has the present government failed to address this unacceptable situation? Furthermore which of the potential President is going to relocate the smelly garbage dump from Providence to an outer island? How can we achieve anything when our MNAs spend more time walking out of the National Assembly than debating what needs to be done to bring Seychelles back from the brink of disaster. How far can the people of Seychelles be trampled on by people we elect to take Seychelles forward but they end up becoming very rich instead? The people are saying enough is enough.
The past political parties have no room in Seychelles’ future because they have failed us beyond reparation and they have plunged Seychelles into a depraved, debased and debilitating position that even if they keep changing their party name their mentality remains the same therefore their behaviour will always be the same because the mind controls the body. It does not matter how many rallies are held and how much noise is created along our streets at weekends, a leopard will never change its spots.
Seychelles needs a new President male or female with leadership qualities, someone who will do what is necessary without fear to bring Seychelles back from the brink where we find ourselves in today. The new President must fire and replace most of the heads of the government ministries and departments because they have failed us. An in-depth investigation must also be carried out into Nouvobanq where some past government directors abused their positions and establish what really happened to the US50 million that disappeared?
The new President must be an entrepreneur or have by his/her side an experienced entrepreneur who will create a New Global Financial Centre because Seychelles is geographically and perfectly located for 24 hours global financial trading which will bring millions into our beloved country then the new President must create a new Industrial Zone for research by Seychellois Scientists into converting our sea products into medicines and develop the next generation of products which generate electricity from sunlight we enjoy every day and of course fund the new Monorail project which is ready to be implemented.
Our new President must get hold of a copy and read the panama papers and get help from the Americans to repatriate the millions of our stolen money from these offshore domains mentioned in the panama papers that some of our leaders have hidden the money they have stolen from us and this money can be used to pay compensations to the TRNUC victims for the unacceptable atrocities committed by the SPUP/SPPF/Parti le Pep government. The current President and government has violated the TRNUC Law and those in charge must be prosecuted, cadet quaestiobecause our laws apply to every citizen in Seychelles including the President and Vice President.
The new President must issue an extradition order for the two Irishmen who stole our money when they were employed by FIU to be returned to Seychelles for judgement because we want our money back. The new President must also put a stop to all the useless parading of so called visiting dignitaries who come here on jollies and we get nothing out of the charade. We can make better use of our soldiers working in the communities instead of parading with their guns to welcome some useless dignitaries and we get nothing for the charade that has gone too far, a complete waste of time and money to satisfy the ego of the politicians who are here today and gone tomorrow.
The next President must introduce flexitime to overcome congestions on our roads and this business of the Government offices closing for lunch must be stopped. Nowadays no business private or governmental closes for lunch and the telephone is answered up to 4 pm closing time not up to 3.45 pm. The next President must stop government employees from taking vital information home on their mobile phone and not keeping a copy on paper in the office. Already a huge amount of vital public information are missing because employees have lost their mobile phones or have left government employment.
The new President must engage the nation in a massive retraining exercise and make use of people on unemployment benefits and make it an offence to beg because we have too many Seychellois begging outside Indian owned shops which is a disgrace. The training must include management training because good managers are very short in Seychelles consequently we are importing management knowhow from India and they do not speak English properly.The current sitting President procrastinates from one subject to another and lacks leadership qualities, not his fault, he has not been trained to be a leader, he is a religious man, this is why he keeps looking at the heavens for divine inspiration everytime he speaks.He does all the talking while his ministers sit there like dummies.
The new President must privatise NATION newspaper and use the money to train new Seychellois journalists. The new President must also remove tax on overtime and tips. We cannot continue down the escarpment our past politicians have taken Seychelles into, we have to pull away from the scumhole we find ourselves in because we have elected the wrong persons in the past, we have elected people who are lacking in leadership. Leadership training must be made compulsory to bring out the best in our young people.
We need a new leader and the people of Seychelles call on the potential candidates who have been brave enough to want to take on this job to be specific on what they plan to deliver and how are they going achieve their plan. We felicite them for their courage and involvement because clearly they have also seen that all is not well with the way our beloved Seychelles have been governed in the past and they want to make a difference.
Finally how come we do not have any female potential Presidential candidates, only as Vice-President so far? Whatever happened to equal opportunities? Come forward there is room for a dynamic female President for Seychelles.
Submitted by:
Barry LaineFCIM, FInst SMM, MCIM, MBSCH.
Chairman
Seychelles Civil Society (SCS)
The Wishing Well
Anse Des Genets
Mahe, Seychelles
Tel: +248 2515616 (Not for publication)
Email: barrylaine@hpcgroup.sc
