TWO SEYCHELLES

IT is now a matter of several months since the last National Assembly Election and more than a year since the last Presidential Election. The Government says everything is going well. The Oppositions says that few things are better and most are awful. Yet, neither of them reflects the concerns of a great number of the public who are becoming increasingly disenchanted with partisan politics. Political apathy is clearly not a cause but a consequence of a person’s lack of active participation in public life.

With the announcement of massive investments in the hotels and resorts sector, the tourism industry appears to be better than ever before. However, there is a talk about less tuna being caught which is rather disturbing. The projected economic indicators seem to be healthy with the Ministry of Finance projecting the thought that one day, sooner rather than later, we would be out of the forex quagmire. But, this coming wealth, the Oppositions argues is not being distributed equally among all people. Whilst the general well-being of some increases, the ill-being of many others is also growing. In fact, there are some who are genuinely finding it difficult to make both ends meet and there are many in deep debts.

Whilst a few young people have been selected to go overseas for specialized training and the President has wisely launched the concept of a University of Seychelles for the better education of our people, there are still many young Seychellois who cannot get a stable job or set-up a home of their own. There is manifest unease with the fact that some recent immigrants who easily became citizens are taking over the key positions which would have normally gone to traditional belongers.

A new Prison has been opened. More Judges and Magistrates have been appointed. But alcoholism is still on the increase and drug taking becomes a bigger problem every day with the Police last week in one raid alone, arresting some 18 young people who were in possession of hard drugs. We could go on and on.

Politically, this growing reality has no voice in the official system. The lack of comments on matters politics in Seychelles by people in the position to know has become eloquent. There appears to be a permeating fear within the community behind the increasing political apathy in the Nation. If your daily experience is full of vexations, problems and exclusion, can it be easy to imagine yourself as a citizen just for one day to speak-up your mind honestly and loudly about the political atmosphere? You can only feel yourself to be a true citizen when you can consider yourself an active subject in the politics of your country when you feel you can participate within it without hate, malice or hindrance on a daily basis. Unfortunately, our politics is now being seen in dirty lights. There appears to be no pro-active policy on the part of the Government to bridge the gap between the Parties or to try and dry- up seriously the water in which hate is silently swimming today. True, the President has lost no time to speak about the need for us to work together in a fraternal atmosphere as a small but united Nation. However, that has not stopped the Oppositions from looking forward to the “Irish” report concerning the day when two Opposition leaders were brutally assaulted.

On all fronts, there appears no sign, willingness, design or policy on the party of SBC to promote fraternal harmony and reconciliation within the community so that there is today, sadly, two Seychelles and not one Seychelles. There is a Seychelles which look forward every evening to listen to SBC’s propaganda and another Seychelles which fumes with rage everyday when this propaganda is broadcast on Radio and TV.

One of a politician’s worst mistakes is an inability to receive signals from around him. Within the Government, this may happen by means of so-called ‘group thinking’, in which the leader is short circuited from what is really happening since information is filtered by a circle that only transmits what is positive or what is in-line with the strategy they themselves has designed. The leader himself may also filter and discard what he finds uncomfortable for his position.

Is this happening in Seychelles today? It seems to be the case. With too much political propaganda and too much partisan polarization, the situation is far from being a healthy one.

Who represents the voiceless ones? We need a little more democratic radicalism, remembering that democracy is not only the maintenance of certain rules of the game and of representations. The values that accompany democracy, ‘its promises’ are also promises of more equality and of more social and political transformation. This will require more participation and less fear. The Military can break one but not make one. With fear alone, we will not go anywhere. We need vision and conviction and the feeling that if we have been given a right to vote, we must also have a right to speak and to comment openly on what is going on without fear and hindrance.

All told President James Michel must converge on Mr Mancham’s Seychelles First policy and vigorously pursue his politics of National Reconciliation if he is to be seen for what he has been elected to be - the Leader of One Seychelles.