45 years of failures and bankruptcy from sppf!
On the 4th June 1977 France Albert Rene was the Prime Minister of a coalition government with President James Richard Mancham as President, having earned the distinction of losing all previous elections up to 29th June 1976.
Why did he then plot the coup d’etat on 5th June 1977 and overthrew a legitimate democratically elected government of which he was Prime Minister? If Mr. Rene did not like the way Mr. Mancham was governing the country then, was he justified to resort to a coup d’etat as a means to overthrow him? Would the opposition today be justified were they to take up arms to overthrow the sppf government through a coup d’etat simply because they take objection to the way the sppf is governing the country? Were the opposition to choose to go down that route, would they be justified with the argument that the sppf government has bankrupted the country and was causing widespread poverty, hardship and pain to the people of Seychelles with their economic reforms?
If a group of people do not like the way a democratically elected government is governing a country, is it justifiable to take up arms and overthrow the government? More specifically, what did Albert Rene hope to achieve by overthrowing Mr. Mancham and claiming absolute power thereafter? Has he achieved his goal? 45 years after the creation of spup, presently metamorphosed into Parti Lepep, and 32 years of sppf in government, has today resulted in the bankruptcy of our motherland. Paradoxically, Albert Rene wanted to create a welfare state unrivalled in Africa but at the same time tried his best to kill enterprise, industry and entrepreneurship. He loathed the merchants who were primarily Indian in origin and accused them of “sucking the blood of the people.” He hated the capitalist system of government with equal measure and opted for communism instead after he ousted James Mancham. How then did the sppf expect to finance an extravagant welfare state without economic growth, prosperity and wealth?
Initially things went very well as Rene skillfully played the west against the East during the cold war era in order to milk as much foreign aid as possible to finance his welfare state. However, as the folly and irrationality of the system they were trying to create in this country began to sink in, post cold war era, sppf realized that the people cannot continue to live on political dogma alone. The system was destined to eventually cave in and fail as it was not sustainable in the long run without the necessary funding. The foundation was so weak that it could not withstand the slightest breeze. Sppf decided to take loans after loans to continue to finance the welfare state on which it had became inextricably dependent to win elections and stay in power after almost all foreign aid dried up post cold war. Losing political power was not an option as it would expose the extent of their failures and weaknesses. So they plod along and when all else failed, desperation drove them to raise money on the international financial markets through junk bonds which they knew they could not pay. This was unprecedented and marked the beginning of the end for the suicidal economic policies of sppf. In April 2004, Albert Rene decided that enough was enough and he pusillanimously bailed out and handed over a country on the brink of total economic collapse to James Michel without any hope that he would be able to salvage the sinking ship. At the time Rene parachuted to safety, not wanting to stick around in the hot seat when the muck hit the fan, Seychelles had a total external debt of 200 million dollars and rising fast.
Against all the odds, James Michel proudly took the baton and ran the last mile gasping for air. His dream of making the presidency had finally materialized after 30 years of patiently waiting in the wings. The fact that his back was against the wall did not bother him in the least. James Michel immediately went on a borrowing spree and managed to borrow 650 million dollars in the space of 4 years at punitive rate of interest to keep the country afloat without any idea how he was going to pay it back. To make matters worse, the price of fuel went from 35 dollars a barrel to 140 dollars a barrel overnight. When it became abundantly apparent last year that the world was going to enter one of its worst economic depressions since 1929, James Michel decided that he had no choice but to turn to IMF for help and to dismantle the welfare state of which sppf was so proud and which was choking this country to death. The danger with dismantling the welfare state though, is that it put the very structure that had kept sppf in power for so long, in freefall. This could have serious political consequences. The home carer program is a perfect example of how sppf is clearly caught between a rock and a hard place since the 2600 carers paid for by the state, were primarily given to sppf sympathizers and party loyalists. When you take their carers away, the sppf becomes disgruntled. Suddenly, it was no longer possible and sustainable for the country to continue to finance the welfare state in the shape and form in which it was originally created. Without the welfare state, the sppf, for the first time ever, became vulnerable and was in real danger of losing its political power base.
For its part, IMF agreed to come to the rescue of the sppf but not without conditions. James Michel had no choice. He had to swallow the bitter pill or else. He had admitted as much. As the economic reforms rammed down our throats by the IMF kicks in, traditional sppf voters, for the first time began to feel the pain. Like it or not, the good old times are now well and truly over. “Beau temps, beau temps inn fini ale. Beau temps beau temps perdi pour toujours” as John Witz quipped in one of his best known tunes but now banned on the radio. A new economic order is now being installed in the country by IMF with market based economic principles being its cornerstone. Sppf needs a reality check. The question is are the traditional sppf sympathizers going to stick with James Michel come the next election or are they going to ditch him altogether? Time will tell.
Source: LNSW 6-22-09