In his speech at the unveiling of the new liberty monument
which is suppose to forcefully unite all of us, James Michel stated that “Seychelles
is a land of freedom! “; is the President taking all of us for fools or has he
conveniently forgotten about the freedom
suppressing Public Order Act which he last year signed into law. As well as
many other things the law provides that it is now an offence for one person to
show his objection publicly to anything, meaning any demonstration, march or
procession by one or more persons is illegal; that is not the land of the
freedom Mr President. Ignoring and hiding the electoral reform proposals away
in the clear view of everyone including international observers therefore
putting a permanent halt to any chance of a free and fair elections in the near
future; is not the land of freedom Mr President. Giving new powers to a police officer, NDEA officer, custom
officer or immigration officer to enter private premises without a warrant to
arrest, search and confiscate materials which is not in line with the Charter
of Fundamental Rights; is not the land of Freedom Mr President!
He then went on to state that “"It represents those who
dedicated their lives to freedom, those who fell for freedom" This clearly
does not include the James Michel as he was part of that small armed gang that
destroyed freedom and disunited this
nation on the darkest day in the nation’s history. Seychelles had gained its independence in
unity and harmony on the 29th of June 1976; which was 9 months later destroyed
by this small armed gang leading to a one party state for the following 16
years. Former Presidents Mancham and Rene had seemingly put political
differences aside by joining forces in a coalition government; even holding
hands on those first minutes of Independence. One was President and the other
Prime Minister and both declared “we are now free”; seemingly working together
for the betterment and progress of the nation.
A simple question; which group of people and political party destroyed freedom and
disunited this beautiful small Island Nation?
By A.Pierre
