This week I had programmed to outline our Party’s stand on reconciliation
and healing post 1977. However I have decided to save this for next week’s
column as I have been tipped that there is a massive drive by Lepep to
discredit me and embarrass my family before nomination day for the forthcoming
elections. The whole idea is to humiliate me so that I will shy away from
contesting the Presidential elections.
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| The ever lovable Ton Paul |
This kind of malice and cheap politics are not new to me and
my family. I come from a clan that was raised in the small village of
Pointe-au- Sel in the south of Mahe. Pa was a popular, hard-working and
kind-hearted man who was fondly called ‘ Ton Paul’ by everyone in the village. Ma
was a strong matriarch who raised her brood of nine with a firm hand. When
Seychelles started experiencing the stirrings of political activism in the
1960’s Pa was a simple unlettered farmer. However by sheer hard work and an
entrepreneurial spirit, he by that time had bought quite a number of acres of land
at Pointe-au-sel. Ma remained a housewife having to raise nine strong-minded off
springs. When SDP (the Democratic Party of Mr James Mancham) was at the height
of its battle with Mr Rene’s SPUP; Pa somehow aligned himself with DP. It was
not that he was very politically motivated or had any pretensions of high
office. After all he had only attended Primary school. He could not afford
Secondary school as his father had passed and at a very young age; he had to
look after his only sibling Martha and his mother Antoinette De Silva. My take
is that Pa gravitated towards DP as a result of pressure from his circle of friends
who played domino with him on Sundays.
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| 1970 General Election |
There is also the fact that Mr Mancham in his wisdom identified
Pa as a popular man who could easily bag in South Mahe as an electoral district
for the DP. This is exactly what happened. This of course infuriated the SPUP leadership
and subsequently the Pillay clan experienced itsfirst case of the
vindictiveness of the SPUP. Pa was hauled into court by his SPUP opponent who
had lost again the South Mahe seat. The charge was that Pa did not understand the
English language sufficiently to follow the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly.
I was still in secondary school at Seychelles College then and I remember Pa
leaving the house that morning in his ‘ savat-may-dan-pous’ with his head down-
obviously he was very crest-fallen. I was mortified and still vividly remember the
scene in our house as Ma tried to keep herself busy avoiding our despairing and
questioning looks after Pa had left the house for Victoria. Only recently my
youngest sister recalled ( obviously the girls have better memories than us )
how the judge had asked the plaintiff ( incidentally he was a figure that I
admired and had great respect for) how does he “ know that Mr Pillay doesn’t
understand English sufficiently?” The answer came back quickly “Because I spoke
to him in English and he answered me in creole “ The judge retorted “ so he
does understand what you said in English if he was able to answer you....” The
case was dismissed.!! This was our family’s first taste of the malice that coated
the politics of the forerunner of the SPPF . As Ma recalled years later “ this
was only the beginning.”
Then came “ The
Liberation “( !!!!??? ) of June 1977. At first we were largely left alone since
my eldest brother James had been appointed Commissioner of police- the first
Seychellois to hold that post. Things did not go well for either James or the
Pillay family. First there were the disappearances; then the detentions without
trial. To add to James’ woes, my fourth sister Paulette wrote an open letter to
the newspaper “The Independent” boldly and openly criticising the one party
state and the absence of individual freedom after the so-called ‘ Liberation’. The
state propaganda apparatus immediately went into full gear denouncing her as
“an enemy of the people “ She, her husband Stan Gamble and their two sons had
to hurriedly leave the islands for the UK for obvious reasons. This was
effectively meant to silence the Pillays. Unfortunately for those who were
responsible for the “Revolution” this did nothing of the sort. They did not
realise that we are made of sterner stuff. James’s eldest daughter Kathleen and
her friends (mainly the relatives and friends of those who had been detained without
trial) became the voice of dissent. Under Rene’s stern dictatorship; she too
was forced to move overseas. However she was determined not to be put down by
the regime and boarded an Air France flight bound for Seychelles. She was
forcibly dragged by state security personel and forced back into the AF plane.....
This whole episode left James wounded and humiliated. He was
to be further humiliated later when he was demoted as Commissioner of Police
and sent to open the Licensing Authority as Director...
In later years my second brother John was to be the target
of the vindictiveness of the SPPF system. It was a well-known fact that the
then Minister of Defence hated his guts. He was a Pillay after all and we had
dared to stand up to the bullies. John spent a while in detention for no
specified reason. He was detained in a cell at the Central Police station. When
they felt that he had been suitably humiliated, an officer at the Central Station
called home to say he was being released and could somebody pick him up. By that
time fear had been well established in all families in Seychelles and ours was
no exception. The truth is that we were all hesitant to drive to Victoria to
pick John up until Ma; ever the matriarch said in no uncertain terms “ Pat will
go and pick him up.”. The joke in the family is that when I got to the Central
Police station, I did not see John or recognise anybody who looked like him. It
was only after he called my name that I looked in his direction and saw a
grey-haired ( quite white actually ) man standing upright and defiant. The
authorities had not allowed him the privilege of having his hair dyed
black...... The anecdotes above provide interesting chapters in my family
memoirs which I started after my retirement and have had to put on hold now that
I am back in active politics...
Now, if you fast track to 2015 and you will find that the Pillay
clan is still the victim of SPPF malice and humiliation. This time round
however, it is not ‘ Ton Paul’ but rather ‘ Ton Pat’.
Be that as it may, James et Al. will not bring me to my knees.
I know you have the dollars and you can bring in Gihan Fernando and any number
of Sri Lankans to try and sully my name. In my file locked in Michel Marie’s
office at Immigration you will find the names of the Malagasies and Kenyans who
have worked for me in the past. One thing I know is that the forthcoming elections
will sort out the boys from the men!! I wonder in which group will Jam fall into???
Source: Seychelles Weekly
