Letter to the Editor - The inevitable need for national reconciliation |09 December 2015

The first round of the presidential election which took place on December 3, 4 and 5, 2015 has shown that we have today a nation that is sadly divided into two opposing blocs. Of course it is an act of gallantry for one party to suggest that the time has come to “move the rock”. But enlightened mind should tell us that this should not be done without due consideration is given to how we live with the crater which is left behind or with the rock that has become unstable.

Indeed the result of the presidential election held last Saturday has clearly revealed how important it is for this nation to consider more seriously, more deeply, more honestly and more sincerely the politics of national reconciliation which I have been advocating since I returned to Seychelles on April 12, 1992 after more than 15 years in political exile. Sadly many in the past have dismissed this stand as being uncalled for and irrelevant, but is it so in the context of the reality of the situation which is today staring us in the face?

The system of democracy that we have inherited in Seychelles very much finds its identity and echoes from the political history in the United Kingdom, the country which was our colonial master until we became an independent republic on June 29, 1976. One of the paramount features of the British constitutional situation is that the nation has a monarchy at the top which does not change with the democratic winds blowing. The British people in their experience and wisdom fully support the survival of the monarchy because it provides an element of continuity at the top at a certain respected level despite the interplay of bipartisan politics at the level of governance. Looking at the British political history we cannot avoid to see the factor of polarisation. The individual whose grandfather has been a coal miner who had become a Labour leader in the north, would be expected to vote for Labour irrespective of how good the Conservative government had performed in Westminster. There is also within the tapestry of British politics the phenomena of Robin Hood who stole land belonging to wealthy farmers and wealthy landowners and gave a piece to various landless individuals. Under the then prevailing British law Robin Hood was a wanted criminal, a thief and a vagabond, but in the eyes of those who were vested with the possession of the stolen land, Robin Hood was a national hero.

The result of the presidential election 2015 of Seychelles means that we are back to square one insofar as Seychelles’ political progress is concerned. After many years of vicious party contentions between the Seychelles Democratic Party (SDP) and the Seychelles People’s United Party (SPUP) we had a situation not unlike what we see today – a nation divided into more or less two equally antagonistic camps. It is against the background of this reality that when elected to lead the nation to independence I decided as leader of the SDP to put the interest of Seychelles first and invited the SPUP, under the leadership of France Albert Rene, to join forces in the creation of a coalition government with myself as president and him as prime minister. The coalition was the best thing that could have happened for Seychelles. It brought an end to vicious party political antagonism which was not only plaguing the small country but had also created sad divisions within various families. This coalition was doing well – stability was foreseen on the horizon as people were coming to realise that we are in fact all in one and the same boat and that fighting within it could result into the capsizing of the boat with dire consequences for all. However history has it that one man has had his own special ambition and revolutionary ideas of how to rule our country. Thus came the coup d’etat of June 5, 1977 which eventually ushered in the one-party state dictatorship which saw thousands of our citizens seeking refugee status in other lands. This dictatorship lasted over 15 years,

No doubt one cannot expect multi-party democracy to flourish overnight after such a long time of dictatorial rule. Over recent years we have seen several decisions taken moving the country more and more towards democratic progress to the extent that over the last few days we have had an election held in a democratic manner with every party and party leader being given the opportunity to state their case and to advance their policy with respect to the future governance of this nation. Sadly the result of this democratic election once again revealed that we have a nation which remains divided into two opposing blocs. As I have said before, it is gallant thinking to speak about “moving the rock” but we must also ponder over the possibility of finding a cure which proves worse than the disease.

One must pay credit to the Seychelles authorities for having invited so many groups to send observers to Seychelles to observe our presidential election 2015. This time around, we had representatives of the Commonwealth, African Union, Southern African Development Community (SADC) and others without any proof of the democratic credentials of the individuals chosen by these organisations to represent them in observing an election with some 70,000 voters only. In fact several of these personalities come from nations which are far less democratically governed than Seychelles. In this connection I am reminded of the invitation I received from the African Union to go to Cairo, Egypt to represent her at the Egyptian presidential election which followed the fall of the dictator Hosni Mubarak. In fact the AU had selected over 20 African leaders to go to Egypt to observe that presidential election but the Egyptian authorities came back to the AU categorically stating that they were not inviting the AU to send any observers to their election but they would have no objection if the AU sent a representative to witness the election in progress. That is when the then chairperson of the AU Commission, Jean Ping, asked me to represent the AU at that historic election. Thus I arrived in Cairo together with an official of the AU with the task of witnessing the Egyptian presidential election. Come election day, I was only able to witness the election in progress in 10 or 12 polling booths within Cairo. Normally one would have expected the AU to have refused to send a witness to the presidential election in Egypt in view of the slap in the face of the Egyptian authorities’ decision not to have accepted their wish to send a group of representatives as observers. But since Egypt has been over the years one of the most important members of the AU, Addis Ababa would not confront the Egyptian authorities. This of course is a matter of power politics.

I have also been a member of the CAPDI (Centrist Asia Pacific Democrats International) Observers Group to the Azerbaijan presidential election where again we were able on election day to observe what was taking place in Baku and not in the entire country. So far as I know, no foreign groups are invited to observe the British, French, US, Chinese and Indian elections. So bravo to the Seychelles authorities who opened up our electoral process to many distant observers.

In my view it is obvious that our situation today calls for enlightened statesmanship of the highest order against the background of a serious and genuine commitment to a Seychelles first policy, otherwise we would remain facing a stalemate situation that would consolidate an atmosphere of antagonism and division within the nation at the expense of much needed internal political stability that would ensure the consolidation and continuation of the progress we have made over recent years.

On Friday December 4, Bishop Denis Wiehe, chairman of the Seychelles Inter-faith Council (Sifco), paid a courtesy call on me to discuss the communiqué which the Sifco had issued in relation to the presidential election in conformity with the council’s commitment to promote national unity among all stakeholders of our society. I must say that I fully endorse the views of the inter-faith organisation and believe that alongside this respected and noble body we should, after the election, move towards a more pro-active policy of national reconciliation.

In all good faith.

James R. Mancham