Letter to the Editor - The politicians’ SBC |11 November 2016

On Tuesday evening the National Assembly set a new record: the day’s deliberations lasted over 10 hours, the tea and lunch breaks included.

MNAs were eager to show the public that they were really working, although not all were present all the time.

The National Assembly has succeeded in monopolising the one channel of our national television broadcasting station.

SBC (Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation) is no longer independent. It allowed the National Assembly to dictate the use of airtime. It is as if the National Assembly is supreme, it has privilege access to airtime.

National Assembly deliberations were aired live on SBC before, but not always for a whole day, not for all the days they sit, not for 10 hours discussing motions.  

And National Assembly members promised during the election campaign that they would meet three times a week. This remains to be seen. Again an attempt to prove to voters that they are working.  More airtime will have to be given to them by tax-payers.

After the day’s meeting, SBC still has to do a news item on the deliberations.

Homes that have access to cable television and satellite dishes are free to switch to other channels. Not all homes have these facilities. The schoolchildren returning to SBC-only TV5-only homes miss their favourite programmes. Do we have the views of the elderly people?  There is no escaping to SBC radio during the time because it, too, is broadcasting the sitting.   

I am not against the live broadcast of the National Assembly deliberations. Actually, I join other members of the broadcasting audience to urge SBC to hasten their plans to have multi channels, to also take in the three National Assembly sittings per week we have been promised.

I am very well aware that National Assembly members are using SBC airtime to campaign for the elections in 2020 and 2021. Through SBC they want to achieve celebrity status, or gran kozer as we say in Creole.

MNAs need be warned that eagerness to gain access to media can be counterproductive. National Assembly fatigue sets in among the audience.  The work of the MNAs, especially those who are the most enthusiastic to speak all the time, can be held in scorn by a section of the public.

With more airtime at their disposal, there will be a rush to present Private Notice Questions, especially by MNAs who want to show that they are superior than ministers.  There will be a lot more motions, many just to fill the three days of sitting and the airtime. Sessions will get bored. People will turn away from the National Assembly broadcasts. 

Of course, some people enjoy the tussle. They like it when they hear that full glasses are emptied. Fields of green grass are turned into desert. All the fishes in our ocean disappear. Politicians disqualify politicians. Same politicians ruling national broadcasting. And God, and the mortals, look on in dismay.  

That is why giving the population a choice matters a lot. 

V. Charles