STRRP says truth, reconciliation and national unity process should involve the people |11 May 2017

The Seychelles, Truth, Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP) has said civil societies, the people of Seychelles have had to step in in the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity ongoing discussions as it is a process from which the people and not the government, needs closure.

And if the people from the community are not involved in it, there is a problem. They said it is great that political parties, the National Assembly has set the ball rolling, but at a certain point the people of Seychelles have to have their say, give contributions or suggestions to make the process work and complete.

It is with this in mind that STRPP held a consultative meeting with NGOs, media, members of the public to clarify the process, what it entails and how they believe it should be done.

The meeting took place yesterday afternoon in the conference room of the Citizens Engagement Platform Seychelles (Ceps) headquarters at Orion Mall.

Present were Ceps chairperson Jules Hoareau, who briefed participants on the ‘raison d’être’ of such a meeting which was hosted by STRPP representative Barry Laine.

It was Vice-President Vincent Meriton who officially launched a symposium last Sunday on truth, reconciliation and national unity where he said the time has come “to comb for the truth and set the foundation to transcend the divisions of the past and develop a framework on reconciliation and peaceful co-existence”.

The chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee of the National Assembly, Wavel Ramkalawan, said Seychellois have expressed the profound desire to seize the opportunity and tell their story and the Committee is committed to sorting out the past and move forward, by so doing and taking the bull by the horns we will achieve unity and reconciliation. And that the truth will guide us and strengthen each one of us as it sets us free.

Mr Laine also attended the symposium on Sunday where he gave a presentation entitled 'Achieving closure the civil society way' based on people's opinions and recommendations on the way forward  which he collated on the STRPP website for seven months. But he said the proposal that government will form a commission to look into this case did not come out well as the whole process lacked the involvement of civil societies and the public.

“Since we set up this platform which is already registered, a lot of work has been done which are to be presented to you. We want to know what you want because this platform is not for Ceps but for the public, the community. For those who will get recourse from it. Many countries have gone through this process and it went well. It is important we do it well with citizens’ consultation. Otherwise we will see only political parties running after everything,” explained Mr Hoareau.

He said to make sure the process goes smoothly, STRPP will set up procedures and that every citizen gets the chance to partake in it.

“Which means they say what they would like to see, how the process should go so as not to remain an on-paper only process so at the end of elections it is said ‘we are still working on it’,” he said.

Mr Laine said STRPP’s role in the truth, reconciliation and peace process is to seek truth; achieve reconciliation; bring closure and return to peace. It has its Constitution and code of conduct and a website. He believes a reconciliation exercise is bound to attract a level of controversy because some people have personal agendas with the truth being told. They may have an axe to grind and therefore declare this process not credible. There is also the possibility of someone forwarded to tell a story that is not true.  And it is therefore up to the platform to dig deeper to ascertain the viability of the stories and when in doubt the platform will give the person telling the story the benefit of the doubt.

“We are looking for peace and harmony. Our country is divided. Let’s see if we can bring back together that closure,” said Mr Laine.

He said people are also worried any information submitted will fall into the wrong hands and get circulated. And regarding the commission proposed by political parties in the National Assembly, Mr Laine said looking at examples of what happened in other countries, commission smells of government.

As for citizens’ engagement in the process, Mr Laine has this to say:

“Who suffered the atrocities? The people; who we must forgive? The people; Who is looking for closure? The people; who is carrying the burden? The people; Who has lost properties? The people; who should now be handling this matter? The people.

“The word platform has a psychological acceptance where people feel they are being heard. We cannot erase things but we can take steps to come to terms with them,” he said.

As an example he said we can take into consideration what people say about if it was not for the coup d’etat black people would not have had a piece of land.

“We can accept that but we cannot condone a coup d’etat,” he explained.

Mr Laine believes no international representation can assist Seychelles as we are unique in our ways. They can offer assistance if only we are stuck on a certain point.

“Each country should treat their process on their own as each are unique,” he remarked.

Questions and suggestions were also on the agenda.