HOW IN THE 3rd REPUBLIC W’ERE STILL LIVING IN THE 2nd REPUBLIC
In an extensive testimony to the Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Commission last week Attorney Anthony Derjaques outlined a detailed list of examples of how in the 3rd Republic we have continued to live by structures and measures dating back to the 2nd Republic.
And this courtesy of the France Albert Rene regime which he instituted with the Coup d’états of June 1977, which was subsequently handed over to James Michel in 2004 and handed over to the current President Danny Faure in 2016 through the now well-known policy of “PAS BATON”.
To facilitate this constant relay over the years the SPPF used their majority in the National Assembly to insert into the Constitution the post of Vice-President in 1996, up until this was repealed by the LDS majority in the Assembly in 2017.
Among the instruments which kept Seychelles firmly and squarely in the 2nd Republic, as outlined by Derjaques, were:
1. The Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF), under the Defence Forces Act which continued with the same ideology since 1977. In the third republic the Militia morphed into the National Guards which had the same duty of preserving the gains and mindset of the second republic, until the amendments voted in in May 2020.
2. The Policy against Vertical Integration in Business, which violated the human rights and freedom of individuals and companies to do business freely.
3. The Security Clearance system, which was abandoned in2016, leaving only the proviso of having to clear that an employee is free of criminal records.
4. The Local Government Act of 1991, which was brought into force to ensure that the ruling SPPF party continued with their control of districts through appointments of DA’s (District Administrators), the presence of which would also be used to give the party unfair advantage in swinging voters in Elections.
Derjacques noted that even very recently in the project of 24 houses in 24 districts in 24 months (2 years) during a Ministerial visit to Grand Anse Praslin, the minister was escorted by the US representative rather than by the opposition MNA in that district.
He noted how the District Councils Act which was debated and passed by the National Assembly has simply never been granted the simple act of being gazette by President Faure.
5. Politically-biased teaching in Schools.A pro-Socialist book “History of Modern Seychelles” by English Kevin Shillington is still part of the school curriculum, and this is harmful for the students’ proper grasp of the democratic mission that Seychelles has embarked on, claims Derjacques.
6. Manoeuvres for a State-controlled Economy.Here he went into more details of the unprecedented power of IDC (see story on this page 3) and underlined the creation of the Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB) which has now morphed into the Seychelles Trading Company (STC).
Derjaques made special mention of the Public Order Act of 2015, which former president James Michel wanted to introduce with extensive powers to restrain civilian freedom, which he in concert with Lawyer Alexia Amesbury managed to have quashed by Judges Durai Karunakaran and Bernadin Renaud, claiming that their victory was a great leap forward in the path to full democracy of the Seychellois people, of which he said the new 2020 October Elections will be another great milestone.
