SEYCHELLES REALITY

This is a legitimate question under the circumstances - during the interaction of Dr. Peter Larose with the National Assembly this week to talk about his nomination for minister. Clifford Andre singled out the IDC for special attention.  It must be said that there are many companies, private and public, with overseas bank accounts. However, Clifford went straight to IDC he wanted to know if Dr. Larose would do anything to stop IDC from banking overseas or something to that effect. He could have said Air Seychelles. This is a remarkable situation and it shows clearly the intention of the MNA. Clifford is known for his ‘wheeling and dealing’ when he was a National Assembly Member for Parti Lepep, he was seen walking in town in the company of foreigners from all the corners of the world pushing their agenda aggressively for business and even for passports.  Clifford Andre was also sanctioned by a judge of the Supreme Court for a fraudulent declaration at the Land Registrar....

Dr. Peter Larose was before the National Assembly on Wednesday to interact with the Honorable Members to answer questions following his nomination as a cabinet minister. It is common knowledge that Dr. Larose’s forte is in the field of finance and banking. Following a question from Jean-Francois Ferrari Dr. Larose acknowledged that 50 million American dollars was transferred as a grant to the Central Bank for the Seychelles government from the UAE authority. He also stated that this money was transferred back to an account overseas in the name of a local parastatal company. Ahmed Afif decided to press Dr. Larose for specifications in an attempt to play cheap politics. Dr. Peter Larose reminded Ahmed Afif rightly of the fact that he too was in government at the time and he (Afif) kept quiet about this issue as well. The corrupt nature of Ahmed Afif rose to the surface when he lied to the National Assembly and to nation on Wednesday by stating that he was told that the money had come...

Concerns are growing in the country with regards to long term social, political and economic stability. After the win of the opposition coalition at the National Assembly elections, it was assumed that the political tensions and divisions now sweeping the country would subside. The expectation was that the political leaders call for calm would be respected and that the country would return to normal. But this does not seem to be happening to the worry of many people. The LDS opposition leaders themselves have chosen to propagate this state of uneasiness by challenging the constitution at a time when political tension is high. Ironically this is the same constitution which they swore to defend and uphold only a week or two ago. They are now insisting that the Vice President cannot take over from the President who has resigned, that is in spite of the fact that the constitution makes provision for such an orderly transition. The current Vice President was elected on the same ticket...

Change for the better is a good thing but Change for the sake of change is alarming. The two main protagonists for change in the National Assembly, Wavel Ramkalawan and Jean-Francois Ferrari are the two most angry and vengeful people in the opposition LDS; they are both former SPUP/SPPF and they both share the same fiery characters; they hate each other. Those two opposition politicians are blinded by their anger and their urge to seek revenge for events that happened many years ago. Both Ramkalawan and Ferrari are prepared to lead this country on the road to destruction in order to achieve their aims. Compromise is not a word that exists in their vocabulary. Strangely enough, the two of them do not see eye-to-eye on a range of issues and given absolute power, they would be a disaster. Albeit, Ferrari is politically smarter than Ramkalawan and consequently he has a very low opinion of his boss. They have clashed many times in the past and Roger Mancienne has had to intervene and act ...

An LDS leader was quizzed by the authority over the weekend in regards to involvement in laundering dirty money. This is not the first time that this lawyer has had to answer questions for allege involvement with trying to hide illicit proceeds for alleged drug dealers. The same person is known to have tried to buy a property with drugs money, only, in the recent past. This is a fresh involvement where vehicles known to belong to people suspected to be dealing in drugs are registered in the lawyer’s name. The authorities have shied away in the past from pursuing the culprit criminally for fear of being accused of political persecution. This is an unfair situation by any standard if it was an ordinary citizen the law enforcement agencies would have jumped on his/her back with both legs, so to speak. It is corruption in the real sense of the word. It goes to show that we will never get to the bottom of the drug problem in Seychelles – if we cannot deal with the people who are front...

What does the Constitution say? Article 55(1) – “Where the President dies, resigns or is removed from office, the Vice-President shall assume the office of President for the unexpired term of the President with effect from the death, resignation or removal from office of the President” James Michel announced his resignation from Office of President on 27 September 2016 to take effect on 16 October 2016. He also announced that Danny Faure will run the country as President for the unexpired term of his presidency. Article 66 (11) – “Where the Vice-President assumes the office of the President under article 55 (1) (a) The (new) President shall, with the approval of the National Assembly, appoint a person to be Vice-President;  (b) The person who at the time is designated Minister shall immediately cease to be designated Minister and the (new) President shall designate a person, who may be the first-mentioned person, for approval by the National Assembly as designated Minist...

Patrick Pillay has made a good start as Speaker of the National Assembly. In his deliberation during the second sitting of the new assembly, the speaker was gracious to the outgoing president and called for members and the population to show respect for the president. This change of heart has taken many by surprise when compared to the vitriolic he was spitting out before and during the election campaign; there was no love lost between him and President Michel. But things have changed and Speaker Pillay’s LDS coalition has achieved its stated aim of removing James Michel from power. So what now for the opposition coalition? This newspaper have previously pointed out that at no time has Mr. Pillay criticized Vice President Faure. In fact they had kept their channel of communication open in the background. Now that Danny Faure will be the new President, it would not be surprising to see Mr. Pillay and company either go back to their old SPPF roots or collaborate closely with them. Af...