Seychelles' social and economic woes loom over Ramkalawan's overseas trip

 With all due respect to the Foreign Affairs Minister, the public is not convinced that the government has spent a little above SR4 million on overseas trips for the president and ministers for the past 15 months. According to the minister, that sum included air tickets, accommodation, per diem, and food. That cannot be when First‐Class tickets, and Five‐ Star hotel rooms paid in foreign exchange are costly, affordable only by wealthy people. How about the president's bodyguards, family members, and even the ministers' delegation? We see on television that he is at times accompanied by his spouse.

The Opposition leader, Sebastien Pillay, brought a Private Notice Question to the National Assembly because it was becoming a worrisome trend of the president and his ministers, clearly prone to foreign travel, despite the country's economic and health crisis.

The Leadership makes hay while the sun shines, enjoying the privileges instead of focusing on the crisis to improve the plight of the people. And yes, during such situations, those visits are privileges rather than necessities. The Foreign Affairs Minister listed the trips made by the presidential delegation and trips made by the ministers and stated several trips which, according to him, were fully funded by foreign governments and institutions. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Government paid for several trips.

Wavel Ramkalawan is the same man whose party led protests when the UAE royals built a house at La Misere and protested over the alleged water pollution involving Ascon. He raised questions in the former National Assembly regarding the UAE visits, and there was even a debate LDS raised over sex trafficking. Now they are getting all expenses paid trips to the UAE. It is unbelievable, but according to the minister, it is true. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Who in the UAE is paying for those trips? The UAE Government, private individuals, or organizations?

The Seychellois public, who listened carefully to the minister answering the PNQ, concluded. Today, the same people who criticized their predecessor have no qualms to go on bowl‐ begging trips. When sipping champagne in the First‐class Cabin and lounging in deluxe Five Star hotels, they conveniently forget the insults they threw at their predecessor when his government received donations from the UAE Government.

Ramkalawan, as the president, looks at himself in the mirror and sees all his virtues. Ironic because the people of Seychelles see all his hypocrisies.

Seychelles struggles to keep pace with rationing measures on essential commodities such as oil, flour, potatoes, etc. The price of all items has doubled or tripled in the past 16 months that LDS has been in power. Yet, the government supposedly paid four million rupees on overseas trips when Seychelles was battling an economic and health crisis.

How interesting that he spent three million on a trip to the outer island, but only 4 million on nine overseas trips! “You can fool some people some times but you cannot fool all the people all the time,” said Bob Marley, the popular reggae artist. Ramkalawan made nine visits compared to Biden, President of the United States who made three international trips since his inauguration on 21 January 2021.

The minister said that the government undertakes these trips to connect with its foreign partners and other countries. The pandemic hit the world. Globally, all countries are putting their houses in order. Because of its dire economic crisis, the world knows that Seychelles has just borrowed from the IMF, World Bank, and other financial institutions. LDS better come up with different excuses to justify their unnecessary overseas trips.

The LDS government has to take care of today and stop comparing what their predecessor did.

 In 2020, with covid, President Danny Faure told his cabinet and other government officials to desist from embarking on foreign trips and instead focus on the health emergency and the economy.

The United Seychelles Government was about to break an economic record had it not been for Covid‐19. The previous government's overseas spending, which Minister Radegonde provided for 2017, 2018, and 2019 included the president, the ministers, principal secretaries, directors‐general, their delegation, etc. The presidential visits also sometimes had members of the press office at the State House.

Minister Radegonde stated that the presidential delegation nowadays has fewer people when they travel. He failed to remark that the less the people know what happened during those visits, the better it is for this government.

To conclude, the LDS government has to take heed of the following adage "If you are wasting time, you are wasting money."

The People Online