Letter to the Editor - Protect our “rainbow colour” image |27 April 2015

I have just returned to Mahé following a 10-day odyssey across the western Indian Ocean as guest of Mr Sven-Olof Lindblad, owner of the Orion National Geographic cruiseship.

This has provided me with the opportunity of re-visiting the Aldabra archipelago as well as Assumption, D’Arros, Aride, La Digue, and Praslin and once again made me realised how fortunate we, the people of Seychelles, are to be living in such peaceful and wonderful environment and how we can certainly promote Seychelles to climb higher in the sphere of an economic progress which did not lose sight of the ultimate aim of bringing maximum contentment to our people.

I have once again on another trip overseas. This time, I am in Baku, Azerbaijan, to participate in a high-level conference hosted jointly by the Nizami Ganjavi Foundation in association with Le Club de Madrid, which is being attended by over 80 former Heads of Governments of democratically-run nations and which will focus on the issue as to whether democracy globally is on the increase or in a declining situation.

On the evening of Friday April 24, I spent significant time going over the local newspapers that my office has accumulated over the last 12 days for my reading attention upon my return to Mahé. If there is a perception that democracy is on the decline internationally, this is certainly not the impression I get with respect to the local situation, where I am reading about the recent registration of various “political factions” as “political parties” in readiness for the Presidential and Legislative Elections, which appears to be imminent this year.

I must say that it is with mixed feelings that I have read that certain veteran politicians whom I thought, had joined my club of “national statesmen”, are now returning into the realm of controversial partisan politics. This, of course, is not an unexpected development in an atmosphere of democratic latitudes, which for better or for worse, President James Michel has encouraged to happen as he drifted away from the One-Party dictatorial attitude and policy of his predecessor over the last few years.

However, there is one issue which has profoundly upset me since, if allowed to grow and propagate, will definitely upset the well-being of our existing social fabric.

In the article announcing that former Minister of Foreign Affairs, my old friend, the Honourable Patrick Pillay, has decided to form a political party because of his displeasure with the quality of governance under the leadership of his old boss, President James A. Michel, is now critical of the President although he himself was the person who delivered congratulatory remarks about the President on the occasion of the launching of President Michel’s autobiography just a few years ago.

I am of course not privy as to what happened with respect to the chemistry of human relationship between the two personalities of the SPPF party which resulted in President Michel terminating the appointment of Mr Pillay as his Ambassador in London. What concern me profoundly was the insinuation in the article published in Le Seychellois Hebdo on Friday April 17, 2015 entitled, ‘I don’t hate you…Pillay tells JAM’, which inter-alia quoted a local lawyer active within the SNP structure stating that “President Michel prefers to have ‘lighter skin’ Seychellois” within the context of his political entourage.

In my view, this statement could bring about serious prejudices to our projected “rainbow colour” image which is a concept which should be considered “sacred” and the core of a social fabric about which we should feel proud. It is in fact against the background of such an image that I have gallantly proclaimed that the Seychellois people constitute a sample of the world to come. Indeed, only recently I was telling to an audience how proud I was to find in many Seychellois families a little brother who looks like an African, a little sister who looks like an Asian and a big brother like a European.

In conclusion, let me state my view that any import of the “colour of the skin” issue within the context of controversial partisan politics is reckless, alarming, vexing and certainly not intended to promote harmony within Seychellois families and indeed within the Seychelles society.

James R. Mancham