The Rebirth of our Nation Justice |05 December 2019
This is the second article in this series of The Rebirth of our Nation. In the first article we examined the birth of our Creole Nation and how the French colonisers took advantage of our innocence and ignorance and how badly we were treated then we examined how when the British colonisers took over from the French how they brought us order and structure but the mistreatments of our ancestors still continued unabated. During both eras large sways of land from the sea to the mountain were given free of charge to some white settlers to develop and plant coconut to export copra, create a cinnamon industry, plant patchouli to export, harvest the guano the birds deposited free of charge on our outer islands all in the name of sustainability not progress and at all times making sure the motherland of France and Britain benefited in some way or another.
Then we decided that we could do better for ourselves and we sought and we were given our independence believing that we would develop our islands into a paradise on earth for the Creole Nation that was emerging from slavery and colonisation because by then some of us had gone overseas and got educated mostly free of charge but how wrong we were eh? This article is not about the Coup D’état although references have to be inevitably made to it. This article is about Justice. What kind of Justice have we inherited from our dictatorship period up to today? What kind of Justice do we practice today after we have spent the last 42 years trying to bring about an Egalitarian and Just society where we share equity and moral values which we were told was the main reason for the sufferings we have endured for the last 42 years? Every dictator in the world, including ours, has used this platform to enrich themselves while we witness live on SBC TV on an almost daily basis our fellow countrymen/women crying their heart out about the atrocities they suffered and that were inflicted on our Creole Nation by our very own Creole fellow heads of State and accomplices. The idea that we would govern ourselves and create prosperity for all our people must be the biggest heap of cow dung that has ever been deposited anywhere on Earth.
So what is Justice?
To understand or try and make any sense of why we hurt each other beyond all recognition when we are supposed to be brothers and sisters from different mothers and fathers living together in peace and harmony trying to scratch a living on these remnants of the mighty Gondwana from the Paleozoic Era we must first acknowledge we are humans and we make mistakes. Mistakes can be pardoned under the right conditions. Have you ever seen an elephant carrying an AK 47 but humans do, including some of us in Seychelles and while we are told that there were only 4 such guns in Seychelles when the Coup D’état occurred some reliable witnesses have testified there were several more, so who is lying to us? Can we say that it was justifiable for some of us who were protected by the State apparatus to inflict pain and sufferings on those of us who did not agree with the Marxist and Communist regime in power at the time? Was that justice and was it fair to impose the will of the minority on the majority at the point of the gun?
The concept of Justice in a culture as some theologians like Plato or Prophet Mohammad, the founder of the Muslim faith would have us believe revolves around ethics, rationality, law, religion and equity. When we do something the right way, like showing respect, following the norms of society, obeying laws and living within our religious beliefs without infringing on other beliefs everything is fine and we have a balanced and peaceful society. But when Equity comes into play this is when Justice means different things to different people and if they hold a gun in their hands then they hold Justice in their hands and you have no choice because you do or die. With Equity comes greed and selfishness and the rich want to get richer while they make sure the poor stay poorer to avoid an uprising and they will go to any lengths to ensure they retain their ill-gotten wealth including leaving their native land and taking shelter in a distant land under false pretences. They sacrifice their freedom in order to safeguard their ill-gotten wealth which they cannot take with them to the afterlife. To them Justice has been served, they have got away with it but can they live with this on their conscience? If so for how long?
What kind of Justice is best?
The concept of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth Mathew 6:2 in the Old Testament, Lex Talionis in Latin, is this applicable in our modern society? Today we talk about natural law, social contract, utilitarian thinking, distributive justice, egalitarian laws and yet some people believe in retributive justice and punishment and may be accompanied by restorative justice and reparative justice the latter focussing on the victims and offenders alike. We have seen on live TV during the Truth Reconciliation and National Unity Commission hearings some of our people getting choked up with bad memories and crying their eyes out in front of all to see, yet maintaining their dignity and they pull up the courage and say “I want fair justice not retribution and I want them to say SORRY”. Years of hurting and suffering could be remedied with just one sincere word of SORRY. These are our brave people while the cowards who hurt them are hiding under the skirts of this government and strangers.
What kind of Justice do you apply to people who practice victimisation which is still rampant in Seychelles to this very day despite all that we have gone through? We have people in high positions in our society with their fingers on the tourniquet just waiting for the opportunity to tighten the tourniquet and choke someone they have been told to choke or they have a score to settle. The order goes out from high up the echelon of government to suffocate someone for this or that reason just like it happened during the Coup D’état days except today it is done under cover for example you do not get security clearance or a job you have applied for or support for a project you are working on is denied or attempts are made to foil any progress you are trying to achieve. I swear to you this is going on today in our society in Seychelles, I can give you a very good example. They are sick in the head and those below who follow these orders do so for fear of losing their lucrative job. When is it all going to stop?
What about Natural Justice?
Some people believe in Natural Justice meaning if you have done wrong God, Nature or some other higher spiritual authority will punish you whether in this life or in the afterlife but somehow and in some way you will pay for the hurt you have inflicted on your fellow being and it could be any animal or plant, why not they are living organisms, part of God’s creation, part of our natural co-existence on mother Erath. Newton’s Third Law of Physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so we come back full circle that Justice can be a universal concept of laws, principles, religions etc providing the situation in hand satisfiers one’s peace of mind. It is also believed in certain circles that when someone dies with their eyes open that the person has left this material world with unfinished business and it is incumbent upon the person who closes the eyes of the dead person to undertake the task of finishing the business in hand.
So what is Social Justice?
We have heard it said from the horse’s mouth that the Coup D’état was justifiable in order to bring about equality and prosperity to the lower income sector of our society. This government is supposed to be our saviour, our life giver, the creator of opportunities we would not otherwise be enjoying today had the Coup D’état not occurred, so we are told. Can anyone in their right mind justify the atrocities committed on our unsuspecting and innocent people and the sufferings that has lasted 42 years? What kind of logic is that? There are ways that the redistribution of land could have been accomplished without the bloodshed. Has every Seychellois benefited from the atrocities? What about the victims who suffered just because they were “pa ek nou”? Can this be the grounds for atrocities to be committed on our people? Has every Seychellois got a piece of land as a result of the atrocities committed on our fellow countrymen/women? Social justice has not been achieved by Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Saddham Hussein, Pol Pot, Castro, Gadhafi, Mugabe, Albert Rene or any other dictator. They have all enriched their pockets with the people’s money then they died. We still have a big gap between the rich and the poor in Seychelles to the point that we do not have a “Middle Class” like other countries. Social Justice is the same as relational justice, a form of fairness where a citizen can work his/her way up the ladder to success without any need for security clearance or ‘ek nou pa ek nou’ encounters. Each person must have the same rights, be given the same opportunity and be paid the same value for their labour and/or intelligence. Who told us to “leve debourye” and when we did, we were victimised.
Justice must now be done
In a peaceful way we must ask those who have stolen from us to give us back our inheritance because from the money and property stolen from the people of Seychelles we can give every Seychellois a piece of land and a home. Redistribution of wealth that did not occur as a result of the Coup D’état can become a reality for all natural born Seychellois. The next President must create a powerful Commission of Redistribution with legal powers and forensic Accountants and experts in retrieving money laundered overseas in offshore bank deposits, pursue the Irish men who stole our money, bring back the fortune some Seychellois have invested overseas, get our taxes paid by the powerful who stole from us in the first place. Nemo eripere nos (let no one steal from us again).
Contributed by Barry Laine FCIM, FInst SMM, MCMI, MBSCH
Chairman, Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP)
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Seychelles NATION newspaper