Recently the Sunday Telegraph of London carried a feature article accompanied with a selection of colourful photos proclaiming that the Seychelles was the most beautiful country in the world. As expected the local media lost no time to echo the sentiments of the Telegraph. It certainly made all of us proud to be citizens of Seychelles. But on deeper reflections we are bound to come up with the realisation that we would have been even more proud if the Telegraph had proclaimed us to be “the most stable and friendliest country in the world”.
Our superlative natural beauty is after all the work of the Almighty Creator who did not place us in “paradise” for us to play cats and rats and live in discord instead of harmony. There are far too many of us today who believe in the politics of ‘saboule’ and as if this was not enough, we have now created the club of ‘Pil lo li’ with the club’s T-Shirts available for sale on the open market. ‘Saboule’ reminds me of those dark days when feuding neighbours would throw stones at each other’s house while loudly shouting abusive words at each other and of course ‘Pil lo li’ suggests that once we get our adversary on the ground we should step on his head. There is a sad element of hate and revenge which smacks of “primitiveness” behind both the ‘saboule’ and ‘pil lo li’ philosophy.
In a few months’ time we will be having the National Assembly elections and political leaders today are already seeking ways to score points rather than address the real challenges facing the country. We see little attempt on the part of leaders from across the political divide to seek national dialogue on how to ensure that the country does not slide into anarchy as they fight for political office. Yes already we are seeing politicians positioning themselves for the elections but the worrying trend is that they are not doing so to seek healing and bring reconciliation within the sadly divided nation. Indeed the politics of ‘saboule’ and ‘pil lo li’ does not constitute the best way to move forward in our polarised nation at this time. It is evident that those in power will resist all attempts to be defeated at the polls. The situation begs the question as to what will prevail in the event of an opposition marginal victory, if the losing party was itself to espouse a policy of ‘saboule’ and ‘pil lo li’?
The Seychelles Weekend NATION of Saturday May 14 carried a leading article entitled ‘New policy to promote stable families’ with an introductory paragraph in bold letters stating “It is undeniable that recent years have brought a drastic change in family pattern. From a strong two-parent family built out of marriage and guided by traditional values, modernity trends have brought mono parental ones threatened by separation, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, substance and sexual abuse and risks of incarceration in a society with high prison population”.
This is certainly a sad and depressing picture of our society today. We now find ourselves on the verge of a precipice facing the valley of hate and partisan polarisation. We certainly need all party collaboration to be able to tackle all these serious fundamental societal problems. And to think that this situation is prevailing in the most beautiful country in the world is unjustified and deeply disturbing.
Food for thoughts.
James R. Mancham
Source : Seychelles NATION