President France Albert Rene (left) and Speaker Francis MacGregor

In my address today I do not intend to limit myself to the financial and economic state of affairs in our country. There is much that I could say on these two subjects but statistics show clearly what we have achieved on these fronts in the past 27 years, and the world knows that our small country has been busy working for its development.

However, there are some who are eager to make us believe that our economy is on the edge of a precipice and is about to disintegrate. Such people dream and go on to believe in their dreams.

During the year 2003 the amount of foreign exchange that has come into the country increased from 1 billion 424 million rupees in 2002 to 1 billion 531 million. Our tourism revenue has grown from 918 million rupees to 966 million in the same period. Revenue from the fishing industry has risen from 190 million rupees  to 232 million.

Our national economy has greatly improved and thanks to the Macro-Economic Reform Programme that we have put in place, coupled with the hard work and goodwill of our people, we will see even more progress this year.

I would prefer to start today’s address by saying a few words on our struggle to ensure that we do not go backwards on our path to prosperity and on those things that we need to do together to ensure that we make further progress.

We need, each one of us, to do a thorough soul searching and concentrate our efforts to ensure that we do not lose sight of our focus and direction as a nation.

On the political level we need to choose between a socialist system and a liberal system for the best way forward – between a system that guarantees a high degree of welfare and wellbeing for all our children, our elderly and all those who are really in need, and a system which leaves each one of us to  look after himself or herself.

In other words, we have to choose between a system which allows us to extend a helping hand to our brothers and sisters should they lag behind or fall by the wayside or one where we ignore them as the rest of us move ahead.

In Seychelles we have chosen to date a system that leans strongly towards socialism. There is no perfect system and this is true of ours as well.

I am convinced nonetheless that it is the best system for Seychelles and for the wellbeing and the happiness of the Seychellois people.

Some 8000 people in Seychelles currently receive a Government pension, and that represents 10% of our population. A further 2,400 receive Government help through our homes for the elderly and through the Home Carers’ programme. I will be the first to agree that there have been abuses and there are people who can well afford to look after themselves but who have been abusing these programmes.

But just how would we be faring under another system? Under a liberal system there would be beggars at every street corner, not to mention dire misery for our elderly and those who cannot find work.

Under our present system all our children enjoy free education and Government pays for or subsidises further education for our youth. Likewise, that too is not perfect and we are often stretched financially to guarantee this commitment, but we do it nonetheless.

Here’s some more food for thought. Where would we be as a nation if such education were accessible only to those who could afford to pay? How many young promising Seychellois would there be who would not be able to find the career of their choice?

Sadly though, there are some professionals who do everything to knock the very system that has benefited them, and who are not prepared to lend a hand to ensure that our youths benefit in the same manner that they have done.

Under our socialist system we have been able to provide housing to more than 11,000 families and we continually ensure that we sustain our housing programme to guarantee a decent roof over our people’s heads.

That too has not been without its shortcomings. In order to obtain sufficient  land on which to implement our housing programmes, we have had to acquire land from those who had too much of it and in the process we have made some enemies.

Again, let us take a look at what would have happened had we chosen another route – those who had land and money would have built some shacks and rented them to our people and most of our people would never have had a decent house to call their own and to hand over to their children.

The reality of the world we lived in back in the days when I set Seychelles on its modern course – firstly in 1964 when I started my political career with SPUP (Seychelles People’s United Party) and later in 1977 when we put this country on a new socio-political path under SPPF (Seychelles People’s Progressive Front) – was totally different from that of today.

Back then - although I am sure some will interpret it differently - the primary motive of my engagement in politics was not determined by a desire for political gain but rather by a desire to make a difference for my country and my people.

It is for this reason that I decided to take the political steps I took in 1977 – in order to drastically make changes that would put Seychelles and the Seychellois people on a different path in life.

Some of you will question me as to why I thought I was doing the right thing, that my judgment was the right one for the future wellbeing of the Seychellois people.

I shall honestly say that I believed in my solutions because I was being sincere to myself, to my sentiments for my people, and to my people. I shall let Seychelles history and future generations to judge the rest for themselves.

Not long after I returned to Seychelles from my law and economics studies in England, I sat on a coconut tree trunk on the island of La Digue with an elderly man from the island. I remember that day like it was yesterday.

We were chatting about the future of Seychelles, how to change certain things, how to improve the lot of the people, how we could create a society where everyone had an equal opportunity in life and not have  one group of people who prospered and another who were continually left behind.

The old man told me something that made me stop and think profoundly: “Mr. Rene”, he said, “in order to achieve what you want to achieve, you’ll need to break down all barriers between the blacks and the whites in our society, between the rich and the poor, and between whose who are born with hope and those who are born without hope”.

It was on that coconut trunk that my political career started. I decided there and then that the old man’s words were wise words indeed, as though it was the people of Seychelles who were talking to me; that it was indeed my life’s destiny to make a difference for the Seychellois people, and in so doing, create a new nation.

During the past 40 years I have listened to many more people than the old man on the coconut trunk; listened to many elderly people and many young ones too. But I have also listened to my conscience and my logic which have guided me on the path that I have tried to trace for Seychelles and the Seychellois.

I never thought when I started working for Seychelles that I would complete the task myself. After all I am  not so proud or arrogant to believe that if it was I who started, I should be the one to finish.

The political career of any national leader is not a path with just roses, and even it there were only roses, they come with their thorns. It has always been my thinking that I would take Seychelles to a particular point from where someone else would take over and continue the journey.

I never expected such a person to be a carbon copy of me or to do things the same way I have done them, but rather a person who is sincere to the Seychelles ideal in today’s reality of the modern Seychelles that we have created.

It is true that you may find more goods in the shops of certain countries around us in the region than in ours; it is true that there are countries with more foreign reserves; it is also true that we are facing certain economic difficulties and there are times when flour or baby food do not arrive on time on the shop shelves.

But, Seychellois brothers and sisters, NOT ONE of those countries can say as confidently as we can, that its elderly live in a dignified manner, without having to beg; that it does not have beggars or touts along its roads or beaches; that all its children go to school, and go with clean uniforms and a full stomach, and above all, that all its people have an equal opportunity to be what they want to be in life.

Not one of those countries, or any that was in the same situation as we were 40 years ago, can claim to have the same level of human rights that we have, that have attained the level of literacy that we have, not to mention the level of access to information technology and modern communication.

Not one of these countries, or any that was in the same situation as we were 40 years ago, can claim that all its people have the same access to information, education, public health, social security and public transport – all the things that uphold people’s dignity.

Not one of those countries have been spared the ill effects of economic crises as well as we have been in Seychelles.

We have seen economic recession on the news; we’ve watched and read about the Gulf War in the early 90s; the Iraq War came and went; US warships came to seek rest and recreation on our shores and left quietly. We have remained a haven of tranquillity and peace and we have not known human suffering of the kind that many other nations have.

Seychellois brothers and sisters, we have governed soundly. And during all these years we have progressed rather than regressed.

Whilst European countries are looking for new ways to finance higher education for their youths, we are increasing the number of our students on overseas study courses and we are offering to aspiring Seychellois the opportunity to pursue distance courses.

We have given our returning graduates a better deal and we have gone a long way to bring university level courses to the Anse Royale Polytechnic.

When Sars hit countries more advanced than us, our medical services and our nurses worked day and night to keep the threat at bay.

While Aids poses problems for many African and Asian countries, we have taken measures to contain it in our islands.

While European countries are importing foreign workers to sustain their health service, we are increasing the number of Seychellois professionals in medicine and nursing and we are continually seeking ways and partnerships to provide specialized treatment for our people, be it in Victoria itself or at regional medical centres.

At a time when others have to lower the price of hotel rooms, some of our hotels can sell rooms at US$1500 per night.

During this same period, we have been attracting new investments in many of our industries.

We have persevered with our Macro-Economic Reform Programme in order to re-calibrate our economy and we continue to explore new ways and avenues to move Seychelles forward.

That, Seychellois brothers and sisters, is the true state of our nation. A nation that looks ahead with pride; a nation that has known good and bad times, but above all, a nation that has been prepared and that has prepared itself to face the future better than ever.

I have often been asked by foreign journalists what is the one thing that I am most proud of after so many years of service to the Seychellois nation.

I could point to our road system, or our Air Seychelles fleet, or our new oil tanker, or our public housing some of which look like villas, or our rapid access to the Internet and communication.

But I always answer that what fills me with most pride and satisfaction is that we have a people that has forged its identity and a people that stands dignified and proud.

When a Seychellois travels the world, he does so holding his head high.

That has always been the raison d’être of my career and that is our greatest success.

Our people are highly mobile, able and versatile, highly interested, highly adaptable, aware of the world around it, a people that knows exactly where it wants to go and where it is going. A proud and capable people.

Seychellois brothers and sisters, I am not so pretentious as to think that in my years of service to the Seychellois people, I could have accomplished all that I set out to do. We have to admit that our very success and material progress have also brought about a negative attitude in our society.

The state of our nation has to be seen and appraised on all levels. Among the fundamental components of the wellbeing of a nation are the values that are embraced by individuals who form that nation.

It is sad to observe a certain degree of degradation of moral values that has taken place as we have moved forward on the path of material success and that casts a dark shadow over our small society. There is a tendency to think that our success as a person depends more on what we have than on what we are.

More families break up; many parents seem to have no influence on their children, many spend less time with them; many of our children are losing out to drugs and alcohol and this bring about violence, more crimes and even suicides.

Greater material wealth has brought about greed and jealousy which threaten to replace the spirit of ‘caring and sharing’ that has been one of the foundation stones of our society.

Theft and dishonesty are becoming the easy way to enrich ourselves at the expense of those who have worked hard to possess what they have.

Seychellois brothers and sisters, should we not exercise great care and caution, these negative habits risk taking away from us what we have worked so hard to achieve. There is a growing necessity for us to put in place an extensive educational campaign in order to reintegrate moral values in our community.

It is for this very reason that I have dedicated 2004 as the ‘Year of Moral Renaissance’ – in order to ensure that while we move forward in progress we do not lose those very qualities that sustain us as a people.

In political life, we each cover one part of the long road that a nation travels. During our journey we trust that we take our people forward significantly, help it surmount obstacles, and continue on its way with the fewer hardships and more of comfort.

Along my journey with you the people of Seychelles, I have set out a vision for our country and people; I have helped as much as I can to make you a proud and dignified people. Together we have worked to create the necessary infrastructure for development.

I am convinced that the person who comes after me will work as hard to build on what we have achieved to date in order to bring even greater pride and prosperity to the Seychellois people.

As I have already indicated last year, I shall be handing over the presidency to Vice-President James Michel later this year.

He is an unpretentious man who comes from a humble family, and who has started at the bottom like every Seychellois. After working as a teacher, he worked in accounting in a hotel and later worked for the Cable & Wireless Company.

He has worked his way up in life slowly and during all this time he has remained close to the needs and aspirations of the Seychellois people.

There are those who say he is going to sort things out; there are those who say he is a touch too serious. Whatever may be his style of leadership, he represents for me and for the people of Seychelles the evolution of our country’s political career as well as a continuation of the SPPF philosophy and commitment to serve the Seychellois people, and to take Seychelles another step forward.

Our Front will continue to work to consolidate Seychellois values, material as well as moral, because these are the very qualities that will ensure sustainable progress.

I  pray that the Seychellois people will never allow anyone to destroy the foundations that we have laid for our progress and our future. I implore all politicians to work together to take Seychelles forward rather than destroy it.

As for me, I shall always stand by, and work to support, what we have built together and what we will build in the future.

You will not see my face on any Seychelles postage stamp nor on 100 rupee notes. But I trust that when you walk across our islands you’ll conclude that I have done my duty as a Seychellois worker.

I thank you for your kind attention, for your support and for your respect.

Long live Seychelles.

Long live the Seychellois people.

Distinguished guests and members of the National Assembly listening to President Rene delivering his State-of-the-Nation 2004 Address

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