Jersey's support for the Rwandan dictatorship

Ian Gorst with Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame

The Jersey Overseas Aid Commission has defended its financial aid to the central African country of Rwanda as a row breaks out over the country's sponsorship deal with Arsenal football club.

The African state, which has been de facto ruled by President Paul Kagame and his racist Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) since 1994, is to spend £30 million on a sponsorship deal with Arsenal to promote tourism - the footballers will wear "Visit Rwanda" on their t-shirts - while receiving handouts of upwards of £60 million a year from the UK in poverty relief programs, as well as over £2.5 million from Jersey since 2008.

Since 1994, Rwanda has been ruled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a former terrorist organisation that seized power against the backdrop of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Dominated by the Tutsi, the minority ethnic group that ruled the pre-colonial and colonial era Kingdom of Rwanda, the RPF was founded in 1987 as an outgrowth of the Rwandese Alliance for National Unity, an organisation of Tutsi refugees thrown out of Rwanda by the majority Hutu people in the 1959 revolution. Enslaved for centuries by the Tutsi, and later the Tutsi's Belgian colonial allies, the Hutu revolt was sparked by the assassination of a Hutu chief by radical Tutsis - many Tutsis fled Rwanda as a result of the revolution.

The RPF's objectives were simple. They aimed to invade Rwanda, removing the Hutu government by force and restoring Tutsi minority rule. Backed by the United States, in 1990 the RPF invaded Rwanda, beginning a four-year civil war in which hundreds of thousands died. In 1994, as the government and social order collapsed against the genocide of Tutsis by extremist Hutu nationalist militias, the RPF eliminated remaining Hutu resistance and took control of the country, ending the violence but restoring Tutsi minority rule. Kagame, originally styling himself as vice-president but officially becoming president in 2000, has since suppressed opposition, placed heavy restrictions on freedom of speech and association, murdered opponents and generally established a violent and authoritarian society. Under the guise of preventing further sectarian violence (and shamelessly exploiting Tutsi fears of further genocide), Kagame has overseen the introduction of a new constitution that effectively turned Rwanda into a one-party state. He was re-elected in 2003, 2010 and 2017, unsurprisingly receiving 95%, 93% and 98% of the vote.

Has this stopped our dictator-loving Chief Minister from cosying up to Kagame and his government? Of course not. Has this stopped the Overseas Aid Commission from pouring money into Rwanda? Of course not.

Is it actually surprising that our oligarchic, tyrant-friendly government is getting in bed with racist African tinpot dictators?

Of course not.

States once again show contempt for civil service

Bully boy tactics abound once again at the top of SOJ management.

In a move clearly meant to send a message of "we're running the show here", States representatives decided that they couldn't be arsed to show up for a meeting last week with public sector union Staffside. According to Prospect, Staffside's representatives were left waiting for three-quarters of an hour for States representatives to arrive, after which they saw that no-one was showing up and left.

These negotiations come at a critical time, both for employees and management of SOJ. Despite an organisation-wide propaganda drive, Charlie Parker's utterly derisory "workforce modernsation" offer to put all States employees on one pay scheme with only ten bands was humiliatingly withdrawn after being rejected by major public sector unions in February. Since then, negotiations have been ongoing between said unions and the employer, apparently, given this latest show of force by SOJ, to not much success - Terry Renouf, chairman of Staffside and Prospect's Jersey branch, called this "a clear indication to Staffside that once again the Employer is not sincere about wanting to negotiate with staff representatives in line with agreed timescales".

This isn't the first clear indication of an insincere attitude that workforce modernisation has produced either. While Parker's restructuring program has had senior bureaucrats, often with years or even decades of experience, having to re-apply for their jobs, a "trebles all round" attitude has taken hold in head office, with two of Parker's pet sycophants "expert consultants" earning up to £1,300 a day and the other two on £100,000+ a year contracts, approximately three times the average Jersey salary. Helier Clement of the JEP slammed this gravy train in a column a few weeks back - he said that "this lot have not only hopped aboard (the gravy train) but appear also to have struck oil or discovered gold in the bowels of Cyril le Marquand House". I couldn't have put it better myself - especially coming at a time when living standards are slipping and inequality on the rise.

(Incidentally, is anyone else sick of being referred to by Parker as a "customer" or watching him lecture the bureaucracy on "customer services"? This isn't some mega-corporate state, Parker. We aren't the States' customers - we're the owners, something SOJ top management would do well to remember).

Election, 2018

The results are in! The polls have come in, the analyses have come out, and the crowing declarations on Radio Jersey have been arrogantly made. The election is over - now comes the real thing.

The results are a surprise, to say the least. After four years of endless calls for change, firmly pro-Establishment types like Lyndon Farnham, John le Fondre and Ian Gorst got in comfortably, with those three lining up to run for Chief Minister. Reform Jersey, while picking up two extra deputies - Carina Alves and Rob Ward - in St Helier No.2, received a bloody nose in the parishes. A shock result in St Helier No.1 saw the party rejected utterly, with not one of the three candidates getting in, and results weren't any better elsewhere.

A few interesting points.

Starting off at home, Richard Renouf returned in St Ouen with what he described as a "thumping majority". Cliff le Clercq, whose rather embarrassing lying about his accreditation as a counselor was exposed a fortnight prior to the election, received only 218 votes to Richard Renouf's 1,338. Ultimately, while le Clercq had a better grasp of issues surrounding young people, Renouf's record as the chair of the Health and Social Services scrutiny panel - the panel that pushed for Susie Pinel's abhorrent cuts to single-parent benefits to be overturned - is high-standard stuff, while le Clercq didn't have much in the way of policy that didn't essentially boil down to "reaction over action".

The Wicked Witch herself returned, far too easily than I would have liked. Susie "Jersey has a culture of entitlement" Pinel, responsible for the brutal 2016-19 Medium Term Financial Plan that cut benefits for single parents, the elderly and other vulnerable groups, topped the poll in St Clement. As one of the Chamber's most right-wing members, she has consistently voted against raising the minimum wage and voted both times to cut £40 of benefits for single parents. Her tenure at Social Security has overseen an era of falling living standards, rising in-work and single-parent poverty and a continued maintenance of the culture of bullying that infects Social Security and is a curse for so many ordinary people. Facing opposition from two Reform Jersey candidates, as well as the brilliant direct democracy activist Phil Renouf (the author of the attempt in 2016 to start a "Jersey Pirate Party" modeled off the anti-corruption, social-liberal, direct-democratic pirate politics movement), Pinel nevertheless made it in with a convincing majority. How sad that the voters of St Clement have chosen to spite their fellow islanders and elect someone so damaging to those unlucky enough to have to interact with the social security system.

Mark Baker of St Mary, the crypto-fascist confluence of Chris Lamy, Susie Pinel and Viktor Orbán, while being roundly rejected, still managed to receive 309 votes to Dave Johnson's 495. Baker is a well-known anti-Islam and anti-immigration activist, who believes English people should be banned from being Chief Minister and has professed belief in his "birthright" to the land of St Mary. I can't be the only one worried by the idea that an out-and-out racist like Baker could receive such a high percentage of the vote, even in an ultra-conservative parish like St Mary.

"The Reform Jersey Party", an anti-Reform blog noted in the past for disingenuous reporting and outright lying, announced that it was going to be mothballed until further notice. "Thank god", I thought. "Maybe the lies and slander might finally stop". Alas, it wasn't to be. A day after this announcement, the blog was reactivated - back by popular demand, as they called it, though I suspect the Nigel Farage "resign but not really" trick has gone on here.

In any case: the business of governance awaits.

Not-so-clever plans and very dirty tricks

A bunch of people in St Helier No.2 got this through their letterbox today - an unmarked, anonymous leaflet smearing Reform Jersey candidate and long-standing key voice on Jersey's left, Geoff Southern.

Aside from pushing an unproven slander that Southern was sacked from Hautlieu for inappropriate behavior - the details of why Southern left Hautlieu have never come out in the open, as they're a private matter between Southern and the Education Department - it accuses Southern of breaking electoral law. Southern did indeed do this - he helped a few senior citizens fill in a register-to-vote form, which, for some absurd reason, is illegal under Jersey law, and was fined £10K. To compare, Jon Howarth, who was convicted a few years ago of threatening to kill Stuart Syvret's landlord, was fined less than £500.

 It's also to be noted the leaflet is anonymous - whoever had this done is cowardly enough that they won't reveal who they actually represent. No-one has yet been identified delivering these, so we have no idea who or what is behind this.

This dishonest, cowardly and slanderous smear campaign helps no-one.