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The people have spoken. In silence. Through the ballot box. But nobody expected
such a drubbing. This is how, as Pravind Jugnauth said on the day of the results,
even the Electoral Magician got it completely wrong. He put 40 in a bag, and added
another 40. But what came out was not 80. It was 39, even less than 40! Elections
are not a case of simple arithmetic. Forget about vote banks, about communal
voting and about socio-cultural organizations. These were deflated. The Alliance de
lUnite et de la Modernite showed a lack of unity when the fisherman admitted he
had gone on a fishing trip to catch a big fish instead.
And modernite? The Alliance LEPEP, with emphasis on the people, showed
greater unity and a sense of modernity. It targeted different sections of the voters
who had been forsaken in the past, like Old Age Pensioners, Widows, Orphans and
Planters. It used the social media like Facebook and You Tube to send powerful and
appropriate messages like Vire Mam to win over the young voters particularly. The
outgoing government thought that by depriving Mauritians of objective news and
giving them no option but to watch only MBC tv propaganda they would be able to
brainwash the population. They even tried to kill lExpress by starving it of paid
government publicity, but fortunately lExpress and its readers showed their
solidarity and resilience.
Unite et Modernite? How? By distributing the wealth of the nation to petits
copains and proches copines? By depriving the already deprived sections of the
population of an essential need like water? By spending a huge sum of money (the
estimated 24 billion rupees would almost certainly have increased by the time the
project is completed) on the metro leger for the benefit of some people only? If
they had some imagination they would have considered building the Harbour Bridge
and moving some Ministries out of Port Louis instead.
The Parliament was left in limbo with the connivance of the Leader of the
Opposition. Was there a Leader of the Opposition at that time? He was taken up
with more serious matters..like Koz Koze and sharing of power in a hypothetical
Second Republic. Paul Berenger, who spent almost all his political life fighting for
justice was unrecognizable before and during the election period. He lost his soul
trying to accommodate Navin Ramgoolams folie de grandeur.
The tertiary education sector is in a mess with third class overseas institutions being
set up to award diplomas and degrees in order to produce one graduate per
family. Or was it to produce unemployable graduates? All the campuses built over
the island should be used to set up polytechnics instead. Even the Open University
should focus on continuing education for people in employment on a dual mode
basis, and not move into delivering full time courses.
Surendra Bissoondoyal
LExpress 20 Dec 2014