Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Bank of Mauritius (BoM) saga is enfolding and we are holding our breath. My friends are divided on the outcome and nobody is sure who will be the winner and who the loser.
One thing is sure: the image of the BoM is tarnished. Parochialism is our worst enemy and will jeopardise our rhythm of modernization and weaken our nation’s cohesion.
A small number of journalists take pride in whipping up a frenzy about petty matters and elevating them to national interest. Both Dr Ramgoolam and Dr Sithanen are ill-inspired to set up a Fact Finding Committee. In this test of leadership, they should have shown more mature judgments.
Some papers would have done better by focusing criticism on purely economic, monetary and financial policies of the BoM (that have received applause from specialists) rather than on the alleged abuse of overseas travels, allowances and fine dining.
If Mauritius is set to play a pivotal role in its sphere of influence, the Governor has to travel. And we can’t expect him to stay in a pensionnat when the venue of the Governors’ meeting is a seven star hotel.
And we also can’t require our Governor to treat his fellow Governors who are his guests here to roti and dilo mort at the Central Market. It is not to the common man to decide how often Manou Bheenick has to travel or what he should serve his colleagues.
And since we have arrived at this point of no return, let us ask the Commission to shed light on this supposedly “murky” business of confl ct of interest that is plaguing this institution. Better still, let the Board members volunteer to justify that they have no conflicting roles.
Further, all Members of Parliament who have made wild allegations from the comfort of the immunity conferred upon them, should be bold enough to come forward to convince us that they had not been protecting potentates, and run the risk of being sued. When the dusts of the findings settle down, we’ll start worrying about re-engineering our Bank’s image.
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