Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Prime Minister has the title of ‘docteur-maître’. Late James Burty David used to hero worship this doctor-lawyer who ought to have displayed his abilities in both areas.
Those who badmouth him say that he never practised law when it is the ambition of anyone who qualifies as a barrister to demonstrate forensic skills in the courtrooms.
He surely is no exception, but he was denied the opportunity of being a practising lawyer since he was reading law at the prestigious London School of Economics when he was the Leader of the Opposition (thanks to the present Leader of the Opposition) and, on completion of his studies, he had become Prime Minister.
The courts in Mauritius have been deprived of his talent as a lawyer, but all is not lost. Having failed to show his skills in Mauritius, he must intend to show the skills in another forum.
What that forum will be is as yet a secret, but it is still possible to look into the glass of the future so as to decipher his intention. He is known for playing his cards close to his chest, but, in this era of openness, there must be a way of finding out. SADC was holding a meeting in Maputo and that should have been his destination. Maputo will eventually materialize on his route via London.
Without letting the country know beforehand what his mission was going to be in London – it was only later that the nation was made aware that he had to rush to London to meet up with an English lawyer about issues of portentous weight for the continued prosperity of the economy and for the preservation and/or restoration of Mauritian territory – this episode of a Head of Government leaving his country on the quiet must count as a record fi t for the Guinness Book.
Since he left on Saturday evening on the MK flight, he could very well have given another reason for his trip to London. The British Prime Minister was hosting a special conference on Poverty on the fringes of the London Olympics.
That could really have been a great opportunity to showcase the Mauritian success story in the alleviation of poverty and, while rubbing shoulders with David Cameron, he could have raised with him once again the vexed question of the Chagos archipelago and its return to the sovereignty of Mauritius.
The opportunity would have been there since very few heads of Government responded to the British call against poverty. This is a missed opportunity for the country.
The Prime Minister seems to be very fond of the company of the English lawyers both for media law and the Law of the Sea. But, nevertheless the Prime Minister who represents a sovereign country should not go to lawyers’ chambers, irrespective of the nationality of the lawyers.
Lawyers should come to him and not the other way round. If urgency is the issue, then lawyers must address it and pay their respect to the office of Prime Minister. The country deserves nothing less. Unless the Prime Minister wishes to be a junior to the English lawyers before the Law of the Sea Tribunal. ..
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