Africa-Press – Mauritius. Mr Meetarbhan is surprised (Editorial ? 15th March) that the governments of South Africa and Mauritius, ?deux phares de la region?, are silent over recent happenings in Zimbabwe, where opposition has been very violently quashed, one opposition member murdered and the opposition leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangarai, badly beaten.
What is happening in Zimbabwe is very dangerous, both for the people and the future of this country and the region. But my point is whether Mauritius is morally clean enough to speak.
I am a Mauritian but for the last 30 years, have been in and out of the country. And I can tell you this. We do not have the moral right to interfere in the matters of Zimbabwe for we ourselves are not as clean.
Maybe not as bad as Zimbabwe but bad none the less. Let me give you an example. In 1967, the general elections. And then Independence. Good. But as per the Constitution, we are to have the next General Elections in five years.
But in 1971 nothing. 1972 nothing again. Nor in 1973, 1974 or 1975. The next elections were held in 1976. Five years later. For in the meantime, our beloved Chacha, buying deputy here and there, has managed to drag on and on and kept power for an extra five years.
You might think this is not that bad. But close your eyes for one minute and think of the same thing happening in another country. This incident only is enough to put us in the same basket as North Korea, Zimbabwe and other rogue countries. I think only the size of the country and its being of not much importance saved us from shame.
Shall I go on? Have you counted how many professionals have lost their jobs because of their not being of the same political colour as the people in power? Do you know how much money in compensation our national airline AIR MAURITIUS has had to pay to sack directors? And the MBC? Have you noticed how the people in power monopolise the MBC? Do you see how many times our PM and ministers appear on TV? Have you noticed the state of our News bulletins? Are they news or political propagandas? For some time now, I have been analysing the situation in Mauritius.
I was slightly surprised that we did not go down the drains and end up like Zimbabwe, Sudan and others. When the British went, they left something very good.
Institutions that protected us from evil. A good Police Force, a Parliament, a Civil Service. For me, we had people with ingredients to turn the country into Zimbabwe. But we were well protected. We are not a Banana Republic yet. But for how long? ?Que celui qui n?a pas péché lance la première pierre.?
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