Africa-Press – Mauritius. The lawsuit filed by Air Mauritius against its former executive Raj Ramlugun for criticizing the management of this company falls under the practice of “Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation” (SLAPP).
In some countries, SLAPP is a tactic used by politicians or corporations to pursue those who criticize their action or method of governance in order to silence them.
Thus, in some developed countries, oil companies have used this legal weapon to silence the criticism of environmentalists against fossil resource exploitation projects that contribute to global warming. Since these environmentalists do not have the financial means to defend themselves against lawsuits, they are forced to temper their criticisms.
To protect the right of civil society to participate in public debate on matters of national concern as well as the right to criticize in good faith private initiatives in the name of the public interest, some jurisdictions, including the Province of Ontario in Canada, have passed a law against SLAPP.
In 2014, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed the Protection of Public Participation Act, 2014 (described in its preamble as “An Act to amend the Courts of Justice Act, the Libel and Slander Act and the Statutory Powers Procedure Act in order to protect freedom of expression on matters of public interest”).
It is about freedom of expression and the right to participate in democratic debate. Obviously, the financial performance of the national aviation company is a matter of public interest insofar as the taxpayers, through the State, are also the majority shareholder of this public entity.
Everyone has the right to comment on the results of their financial statement. Many people, including opposition party leaders, have recently used it to sound the alarm about an unsustainable situation.
The CEO of Air Mauritius himself said that the business model of the company was no longer efficient. However, the company chose to fire red bullets at one person, in this case Raj Ramlugun, among all its detractors.
Why ? Because he dared to say more than others by writing a letter to the Prime Minister. The lawsuit against him sets a bad precedent. From now on, anyone who intends to criticize any company will have to think about the legal consequences of their actions before taking action.
In the background, this is the message that is sent to the public. Strange bedfellows It is said that politics makes strange bedfellows Well, we recently had another proof of this with the article by Rama Sithanen in the express (which I read with some amusement) in which he comes to support the thesis of Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo (his distant cousin) that growth economy of 3% in Mauritius is not a national pride.
With supporting figures, he wanted to demonstrate that all economic variables (investment, employment, savings, net exports, etc. ) have deteriorated since 2015 under the regime in place.
Rama and Vishnu have always been in opposite political camps (one is in the MSM when the other is in the PTr and vice versa) because they did not want to be contenders for the position of Minister of Finance in the same party (a case of mutual exclusivity).
But isn’t it that they are on the same wavelength now. The two former finance ministers held the finance portfolio for roughly ten years at different times. However, there is a common thread between their respective passages to this ministry. It is that of unbridled economic liberalism.
This liberalism, started by Vishnu in the 80s, was extended by Rama in the years 2005-2010 with enthusiasm and perseverance to the point of imposing a neoliberal development model which is at the root of the structural problems of the Mauritian economy.
These structural problems are not attributable to the Government of the day alone. They have their genesis in the economic policy choices that have been adopted in the past.
It is not enough to see the evolution of economic variables in 5 years to make a statement of success or failure. We have to go back to the past. National budget deficits, resulting in growing debt, started a long time ago.
The deficits in the trade balance and the current account of the balance of payments are caused by the downward trend in exports (since the end of the Sugar Protocol) and the dizzying increase in imports, fueled by overconsumption.
The neoliberal model has brought uneven development (Mauritius is an empirical proof of Samir Amin’s theory) with crony capitalism (introduced in the name of false economic democratization) and growing economic inequality, which is exacerbated by light taxation (flat income tax of 15% as opposed to progressive tax) and regressive VAT.
This neoliberal model has weakened the production apparatus, depriving the country of food security and energy security; has hampered the implementation of sustainable development, has allowed whole swathes of national heritage to be sold off, has accelerated real estate development in a territory that is shrinking like a skin of sorrow, and has endangered the natural ecosystems that are in the grip of today to the effects of climate change.
The quantitative analysis of macroeconomic variables for comparison purposes does not hide the realities of unequal development and the structural weaknesses of the economic model.
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