Africa-Press – Mauritius. The exercise of power by the government in place is quite singular in its handling of the events of recent weeks, whether in relation to the deportation of the Slovak national or the conflict between the MTC and the GRA, among others.
It demonstrates a government determined to quell any protest wherever it comes from. Sir Anerood Jugnauth, more legalistic, would he have been more conciliatory, in your opinion?
Jean Claude de L’Estrac: We will not mix things up. The justified deportation of the Slovak is a matter of state. The dispute between the GRA and the MTC is a political vendetta.
This last case is a new illustration of the policy pursued by the Prime Minister. He intends to take control of all the institutions that exercise power and place only his supporters everywhere.
It totally locks the system. With the exception of the judiciary and the free media, there are almost no checks and balances, which are essential to the proper functioning of democracy.
This temptation has been that of all Prime Ministers, but no one has gone as far as Pravind Jugnauth, not even Sir Anerood who was not a great democrat. Pravind should be wary of a backlash.
* Even the MTC, a symbol of the economic power of a very influential segment of the population, had to bow its back before the political power determined to appropriate a business that reportedly brings big profits to certain operators.
What could have happened, in your opinion, to make them drop Jean-Michel Giraud? Other interests at stake? The MTC is no longer, and for a long time, the symbol of the economic power of the great Whites to talk about cash.
They are not present anywhere at the Club. Those who think otherwise are fantasizing. And Jean-Michel Giraud is surely not their representative, nor is it for this reason that Pravind Jugnauth targeted him.
The first crime of Jean-Michel Giraud, it is to be the friend of Bérenger, but perhaps more serious still, it is to be the slayer of the wheeler-dealers of all hairs which vitiated the horse sport for several years and some of whom are very close to power.
* Beyond the interests of relatives or financiers of power, an allegation made by Jean-Michel Giraud in an interview with Week-End, last Sunday, relates to the billions, between Rs 15 to 20 billion, he says, who go into ‘illegal bets, which the State, which wants to control everything, seems not to want to worry about’.
Giraud must know what he is talking about – just like the GRA and the ICAC, right? Everyone knows that illegal betting is practiced on a large scale. After drugs, it is undoubtedly the main source of dirty money flooding the country.
Admittedly, it is not easy to fight a practice in which thousands of Mauritians indulge, but the apathy of regulators on this issue is troubling, indeed.
Giraud knows a ton, which is why even the real fake horse owners wanted him to ‘shut his big mouth, my dear’. . . * Should we also believe that the mafia has also taken control of politics? I can not believe it. But there is reason to worry about the proximity of people in power to characters that should have been kept at a distance.
Any comparison with the situation in Sri Lanka in relation to the economic situation for some time would probably be unreasonable, but at the point where we have reached on other levels, we run the risk of hitting bottom very soon compared to good governance in different sectors, despite what the global governance indicators tell us.
What do you think? The country is bad. Mauritians, many of them anyway, are anxious. They have lost faith in institutions. They distrust public speech. The future seems uncertain to them. They are afraid for their children.
It is not only the economic uncertainties that worry some Mauritians, it is above all the continuous disintegration of the values that are the bedrock of the nation.
Pravind Jugnauth has already proven that he is a formidable politician; it would be necessary, in the conjuncture, that he proves to be a statesman. * The political opposition did not do well in the recent Le Mauricien-Straconsult poll.
It’s even worse for L’Entente de L’Espoir, and it’s hard to see Paul Bérenger clinging to this alliance for very long. Will he find better elsewhere? The MMM has been in very bad shape for several years: that is undeniable.
But we must beware of burying too soon a political movement that has contributed so much to the construction of this nation. The party declined but the men who made the party are everywhere in the institutions of power even if some are unrecognizable today.
It is not forbidden to think that with the help of new political circumstances, a rejuvenated and invigorated MMM could still play a useful role in this country.
* Some political observers persist in believing that a PTr-L’Entente de l’Espoir alliance is absolutely necessary to effectively counter the alliance in power. 2019 is however a convincing indicator of what will happen in 2024, right?
I’m not impressed with the power of the Entente of Hope as it stands today. I continue to think, more than ever, that the main issue remains the designation of Pravind Jugnauth’s challenger, the one who will be able to embody the alternation.
A four-headed nebula cannot. Our legislative are presidential. Voters know that what matters above all is the stature of the Prime Minister, the man who holds all the levers of power.
The image of Pravind Jugnauth has grown considerably in the exercise of power. Therefore, no one talks about him anymore in reference to papa-piti. To hope to dislodge him, the opposition must present a challenger of high stature, experienced and credible.
Time passes, no new faces have emerged convincingly so far. Suddenly, the Ramgoolam option is no longer anathema among opposition leaders even if it should create some defections.
* The current government has been running the country for more than two years, it’s been as long as we have been practically managing various crises – pandemic and others.
Do you see this going on for quite a while longer?
This justice must be done to the government of Pravind Jugnauth: it managed the health crisis well, it avoided the worst for the economy.
It is a shame that this good performance has been tainted by scandals that smack of corruption. It must also be recognized that the financing of the management of these crises has further aggravated the country’s indebtedness and emptied our piggy bank.
It will be necessary, at one time or another, to go to the cash register. In the meantime, crises follow one another. We have not finished suffering the impact of the war in Ukraine.
The immediate consequence is inflation which is eating away at the purchasing power of households. It will take a while yet. The formula adopted by the government to respond to this new crisis seems to me to be inappropriate.
I would have found more effective targeted financial support for the most vulnerable families rather than this incentive to continue consuming the same imported products that we subsidize. We have to change the paradigm. The global issue is now food security.
What will the government do when the next shipments of goods arrive that can be predicted to be even more expensive? In these times of crisis, the actions of the government should be coupled with an educational dimension, with praise for discipline and sacrifice.
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