In his glory days, Navin Ramgoolam would walk — or drive in a fancy car — in the streets of our beautiful island to the chants of adoring supporters celebrating his belonging to Mauritian royalty. Echoes of “Navin to meme nou le roi, Navin to meme nou rajah” had started to fade over the last year as the Alliance Lepep silenced opposition of any kind in order to pursue its own brand of democracy. 

Yet, during the 80th anniversary of the Labour Party, Ramgoolam expressed himself in a lengthy monologue with the fire of a thousand suns burning in his eyes. The former prime minister had surprisingly gotten his groove back and he was not afraid to point out the wrongdoings of the current government. 

However, the question lies elsewhere. Does the population forgive and forget so easily? The leader of the Labour Party rightly suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Alliance Lepep during the general election. That was 14 months ago. Since then, Ramgoolam’s world crumbled down, with his personal life exposed and his legacy marred by his legal issues. The life of the most powerful man in the island turned into chaos. 

“Does the population forgive and forget so easily?”

Still, there he was in front of hundreds of his supporters, proud of his beliefs and confident that his past troubles had been swept under the rug. To a certain extent, it defies logic. Did the Labour Party make any recent and significant move in the political arena? No. Did the population give any previous indication that it was ready to welcome Ramgoolam back? No. Then, how did this happen?

Well, it has a lot to do with sitting back and letting the government do its work. As opposed to Paul Bérenger, who remains heavily involved in day-to-day politics while also reconstructing his political party, the MMM, Ramgoolam is gaining a lot by doing nothing at all. To be honest, he could even be worse off if he made a political move.

Such has been the performance of the current regime that words are not even needed. At the mention of the minister of housing and lands, Showkutally Soodhun, the crowd present for the anniversary burst into laughter. That was arguably one of the most poignant moments of Ramgoolam’s speech and it is fair to say that it was not much of an effort. 

Added to Soodhun’s antics are Raj Dayal’s helicopter adventures and his messiah complex, Ivan Collendavelloo promising never to cut the price of electricity, Roshi Bhadhain forcing himself on us on social media with his sponsored posts and even Pravind Jugnauth’s own legal issues. There is so much to choose from that some even manage to drown their own incompetence in the sea of disappointment.

So, can Ramgoolam make a successful comeback? You should probably ask his very competent political campaigners: the Alliance Lepep. 

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