No man is an island but some countries are, and not just in the geographic sense. In our isolation, we are too often desensitised to the oddities that go on here. We don’t ask questions anymore. Why is it, for instance, that every so often when uncomfortable or sensitive information surfaces, our reaction as a country defies all logic? We stand by and watch as the authorities launch their internal enquiries. Enquiries that, too often, have nothing to do with the facts that the whole country just learnt. Instead, the aim is merely to find out how the sensitive information reached the public eye. As if the unruly citizens who dared spill the beans have to be tracked down and punished.

 “Our Official Secrets Act belongs in a different century.”

It might have been referred to as a whistleblower witch-hunt in a different country. But then again, we are not a different country. We are ourselves. The very same nation that nearly let Raj Dayal, the then- minister of environment, get away with trying to redirect the spotlight away from himself to the whistleblower who recorded him asking for a bribe. The whistleblower, he said, was supposedly interested in destroying Dayal politically and – this one takes the prize – was allegedly wanted by Interpol! Public opinion condemned the then-minister for his bribery attempt. But – and this is an enormous ‘but’ that should make us all cringe – it also let him get away with his character assassination stunt targeting the whistleblower. In the same way, we happily keep quiet when the authorities investigate the roots of information leaks. The latest example are the suspensions at the Central Electricity Board (CEB), where two highly-ranked officers were taken off duty suspected of having provided the political opposition with information about the board’s financial situation that the authorities, by the looks of it, wanted to be kept secret.

It’s because Mauritius forms part of the democracies with the worst information access principles in the world that the authorities can get away with this attitude to leaks. Until we get rid of the seemingly North Korea-inspired ban on civil servants from opening their mouths, nothing will change. Our Official Secrets Act belongs in a different century. While Mauritius seems to encourage an atmosphere of terror in the public sector when it comes to information, there are countries that for democratic reasons do the exact opposite. In certain parts of Scandinavia, the constitution prohibits the authorities from trying to track down the origin of leaks within their organisations. There, if a ministry employee asks a journalist to name her source, the one asking risks a prison sentence.

Information is not a weapon. It’s not a privilege. In a democracy, it should simply be considered a right, as should the decision to circulate it. Mauritius’ place on the (very short!) list of countries that still don’t legally grant their citizens access to information is, in combination with the leak enquiries, a national embarrassment beyond words.

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