The value of words is something that is often overlooked by our political class. Many of our politicians could vociferate for hours if given an audience. Some others, like Dan Baboo, are smart enough to be more careful with what they say. Whether that is deliberate is up for debate. However, it should be our duty, as an electorate, to make words matter.

We could make a non-exhaustive list of everyone that needs to speak less and do more (good things not Heritage City). From Showkutally Soodhun to Anil Gayan, we have been gifted with pure comedy gold. At this point in time, our focus must turn to Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, the slightly more discreet minister of education, but equally redundant.

Keen to leave a legacy behind her, Dookun-Luchoomun is changing the rules of the game. After the controversial Nine-Year Schooling (NYS), she has managed to upset thousands of pupils with the enforcement of punitive measures for those who don’t meet the adequate attendance requirements. If she had just done that and remained quiet, time might have healed the wounds. She could have claimed that her hands were tied and that she had no other choice. She went for the different option, which was to talk.

She claimed that pupils had to be more responsible given the privileges that they had. Well sure, we’ll count education — a human right in the minds of less ignorant people — as a privilege. Then again, most of us will agree that we have no lessons to take about privileges from the current regime, or any other regime for that matter.

On top of that, having postponed the deadline for payment of the fees so that everyone gets their timetable and sits for exams, Dookun-Luchoomun believes that the MoE has compromised enough. To be fair, it is difficult to understand how a compromise can be a unilateral decision taken without any sort of discussion with the other side, in this case the pupils. With Dookun-Luchoomun and this government as a whole, this seems to be the very definition of a compromise.

The minister of education also claims that she would not back down in spite of the pressure from the pupils, with their numerous sit-ins and their threats of a protest march. Truth is, while for logical and moral reasons she could give the pupils a reprieve this year, politically, she has no reason to. Regardless of pupils threatening to withhold their votes during the next general election, there are already dozens of solid reasons why the Alliance Lepep should not be anywhere near power ever again.

Why then should she hold back the punitive measures this year? Well, because it is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, that has never been and is unlikely to ever be enough. For now, she can say whatever she wants, with no concerns for the value of her words. Only for now.

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