A single sentence can be more illuminating than an entire library. Soodhun’s one sentence on the radio calling Nandanee Soornack “the new Sobrinho” should have sent a shiver down the collective spine of the MSM’s junior coalition partner, the Muvman Liberater (ML). Since the Álvaro Sobrinho scandal broke out at the beginning of the year, the ML’s Ivan Collendavelloo has repeatedly stuck his neck out for the Angolan billionaire and insisted that Sobrinho was just another innocent investor. In fact, Collendavelloo has waged a war of words with the opposition and the press for their criticism of Sobrinho’s dealings in Mauritius and abroad.

What Soodhun’s statement shows is that Collendavelloo is on his own and cannot expect the MSM to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. To be fair, Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth has been careful to distance himself both from Sobrinho as well as from Collendavelloo’s defence of the Angolan billionaire. And that was it. Soodhun has gone much further and put Sobrinho and Soornack in the same league. What the MSM wants to make clear is that whatever political price the Sobrinho episode will exact, it will be borne by Collendavelloo and the ML alone.

This puts the ML in a difficult position. Collendavelloo has had to contend with infighting between his Health Minister Anwar Husnoo and Tourism Minister Anil Gayan over the Rs323,200 monthly salary for Vijaya Sumputh. The tension has reached the point that recently, Gayan had to bus in supporters from his constituency at an ML meet to drive the message home that he backed Sumputh. Husnoo, whose revelations in parliament unleashed this fight, managed to secure Sumputh taking a hiatus from the ML. Then there is Sobrinho who has cast a shadow over both Collendavelloo and the ML’s pick for president of the republic, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim. Instead of taking the bull by the horns and acting decisively, the ML seems to be adrift.

Why is Collendavelloo not able to put his house in order? Is it because he does not have a party so much as an eclectic band of individuals with disparate interests hastily thrown together? Yes. But then other similarly hastily constructed parties have shown capability of action, like the MSM in the 1980s. The answer instead lies in the recent exit of the PMSD from government. Together, the ML and the PMSD could have moderated their major ally, the MSM. Now, it’s just the tiny ML and the MSM behemoth sitting in the ruling side. The MSM is busy poaching MPs anywhere it can get them, reducing the need for the ML. This places Collendavelloo in a bind: ignore the scandals dogging his party and the MSM might be tempted to ditch the ML with its troubles and look for new allies in an overcrowded opposition. Who knows, the Sobrinho episode might just be the excuse the MSM uses to ditch the ML. On the other hand, crack down on wayward members and some might jump ship to the MSM making the ML even more irrelevant. That’s the conundrum Ivan is in, and why he seems unable to get his party in order.

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