Ahoy! Ahoy! Listen up people as our political leaders tell you the story of how their political adversaries are the worst things to ever happen to this country even though they all share the same archaic ideas. If you willingly made your way to a political meeting on Labour Day, the main difference will have been the venues and the speakers.

We can start off by just looking at the four main political parties which took to the streets on 1 May. There was the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM), a post-independence socialist party. There was the Mouvement Socialiste Militant (MSM), a dissident party originating from the MMM to contest the 1983 general election. There was the Muvman Liberater (ML), another dissident party originating from the MMM to contest the 2014 general election. Finally, there was the Mouvement Patriotique, another dissident party coming from the MMM and which is expected to be by Paul Bérenger’s side in 2019. Surely the leitmotiv is there for everyone to see. Most of them are cut from the same cloth.

The various political leaders in the country always find it in their best interests to go after their adversaries in a bid to gain more credibility. However, a simplistic analysis of the political platform since the turn of the century is enough to understand that all the major political parties are partly responsible for the situation we are in right now.

Starting off with the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD), the political party has been part of the last three governments. Regardless of what Xavier-Luc Duval would like us to think, it is absurd to believe that he can just shift to the opposition with a clean slate. For the MMM, the biggest mistake has to be giving some credibility to the MSM when Anerood Jugnauth came back to politics in 2012 and then losing all of its own integrity by aligning themselves with the sinking Labour Party ship in 2014.

The Labour Party, irrespective of the controversies surrounding Navin Ramgoolam now, is guilty of saving the political career of Pravind Jugnauth. Following the initial retirement of daddy dearest, the younger Jugnauth failed to win a seat in the 2005 general election, being beaten by the likes of Max Moutia. Without the charisma of his father and being outside of parliament, his support wavered significantly. However, Ramgoolam gave Jugnauth his support to contest the 2009 partial election in Moka and Quartier-Militaire, which was an easy way back into parliament. Jugnauth retained his seat in 2010 and 2014 before eventually becoming prime minister earlier this year.

As for the MSM, the party sold itself to the highest bidder for years before Anerood Jugnauth came back from retirement. No matter how much Pravind Jugnauth criticises the Labour Party regime now, it was because of him that Ramgoolam managed to serve consecutive terms after an indifferent mandate in 2005 to 2010.

Now the political leaders like to pretend that their incestuous relations are behind them. We don’t buy it for one second. 

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