Imagine the worst class you’ve ever been in, with the worst pupils and the worst teacher. Now imagine a parliamentary session. How different is it really? Well, in this particular scenario, the MPs are paid in the millions every year, have been elected to represent us and are on TV every week to advertise their debacles. That is arguably worse.

At face value, we should not be surprised by the filibuster-like performances during the PNQs, the insults during the PQs and the constant remarks during debates. This is not a reflection of an exceptionally poor crop of politicians. It is a reflection of who we, as a people, have deemed fit to represent us and choose for us.

We can take any particular parliamentary session as proof of that. For example, this week, a crucial report had allegedly been misplaced, the speaker had to step out for a moment while a question about her own daughter – not the iconic biscuit daughter, but the other one at Landscope – was being asked in parliament, a sentence disappeared from the Hansard, opposition MPs were kicked out while government MPs were left unscathed, and the former prime minister wished for the deaths of some of those against the Metro Express. Showkutally Soodhun was not even there to compound that misery.

As citizens of this country, it is hard to see how we are being represented in parliament. We can take the example of the hawkers. Last year, their fate had become a major political play for the opposition. Now that they have slowly phased out of the news cycle, they have been left to fend for themselves while the opposition rushes to where the cameras are and the government maintains its oppressive policies.

There is a need for a radical change and it cannot be superficial this time. It cannot simply be a former deputy prime minister turning into a rebel extraordinaire. It cannot be a spokesperson for the government who served as minister under Ramgoolam. It cannot be a speaker who had been rejected by the population during a general election and disrupts political proceedings with her own antics.

However, calls of a revolution à la Macron are also inherently misguided. Political ideologies separate parties in France while in Mauritius the only two sides are government and opposition, allowing for all possible permutations and combinations. There are no political ideologies. There is no left or right. There is no good and bad. There is just power and the intrinsic desire of those in government to keep it and those in opposition to get it.

There is arguably an option out there which will be considered the lesser of two evils during the next general election and that is all we have to look forward to. Unless mediocrity is the only thing that tickles your fancy, then tune in for the next parliamentary session and you will be served.

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