Let’s talk about our dear minister mentor, Anerood Jugnauth, for a minute.

Amidst all the scandals, he is the last person that everybody is thinking of, but really, he should be the first.

They called him Rambo and he was given a hero’s welcome when he presented himself as the next potential prime minister at 84 years old and after years of absence from the political arena. He was portrayed as the one who would “save the country” and bring a second economic miracle. The people believed in him and they voted for him.

In December 2014, Jugnauth became our prime minister and the leader who would be “sans pitié”. Indeed, he was, and the first thing he did to show us that was to destroy the British American Investment (BAI) group by impulsively closing down Bramer Bank – after taking out his own money first – just a few months after he took power. From that point on, Jugnauth never looked back. He never looked back on the impact that his decisions had, and he never looked back on the promises that he made during the electoral campaign.

Two years later, not only is he no longer the prime minister, but the economic miracle also never happened. Worse, he has alienated himself completely from what is going on in the country and when questioned, his answer is either “I p..s on them” or “I don’t know”. He claimed that his health was taking a toll of him and that he was no longer capable of being the prime minister and shouldering all the responsibilities. Fair enough. But then, why didn’t he resign?

Instead, he became the first ever minister mentor of the country because he felt that it was a job that he and his health could take on – or, he did not want to resign and give up on his salary and provoke a by-election. But then, he couldn’t be a mentor either. When journalists asked for his opinion about the scandal involving Government PPS Kalyan Tarolah, the response of our minister mentor was, “How would I know that? I wasn’t there.”

No, he wasn’t because he was too busy attending and staying late at concerts and events to be a minister mentor and advise the ministers and members of the government. In fact, Jugnauth isn’t even here right now; he is in Rodrigues as the chief guest for the celebrations of the island’s 15 years of autonomy.  

But, as much as Jugnauth thinks that he has been let off the hook and that he will be able to keep on playing chief guest at events and avoiding his responsibilities, it is not the case. If he cannot do his job, then it is high time he stepped down because we are certainly not paying him to attend events.   

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