She came, she spent, she resigned, and we are left to pay for her pension for life.

And we are not talking about just a few thousands. The population will have to contribute to almost Rs250,000 every single month for Ameenah Gurib-Fakim’s post-presidential pension so that she can afford her travels, expensive jewellery and designer clothes and shoes. Rs250,000 for someone who has done nothing but travel, give speeches and welcome guests at the State House for three years. It may seem wrong, but it is perfectly right according to our constitution.

It also seems right to our dear minister mentor, who is not only benefitting from a presidential pension, but is also receiving a senior citizen pension and the salary of a minister, among other benefits. Yes, we are talking about the same Anerood Jugnauth who said that the president had done nothing wrong by using the platinum credit card that was offered to her by the Planet Earth Institute and that “everything ended well”.

Everything probably did end well – even very well – for Gurib-Fakim and Jugnauth, but it certainly didn’t for us. Not only are we forced to make sacrifices and work blood, sweat and tears in order to pay for presidents’ and ministers’ salaries, but we are also left with no answers because the government does not think that a commission of enquiry on the president’s case and Alvaro Sobrinho’s business deals in Mauritius is necessary.

Like Anil Gayan – the third or fourth spokesperson of the government – said in a press conference, the government only wants “the whole thing behind us as soon as possible”. Let the president go, let the ministers go on with their inauguration ceremonies, let the weekly scandals stay hidden under the carpet and let’s get on with our lives. For the government, it is really that simple.

But not for us.

If the members of the government truly believe that this is what the population deserves after 50 years of independence, they couldn’t be more wrong. We want the truth about Sobrinho, the Planet Earth Institute and the platinum credit card; we want to know why Sobrinho was able to get a banking licence in our country while he was being investigated abroad for money laundering and we want to know all about the good things that Ivan Collendavelloo was able to see in Sobrinho’s eyes.

If we are going to spend the rest of our lives paying for the pensions and salaries of presidents, vice presidents and ministers – some of whom have not done a single good thing for the country – then we might as well know what they have been up to. We now leave it to the prime minister to prove to us that he really takes his role and responsibility – which was handed to him by his father – seriously and that he has the population’s best interests at heart.

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