From time to time Mauritius is inexplicably gripped by one hysteria or another. Lately it’s been terrorism. A strange obsession in a country with a grand total of zero terrorist attacks or no real terrorists to speak of. But this hobby to whip up hysteria does not come without a cost and, usually, it bites the hand that feeds it.

The last time terrorist, with a capital T, was fashionable we got the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PoTA) in 2002. It allowed the government to tap phones, intercept mail and hold people incommunicado and without charge for 36 hours. This last bit already existed, being the byproduct of a similar hysteria about drug dealers in 1994. The law only passed after Paul Bérenger threatened that if they did not pass it, Mauritius would be subjected to sanctions and embargoes. Total nonsense to be sure. That, and after the presidency changed hands four times in 10 days. In 1994, the government argued that only ‘drug dealers’ needed to be afraid, and in 2002 presumably it was only ‘terrorists’ that need fear. But, like bad diseases, bad laws have a habit of spreading. Two years later, the MMM-MSM government was thinking of applying some of PoTA’s provisions to “mauvais plaisantins” by private radios as well. The question that arises then is this: in the absence of actual terrorists, whose phones are being tapped? Whose mail is being intercepted and who is being jailed without charge or bail? The biggest fish the PoTA has caught thus far was Ish Sookun and Kishan Sooklall. Well, when you have a PoTA but no terrorists, you make do with what you have.

The terrorism mania also led to the adoption of the Financial Intelligence and Anti-Money Laundering Act (FIAMLA) 2002. This peculiar bit of legislation was introduced, amongst other things, to combat Mafiosi, money launderers and, of course, terrorism financing and introduced a Rs500,000 limitation on cash transactions. Obviously, no terrorism financiers have been caught, but a lot of innocent people have: ordinary citizens buying property with cash, money changers, traders and simple retirees bringing in their life savings from abroad. In most of these cases, the courts admitted that these were neither Mafiosi nor terrorist financiers, but a bad law still demands blood, so the courts fine them instead. In 2014, even the Privy Council, in its judgement in the Beezadhur case shamefacedly admitted that the penalty “seemed harsh” considering that they were not actually dealing with criminals. But what to do? The law is the law. And now the FIAMLA has roped in a former prime minister too. Far from terrorism financing, FIAMLA’s purpose seems limited to either being wielded as a political weapon, or as a way to harass ordinary citizens with the courts knowing full well that the law is not being wielded against its intended targets.

Hysteria always bears rotten fruit. And its usual victims are the citizenry that have to pay every time some species of hysteria grips the government or the press. But then playing with fire always ends up with someone getting burnt.

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