Mauritius is now allied with Saudi Arabia in its fight against “terrorism”. It’s allied with the kingdom in its policies regarding Yemen (a bloodbath), Palestine (an unofficial alliance with Israel) and Egypt (helping keep a military dictator on the throne). Mauritius also considers alleged drone attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen “a war crime” as opposed to the actual war crimes being committed by Saudi Arabia.  Mauritius, we discover, has no problem with the peoples of Qatar and Iran, but only opposes their governments. None of this was said by the Foreign Ministry of Mauritius. It was the latest foray into foreign policy by the president of the ruling MSM party, Showkutally Soodhun, who also thinks that Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the author of much tragedy across West Asia, has “a human-lion heart”, whatever that means.

What allows for Soodhun’s foreign policy interventions? For long, Mauritius’ economy subsisted on a series of trade preferences and no real foreign policy challenges. That allowed foreign policy in Mauritius to evolve in a kind of bubble where so long as the Europeans (where the sugar money and tourists came from) were happy, the US was happy (Diego Garcia next door) and India was happy (to keep local voters happy) all was well. To the hoi polloi, foreign policy is little more than cocktails, budgetary grants, ‘historical’ links and the odd box of dates. In this bubble, foreign policy is seen through the lens of local politics and/or cultural insecurities. This problem becomes much more serious under MSM governments that allow their ministers a lot of leeway without a firm hand on the till.

The problem is that the world that sustained this bubble does not exist anymore. There is no economic safety net, there is a simmering diplomatic dispute over the Chagos and a sharp foreign policy is needed to navigate through a messy, multipolar world. Mauritius can ill-afford such amateurism.

The problem today is much deeper than just Soodhun, who is just its most grotesque manifestation. Take, for example, former President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim unilaterally launching a friendship week with Pakistan and then sparring with Finance Minister Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo over that.  Neither had any business poking their noses into foreign policy but the MSM pretended it did not happen. The government wants to give the Indians a military base on Agalega and keeps it all hushed up without explaining whether this is part of a geopolitical strategy (climbing on the anti-China bandwagon), to please voters or to help pay for the spanking new train. In 2017, Soodhun announces that Mauritius has cut off relations with Qatar only for a red-faced Foreign Ministry to deny that. Others like Ravi Rutnah, Ivan Collendavelloo and Anil Gayan name-drop countries in settling local scores without thinking about what a nightmare this must be for our professional diplomats having to face counterparts from these countries as we ask them for business and diplomatic support.

In his paean of praise for Salman, Soodhun also thanked the Saudis for giving US$10 million. This is the crux of the matter. But then it went slightly wrong when Soodhun said that it was to help pay for 3,000 homes supposedly destroyed in a recent cyclone. 3,800 homes were indeed destroyed but they were in Mozambique when Cyclone Kenneth passed there this year. Iran and Qatar presumably do not pay as well as the Saudis, so they are evil. This manner of running foreign policy risks reducing us to the level of a Palau, Micronesia, Nauru or the Marshall Islands: small pacific states willing to side with indefensible foreign policies in return for lucre. All of them are pretty much the only states siding with Israel and the US whenever Palestine is brought up in the UN because both of these powers shower them with cash in return.

If Mauritius is to have a credible foreign policy, it must start putting its house in order. And that means muzzling its politicians.

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