It is safe to say that no one would ever have thought that they would face the current conundrum our society is in. What is both scary but also at the same time ‘reassuring’ is that we are all in this together. Strangely, Covid-19 has brought us together, whether we are a family, a nation or the world. Since the outbreak of the virus and its accelerated spread, a lot has been written about what is being alluded to as our old world and that we are now ‘forced’ to retahink, reboot and re-engineer the way things will be done. What impact will this have on a small island like Mauritius? 

The narrative about Mauritius has often been about its resilience and its ability to go against the dire predictions of two Nobel Prize laureates. Subsequently, we saw the island referred to as a textbook case of the ‘Mauritian economic miracle’, the ‘most performing democracy in Africa’ and an island known for its ‘social cohesion and sense of conviviality’. More recently, a handful of scholars (including myself) have offered a more nuanced reading of what I call the ‘Mauritian picture perfect model’. As citizens, we are all conscious (even if a number of us are dismissive of the fact) that the manner in which politics is conducted in our country has reached a high low. We have seen an acceleration of clientelism and, as a population, we have given in to populist approaches, which have doled out lavish (and often beyond our means) measures. 

We face exceptionally hard times ahead of us, which will require that we abandon our individualistic and short-term gains that we have been so used to.

What is urgently needed is a new social contract. This might seem cliché but, now more than ever, there is the need for a candid and open conversation with the Mauritian citizen about the type of society we wish to live in and how each and every one of us will have to pull their weight to make it happen. We will have to stop depending on the big brother syndrome for bailout. We will have to urgently reconsider our current development m o d e l built on ‘parcelling off land’ for lucrative real estate development. We will have to urgently address our total dependency as a net importer of food. This is, in fact, an extremely grim thought as a large part of the world faces lockdown. Above all, we must get off our pedestal of beating our chests and being cosy with the status quo. 

The building of this new social contract will take time and needs to be done in an inclusive and integrated manner – factoring the voices of all citizens. There is no doubt that we face exceptionally hard times ahead of us, which will require that we abandon our individualistic and short-term gains that we have been so used to. Maybe the only silver lining to the dark cloud of Covid-19 is that it will force us out of our sense of dependency and complacency.

Roukaya Kasenally, Democracy Scholar.