I am loathe to disturb you during your well-deserved vacation, compliments of the dignified and freedom-loving people of this country, but I feel it my duty to share some reflections with you to prevent you from feeling too lonely.

You must be wondering what happened to all those chatwas you fed and fattened with our money and why they ran to the other side without delay; why those you pulled out all the stops for and looked like your most loyal subjects have left skid marks the moment they saw defeat approaching; why those who used to touch your feet and elevate you to the status of God are today treating you like a pariah; why those who openly fawned over you, ferociously tapped the tables in the National Assembly when you spoke, uproariously laughed and guffawed at your unfunny jokes and jockeyed to be seen with you are today not returning your phone calls and no longer find your obscene jokes funny.

Welcome to Chatwa Land. A land you, admittedly, did not create but which you perfected and raised to an art form. Welcome to the ugly side of human nature – something you were watching from the other side and perhaps gloating while some of our own relatives and friends ran to you as soon as you gained power and refused to be associated with us, because they wanted to continue to feed from the trough you had opened for them. Ironically, you showed us who our real friends and relatives are. Allow us to return the favour.

As the old saying goes, victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan. You will have a lot of time to internalise that. You must even be wondering why leaders of countries you bragged about having a privileged relationship with were the first to congratulate your opponent and invite him for a state visit even before the election results were made official. I hate to break it to you but you should have known what statesmen already know – that amongst countries, there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. We don’t know yet how much of our sovereign land you invested in a ‘friendship’ you thought was going to save you from us but you should have known it was not worth it. Every leader of every country has only one aim in mind: fight for the interests of the people who elected them. Sorry that lesson went right over your head.

Yet, in the middle of the dark thoughts you must be bathing in, I bear good tidings. You will have noticed that days after your crushing defeat, you are still a free man. No one has raided your house to show us the indecent luxury you live in. No one has sent the police to humiliate you, handcuff you or walk you through a hostile mob to the police cells; no one has ordered the police to inspect your private parts and throw you in a dirty cell while waiting for the day of reckoning. No one has instructed the police to prevent your family from bringing you your medicine while you are detained on trumped up charges. No one has jailed your wife, children or exiled your relatives. That is a lot of good luck. Many of our compatriots did not have that much luck.

If you are still enjoying your freedom today, you owe it to the deep sense of justice ingrained in your successors and in the citizens of this country; they are neither outlaws like you, nor are they sociopaths like you and those around you.

As citizens, we all want to see you pay for all the wrongs you inflicted on this country and its people. However, we want justice to be meted out to you within the parameters of the law – something you had denied us for years.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” So we want justice for you because we want justice for everyone else in this country, no matter who they are.

Should you be arrested without the due process of law, those of us you punished, isolated, dragged to court on baseless accusations and persecuted; those of us who lost so much, including their livelihood because of you and your methods, will be there to stand up in your defence as we did in the defence of your predecessors and as we will in the case of your successors. We will defend you because we will not stand for lawlessness even against outlaws like you. I hope this teaches you the biggest lesson of your life: that Mauritius is much bigger than you.

At the end of the day, dear Pravind, ask yourself one crucial question: who has more power and freedom here? You and the Fanta Club you depended on and who depended on you to enjoy the spoils of power or those who have never needed anything from you or from anyone? You or those upon whom you inflicted punishment in a cowardly way and who still continue to stand up for the rights of citizens, including yours?

Something to reflect on during the tediously lonely hours you will spend waiting for the long arm of the law to catch up with you. Rest assured that that day will come.

Unbegrudgingly yours

Touria Prayag