Can someone please explain to me how a dinner organised by the Mauritius Tamil Temples Federation to celebrate the Tamil diaspora was hijacked by off-field issues such as Air Mauritius, and turned into a human resource exercise of who deserves to head our national airline. There is something very wrong in Paradise!

It is not our intention to either defend André Viljoen, CEO of Air Mauritius, or indeed run down Megh Pillay, its former CEO. Mr. Viljoen is big enough to defend himself and Mr. Bérenger’s perception of Mr. Pillay’s track record is none of our business. Just for the record, though, it is a fact that Air Mauritius is out of the red for the first time after years of being in debt. The last figures released show a volte face from a 29m euro loss in 2012 to a 7.6m euro profi t this year. But that’s by and by and so are the reasons behind that performance.

The point is: what got into Paul Bérenger’s head for him to think that a dinner was the right forum to take the ‘file’ of each of these employees into the public domain? Was there some sort of contest that we were not informed about where private people’s perceived degree of competence had to be evaluated publicly? That was at least the impression Bérenger gave when he stated that Viljoen should be replaced by a Mauritian national because he didn’t trust “the South African”.

Bérenger didn’t have to mention the name of the “son of the land” he wishes could replace Viljoen but, considering the audience, the options were narrowed down to one person. Then, lubricating the nationalist machine which is latent in everyone of us, Bérenger led an audience drunk on his communal words to start shouting Megh Pillay’s name – perhaps to the latter’s embarrassment. The ‘Ene sel lepep, ene sel nasyon’ fake sloganeering is for another day.

This whole ‘HR’ exercise is morally insolvent and is the worst type of political vulturism. It reeks of xenophobia and pandering to one community. “I like this guy,” our leader of the opposition said, “but his country is South Africa!” No comment!

Of course, as leader of the opposition, Paul Bérenger has every right to ask about the cost and  full implications of the deal that Air Mauritius is embarking on. He has every right to ensure that – as a country – we get the best possible deal in a purchase of this nature. He is entitled to require transparency and good governance. But was he seriously hoping to get answers at that dinner by expressing his feelings for the Air Mauritius CEO and asking for him to be replaced by someone who belongs to the community he was addressing?

And we are told to rejoice at the thought of not having to declare our community while standing for elections! We really need more than that to even begin to smile about our living together.