If you cook like a Brit, drive like a French, are as humble as a Spaniard, as humourous as a German, as controlled as an Italian and as organised as a Greek, then you have all the negative stereotypes of a number of countries. If you gloat like a Mauritian, that completes the picture. Gloating is a character trait which we share as Mauritians.

Here’s the test: How many of us gloated about this: A stunned 71-year-old former governor of the central bank plucked from the clinic and led to a high security detention centre – Alcatraz – where he spent the night while his fate was being decided. The food taken to him by his family was apparently not allowed to be delivered to him.

It is not our intention to criticise the police – God forbid – or to pre-empt the court’s decision. We are not in full possession of the facts of the case to make a judgment but since information has been pouring out of the CCID’s interrogation room and extensively published in some media, we are led to believe that the ex-governor is being held under three charges: larceny, possession of stolen goods and money laundering. A few headlines later, and a once respectable guy is turned into a thief and a dangerous criminal before we are told that there is a suspicion that his case may be related to the money found in the former prime minister’s house! And, Manou Bheenick’s “effortless sense of superiority”, on the one hand, coupled with his past stance against so many lobbies on the other, have won him enough enemies to make the gloating even greater.

The list of “stolen objects” – which was provided lock, stock and barrel to some publications – contains only documents, no “stolen objects” as reported. But beyond semantics, many of the documents which shocked readers – like the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee – are in the public domain! Those interested can find them on the Bank’s website. There may be others he is not supposed to have. We wouldn’t know, though the list seems to be exhaustive  as it even contains the Christmas cards he received in 2011!

As to the charge of money laundering, it sounds so farfetched that no rational mind can entertain it. With all the per diem allowances the former central bank governor was paid in the last eight years, Rs 1 million is small change. Of course, for those of us who are working very hard for very little money, the amount may seem shocking. But for those who are accustomed to reaping very generous per diems, it is nothing. And let’s please be clear about one thing: there is, as things stand, no law against keeping any amount of money – in any currency – in one’s house for as long as one does not engage in a cash transaction exceeding Rs500,000.

Now, we are not saying that Bheenick is guilty of the charges against him or that he is innocent. What we are saying is that from the outside, the handling of the case looks disproportionate. And the detailed leaks about police investigations and searches do not help. We hope the prime minister — who was entrusted with the majority of the population’s votes to ensure that civic freedom and rights and the rule of law are respected — finds a way to rein in what seems to the ordinary citizen like frightening abusive practices. This is not good for the image we are giving to the outside world. It is not good for the morale of the nation. And this is no time to gloat.