If any of you were offended by the rudeness served to you by our prime minister on May Day when you deserved a bit more respect, here are my flat apologies on behalf of the profession.

We have, far too often, accepted all the expletives pronounced by our prime minister and attributed them to his frank speech. “He is a straightforward man,” we kept repeating. “What you see is what you get.” None of the flowers Anerood Jugnauth kept throwing at his opponents as well as journalists and the “ungrateful” nation as a whole attracted any opprobrium. They, instead, attracted praise as we were impressed by the prime minister’s ‘courage’ and his ‘style’, not appalled by his choice of words.  And we may have contributed to the creation of a foul-mouthed character who speaks less and less like a prime minister, let alone a statesman. For that, mea culpa! Mea culpa!

We admired his ‘style’ when he chastised a poor journalist who had the misfortune of asking him how his trip went, “What? My holidays have nothing to do with you!” We laughed heartily when, in the national assembly, he told an MP to “Bous to laguel!” (Shut your face!) – a statement which the speaker naturally did not hear. We thought he was rather cute when he replied to another journalist wanting to confirm if the prime minister had indeed withdrawn his money from Bramer Bank before the government closed it down, “Ehoula! Mo kouyon moi? Kan enn bato pé coulé, premié zafer mo sap mo lavi!” (Hey you, do you think I am dumb? When a ship is sinking, the first thing I do is save my own skin!) Nobody ever objected to any of these statements. So why are we offended now?

Well, because he crossed the Rubicon. “I don’t care about what this organisation thinks,” he had said in parliament last week when asked about the US report on human rights. On May Day, he rubbed it in, “lorganizasion kouyon”, (a stupid organisation), “Mouille dan caca” (Soaked in s…t). We would still have laughed at his uncouth, unrefined and coarse language and referred to it again as his ‘frank style’. Except that this time, knowingly or through ignorance, he was referring the US Department of State – their Ministry of Foreign Affairs! One can understand that he may not care about their opinion when they hammer home to us some harsh truths. Unfortunately, we do. And this is our country as much as it is his. Not less.

Not long ago, Minister of Housing and Lands Showkutally Soodhun, following his master’s same ‘frank style’ – meaning I don’t give two hoots what my subjects think – took us on another very dangerous road without our consent. Soodhun decided, on his own initiative it would seem, to side with Saudi Arabia against Iran – a step no wise country would take – and was proud of that. Today, we got on the wrong side of the US without our consent. Because of someone’s ‘frank style’! And we did not stop at disagreeing with the US ministry. We went further and accused them of being “soaked in s..t”.

When discussions about Diego Garcia are on the table; when the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) comes up for renewal, we will see who will be – not only soaked but – swimming in it! We will perhaps realise then that frank speech has absolutely no reason to be vulgar and that vulgar speech is not necessarily frank. If that realisation comes too late, mea culpa.

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