They promised us a second economic miracle. This year has seen the materialisation of not one but many miracles. One after the other. Here are a few should your memory fail you.

The first miracle was that of Heritage City – a miraculous city, complete with its Bollywood Park, musical fountain and flats for sale to privileged civil servants, which was going to be erected in the middle of sugarcane fields and transform the country and the economy. And it wasn’t going to cost a dime. A firm specialising in selling dreams had worked it all out. Other countries were going to queue up to pay for it because they love two of our ministers.

When Heritage City was miraculously reduced to dust, another miracle followed: The sale of Apollo Bramwell Hospital to investors who are penniless. So we discovered in awe how you can take over a whole hospital, change the name, have access to the files and hire and fire employees without even giving a penny for the privilege! Then the investors, who had no money to invest, vanished into thin air! Another miracle.

Perhaps one of the biggest miracles of the year happened in cabinet: ministers started tearing each other to pieces – from name calling to accusing each other of acting like the KGB – the prime minister officially declared he had been shocked by some of his ministers’ behaviour, but they all sat next to each other in cabinet, business as usual.

As all these miracles were unfolding, other miracles like the appointment of family members and cronies to various posts of responsibility proceeded even more frantically, the lucky ones declaring they didn’t know they had applied for the jobs they suddenly found themselves doing. If that is not a miracle…  Sons and daughters of ministers, MPs and the speaker went to town and brothers-in-law like Kailash Trilochun were not left out of the miracle.

The year ended with a big family party at Clarisse House, the prime minister’s official residence. Since most ministers, MPs, heads of parastatals, many high-ranking civil servants and the speaker herself belong to the same family, I fully understand the latter’s statement that the official function at Clarisse House was in fact a family affair. “It was not a party for the government; it was a family party,” she said. What’s the difference?

The most significant miracle must be the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of conflict of interest for Pravind Jugnauth, then-minister of ICT, who was suddenly propelled to the position of minister of finance in a matter of hours! Later, the prime minister, in a memorable moment of fatherly tenderness, suddenly announced the biggest miracle of all – that he was going to make his son prime minister! To explain this miracle, he had a nice thought for the population too: “There is no choice!”

Unfortunately, the biggest miracle was spoilt by two events: First, the director of public prosecutions, in spite of the harassment against him, decided to appeal to the Privy Council against Pravind Jugnauth’s Supreme Court verdict. Secondly, 10 out of the 11 provisional charges against Former Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam were dropped either by the DPP or in court.

As nothing is ever allowed to stand in the way of the biggest miracle, manna from heaven started raining on all sundry sycophants: Rakesh Gooljaury therefore saw his debts miraculously wiped out and some juicy contracts started flowing towards another willing actor in a well-orchestrated tragedy of betrayals.

Another miracle put an end to all this when the emperor decided to change the constitution to make things go his way: His biggest ally in government, the PMSD – which had up until then seen no evil and heard no evil – suddenly walked out on him.

A series of little miracles ensued: some MPs we did not know existed suddenly hit the headlines trying very hard to compete with the loyal opposition for the title of the biggest turncoat of the year. The year therefore ended with all the roder bouttes chasing the only true economic miracle Lepep can be credited with, that of quenching their insatiable appetites for personal enrichment. The biggest miracle, however, did not happen.

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