Roshi Bhadain’s move of resigning from his party and starting a new one leaves me cold. He is forceful, persuasive and dangerously demagogical. However, even in these days of utter disillusionment and despondency, we should not be too quick to forget.

He was quick to distance himself from the British American Investment saga: It simply was not his doing. It was Former Minister of Finance Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo’s and that of the governor of the central bank, Ramesh Basant Roi. With one sentence, he wiped out all the memories we had of a spiteful minister, using and abusing our national shame, euphemistically called the MBC, to carry out a two-hour monologue on BAI - La vérité (BAI - The truth), to spin and spew all sorts of stories, with graphic photos in the background, about some Ponzi scheme. We almost forgot about the confidential bank documents he brandished in press conferences in defiance of all the banking laws, to ‘prove’ that. And we no longer care to remember the reasons he used to justify enjoying the privilege of security detail 24 hours a day!

By saying he would never work under Pravind Jugnauth as prime minister, an illegitimate prime minister heading a mafia against which he has irrefutable proof, images of him lusciously kissing the hand he has just bitten started racing out of our mind, leaving behind a principled Bhadain, who never publicly mentioned that Jugnauth junior had to become prime minister! We forgot his presence at the MSM politburo the day before the swearing in ceremony confirming his support of that idea. The arrests he orchestrated, using the ICAC and the police as a tool, are now but a distant memory. The exorbitant trips, the sequestration and questioning of foreign nationals, the blatant nepotism… gone! As for the dubious Heritage City project in which millions of taxpayers’ money went to pay for one man’s ego, we don’t remember that it even happened. Now that our brains have been thoroughly washed, we suddenly discovered a new Facebook messiah!

So the political situation today looks something like this: a satisfied father who has fulfilled his dream of placing the crown on his beloved son’s head, totally ignoring the wrath of a country which is sadly making the international headlines for all the wrong reasons; a situation depicting how easy it is to make a mockery of democracy; we are left with a government which is hiding behind Westminster when it suits it, and Singapore when it doesn’t, to make sure there is not a whiff of an election which may show what the people of this country really think about those they elected barely two years ago. Worse, we have a defector – Bhadain – who has made very serious criminal accusations, some quite explicit, against the new prime minister and his coterie – accusations which have not been denied by the former prime minister in his rebuttal. Instead, the latter replied that he had heard ‘disturbing things’ against the accuser. If we understand properly, the mafia code of ‘omerta’ is alive and kicking: If you don’t tell on me, I won’t tell on you. Remember that all the scandals that Bhadain is threatening to uncover were going on under his watch as minister of good governance while he admits having spent his time accumulating proof and storing it in cyberspace to potentially use to manifestly defend his little self – a far cry from defending the higher interests of the country!

With the PMSD and Bhadain gone, the MSM – more vulnerable than ever, with a reduced governing majority – is frantically shopping for new turncoats to make sure the new anointed king enjoys the spoils of the kingdom. From the obscure Marie-Claire Monty to the ‘independent’ Alain Wong, through the one who left his party to ‘do politics differently’, Zouberr Joomaye, everyone has a price!

As for the Muvman Liberater, it has never had it so good: Out of its paltry seven MPs, they have managed to secure four ministries! And, wait for it, they even managed to demand that Ravi Ratnah be appointed deputy speaker!

I wish I could tell you that this is a nightmare. At least I would give you the hope that things would be better when you wake up!

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