It is not just about the fish being supplied to prisons or the transport of employees of the airport facilities; or even the manna from heaven raining on those who are close and subservient to politicians in power. It is about what all this means for the country and the way it is being governed. 

The revelation made by our sister publication, l’express, in its new edition of Menteur Menteur of a very close friend of the prime minister, Pravind Jugnauth, having obtained the exclusive contract of supplying fish to all the prisons in the country seems fishy enough. One guy, Bassoodeo Seetaram, who admits to working for Jugnauth for free because “he is a friend”, miraculously lands the contract of supplying fish to all prisons and other institutions every time the person he works for free is in power. Remember that the additional bonus of supplying prisons is that nobody is worried about the quality of victuals the prisoners eat. I am even tempted to ask to what extent you can scrutinise even the quantity supplied by the prime minister’s friend in a country where punitive transfers and summary dismissals are a very real threat.

As if that were not enough, the same lucky chap lands another contract: that of transporting staff of the Mauritius Duty Free Paradise – another jackpot! And to crown it all, Mrs. Bassoodeo Seetaram is suddenly recruited as cashier in the same MDFP, at a time when other employees are being dismissed faster than their shadows!

The prime minister’s explanation? The same given every time there is an allegation of graft, corruption or nepotism. As in the case of the unpaid bills to Iframac for cars still being used by him and his wife; as in the case of the millions poured into the MSM account by Dawood Rawat, with proof published on all publications and social media; as in the case of the recording released where Sattar Hajee Abdoula was sent by him on a mission to negotiate with Dawood Rawat, under duress, to share his wealth with them. The same reaction, always: Radio silence.

As for the fish and transport wallah’s own defence, it’s very simple: Everything was done legally and procedurally – which might very well be the case!

Remember, for the record, the absolutely legal and perfectly normal procedures followed in the recruitment of Youshreen Choomka to head the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The IBA even hired a private recruitment agency, Alentaris, and Choomka went through the interview like everybody else. The only problem is that everybody else had no chance of getting that job. A similar procedure eventuated in the recruitment of Speaker Maya Hanoomanjee’s daughter, Naila, to the helm of the State Property Development Company Ltd– a position she must be very thankful for, especially that she “did not even know it existed”. And the recruitment of Minister Anil Gayan’s son when the father apparently did not even know he had applied for the job…

Tenders and procedures are a convenient smokescreen and eyewash. There is no one who is naive enough not to know the power politicians have over all our institutions. And it is this power to make someone rich overnight, to the blatant detriment of public good and funds, or finish them off in the bat of an eye, which turns mediocre human beings into demigods and the rest of us into obsequious roderboutes.  The power we willingly give them to nominate people of questionable merit and ethics to lead our institutions, through political patronage and clientelism, thus undermining the legitimate hopes and aspirations of large swathes of our excluded human capital.

Progress will only come through a change of the culture of roderbouttism which feeds the system and gives politicians the power they should never have had. Unfortunately, a government with such a track record is not one that can claim the mantle of change. Nor can we – the sheeple – who are sleeping through the whole thing. So congratulations to the fish wallah for the manna from heaven in exchange for working for free. Never before have we seen so many self-proclaimed slaves. And never before have we so obediently accepted to reward them from public funds. Because, never before have we gone into such a deep coma.

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