Our politicians have the nasty habit of politicising everything. They know that blending religion and politics is a potentially dangerous combination, yet they do not hesitate to raise political issues at religious functions. Had the Vice-Prime Minister (VPM) been happy with talking about the significance of Eid or what it represents to him personally, nothing would have happened. He chose to bring up something political instead and he got carried away, given his temperament. He made a threat in clear terms.

The lesson here is that it’s good for politicians to remember that they need to avoid dragging politics into everything. Hadj or Grand-Bassin, they manage to make politics intervene in them one way or another. It’s not really necessary, for other people are very much capable of successfully organising activities related to these events. But politicians think they are indispensable. There are many other pressing things to attend to and politicians must be urged to stick to these rather.

It must be clear by now : a word is like an arrow. Once shot, it doesn’t come back. However much one may regret having said this or that, the harm is done. Politicians need to pay attention to their language. The VPM’s mistake is bound to follow him and the government like a sinister shadow for a long time to come. His threat will go down in history. It will be cited long after they are no more. Therefore, politicians would do well to turn their tongues ten or more times in their mouth before uttering anything.

Peace must prevail 

One more thing we have retained is that not all Mauritians are as stupid as certain politicians take them to be. Politicians think they can say what they want due to the office they occupy and the population will gulp it down with pleasure. The episode in question comes to establish that Mauritians, in their vast majority, will not take shit for butter. We have had an almost unanimous condemnation of the VPM’s threat. Just a few MSM diehards find nothing wrong with it. It is also gratifying to note that people are level-headed enough to see that misplaced words may cause damage and that peace and harmony must at all times prevail.

Some parliamentarians from the government side and from the opposition as well tend to make a show of themselves at times: impressive rhetoric, the raising of voices, provocative body language, challenging tone, the loss of temper, the use of inappropriate language, making rude remarks, interrupting a Speaker in a blunt manner and so on.

They should know that their fits of anger and tension make them ridiculous. Politicians should understand that there is no room, either in the Parliament or in public places, for their words loaded with bitterness and personal frustrations but lacking in substance most of the time.

Yet another lesson is this one: can we take Mr. Soodhun as a good role model? Or the PM? As public men, they should have been setting an example, especially to the young generation. It’s unfortunate that they are not. While the former utters vulgarities and adds to the woes of the government, the latter is not too sure what to do, giving the impression that he is not a man of action. We see his weakness as a leader.

Politicians should, moreover, not forget that when they are addressing themselves to the public, there may be individuals recording their speech secretly, thanks to technological facilities like smart phones and hidden cameras.

In an age of “citizen journalism”, whatever appears controversial or newsworthy may be relayed immediately to newspapers and private radios.

 In short, it is in the interest of politicians to be extremely cautious with their words. It is possible to do politics in a clean manner, that is, without making open threats or hitting below the belt.