When is a bus station not just a station but something grand and out of the ordinary? When the Prime Minister’s Office, no less, sends out invitations to the press, asking for press coverage of the inauguration of the – yes, you guessed right – the bus station by none other than the prime minister himself, who also happens to be minister of finance.

I hate to rain on this grand parade or spoil the fun of the prime minister as he gracefully saunters on the lawn of the Réduit football ground; nor do I want to deprive him of the cheers of supporters when he elegantly takes the beautifully presented scissors to cut the ribbon with some of his subjects bowing down at his feet. I, however, cannot help asking a couple of questions.

First, where does Pravind Jugnauth find time to engage in all these unnecessary – one dares say at times trivial – activities when he is supposed to handle so many portfolios? It’s perhaps apt to state here that he inherited two portfolios neither of which he was elected to occupy: that of the prime minister and the minister of finance. Few of us have forgotten that the two people who were marketed to us as the magic duo who were going to produce the ‘second economic miracle’ were Anerood Jugnauth and Vishnu Lutchmeenaraidoo. As it happens, both just ‘voluntarily’ handed over their titles and responsibilities to the same man and were happy to continue pocketing their salaries! Never in the history of this country have we had a minister handling the two most important ministries for such a long time. So, never before have we had such a theoretically busy minister!

Yet, examine some of his recent activities: Zip-lining in Rodrigues in full office gear, two meetings with journalists, inauguration of a road in the South which is in no way a priority for the country, organising a meeting at the PMO to give instructions to vote for a guy who has been at the head of a socio-cultural organisation for the last 15 years…And inaugurating a bus station! Seriously?

Secondly, what exactly is the aim of so much activity and no action? Does the prime minister think that being in the news – particularly on the MBC with the accompanying spin doctoring and propaganda – is what is needed to give him the legitimacy and credibility he lacks? No, Sir! Today’s voters are much smarter and more educated than yesterday’s so all these insults to their intelligence are backfiring big time. They don’t give two hoots about their prime minister hanging over a rope for a photo op or cutting a ribbon. They want to lead a decent life and have jobs for their children. Many of these jobs are unfortunately going to those close to you, your closest circle and their dear ones – those very ones who are rather busy wolfing the cake and gorging on the last crumb while the others are watching. In the meantime, the economy is left to fend for itself and our trade deficit is going up by Rs10 billion a year.

To twist the knife in the wound, your ministers take the moral high ground and talk about meritocracy and transparency, while some of your MPs – between two prison visits to dozens of drug dealers – continue to shriek hollow rhetoric about cleaning the country! And they top it all up by continuously stating that those recruited to all the juicy government positions are highly competent, perhaps suggesting that no one else is. When this nation voted for your team – by default – they were unaware that your camp had such a monopoly on intelligence, competence and education and that anyone not close to you was so worthless.

Maybe instead of cutting ribbons, the scissors should be directed at the long list of sons, daughters, mistresses and favoured ones who are happily bleeding the system. That would yield much better results.

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