It’s absurd. But it’s tragic at the same time. The tottering MSM/ML regime knows it is in brown stuff up to its neck. But, instead of praying for a miracle, they keep digging to a new low.

This manifestation of ego, hubris and delusion is reinforcing what we knew and at the same time bringing us to new realisations. It would be unwise to miss either.

What we have always known is that you can take someone out of the gutter but you can’t wash the gutter out of him. You may take some lowly persons from wherever they were, make them into a vice-prime minister, give them all the security detail that goes with their status, have the cops stop traffic to allow them to zoom past the unimportant mortals. You can give them enough power to allow them to travel in private jets. You can make them think that they are learned enough to give seminars  and reinforce that delusion by surrounding them with yes-men and women ready to laugh at any crappy joke that comes out of their foul mouths. What you cannot do is turn them into intelligent species, capable of showing signs of real education – the kind that makes one respectful of others.

You can equally take lawyers dancing on the edge of getting disbarred and make them into the deputy chief whip of the government with the possibility to grab any microphone and be under the illusion that anyone is interested in the propaganda they engage in. What you cannot do is make them pass for enlightened individuals.

If these lessons have been reinforced, we have also learnt new ones for which we should be thankful. If previously we had been clamouring for more youth and more women in the National Assembly and in positions of power in general, we are beginning to beg for forgiveness. This government has shown us that youth does not mean innovation or a new way of doing things and that women are not necessarily the way to eradicating moral bankruptcy. This lesson came to us through a series of disillusions.

We first rejoiced at the young men and women sitting on the benches of our National Assembly and we applauded their potential, freshness and what we hoped would be the new ideas they would bring. Then we had to come to terms with the uncouth Ravi Rutnah, the regular prison visitor Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, the monumentally arrogant Roshi Bhadain, the pliable Ravi Yerrigadoo, now involved in an alleged money laundering scandal. As if that were not enough, we sat and watched a very calculating Yogida Sawmynaden diverting our hard-earned money straight into his wife’s pocket and a Zouberr Joomaye being so inspired by an illegitimate prime minister that he felt it his duty to cross the floor into the government side.

Equally, our hope that salvation would come from women was shattered by Sandhya Boygah, an opportunistic and irrelevant newcomer, Roubina Jadoo, the miracle lawyer (37 prison visits to drug traffickers in one single day), Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, who sat foolishly smiling as her colleague Rutnah was hurling the most damaging insults at female journalists.

More blows were thrown at us by a couple of turncoats, before the final blow was dealt by the two women marketed as the biggest advance in gender equality: Maya Hanoomanjee and Ameenah Gurib-Fakim. The former immediately showed a rare talent for the worst forms of nepotism. The latter became the bestie of one of the most controversial characters in town and, as scandals accumulated, she went from the most publicised and celebrated woman in the country to a president in hiding, barricaded by more and more bodyguards.

Disillusionment, despondency, disgust. One truth has come back: Young or old, man or woman, one can only rise as high as the level of one’s education.   

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