It is difficult to believe that Paul Bérenger and the MMM will make the same mistake of running to the rescue of an ailing party in government. But, looking at the way things are going, it’s difficult not to. It is hard to imagine him facing his supporters and asking them to forget what he has been telling them about the government in place. But, considering his track record, it’s hard not to. So it’s difficult to see how the haemorrhage afflicting his party is likely to stop.

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An intelligent man does not always do intelligent things. You will not have failed to notice how Bérenger’s usually acerbic criticism has been masterfully and systematically sparing Pravind Jugnauth and his father. You can’t ruffle the hairs of those you are hoping to soon jump into bed with. All the arrows are therefore going straight to the MSM’s partners who are in the way. As a result, the party seems to bump along the bottom and a lot of anger has been simmering away. In the last couple of weeks, it has boiled over, with the latest resignations.  

I am not exactly a great fan of politicians who use their party to derive maximum benefit when the party is in power and scurry off the ship as soon as it starts sinking. And we have never bought into the turncoats’ ‘new way of doing politics’. We have seen how the champion of this slogan, Zouberr Joomaye, has ended up joining the party in power and trying very hard to display his loyalty by outdoing all the bootlickers whose tongues must be dry by now through overindulging in the activity. Nor should one forget how Alan Ganoo’s Mouvement Patriotique has sat on the fence for ages, rubbing the government the right way in the hope of being beckoned in.

It is therefore hard to be entirely sympathetic to the arguments used by Dorine Chukowry as she slammed the door of her party. As it happens, in the short time that she has been out, she has been on a full shopping spree for a new party, perhaps one with more chances of being in power. And she has not denied that she is considering the proposals and that she will take a decision ‘in due course’.

Pradeep Jeeha’s case is however more ambiguous and not as easy to condemn. Though Jeeha’s exit from the MMM may indeed be spurred by ambition run amok, it’s actually more complicated than that. His cris de coeur that “the best thing for the MMM is to face the next election alone, even if that meant an nth defeat” may translate the sentiment of many militants. Bérenger can get bent out of shape over this as much as he likes. The fact remains that there is a lot of dry political tinder lying around in the MMM waiting for a match. By trying to whisk his party out of the opposition through another alliance with a party in government, Bérenger may be heading straight for the matchbox.

I think some soul searching is called for to save the party from further haemorrhage and, more importantly, prevent the country from dictatorship. Currently, the government is feeling entitled to all excesses and this surfaces every week in the National Assembly, when ministers systematically and with unprecedented arrogance refuse any type of accountability. The refusal to even disclose those who were allowed to use the airport VIP lounge, the services of which we are paying for as taxpayers, is the worst type of opacity we have ever seen. And that is just an example. If part of the opposition continues to brush this under the carpet for the sake of future alliances, we are in full-blown dictatorship. The type of courtship currently going on in the National Assembly is indecent and serves only opacity, lack of accountability, more nepotism and corruption. And no one is benefiting from it more than the MSM.

Bérenger could benefit by taking up the mantle of the opposition again. Not only is this likely to help save the country but it could also help save the party itself from further haemorrhage. For that to happen, he really needs to clean up his act!