The arrogance is thick but not surprising. And their narcissistic sense of entitlement is simply dumbfounding.  And as soon as you confront them in the forum where they are paid to answer questions – the National Assembly – they start foaming at the mouth and refuse any kind of accountability.

To a question by MMM MP Rajesh Bhagwan about the cost of ministerial travels, a document surreptitiously tabled almost six months later revealed the figure of Rs18 million for ministers and their delegations and Rs2.3 million for the PM just for the period of January 2018 to March 2019!

But don’t be shocked yet. This figure only covers the plane tickets. We are such a rich country of course that our ministers and MPs can’t possibly travel in economy class – unlike ambassadors and high dignitaries of poor, insignificant countries such as France and the United States. How can you have someone as important and competent as Alain Wong or Prem Koonjoo sit next to dignitaries from such irrelevant countries? And some ministers have simply refused to disclose the figure they have spent on tickets that we have paid for!

In case you are still standing, there is more: the cost of the per diem and the ridiculous entertainment allowance used presumably to entertain their own pockets while on holiday as their trips bring absolutely nothing to the country, cannot be disclosed. As the globetrotters watch their chief grifter, who has become the poster boy for using and abusing our tax rupees for his travel and profit, skate by with bilking taxpayers, they are happy to emulate him and demand the same kind of lack of accountability.

It’s a gargantuan heist from the masses but that’s not all. Money is literally being squandered by those (insert explicit word here) who seem a bit too comfortable spending our hard-earned rupees on useless projects which will be of no benefit to the population. Think of the Côte D’Or Sports Centre. Don’t tell me that anyone believes that the construction site we drive by in Terre Rouge/Verdun is going to be ready in three months! Either we know nothing about construction or we are very stupid. So after spending at least Rs4.2 billion and counting on a hefty project in a totally isolated area, we are forking out more to rehabilitate old facilities for the Indian Ocean Island Games! But shhhhh. Don’t criticise! Otherwise they will accuse you of being anti-patriotic. Don’t breathe a word about the State Bank of Mauritius either – a highly profitable bank that has reached its lowest ever this year. Don’t mention Air Mauritius or the Mangalore contract or Betamax. Especially not Betamax and the Rs5 billion we will have to pay for vengeful decisions taken without our consent. Don’t mention the BAI which, according to a very well researched article in the Mauritius Times, has already cost us Rs20 billion (the price of a tramway!)

Since there is no tomorrow, we won’t have to pay for any of this. So let’s instead concentrate on our very independent police commissioner who must be so delighted with the work he has done as far as law and order is concerned (police stations being attacked with policemen themselves no longer feeling safe, cops being spat at while on the beat and having their houses ransacked, ninjas attacking citizens in their own homes, young people going to nightclubs and ending up in hospital, schoolchildren attacking each other, their teachers and even policemen, young girls being disfigured with cutters, the proliferation of drugs…) that he openly participates in the endless birthday celebrations of the minister mentor! The seemingly innocuous photo published by our sister publication, l’express, of a euphoric police commissioner standing next to the birthday boy, complete with a guest sporting a T-shirt with the clear words “We love you Sir Anerood”, needs no caption. It is so endearing! Concentrate on that. Or if you prefer, keep your mind busy with the upcoming by-election. It’s another opportunity to squander more of our money and increase our already exorbitant debt. Whatever you do, do not worry about tomorrow. It will never come!