“You have the arguments, we have the numbers!” That seems to have been the attitude of the MSM since the beginning of its mandate. We come up with the most self-serving, dangerous, dictatorial and possibly anti-constitutional bills. We allow you to put your fears, suspicions and arguments forward. Then we unleash the sheeple to express their opinion, after we have given it to them. Ravi Rutnah immediately steps in to provide some unintended, slapstick entertainment with his circus skills complete with a grotesque outfit. And off to the vote. Democracy at its best, isn’t it?

And so the immigration amendment bill – like so many other suspicious and repressive laws – is enacted into our legislation in the record time of one day! No one has been able to explain the need for such a bill, let alone the extreme urgency with which it was pushed through. What we do know is that the now prime minister, who was handed over the crown and the public purse in a monarchical way by his own father, has turned into an emperor with the power to decide who should live and work in this country and who should go ‘home’! One man now has such power over so many residents and spouses – at times mothers and fathers of Mauritian children – who had been residing in this country and contributing to its development for years! One man now decides who is ‘desirable’ enough to live here and who is not. And he does not have to give any reason other than the fact that the targeted person is ‘undesirable’, ‘according to information’ he has and that he cannot disclose. Nor can one appeal his decision. It is final! In a nutshell, one man now has the power to decide who we should marry, divorce, live with or live away from. And this extreme power was bestowed upon him in one day. So urgent was his need to have the status of the most powerful man in the world!

“Ravi Rutnah immediately steps in to provide some unintended, slapstick entertainment with his circus skills complete with a grotesque outfit. And off to the vote. Democracy at its best, isn’t it?”

An act as serious as this that threatens our human rights as citizens became law almost in the total indifference of a population sedated by its own daily problems. I mean problems much less urgent than making an emperor out of a non-elected prime minister. Insignificant problems like in Cottage, Fond du Sac and many other areas where people for whom losing all their belongings a few times a year every time there are heavy rains has become routine; others in Curepipe who have got used to having dry taps for weeks and months. And some in St Paul, Rose Hill and a few other places where waking up to the delights of having to walk in sewerage water on a daily basis is no longer something new. These problems are not urgent. You must give the government the time they are asking for to fix them. Five years are not enough for things that are not urgent. What is urgent is that we should stop foreigners from coming to share these delights by bestowing the power to do that on one man. The Sun Emperor. And that power is bestowed on our behalf on one man in a few hours by those we elected to protect our interests.

What exactly is behind this sudden Godly revelation that acquired such a status of urgency? How do you control the abuses it is open to? What is the need for such a retrograde law in a country where there is a full arsenal of laws to tackle terrorism, sham marriages, convicted criminals etc. more than adequately? What sinister motives lie behind such a law? 

Nothing. The Sun Emperor only wants to protect Mauritians from ‘being duped’. How very kind of him to protect us gullible people from the treachery of those who lie to us and abuse our trust. Thank you! In that case, give us our vote back and we will see to it that the situation is immediately redressed.

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