Perhaps it’s God’s cynical way of telling the old that they are no worse than the young. That you can be young and surpass the old in lack of ethics, in opportunism and in moral bankruptcy. Perhaps it’s God’s way of telling those who keep repeating ad nauseam that the young will clean up politics to shut up and think again.

First, let me attempt to define the word “youth”. Since the only voice heard these days is that of the government, anyone who is Pravind Jugnauth’s age is considered young. Let’s unanimously agree on that to begin with. He is being referred to as “a young prime minister” on a daily basis and we can feel the air of freshness coming out every time his name is mentioned. So we will stick to the definition of the MSM that the term “youth” applies to anyone just below the threshold of 60 years old. Those parameters will of course change when our prime minister gets older so that ‘eternal youth’ is bestowed on him by his propagandists for as long as they are getting the crumbs leftover from his royal meals. 

Now that we have agreed on the definition – Thank you! Thank you! – I hasten to say that there are many “youths” in politics today I will not waste your time on. I will not bother you with the likes of Rutnah, Teeluckdharry, Jadoo-Jaunbocus, Monty, Boygah etc. Nor will I dwell on Etienne Sinatambou, who travels from one hotel to another in the noble pursuit of a free lavish meal and hotfoots it to the police to denounce those who caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. These are ephemeral creatures on our political scene and will soon re-discover how hard it is to make a tiny fraction of the money currently falling on them from the sky for doing little. And let us also forget about all the turncoats like Lesjongard, Joomaye, Wong, who, in return for a boute, have embraced the function of full-time propagandists. I would like to concentrate instead on those who always take the moral high ground and never tire of lecturing about ethics, democracy and “doing politics differently”. 

“Ramano ratted on his party after they lost the election and joined Ganoo’s MP to ‘do politics differently’. Then he re-ratted on his second party and remained ‘independent’, presumably to ‘do politics even more differently’.”

Top of the list is Steven Obeegadoo, who has for a while been a full-time lecturer in ethics in politics and particularly on democracy within parties and how badly electoral reform is needed to do away with communalist politics. You will remember him for always breathing fire against dictatorships within political parties to the point that he left his party to “do politics differently”. The next thing we heard is that he wanted to join the MSM, dragging one of his colleagues from the new platform they had erected to “engage in meritocracy-based, clean politics”! He had no hesitation in opportunistically dropping Pradeep Jeeha, who did not fit into the ethnic political game Obeegadoo had lectured so much against. So, both Obeegadoo and Françoise Labelle willingly gave their blessing to a shameful attempt to woo the votes of a community which very senior members of the MSM party had referred to as “demons” and “prostitutes”. 

The runner-up is Kavi Ramano. He ratted on his party after they lost the election and joined Ganoo’s MP to “do politics differently”. Then he re-ratted on his second party and remained “independent”, presumably to “do politics even more differently”. What that meant was that he sat in the National Assembly for five years and made no contribution whatsoever, thus ensuring not to upset anyone – you never know whom you might have to jump into bed with – while shamelessly pocketing his huge salary. His ‘loyalty’ was also handsomely rewarded by scrumptious government contracts running into millions. He never gave any interviews in the press or contributed to public debate. Strong rumour has it that he tried negotiating with the Labour Party and was turned down. Then he discovered that the most democratic and ethical party is the MSM after all! And thank God for amnesia. No more scandals. No more nepotism. No more papa-piti tricks. Forget about the opacity and the shady deals. All is well in the best of worlds! And he still continues to lecture about morality, serving the country and ‘a common cause’! 

This common cause presumably is, “Take the moral high ground or lie low. When the time comes, shop around until you find the side on which your bread is buttered”. 

In the trade, that’s known as working both sides of the street!

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