If, for some exotic reason, you were not on the island and missed the news this week, welcome to another country, very different from the one you left. So brace yourself.

The opposition political parties that were united under what they called ‘entente’ – an understanding to work together to counteract the scandal-ridden government – are no longer united. The entente is now in tatters and parties are shooting at one another. Everyone has become everyone’s enemy. They were working on fielding candidates together for the municipal elections – which by the way have not even been announced yet – and the next thing we knew is that they couldn’t agree on the prime ministerial candidate. Then someone started something they could not stop.

MMM Leader Paul Bérenger, flanked by only two other partners of the so-called entente, PMSD Leader Xavier Duval and Reform Party Leader Roshi Bhadain, announced in a joint press conference that the Labour Party had to present a candidate other than Navin Ramgoolam for the post of prime minister, failing which the Labour Party would be chucked out of the entente, Whip of the Opposition Shakeel Mohamed would lose his position and that Leader of the Opposition Arvin Boolell, though safe in his position “pour le moment” (for the time being) will be monitored closely and might have to give up his position too. The latter were offended, duly relinquished the allowances and privileges of their posts and resigned.  Now the entente no longer includes the Labour Party nor can they exactly say that they agree on anything anymore. From within the entente, Duval has expressed his solidarity with Boolell and almost dissociated himself from the comments that led to that resignation. As all this was happening, the opposition parliamentary members on the ICAC committee have also resigned. All this in one week!

Now parliament is opening soon but we have no leader of the opposition and, by the looks of it, the queue to fill in the post is not very long. There is no opposition whip and no opposition members on the ICAC parliamentary committee. The attempt at damage control has not managed to patch up the pieces and we seem to be heading for several oppositions targeting each other while the government is getting away with murder.  

You might also want to know that the prime minister has at least temporarily resigned from his post too and has found refuge in “religious politics”.  Recently, two ministers have resigned, several court cases involving alleged ministerial improprieties and wrongdoings are ongoing, the notorious Angus Road scandal and the Wakashio disaster have shaken the foundations of this nation, drugs are ravaging the country and decimating whole families, there is no sign of our coming off the EU black list any time soon, the political ‘suicides’, the Kistnen papers, the numerous scandals unfurling in the Moka courtroom on a daily basis, the sudden ‘reactive depression’ that has been hitting those who had a field day with the public purse and refuse accountability when the chickens come home to roost, the numerous cases of corruption, graft, fraud, theft, abuse of public funds …but the prime minister has nothing to say to the nation. Like a demi-God, he is busy blessing every socio-cultural organisation and its members.

Barely has he finished with Cavadee and the Spring festival that he is now busy blessing the Maha Shivratree pilgrims. In the meantime, a poster on a large and presumably costly billboard with a life-size portrait of him already adorns the streets of Plaine Verte, in the heart of Port Louis – a constituency where he did not manage to have a single candidate elected. The poster bears a thank you note to him for the “Sahbebarat and Ramadan preparations”!

Have you landed in North Korea? No. Even there they don’t exploit religion. But as far as propaganda goes, Goebbels himself must be rather green with envy looking on from wherever he is.