Anyone who cannot see through the plan should probably not be allowed out without adult supervision. It is all part of the grand scheme being orchestrated so that the king stays in power forever. 

Whatever we may think of the Britam Commission’s findings – there has been a wide range of opinions expressed – two things editorialists and seasoned analysts agree on: First, the fact that the commission cannot rid itself of the perception of bias. Secondly, that the aim behind setting up a commission in the first place is clear: to retaliate to the serious allegations made by Roshi Bhadain against Pravind Jugnauth, particularly in the Angus Road saga and to neutralise a political opponent. That much is clear. 

We can of course relax and enjoy the trench war going on where former bedfellows publicly air out everything that was hidden from us yesterday. We can wait for more revelations about those who slept together and swam in the mud together and are now claiming they are as pure as the driven snow. After all, as long as we keep watching from a distance, we are sure to avoid the blood and mud spatter. Sadly, we cannot afford that luxury nor should we consider it as an option. It is clear that commissions of inquiry have now become a skillfully orchestrated destabilisation strategy. Yesterday, it was provisional charges. Today, it is commissions of inquiry. 

Commissions of inquiry are in fact even more redoubtable than provisional charges and court cases. You choose your assessors carefully so the inquiry is very ‘independent’. You draft the terms of reference in such a way that you get the exact result you want. And you let the ‘independent’ institutions of this country do their job ‘independently’: the police can be trusted to investigate in the way it is told to, the ICAC will make sure there is no ambiguity, the ministers who owe their post to their mediocrity will use whatever twigs they can lay their hands on to light a big enough fire so no one misses the smoke, Lakwizin will use the fire to cook the most unpalatable dishes and the very independent MBC will carry every dish straight to our table to serve us every evening. After such an impeccable party, we are convinced that the opposition is made up of crooks and the government of angels looking after our interests!

One of the problems is that these commissions of inquiry come at great cost at a time when the few remaining independent economists are sounding the alarm on the state of our public purse. But then again, handling public finances responsibly has never been the priority of this government. 

Now, we hear that the government is so keen to recover public money – how laudable – that it will approach the Stolen Assets Recovery (STAR) jointly run by the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to get back the Rs1.9 billion of ‘stolen money’ and pay back the Super Cash Back Gold victims. Sounds grand and I assume this will come at no extra cost! But I hope those who have already lost their money once do not raise their hopes too high. We will all be dead before we hear anything or recover a single penny. 

I hope nonetheless that STAR is given the opportunity to also try and trace the money in Angus Road, Pack and Blister, Neeteeselect, dlwil dan zorey, all the BAI assets sold to cronies on the cheap, Air Mauritius NEO purchases, the millions that crooks walked away with from the SBM, the Mauritius Investment Company’s unpublicised interventions... We might recover so much money we won’t know what to do with it! 

Until then, let’s say that the grand plan has little to do with recovering stolen money and everything to do with consolidating the power that has, from the start, been built on revenge and mudslinging. There is not a single idiot among us who cannot see through that.