We all recognise the virtues of silence and the popular saying “speech is silver but silence is golden”. However, there is a time to be silent and a time to speak. Because silence does have a cost. That cost sometimes is our complicity with those who are digging us deeper and deeper into a hole.

So, the opposition’s decision not to rock the boat when the Financial Action Task Force team visits Mauritius shortly to assess the situation on the ground in relation to the fight against corruption and money laundering is rather ill-advised. I fully understand their expressed fear of jeopardising the offshore sector and opening a can of worms likely to cost jobs. However, by keeping quiet and not openly denouncing all the excesses that have been going on, what they are effectively doing is kicking the can down the road. They are not solving any problem. They are, in fact, delaying a solution.

They are also incidentally telling the world that they are happy with the reappointments at the ICAC and they believe the organisation is doing a good enough job in combating corruption for us to come off the grey and black lists. They are satisfied that there is nothing wrong with Angus Road or anything related to it, including a prime minister appointing and re-appointing the director general of an agency which is investigating his alleged multiple questionable land acquisitions, or is at least supposed to. They have no problem with the way opposition MPs are being outrageously ill-treated by a partial and uncouth speaker who does not even pretend to be fair. They are OK with the fact that all sorts of subterfuges are used to avoid answering questions.

Naturally, the opposition thinks that the Mauritius Investment Corporation is a great idea and that it’s alright for our money to be used as the government wishes without us even letting us know who benefitted from its largesse. That dodgy people like Alvaro Sobrinho can continue to come in, get a royal welcome, buy, sell, give gifts etc. as they wish. That it’s OK for the attorney general to stop the legal mutual assistance with the UK in the Angus Road case. That the fact that eight people involved in procurement died in very suspicious circumstances and that at least in one case, fingers seem to be pointing towards those in power. That drugs are coming into our country in unprecedented amounts even with the national borders closed. In general, what the opposition’s silence is saying is that our institutions are working well and independently and that they are managed by competent professionals who are successfully waging the war against corruption and money laundering!

Happy to learn that. So, by the time the FATF assessors have listened to all the one-sided tendentious propaganda they will be bombarded with, there will not be any voice in the opposition to speak of the truth of the actual situation. So, we will perhaps come off those lists and the government will be emboldened enough to carry on with more of the same: more corruption, more nepotism and favouritism, more opacity, more money laundering and more impunity. In what world is this good for the country?

If every country went by the reasoning of our opposition, South Africa would still be living in Apartheid, communism would still be rife, slavery and racial tyranny would be a normal thing…

Silence is a powerful form of communication. By staying silent during the FAFT visit, the entire opposition is missing a unique opportunity to make a change. When all the local institutions are at the beck and call of the prime minister, salvation can only come from outside. Yes, there is a cost. There always is. The end of Apatheid came through alerting the outside world and accepting very painful economic sanctions. No country benefits by brushing injustice, incompetence, corruption and even murder under the carpet.

Complicit silence is a humiliating position to be in. In fact, it is anti-patriotic.