“I don’t believe him; he is lying; he is a liar”. That was the public verdict on Radio Plus of Jean Claude de l’Estrac, an independent observer known for the precision of every word he uses. He was talking about you, Prime Minister, and his assessment arguably pretty much sums up the feelings of many of our compatriots today. Those feelings were exacerbated on Tuesday with your reaction in the national assembly, to the leader of the opposition’s questions about Agalega. He tabled proof, facts, photos. You reacted with naïve – one might say childish – arguments based on assumptions and bedtime stories which I hope, for the sake of this country, you don’t believe: that India is spending Rs8.8 billion –billion!– on grand projects in Agalega and expecting absolutely nothing in return other than our smiles and gratitude! And you spiced it all with racial undertones.  

Whichever way you look at it, with the sniffing and espionage allegations, I am afraid you have run out of road, Prime Minister. Even assuming the best and most naïve scenario – that you, in good faith, allowed a foreign team to access our internet cable landing station with the best intentions – you still allowed them access with disconcerting levity and servility. Forget about the reasons why you granted that access or in whose interests. Just the fact that foreigners you have no authority over and who have no allegiance to you had the possibility to capture information is of extreme gravity. You had no guarantee that they would not snoop on other countries. Damn it, you had no guarantee that they wouldn’t sniff your own information! So you put yourself in a very vulnerable position and opened the door to possible blackmail that could endanger our country even more! That, for me, is the worst part of this saga!

Instead of doing the right thing – stepping aside and allowing a proper investigation – you started tripping in all sorts of contradictory explanations and took refuge behind a police force whose credibility you have seriously compromised. Are you still sleeping well, Prime Minister?

While this is going on and people are questioning your integrity, honesty and aptitude to run this country, you are busy tightening your grip on the citizens’ necks by giving yourself even more monarchical powers. Are you still sleeping well, Prime Minister?

Your father’s last mandate started with hatred, destruction and revenge. He raised provisional charges to a whole new level, dragging ordinary citizens and political opponents into detention and humiliation on trumped up charges that have all – ALL – been dropped. We are still paying the consequences of the BAI and Betamax debacles and will soon have to face court cases of the provisional charges victims. I was rather hoping you would change tack and build the country on humanity, respect and unity. Instead, you went even further. You continued on the revenge path against Betamax with a commission of inquiry that serves no other purpose than exacting more revenge! You enacted what came to be known as ‘the Hofman law’, giving you full powers to throw foreigners out of the country, without giving any explanation. So Patrick Hofman and his wife had to leave ‘your’ country and live in exile until the poor lady died, away from her family and loved ones. Did you get a kick out of that? Are you still sleeping well, Prime Minister?

Instead of repenting, you pushed your absolute powers and your burning sense of revenge even further by presenting a bill that gives you powers not just over foreigners but over Mauritians who acquired nationality through marriage and naturalisation! Under this new eminently controversial law, you have absolute powers to take away the citizenship of compatriots who have devoted their whole lives, one way or another, to contributing to the advancement of this country; you will have absolute powers to break up families; to mess up people’s lives without giving any reason and without allowing them the possibility to challenge your arbitrary decision in court! Is that enough to stroke your desire for revenge or will it only tickle it and make it grow? Are you sleeping well, Prime Minister?

If you are not, let me break this news to you: You can take away whatever you like from your own citizens: you can unleash your police on them; you can let loose the MRA to scrutinise every penny they have earned; you can reduce them to mere subjects through an arsenal of repressive laws; you can shatter their families; you can throw them out of the country. What you can never do is take away their dignity. Once you have grasped the meaning of that word, Prime Minister, you will understand why we sleep well at night, in spite of your threats and repression. Our heads are held high. No one questions our integrity.

I wish you the same peaceful sleep, Prime Minister! From the bottom of my heart.