I do not necessarily agree with Leader of the Reform Party Roshi Bhadain’s suggestion inviting six members of the opposition MPs to resign and trigger a general election, though I see where he is coming from. I think such a proposal is based on the naïve assumption that the MSM government has a code of honour and that there is a level below which it would not stoop to hold on to its privileges and avoid any accountability. Considering their moral compass, such a move would be dangerous. 

Having said that, what exactly is the opposition proposing to do for the next year or so to prevent the country from going to the skunks? I am not using the expression ‘going to the dogs’ as that would be an insult to the dogs. What will it do to stop the gangrene of corruption that is plaguing the country to a point of no return? Perhaps I should ask the question differently? What exactly are they doing right now and what are they hoping to achieve?

The answer to what they are doing right now is simple: every Tuesday morning, we receive the Private Notice Question of the leader of the opposition and the parliamentary questions of other members. These questions admittedly echo and translate some of the concerns and worries of the population and which we have expressed ourselves as journalists mindful of the direction the country has been taking. Every week that parliament sits, we wake up with the hope to see some answers to the very worrying and appalling situation prevailing in the country. Such hopes naturally ignore the presence of a speaker who has beaten all track records when it comes to even pretending to be impartial. They also ignore the mafia system now holding sway in government and based on ganging up to protect one another every time one of them is embroiled in a corruption scandal. Perhaps everyone has something to gain by joining a club that absolves people of patent corruption, wanton wastage of public funds or at least of the immoral incompetence of drawing a hefty salary without having a clue what one’s job involves. 

Every week, what happens in reality? The member of government answering the parliamentary question dives into a tirade against the opposition and shoots off in such crude propaganda that makes you wonder whether you are not in some sort of campaign trail where the ministers are standing on a Kes savon and spewing lies, damned lies and statistics. The propaganda has the clear purpose of serving these lies to viewers in the evening news on the propagandist broadcaster of the MSM, which the MBC unashamedly is, and making sure they swallow them faster than their meals. Talking about irrelevant issues also reduces the little time allocated for supplementary questions likely to embarrass the government. 

The result is that, between hiding behind a police inquiry and an ICAC investigation and taking refuge behind a speaker who has no reputation to protect, no answers are given to important questions. A case in point is that Leader of the Opposition Xavier Duval could not even extract a ‘yes or no’ answer from Minister of Agriculture Maneesh Gobin to his very simple and straight forward question of whether the latter had attended an eat-and-drink-with-the-drug-dealers party on September 12th, 2020, which was followed by granting them the lease less than two months later! The ICAC is investigating without deigning to disturb the main suspects and the speaker ends Question Time before time is up! In between, he kicks out one MP or two in what seems to have become a hobby. In 78 Tuesday sessions since the beginning of 2019, there were 70 days of expulsion of 25 opposition MPs – almost one day per sitting! So, how exactly is this a healthy and just situation in a working democracy? 

I therefore ask the question again: what does the opposition propose to do? If they maintain the answer “we sit and make up the numbers so the MSM does not get to scrap the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the general elections or perhaps even the Privy Council”; if that is the height of their ambition, then I despair for the future of this country.  

Touria Prayag’s second book: #BLD: When Mauritius Lost its Bedside Manners is available at Librairie Le Cygne and all the Bookcourt outlets.