Drone footage showed roads chock blocked over kilometres leading to the Mare d’Albert venue where the first gathering of the newly-born Labour/MMM/PMSD alliance was held. The crowds were at the rendezvous and the enthusiasm and synergy of a people who had suddenly shed their fear were palpable. Calling the gathering a flop is a measure of bad faith and a real sign of panic. That panic is reinforced by the police’s decision this week not to grant permission to the alliance to hold its second meeting in Vacoas.

Having said that, people have been scalded and want to break away from everything in the near and far past. The new alliance should therefore offer a good manifesto that does away with most of the ills that have dogged the country recently: a total lack of meritocracy that is driving our youth out of the country in droves, in the manifest indifference of those in power; social justice for everyone; a stop to the continuous tumbling down of the rupee that has caused the prices of basic necessities to soar to unprecedented levels; an absence of transparency and accountability resulting in two-tier justice: one for those who are on the side of the government and those perceived to be against it; a criminal dilapidation of public funds through abnormally huge salaries, fringe benefits and useless overseas trips.

We have heard some proposals about the independence of institutions and the restoration of meritocracy. I believe the alliance will take these seriously as many of its members know by now that they won’t be in power forever – in fact, many are on their last leg – and independent institutions are in the interest of everyone. The trumped up charges and provisional charges that have been systematically lodged against government opponents by the police are enough to remind the new alliance that a major change is needed not only in the interest of the country but in their own interest first and foremost as they would be the first to suffer once out of power.

However, what we need to see as a matter of urgency is a manifesto that is open about the situation the country is in what with our soaring debt, the state of the central bank and of the public purse. Some strong signals need to be sent. The first signal should be a proposal to halve ministers’ and MPs’ salaries and proportionately review their pension benefits. I cringe when I think that I have to work for 40 years to be able to draw two thirds of my salary while I have to pay for Maneesh Gobin’s and Yogida Sawmynaden’s full pension, after they spent only two terms in office. We need to see the new alliance take the hard decisions that require a sacrifice for them not just for the others. The country can no longer afford to give a class of people a free ride forever. Overseas trips, business class travel, luxury guzzlers have to be seriously looked into. The US ambassador sits in economy class on aeroplanes for hours to go back to his country. What makes our politicians special so that a KK Shah can spend Rs191,500 on a plane ticket for one single trip to Dubai to bring back nothing to the country?

A sound management of public finances and a Fiscal Responsibility Act through curbing excesses and junketeering will have the added advantage of attracting the right people to politics rather than those who are on the lookout for an easy ride. Naturally, those who are fond of travelling first class and driving German cars can still continue to do so. They just have to pay for these frills themselves.

Without such drastic measures, the divide between rhetoric and practice as well as between politicians and the rest of us will remain a huge gulf and will do nothing to increase the credibility of those proposing to govern us.