Life is a real mystery. It’s very short in comparison with history. Notwithstanding, the mystery deepens with lots of untimely and unexpected big, small, pleasant as well as unpleasant surprises. Such solved and unsolved mysteries are always in store for us. And more often than not, the surprises are so lovely or shocking that you don’t want to believe your own eyes or ears. At times, they catch you when you are most unprepared or when you are in desperate need of help. Little wonder that life is always shrouded in mystery. You can never know when, where and how it will strike!

For the country, we were all taken by surprise on Wednesday last when the leader of the opposition, Paul Bérenger, himself elected to announce his health problems. Once more, he showed us the way by calmly but boldly announcing them.

He’s a public figure. As leader of the opposition, he is accountable to the public.

He has a constitutional post. He’s paid from public funds. Unlike others, he works at the sweat of his brow for each rupee he earns. As far as my memory can recollect, it’s the first time a politician, with constitutional responsibilities, has taken the lead to inform the population officially of his health risk. It’s so in some western democracies.

But it was never heard of in Mauritius before last Wednesday’s fateful disclosure of Paul’s private and medical secret.

Thank you, Paul.

In yet another way, you have acted as a beacon in the brutal, inhospitable, ungrateful and rough seas of politics: to guide, encourage and warn others who are confused or lost in the pitch-dark world of hypocrisy. That’s the mystery of your political life, Paul. You always have in store great and small surprises!

But the last one was a devastating blow to the entire population. Friends and opponents alike were all stunned in silence and heartbroken. You should have been among the public to take cognizance – and the nationwide surge – of sympathy, gratitude and admiration for you. Even sworn enemies recognized your role as a watchdog of public interests and a brake to government’s abuses and excesses. And that from both inside and outside the National Assembly. I bet you would have been jealous of yourself!

That’s life: we’ll all have to experience – in one way or another – what it has inflicted upon you now. Nobody can escape its clutches. But it’s most unfortunate that in these darkest hours of our history, you’ll be absent for some time. The lighthouse is needed now more than ever to guide the distressed ships away from danger. And from the born and raised-to-loot dangerous sharks! For sure, I do believe in collective feelings and their positive effects. And they are unprecedented since 1985: the wave of sympathy is the greatest recognition of your work as leader of the opposition. Your family should be proud.

All said, few people know that we have a line of communication when the country faces imminent danger. And that even if we have known each other as opponents and friends. History sees life from the eyes of the high-flying eagle. Everybody has, and is born with, pluses and minuses. There comes a time when the rose dwarfs the thorn. So, my pen summarizes the feelings of friends and opponents alike: you have done a lot for the working class in the 1970s. Later, you excelled on the floor of the August National Assembly. I have reason to believe that four decades of nonstop hard work and inner suffering have both taken their toll.

Which all remind me of the candle which burns itself to its end to supply light to others. It’s pitch dark now. The light should not fade away. For indeed, in darkness that people realize its worth. That’s the mystery!

Harish Boodhoo