The most powerful men of Mauritius: Soodhun's dangerous racial game

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The MSM-ML are two parties that are doing everything wrong while they are enjoying the absolute power they hold thanks to their Parliamentary majority.

With the series of unfortunate events that have hit the regime of Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth since he took office in January – there have been scandals over scandals that have piled on each other since then – they are indeed lucky to be in power.

Pravind is also lucky that he is still the Prime Minister of the beautiful Island. And Parliamentary majority is the only thing that is keeping both the parties in power. Though the moral among the public is that they should quit.

Yes, they won the elections with the PMSD as a partner, but this has changed and they know it but they are too adamant to accept the fact they are now the most unpopular government – perhaps even more unpopular than the government of the 1970’s era.

And for the man who holds the mantle of leader of this disparate group, keeping himself in power despite the plethora of accusations and a charge to be debated at the Privy Council in London pretty soon – it is incredible indeed.

How could they just shun away from their misgivings and continue to lead?

Nevertheless, it appears they are far too aware of their absolute power, and they marching into the trappings of a disastrous exit that can only end in their massive defeat in the next General Elections.

To make things worst, the MSM leadership is playing the dirty card of racial politics, a card that has been played before but with bloody consequences.

The video threat by the Minister of Land and Housing, Shaukatally Soodhun, against the leader of the opposition Xavier Luc Duval – as awful as it – was a vivid example of the type of racial instability the MSM is willing to stir in order to consolidate its grip on power.

To start with the inaction of the police against Soodhun and the slow pace of the authorities questioning the Minister were signs of political interventions in the affairs of the police and this is the dirtiest of tricks.

It tends to put the police under the forceful hands of political figures who can abuse their power to remain in government, when in a democracy, the police could act as the balance of power instead.

Almost every Mauritius citizen is certain in their beliefs that Soodhun should be arrested and put behind bars for a certain period of time. Point blank. But it is not happening under the watchful eyes of Pravind Jugnauth.

Is there still hope in justice following its course in Mauritius?

The defeat of one of its pets has set the MSM in a turmoil. Unexpected as it is, the MSM did not want to see the defeat of  Somduth Dulthumun who lost the leadership battle at the Mauritius Sanathan Dharma Temples Federation.

This is good news on every level as it shows how the Hindu community – taken for a ride far too many times by political figures from almost all political parties (except for the PMSD perhaps) – can put things right.

With this defeat it is clear the MSM has basically lost all credibility within the Hindu community, though it tells us that the Labour Party still has a good base in the community, which is its historical base indeed.

This defeat by Pravind Jugnauth is only the beginning of the chaos that will engulf the MSM in its attempt to play the ethnic and racial cards in Mauritius and it is a warning to the political figures in power not to come near that dangerous road again.

We wrote our first article in this series on ‘The most powerful men in Mauritius’ about Harish Boodhoo, a politician who was well known to me. And we saw how he failed lamentably when he started his fascist campaign in Mauritius.

This is how the MSM has also failed on all lines in the country.

Mauritius is a country with a homogenous community of people coming from various ascendance living together in harmony and peace and stirring such racial instability is not going to work.

The country has had its unfair share of racial riots that divided the country long enough that it took the arrival of the MMM on the national scene to appease the hatred that simmered in this otherwise united nation.

The Soodhun-Duval episode is not the end though for the MSM, as we fear they might stir more racial conflicts in the country in a bid to remain in power.

But as I said here, the warnings to Pravind and his team of rucksacks are now written on the walls all over Mauritius.

They will do better to take heed of these warnings from the people of all ethnic and religious beliefs in our beloved nation. Racial politics does not have its place in Mauritius!

But the question remains: For how long will Pravind and Soodhun stick to their posts without realising that waiting for the next two years before going to polls will only weaken their grip on power?