QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men"
-- Edmund Burke

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Nuisance at Chateau d'Eau Street, Tranquebar

I am writing these few lines to draw the attention of the competent authorities to a real nuisance taking place in Tranquebar, Port-Louis. This has been going on for ages despite verbal and written protests from the inhabitants of the area.

In fact, there are two licensed "bars" and one off-licence premises selling alcohol, and sale is made during the whole day till very late at night even after closing hours and that on Sundays too. Very often one can see people drinking by the side of the road and in every nook and corner and even urinating in public. And recently it has been found that people from a neighbouring area come in the evening in one or two vans and drink till very late.

This is totally unacceptable. Decent people have a right to live decently and in all security. All this has created unrest and strain in the usually very quiet and peaceful area of Port-Louis. And people are starting to grumble and voice out their disapproval loudly.

We strongly appeal to the competent authorities take the necessary steps so that this practice is stopped immediately. I am sure no one will like to see people taking the law in their own hands especially after what happened at Victoria Hospital.

By the way, when will there be a law preventing alcohol to be consumed in public?

Riza T

Port Louis

Voice of Hindu , Fédération des Créoles Mauriciens

and Voice of Zamzam 

Since, supported by a section of the press, the Fédération des Créoles Mauriciens (FCM), led by Priest Jocelyn Grégoire, mobilised an alleged 70,000 people at Champs de Mars, and tried to hijack the Mayday celebrations through further mobilisation in a clear attempt to hold the government to ransom into giving in to their demands, other movements are also trying their luck. Priest Grégoire said he did so in the interests of the Creole community, which is not a religious community, but which is understood to mean only Mauritians of African origin. With his passionate evangelical charisma, he argued that his community was being discriminated against in the Civil Service, for which he held the government responsible. He also made several other demands, such as the recognition of the Creole community at constitutional level. His interviews and other articles supporting his campaign were published throughout the media over months. 

Voice of Hindu (VOH): Unhappy with the fact that drug addicts are being mainly treated at Victoria Hospital, Candos, where methadone, an important medication in the treatment of addiction, is being administered, and with the fact that the concentration of drug addicts at this location has been seen as being responsible for violence by drug addicts against residents in the vicinity, some members of the Voice of Hindu (VOH), through mobilisation on 27 June 2008, attempted to prevent the distribution of methadone at Victoria Hospital. Although Priest Grégoire himself did not take similar steps, the VOH undoubtedly felt that, like Grégoire, their mobilisation could force the government to give in to their demands, thus pushing the Grégoire phenomenon to a new limit. According to some reports, violence was also used during these incidents but VOH deny this and also deny taking the law into their own hands. Again the movement was unhappy with the government and its leaders argue that they mobilised in the interests of the Hindu community. Whatever their rights and alleged wrongs, they help keep the Hindu culture and Hindi languages, including Bhojpuri, alive. In this, all Hindus should be united.

Voice of Zamzam (VOZ): As reported in the Star, 29th June 2008, Imam AB Bahemia Ariff officially launched the Voice of Zamzam (VOZ) on Friday 20 June 2008. According to Ariff, his movement has been created to «défane la communauté (musulmane) contre discriminations, passe-droits, boycotts, ostracisations, injustices, exploitations » allegedly perpetrated, again, by none other than the government. As far as le Mauricien is concerned, it decided to devote its entire editorial of 4 July 2008, not to Bahemia Ariff’s statement at the official launch of his movement, but to an tract signed ‘Voice of Zamzam’ allegedly circulated by them with contents somewhat different, for the benefit of the editorial, from that stated in the Star. It asks « Devions-nous en arriver là ? », and makes as if it is the government’s fault if VOZ has been created -- because of the lack of « institutions intègres » which is the cause of « injustices » and « discriminations ». In the same vein, it also implies that the government is responsible for « la tentation des meneurs de Voice of Hindu de vouloir prendre la loi entre leurs mains » due to « la barbarie à l'endroit des toxicomanes » which the government could not control. In line with the Grégoire phenomenon, what will Imam Ariff do next? Will he also mobilise 70,000 people at Champs de Mars, and demand a zamzam identity to be included in the Mauritian Constitution? 

Anti-Ramgoolam propaganda: Although the spectre of Grégoire’s mobilisation is looming in the background, no mention is made of the fact that the Grégoire phenomenon is perhaps at the root of those problems because Grégoire has set a precedent for other movements to make their voice heard through mobilisation with unpredictable consequences. For political reasons, it is all too easy to blame the government for the irresponsible actions of others. It is most foolish to argue that Paul Bérenger condemned the VOH on the very first day and that PM Ramgoolam only did so five days later. This is sheer anti-Ramgoolam propaganda.
The government can only act on police reports, and the police will decide, based on the evidence, what action to take. They cannot base their decision on what Harish Boodhoo is writing in le Mauricien. Too many people believe that they are governing the country through the press in which some inciters even go to the extent of giving anonymous ‘advice’ to the government. 

Voice of Tamil: The more recent development is the creation of Voice of Tamil. But in « Profile bas « Voice of X » », l’Express Dimanche, 13 juillet 2008, makes out that the Voice of Tamil is part of a « strange development » which is happening in the country and puts the blame squarely on Voice of Hindu for having « lancé la tendance », but makes no reference to Grégoire’s phenomenon, forgetting, at the same time, that under the constitution, Mauritians have the freedom of association for any lawful purpose. 

M Rafic Soormally

London

Fiers d'être Sino-Mauriciens  

Suite a un article intitulé “National Affairs: The Creole Community” paru dans votre hebdomadaire du vendredi dernier nous exprimons notre consternation en parcourant ces lignes -- “The Chinese may decide whether they wish to belong to a Chinese group or to the Christian group. Their numbers are so small. Would it really matter if they choose the one or the other... Somebody has suggested that they should be called Creoles and other Christians...”

Les Sino-Mauriciens, malgré leur conversion, ont toujours gardé leurs spécificités culturelles. Ils n'ont jamais, malgré l'évangélisation, renié leur culture millénaire. Ils ont toujours préservé leurs baguettes et leur culte des ancêtres. Un Chinois reste avant tout un Chinois dans son âme et au plus profond de son âme. Ses racines ancestrales sont très ancrées dans son âme. Sa manière de vivre ne peut être confondue à nul autre groupe ethnique dans cet arc-en-ciel de l'île Maurice. Sa philosophie reste entièrement basée sur le Confucianisme et le Taoïsme (le travail bien fait, honnêteté, respect pour les aînés, humilité et assiduité). Venir dire que les Sino-Mauriciens peuvent s'inscrire dans le groupe Créole est une aberration, voire une ignorance d'ethnicité de l'île. Malgré que nous soyons la minorité des minorités les Sino-Mauriciens ont joué un rôle de premier plan dans l'édification de l'île Maurice moderne sur le plan social, économique, sportif, éducationnel et même politique. L'histoire est là pour prouver les empreintes indélébiles de cette petite communauté. La religion n'a pas pu et ne pourra jamais les déculturiser. Cela constitue sa force d'adaptation. Hier c'était les boutiques chinoises (les kaptans) et demain sera Tianli - ce projet gigantesque propre à façonner l'économie de l'île. L'industrialisation porte le sceau du Professeur Lim Fat.

Les Sino-Mauriciens fréquentent avec la même ferveur l'église catholique et la pagode bouddhiste. Ils cultivent la tolérance dans leur cœur avec cet amalgame de Christianisme du Taoïsme et du Confucianisme. Quoi de plus merveilleux dans un monde déchiré par le fanatisme religieux! Les Sino-Mauriciens sont “the Voice of the Voiceless”. La diaspora chinoise a toujours su s'adapter aux exigences locales pour sa survie. Contre vents et marées elle a pu préserver ses valeurs ancestrales. 

Philip Li Ching Hum

Secretary - Chinese Speaking Union 

* * *

Paramanand Soobarah’s comments:

On the subject of the extract quoted by the Secretary of the Chinese Speaking Union, please allow me to restate my text in full, italicising those parts which according to me are important in this discussion.

« One subject that is now on many people’s lips is what to do with about the recognition of the Creole community concerning their desire to be recognised as a distinct community in the Constitution. Should it be Creoles and other Christians? But then the Chinese Christians might still prefer to be called Chinese. Somebody has suggested that they should be called Creoles and other Christians other than Chinese Christians. But on getting into these complications we come to realise that the founding fathers thought that it was the religion of the citizens that was important and not their ethnic characteristics. They made an exception for the Chinese who, while many of them have become Christians, have maintained a distinct Chinese way of life, of which industriousness and a clubbing together are important aspects. Let there be a community of just Christians of which the Creoles may be one segment. The Chinese may decide whether they wish to belong to a Chinese group or to the Christian group. Their numbers are so small; would it really matter if they chose the one or the other? »

The gist of the paragraph is to point to the demand of one part of the Christian community for being recognised as Creoles specifically in the Constitution, and to explain how that might lead to unwanted complications. Our founding fathers had agreed that religion (and not ethnicity) was the aspect by which the components of the nation should be characterised, but they had also recognised the obvious about the Mauritians of Chinese origin who constitute a distinct cultural rather than a religious group, for some of them had embraced Christianity while others adhered to their ancestral Chinese faiths -- we now understand that they can do both at the same time. This led them logically to the group of « Christians other than Chinese Christians », which they designated by the term « Population générale » with the full consent of all who were participating in the exercise.

There is now a growing demand for the Creole community to be recognised as such by name in the Constitution. To accommodate this demand one must go back to the meaning of name « Population générale » and deal with that mathematically. As a first try in the formula « Christians other than Chinese Christians » let us replace the word « Christians » by the word « Creole ». That would lead to a new hypothetical formulation « Creoles other Chinese Christians », But that is not enough to cover all Christians, for it leaves out the Franco-Mauritians, the Coloured Community and those who may consider themselves as Indo-Christians. Therefore the term « Creole » must be augmented by the addition of the remaining people who are Christians but not Chinese. This is how we would get to the term « Creoles and other Christians other than Chinese Christians », which is the complete formulation I arrived at above. Regrettably the distinguished Secretary did not state the name in full in his extract, and his objections that are partly based on the incomplete name cannot be valid.

In my paragraph quoted above I went on explain that if one were to agree to the demand of inserting the word « Creole » in the Constitution, one would have to resort to the complicated formulation « Creoles and other Christians other than Chinese Christians ». This complication arises from the bureaucratic need for groups to be mutually exclusive. Because of that the group cannot just be called « Christians ». It was this need that I saw as being unnecessary and unwarranted by the facts on the ground, for a person of Chinese origin can consider himself as a member of the Chinese group or the Christian group and now even of both at the same time.

My suggestion was to overlook the need for mutual exclusion in the definition of groups. I know of no sacred commandment that groups should be mutually exclusive. If this can be accepted then the group now going by the name of « Population générale » can be called by the simpler name « Christians ». I also urged members of the Creole community to agree to form part of the larger Christian community, recognising themselves as one distinct sub-group of that community. They could also, should they so wish, follow the African-American example in calling themselves African-Mauritians. Up to the seventies the African-Americans were still being referred to by the N-word, but the civil rights movement has seen that word out of the vocabulary.

One point concerning my suggestion has to be mentioned. For electoral purposes, in the designation of « best losers » after general elections, it will be necessary to continue to live with the present system whereby Chinese Christians do not form part of the « Population générale », that is to say, of the proposed new constitutional « Christian » community. The definitions can address this point without any difficulty.

I also recognise that all the component communities of this nation have contributed to the development of the country, and can point proudly to their histories. There was never any question about that.