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Readers'
Response/ Letters
Inspite
of the PRB!
The
existence of a hole in Jummah Mosque Street, Port Louis was
notified to the customer
Care Centre of the Municipal Council of Port Louis on 22
November 2007 and complaint
Form No 3519, Ref No CCC/WD/1212 was issued.
A
second call was made on 13 March 08 when the officer made a
note in red on the back of the above complaint form. On 19
May 08, a letter was sent to the Town Clerk to draw his
attention but to no apparent effect. On 10 June 08, the lady
officer retraced the previous complaints on the computer,
wrote something in long-hand, taking about 20 minutes to do
so and issued complaint form
No 4312, Ref No CCC/WD/659.
To
date, 19 Aug 08, the said hole is still there, growing wider
and deeper, so much so that a couple of weeks ago a
front-wheel of a van got stuck in it and a few passers-by
had to help its driver.
The
Pay Research Bureau Report was made public at the end of May
2008.
François
Saw Lan IP
Port
Louis
L’élite
qui va à la soupe
Il
faut rendre justice aux dictateurs ! Présentez des excuses
aux tyrans, grands et petits, aux autocrates et aux despotes,
plus ou moins éclairés ! Ils ne sont pas, seuls,
responsables des maux de l’Afrique. La plupart ne seraient
d’ailleurs pas parvenus, pendant toutes ces décennies, à
soumettre et à dominer tant de peuples sur le continent,
s’ils n’avaient eu le soutien zélé d’un certain
nombre de cadres et d’intellectuels, parfois parmi les
plus brillants.
Accabler
les despotes n’a donc de sens que si l’on sait rendre
leur part à ceux qui, faisant commerce de leur matière
grise, pensent pour eux. Combien de temps auraient tenu
Bokassa, Eyadéma, Idi Amin, Macias Nguema, Mobutu, s’ils
n’avaient pu s’appuyer sur la réflexion stratégique de
cadres intellectuels qui, par calcul ou par naïveté, se
sont mis d’emblée à leur disposition ?
A
la fin de la conférence nationale du Bénin, en février
1990, le général Mathieu Kérékou, les larmes aux yeux,
est allé courageusement s’excuser devant le peuple, pour
les dix-sept ans d’abus de son régime marxiste. A
l’occasion, « le Caméléon » a confessé que lui,
personnellement, ne connaissait rien au marxisme, et que ce
sont les intellectuels qui l’avaient convaincu, à l’époque,
que c’était là le remède qu’il fallait pour ce peuple
frondeur.
Vous
comprendrez donc l’appréhension que peuvent susciter les
soutiens démonstratifs de quelque 150 ingénieurs,
professeurs et fonctionnaires au général Abdel Aziz, en
Mauritanie. Qu’ils s’inscrivent sur des listes pour
proclamer leur soutien à l’interruption brutale d’un
processus démocratique, si imparfait soit-il, laisse
songeur. Le président Abdallahi n’était, certes, pas
sans reproche. Mais ce n’est tout de même pas Ould Taya !
Le
général putschiste promet de « résoudre » la faim,
l’ignorance et la maladie. Tant mieux ! Mais la manœuvre
qui consiste à faire croire que ce sont là des fléaux
engendrés par le président déchu est une gymnastique
intellectuelle dans laquelle excelle, justement, l’élite
qui va à la soupe.
On
ne saurait trop recommander aux Mauritaniens de rester
vigilants. Car cette liste de partisans ressemble fort à
une cour de prétendants, faisant la queue pour une place au
bord de la mangeoire, afin d’investir les fauteuils dont
auront été logiquement éjectés les inconditionnels du président
déchu.
Le
général Kérékou, encore lui, avait identifié, au sein
de l’élite servile, une catégorie que, dans son sens désarmant
de la formule, il appelait « les intellectuels tarés ».
Au fait, la soif de pouvoir et la rapacité ne sont-elles
pas aussi des tares ?
Jean-Baptiste
Placca
MFI
Falling
Flat On Their Faces
From
Toronto, I have been following with bemused interest the
hullabaloo, raised by Mr Bérenger in particular and the
political opposition in general, about a purported unethical
phone call to made by Attorney General Rama Valayden to
enquire about one individual who was being questioned by the
police, and that at the behest of his father who had come to
plead with the Attorney General in his office. I commend the
calm and seriousness with which the Prime Minister handled
the Parliamentary questions
put to him about the incident, and clarified matters.
Nonetheless,
the incident brings to mind an episode, dating several years
back, about contracts that had been awarded to a French
Water Resource Management firm (Société Générale des
Eaux?) where another French firm in the same area
of business (La Lyonnaise des Eaux?) which had
tendered for the contract complained about an influential
personality’s purported intervention in favour of the
winner of the contract. Similar pressure was put on the
government of the day through harassing Pqs,
and, as behoves a respectable, responsible government,
answers that were clear and brief enough without giving out
too sensitive information, were provided to the political
opposition.
Going
for blood rather than for the safeguard of public interest,
the political opposition of the time pressed the government
hard to reveal more. Yielding to the harassment, the
government revealed that the then-President of the Republic,
Cassam Uteem, had indeed received a letter from then French
President Jacques Chirac making mention of the complaining
water management firm.
The
political opposition of the day was completely discomfited,
and one could read in the newspapers of the subsequent two
or three days laments from hardly-concealed racist,
political-opposition-sympathising quarters that, by yielding
to the pressure to reveal more about the identity of the
personality behind the purported unethical intervention, the
government had fed to a sneering public --- ‘livré
en pâture’
-- the information that the President of France had indulged
in unethical intervention on behalf of a firm in a
competitive process that is supposed to be free from such
intervention.
When
one is of bad faith, it always happens that, from a position
of would-be hunter, one ends up becoming the hunted.
Justice,
as they say, is blind. Indeed! In the present case, one is
bound to conclude that a bunch of overly-aggressive members
of the political opposition have fallen flat on their
faces.
S.M.
Malleck Amode
Canada
black
sheep
On
Sunday 17 August last, I witnessed a very sad incident at
the Piton Police Station. An elderly person came to enquire
about the arrest of one of his relatives. The gentleman was
still talking to the officer-in-charge when suddenly, an
overzealous officer without any badge of identification,
jumped in and for reasons best known to himself, flung in
the face of the old man: “Dire
sa boug la baise so chemin li aller…”
This
sort of vulgar language is not acceptable. It tarnishes the
image of the force. If the Police do not command respect,
how can one expect them to receive same in return? Often
some black sheep forget that they are paid from public funds
where the old, the widow and the orphan also contribute.
Unfortunately, instead of helping the new Commissioner to
discharge his difficult duties, some act irresponsibly to
harm the Public/Police relationship.
D.
Raj
Piton
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