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Points
To Ponder
Politique…
quand tu nous tiens
A
First Point: In
Mauritius, many persons view politics as their preferred
leisure activity. And then you have the professional
politicians, whether they do it full time or part time.
There are three categories of persons who consider politics
as their profession. There is the first category who take
politics seriously, who debate ideas that matter to all of
us and who are not concerned with gutter politics or with
the private life of politicians. They are not concerned with
scoring cheap political points over their friends from the
opposition parties. There are very few politicians in this
category.
Then you
have those who are only interested in trying to refute what
their friends from the other parties have said. They can
never suggest any idea themselves, simply because doing so
requires a certain degree of intelligence. The people in
this category cannot initiate a clear and relevant idea that
can be debated for eventually a conclusion to be arrived at.
It does not necessarily mean that an idea has to be
accepted, but it must be worthy of being debated. The
persons in this category also are not that many, they try to
do their job but their lack of know-how and their lack of
intelligence are a handicap for them.
Finally,
you have what we may call the “lumpen” of the political
class. Their idea of politics is criticising their opponents
from beginning to end, they find that their opponents are
not capable of taking any measure that goes in favour of the
people or of the country. They have no thought of their own,
they are only followers of some leader or some so-called
leader and they can go to any extent to downgrade their
opponents. They do not hesitate to drag into the public
domain the private life of their opponents though this may
not have any relevance to the point that is being discussed.
The people in this category are known for their habit of
indulging in gutter politics and they love doing so.
Unfortunately, the persons in this category outnumber the
persons in the other two categories a hundred times over.
And these are persons who have the cheek to say that they
dictate to the real politicians mentioned above. Well, we
get the politicians we deserve. At times such people set the
political agenda of the country.
I am told
that the level of the debates in our Parliament has gone
down to such an extent that people feel disgusted when they
attend a sitting. Is this the reason for which the sittings
of Parliament are not broadcast live? We know that the
Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation is technically ready to
do the job, what is needed is a resolution from the House.
Maybe a few more pieces of equipment have to be put in place
and every Mauritian will watch live the performance or
non-performance of their members
of Parliament. We can then take cognizance of the gutter
language of some of our so-called Honourable members.
And this is what most of our members are dead scared of.
Either they do not know what to say or their level of
intelligence is so low that we wonder how they have managed
to get themselves elected or their language is so filthy
that it can be favourably compared to the one used
previously by our dockers. Those who have known the dockers
of the past days know what I am talking about. What is now
happening on the political front? Nothing much. Last week
there was an incident in the House. Paul Bérenger, the
leader of the MMM and of the opposition, said concerning
Nita Deerpalsing, the member of Quatre Bornes, the
following: “Rode ène mari pour li marié do”.
Granted that those words were uttered in the heat of the
moment, but Paul Bérenger should have realized the context
in which he said those words.
In
Mauritius we have several communities and each community has
its own culture and civilization. And the different cultures
have their specificities.
Though the Hindu community is the majority community, some
politicians of the other minority communities do not try to
learn and understand the basics of Hindu culture and
civilization.
Paul Bérenger
should never have said what he has accepted to have said. In
the Hindu culture a lady is never insulted, this is not
done. An excuse is not the remedy, respect for the Hindu
culture is. Maybe other cultures do accept and tolerate such
insults proffered to a lady, but Hindu culture does not. And if you want to succeed in politics, start learning
seriously about Hindu culture and Hindu civilization. Maybe
Paul Bérenger did not think about this aspect of the
feeling of people when he uttered those words. The Hindus do
not forget easily any assault on their culture, their
civilization and especially their religion. And the insult
thrown at Nita Deerpalsing is in this category. Let
politicians beware.
Third-rate
politics and journalism
A
Second Point: For
the past one or two weeks the matters that have been making
the headlines concern Rama Valayden, his association with
Sada Curpen and the matter of Subutex. Then we also had the
alleged payments into the account of Siddick Chady, the
alleged corruption in which supposedly minister
Dulull was involved and other similar matters. I am not
saying that these matters should not be brought to the
attention of the public; far from it. But there must be a
seriousness of purpose that should point to the correct
direction of the various newspapers. We understand that the
politicians have a limited intellectual capacity but the
newspapers can afford to get the best brains in the country
to analyze topical events.
The
newspapers could very well have given top coverage to the
report concerning Rama Sithanen’s two missions concerning
our foreign trade. These two missions will have a direct
impact on our economic performance and hence on our standard
of living and on our balance of payments. But these matters
do not interest our politicians of the opposition, maybe
because they have not understood the importance of the
various negotiations in which the minister
of Finance was involved and especially the positive results
that will accrue to our economy. Or maybe they have
understood the purport of the negotiations but in
association with some politicians, they prefer to ignore it
because, and the more so, it can bring some very positive
results to the country and to the Alliance Sociale
government. If these are the circumstances, the journalists
who have copied their behaviour do not show any sense of
patriotism nor any intellectual honesty.
This is
where I blame some of our newspapers. They support Paul Bérenger,
they are at his beck and call and at the same time they try
to pass off as independent newspapers. They should not boast
of their being independent when in fact they are not. The
people in the country are very much aware of this fact, you
know, however much you will try to hide it. But don’t at
the same time pretend that you are independent.
What has
Rama Sithanen said about his two missions? First about his
mission to the United States of America. The negotiations
which were carried on under the Africa Growth and
Opportunity Act would allow Mauritius to qualify for the
derogation Third Country Fabric for the period 2008 to 2012.
This is the first time that Mauritius will have a derogation
of full four years. This important measure has already gone
through the House of Representatives and it will have to go
through the Senate in September.
The other
mission of Rama Sithanen was at the World Trade Organisation
where he defended the cause of our sugar as well as of
our textile. He said that our sugar should be considered for
a “long standing preference” that will permit the price
to be adjusted over a ten-year period with a moratorium
period of two years. Or that the European Union accepts that
our sugar is “un produit sensible”. The European
Union should accept one of these two alternatives and in
either case we should be a little better off. For our
textile also, he has asked for “Non-Reciprocal
Preferences”, with an adjustment period of ten years.
These
matters should have been of prime concern to the
politicians, both of the government and of the opposition.
But unfortunately, the matters have been ignored as if they
are of no concern to the country. Failure of the opposition
should not be a reason for the government not to do its
duty. There should have been a campaign on the issues until
the people would have understood these measures. Government
should tell us what it is doing and with what results,
otherwise people would be under the impression that it is
not doing anything much, just as the opposition bases its
campaign on saying that government is not doing anything
worthwhile.
After
all, the people get the politicians they deserve. If they
want to have nincompoops, they will have them. But we shall
be sorry for the country.
Our
energy needs
A
Third Point: We are
all concerned with the exorbitant price that we are called
upon to pay for our energy. Let us call the various types of
fuel that we normally use to produce the energy that we need
by their colloquial names that we are in the habit of using.
We have “essence, diesel, l’huile lourde, and gaz and
charbon de terre”. We cannot say that the country has
indigenously any source of energy except perhaps the energy
that is derived from “bagasse”, which is largely used to
produce part of our electricity. We should not forget the
yet to be produced energy by the burning of household
refuse.
With the
exception of bagasse we import all the various types of fuel
that we need and we have to spend much too much more than
our economy can stand. None of the various sources is under
our control, not even to produce a quarter of a percent of
our energy needs. We have to rely on other countries to
satisfy us, and those countries go by the world market.
Nobody will help us in this matter, except perhaps India to
a certain extent.
We make
marginal use of some of the other sources for the production
of energy. These are solar power, wind power, and wave
power. This type of power is freely available at all times
of the year, is more or less inexhaustible and is considered
to be at the basis for the production of clean energy, but
the initial cost of the equipment is reportedly rather high.
There is another problem, and this concerns the fact that
the wind and the waves should be strong enough to produce
the required energy. However we have yet to develop our
solar and wave producing capacity.
I almost
forgot to mention nuclear energy that is at the moment
reserved for the big countries. I have been told that
Mauritius is indeed too small a country to think of a
nuclear plant however small. Besides the island cannot
accommodate a nuclear plant, so I thought that maybe the
authorities could think of installing the plant on Flat
Island or some other island which is away from the mainland
and therefore if there would be some mishap, the country
itself will not be affected. Well, I will say let us wait
for the miniaturisation of the nuclear system, as is being
done with all the different systems in the world, and then
we shall have our nuclear plant. It is bound to happen
sometime in the future.
Another
source of energy that is available in other countries is the
geothermal, but we do not have that type of power around us,
so it is better for us not to dream the impossible.
Let us
talk a bit about solar energy. We can get as much, and more,
sunlight as we want and need, but as yet we do not have the
knowledge nor the capacity to tap this free energy to the
extent that we need or can. The big economies make a lot of
money when they sell the various petroleum products and it
is not to their advantage to develop any other source of
energy. Besides, though they have the capacity for research
yet they cannot be persuaded to work against their own
interests. However, some countries are forging ahead because
these countries have at long last understood that there is
no alternative to clean energy. Besides, the supply of
fossil fuels has a limited and finite future and may last at
most for another fifty years or a hundred years. After that,
we shall have to fall back on solar, wind and waves to
produce all the energy that we shall need.
Solar
energy will cause less strain on our power grid, it will be
less costly in the long run and we shall be secure in
matters of energy – provided means are found of storing it
at night. Considerable research is going on in battery
technology. If it is successful, energy produced by the sun
can be used as an ideal substitute for any type of energy,
wherever and whenever needed.
In
Sydney, Australia, the University of New South Wales runs a
course up to the masters’ degree level in photo-voltaic
and solar energy. Those who go for the masters’ course get the advantage to work for some renewable
energy corporation and they do get a first hand knowledge of
how the system works.
The
University of South Wales has a school that is dedicated to
the study of harnessing such power technically as well as to
create the right energy policy to stimulate the growth of
the sector. There is a misconception that solar energy is
not ready to compete with fossil fuel, but those involved in
the study of solar energy say that such is not the case.
In Australia, the authorities have reached the stage
where they can start using solar power for the home and the
office.
The
authorities in our country can send one or two persons who
are involved with the production of energy to find what
progress the people at the University of New South Wales
have made in this field and I am sure that we shall benefit
a lot in the long run. At the same time they can try to find
out the progress that Germany has made about solar energy.
Drug
addicts and Methadone
A Last
Point: We know that
several drug addicts are these days given a substitute drug
by the name of Methadone for the hard drugs that they
usually take. The idea is to wean them off the drugs to
which they are addicted. But would the authorities achieve
what they are out to do? The main question at the moment is
this: How long will it take for a drug addict to be free of
his addiction in case he is on Methadone?
I have
talked to some medical doctors who have reliably informed me
that once a person starts on Methadone, it is a never ending
process. The person will have to be on this drug for life.
All this saying that a person will free himself from the
hard drugs and from Methadone in six years is not true. What
is the opinion of the authorities in general and of the minister
of Health in particular in this whole matter of Methadone?
When some
concerned doctors are saying that drug addicts must take
Methadone for life, are the authorities prepared to go along
with the drug addicts for such a long time without any hope
of severance? How many millions of rupees should then be
spent on a single drug addict? I do not agree that a drug
addict is a patient who needs medical treatment, like
somebody who is suffering from high blood pressure or from
diabetes. A drug addict has placed himself voluntarily in
the situation in which he finds himself. If anybody has to
spend money to take him out of the drug circuit, it should
not be the State, because then the State will be using our
money “pou soutire banne drogués”. And this is
not fair on us. The drug addict must spend his own money,
failing which his relatives must fork out all the resources
necessary to get the addict off drugs. Or lastly, those who
defend the addicts must use their own resources or go
begging for the money that they need. Let those interested
in the drug affair help them, not the others.
I would
be prepared to accept it if the minister can tell the people
that the drug addicts will be completely off drugs after
taking Methadone say for three years, but how is it possible
for the State to give such a high costing medicine for a
life time to, of all people, drug addicts?
LEX
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