Should the New Government be Indulging in Witch-Hunting?

The new government has a duty to identify wrongdoers from the outgoing administration and ensure they face legal consequences, including exemplary punishment

By Paramanund Soobarah

I have read with great interest the articles on this and related subjects in last week’s Mauritius Times. To me the electorate’s mandate is crystal-clear. They do not want a government that treats national assets (including assets of parastatal bodies and government-established companies) like personal property, a government that fools people with exaggerated freebies to get their votes, and that loots pension funds, and in the process devaluing our currency and also increasing the national debt and the load on generations yet unborn.

“The electorate does not want a government that plants false evidence on citizens, that arrests people on fabricated charges (and protects criminals), that inflicts physical pain, mental anguish and totally undeserved and unnecessary harassment on people. It is yet to be determined whether any politician or politically-protected person is involved in the infamous drug trade. The electorate also wants to be assured that no passing ships can approach our shores, exchange contraband goods including illegal drugs…” Pic – The Sun

They do not want a government that spies on the public, that uses information gathered by spying to inflict its biases on the population in the way it appoints people into government and parastatal bodies (based on their assessment of people’s party-affiliations, which may be correct but also often incorrect, and also often based on caste and community considerations, all regardless of personal merit. They do not want a government that stifles free speech indirectly by falsely implicating people who do not share views in crimes they have not committed. More importantly they do not want a government that plants false evidence on citizens, that arrests people on fabricated charges (and protects criminals), that inflicts physical pain, mental anguish and totally undeserved and unnecessary harassment on people.

It is yet to be determined whether any politician or politically-protected person is involved in the infamous drug trade. The electorate also wants to be assured that no passing ships can approach our shores, exchange contraband goods including illegal drugs, and that measures are in place to detect such malpractices in the high seas in our vicinity.

Were the public of Quatre Bornes consulted before inflicting such an ugly and calamitous contraption as a railway track in the middle of their favourite St Jean Road? In other cities endowed with tramways both the tramcars and ordinary vehicles live peaceably alongside one another. Why should they be segregated in such a narrow space here? And why St Jean Road? And if segregation is a must, then why not the old railway track at least up to Hillcrest Road?

These matters concern not just the outgoing politicians. Their tools are most often the political appointees who head other government-owned or government-controlled institutions. And sadly also, some regular civil servants who throw all considerations of ethics to the wind. They include some members of the Police Force.

The electorate have emphatically said they do not want such a government. They couldn’t be clearer. They certainly do not want the new government to indulge in the same practices. Assuming that the present government has learnt from the mistakes of the previous one, how can any future governments be dissuaded from engaging in similar evil malpractices? In my view the only way is to identify all wrongdoers in the outgoing government and subject them to the processes of the law, seeking exemplary punishment for them. The only people who can do that are the new government. They have a duty to do so, unless of course they want to prepare the ground for their own future similar actions. So much for witch-hunting.

Civil servants owe allegiance and respect to the elected government of the day. They also have to abide by a code of ethics – which in the colonial days used to be set out in the General Orders (Establishment) (GOE). I am not aware whether it has been replaced and by what. If nothing of the sort exists today, it is vital for the sake of good governance that something similar be brought out urgently.

Civil servants who work well and are competent at their jobs are bound to be noticed by their superiors. Consequently, they are often assigned special tasks which, in the view of their superiors, they are competent to carry out – whether these fall within their scheme of duties or not. Competent people never say no to a task, even if it is difficult and outside their scheme of service. Sadly, such people often come to be regarded as “favourites”. That is a cross that they have to bear. But incoming governments must be careful not to mistreat all those who were regarded as “favourites” with the previous administration because of their competence. Sadly, there are some people who will tell fabricated stories about colleagues. Ministers must be slow in accepting such stories.

Civil servants must always give ethically correct advice to their ministers. If a civil servant is asked to do something unethical, he must point out what is not correct about it. If his boss insists, he must first of all ensure that his own opinions are based on strong and absolutely valid grounds. That something has never been done before is not a valid reason for opposing any request. In the final analysis, a civil servant can carry out the desired action under protest or resign. He can also comply as required, at his own risk.

Governments often have to appoint people into places when such appointments are outside the remit of the Public Service Commission. Of course they will appoint people they trust. But that does not mean they should appoint square pegs in round holes just because they are pliant or as a reward for past political support – such as, for instance, a fishmonger onto the board of some important parastatal body or some partially state-owned company. The new government has already started making new appointments. We are relieved that the Bank of Mauritius will be in safe hands. We shall be watching about others.

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The sphericity of Planet Earth and its effects on Earthlings

In last week’s edition of this paper, Prof Kelly R. MacGregor dealt with the subject admirably, and I have little to add to what he said in his article ‘Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round?’ But I think readers may like to know about a curious real-life situation that actually occurred in Mauritius in 1978 concerning the matters he has spoken about. That was during our process of setting out a procedure for the use of an electronic guidance system for aircraft we had just installed at the airport.

Using the methods provided in the guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), we determined that the descent guidance beam (called the Glide Path) would be passing above Bigara Station at a height of 3950 ft. above sea-level. The normal height to which aircraft had to descend above Mauritius was (and still is) 4000 ft. If they popped up at that height at Bigara, then by our calculation they would be far too much above the Glide Path. I was Director of Civil Aviation at the time, and so I prescribed the figure of 3900 ft. for their approach from Flic-en-Flac. That would then help them capture the Glide Path satisfactorily at Bigara.

I remained in touch with aircraft crews who were using the system. Some of them felt they were too low when passing over the first mountain in their path, namely the Montagne du Rempart on the west coast just off Flic-en-Flac. To help them I provided an alternative approach path at 5000 ft. from Flic-en-Flac. At this new level they would intercept the Glide Path further away from Bigara, actually just above Henrietta. Descending from 5000 ft. at Henrietta, they would of course have to pass over Bigara. One and all declared that while passing over Bigara on the Glide Path, they were above 4000 ft, and not below it as our calculations had shown. We were puzzled, but after further discussions with airlines, we reset the horizontal approach path from Flic-en-Flac at 4000 ft., with Bigara as the Glide Path interception point.

I pondered over the puzzle for some time. Some thought that the Glide Path might have an upward bend, but this was set aside as theodolite trackings of descending aircraft indicated a strictly rectilinear descent path without any bend. If the beam did not bend upwards, then the only other possibility was for the Earth to bend downwards – as would indeed be the case with a spherical Earth.

Further collateral reading indicated that this was a well-known feature and was called the Earth’s Curvature effect. by the application of some elementary geometry and basic trigonometry, it is easy to show that for short distances (up to about 100 km say) discrepancy between the calculated flat-Earth height and the real height above the spherical Earth (the Curvature Effect) is approximately 0.883d²ft., where the distance is measured in Nautical Miles.

Using his formula, it can be shown that the Curvature Effect at the end of one kilometre is only about three inches and therefore hardly noticeable. But as the effect varies as the square of the distance, at the end of 10 Km it is 100 times 3 inches, and after 20 kms it is 400 times three inches, i.e. all of 100 ft. In the case of our Glide Path, the Effect is (0.883×100) or 88.3 ft. Therefore, our calculated height of 3950 ft. at Bigara had to be increased by 88.3 ft. to obtain the real Glide Path height there. The correct height at Bigara is therefore 4038.3 ft., and so very satisfactory for aircraft approaching at 4000 ft. to catch.

ICAO maintained its calculation methods until after the year 2000. In 1986 an ICAO expert examined our procedure and obviously found it wrong. I had already left the Government Service at the time.  He rearranged the procedure to comply strictly with the applicable ICAO guidelines, using the flat-Earth figures he was bound by. One of the consequences was that our Glide Path could not be used over the two-mile stretch between Bigara and Curepipe Point. As far as I am aware, that is still the case. I find it galling that, over that 2-mile stretch, our flight-checked Glide Path, which at every point is above the so-called new “compliant” path decreed by the expert and therefore further away from the ground, is considered less safe than the new path.

I returned to the country in the year 2000 and offered my services to the Government. The Ministry of Communications wrote back very kindly, telling me that my letter had been noted, and I would be advised if my services were required. I have never heard anything further. In sharp contrast, ICAO, which organization I was earlier privileged to serve for three years, recently renewed their invitation to me to be on their Experts List. Given my age and my less than perfect health, I had to decline. I am already ninety.

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 29 November 2024