Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Discussion: 2005 Elections in Mauritius

They announced the results of the 2005 elections yesterday. L'Alliance Sociale has won 61.3% of the National Assembly seats against 35.5% won by the leaving Government (pretty close guess). The Labour Party should not be so confident. Their Alliance received 49% of the votes compared to 43% by the (ex)governmental alliance. Labour Party must be very careful on their new mandate especially when they did not do much on the last one they won. I believe that they won because in Mauritius people prefer mid-lefts rather than the far rights (case with the (ex)Governmental Alliance). Some people may argue that the votes were based upon the ethnicity of the 'to-be' Prime Minister - to some extent this is true. It was a first when Paul Berenger became Prime Minister of Mauritius in 2003. However, this in itself was just a deal made among the parties of the winning Alliance of the 2000 elections. I thought that finally Mauritians will realise that there is nothing to win in communalist attitudes - I was wrong. Anyway, as discussed in my previous post, I would not have voted for any of them. They all have big dreams that they cannot promise and they still think that they can tackle the voters as in the 80's. Martin Luther King avait fait un grand meeting à Washington. Il avait lance alors : "I had a dream". Moi aussi, j'ai fait un reve. Je suis arrive un haut niveau. J'ai vu l'avenir de Maurice. Comptez sur moi. Je sais que le changement arrive pour vous. [Navin Ramgoolam Leader of the Labour Party, newly elected Prime Minister - extracted from Le Mauricien of the 01-July-2005 Edition] Translation: In a great meeting in Washington, Martin Luther King said that he had a dream. I had a dream too. I have reached a very high level. I have seen the future of Mauritius. Count on me. I know that changes are coming for you. [Navin Ramgoolam] Anil Baichoo pe rod reekrir Ramayan, li pe rod fer Navin Ramgoolam vinn Ram! Navin Ramgoolam zame na pa pou kapav vinn Ram dan sa pei la. Zame Anil Baichoo pou kapav fer ou aval sa. Mwa mo dir ou, pli gran Rawan, se lalyans sosyal. Ram, se nou. [Pravind Jugnauth, vice Prime Minister of the (ex)Government - extracted from Le Mauricien of the 01-July-2005 Edition] Translation: Anil Baichoo wants to re-write the Ramayan. He wants to make Navin Ramgoolam Ram (Hindu God). Navin Ramgoolam can never be Ram in this country. Anil Baichoo can never make you believe this. The biggest Rawan (Devil) is the "L'Alliance Sociale". We are Ram. [Pravind Jugnauth] They think that politics is a family business. Most of the polititians are basically sons of ex-polititians. Mauritius is somehow an exceptional country. It's future has always been in the hands of the hard workers and rarely in the ones of the politicians. Ironically, the political drama has somewhat contributed to it's social stability (after the late 70's). My biggest fear for this Government however is that they might forget the struggle of the Chagossians. It was the old Labour Party that caused them the trouble. This my friends, we have to fight. __________________________

1 comment:

Fayrouz said...

Faisal,

Good to see you back.