Taken from Letter to the New PM Dear SAJ There is something you need to know. We didn’t vote for you. We voted against Ramgoolam. If you had been allied with him we would have humiliated you instead of Berenger. You put some of your weakest candidates in Ramgoolam’s constituency and we elected them instead of him. We would have elected monkeys. We have little confidence in you. Remember how we crushed you 60-0 in 1995? We saw how bad Ramgoolam was in 2000 and gave you another chance. You let us down and we got rid of you again. Of course the alternative turned out to be even worse. Democracy You strengthened our democracy when you made us a Republic in 1992. We call on you to do it again. We want no more Ramgoolams. We want no more Prime Ministers who print a new bank note to celebrate their wife’s birthday or shut down anti-corruption agencies because their Ministers are under investigation. We want an open, transparent and accountable government. Give us a Freedom of Information Act and cancel confidentiality clauses like Sithanen’s deal with the Chinese. Do not dodge criticism from the Director of Audit and do not compare yourselves with your predecessors. We don’t care if they were worse. We want the Government to get better and keep on getting better. We want a corruption-free government. You ratified the UN Convention Against Corruption in 1994, now implement it – all of it. Fully regulate political parties. Criminalise unexplained wealth. Investigate Ramgoolam and all his agents – and yours and Duval’s too. Give us a Constitutionally independent anti-corruption agency free from all restrictions and political interference. We want to participate in designing our own sustainable future. Your Vision 2020 was forgotten, Ramgoolam’s Maurice Ile Durable was a fiasco. Learn from these mistakes and let us try again – together – and keep on trying until we get it right. The Economy We don’t believe in your second economic miracle. You didn’t create the first one. You can’t even explain it. But our mothers can. The capitalists and their textile factories exploited them and became rich and when our mothers asked for a decent wage, they left. Yes, our standard of living increased, but at the expense of our quality of life and the strength of our families. Now, to maintain that standard of living, we have to put ourselves into debt. And the burden is becoming too heavy to bear. Our economy is in a mess. As a nation we buy more goods and services than we sell. To balance the books, we are increasing the national debt and selling off our best land to foreigners who contribute nothing but waste and pollution. Do something about it. If you don’t have the answers then call in experts who do – but not the IMF or the World Bank. Find consultants who care more about people than profits. We measure prosperity by the quality of our hospitals, schools and leisure facilities – not per capita GDP. And please, please, please help those who are living and begging on the streets – this is not India. Their suffering is our shame. The Environment If the economy is in a mess then our environment is far worse. How different were our islands when you were a child? Things may look okay on the surface but what happens when we peer beneath? What’s happening to our beaches? Where are all the corals that once filled our lagoon and the fishes that made them their home? Where has all the soil gone and the fertility that allowed plants to flourish without chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides? Find out and fix it. Our forefathers extinguished the Dodo, but where is the rest our wildlife? Where are the wild natural places where they can hide and thrive? Where is the unique biodiversity that we constantly hear about? Or forefathers felled the forests, why aren’t we replanting them? Why are fields lying idle – waiting to be converted into housing? For the sake of our children and theirs to come, let’s give back to Nature what was once Hers and stop covering our beautiful land with concrete and tarmac. Education Education isn’t free. Schools might be free but what is the point of going to those? Real learning takes place in the evenings and weekends. Why do teachers need to give private tuition during our children’s free-time in their homes? Why can’t they teach during the day in class rooms? Why can’t our children have free-time for themselves – for leisure, for sport and for fun? Why is ranking students so important? Why do you drive them to compete as individuals? We go on courses to learn how to cooperate and work in teams – it’s like teaching old dogs new tricks. If that is their future, why don’t we prepare them while they are still young? Working with rather than against each other is more rewarding, more productive and more fun. The challenge has been there for years. You know what you need to do. Just do it. The End
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 09:04:40 +0000
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