Being smart is no guarantee against unintelligent statements. We all know brilliant people who sometimes make the most inane claims and make gigantic errors of judgement, especially when common sense is required.
A life of praise and pats on the back perhaps leads smart people to get so locked into the logic of always being right that they just don’t see the obvious signs visible to the rest of us. We can therefore understand why several personalities at different times have come up with the same old idea of a “government of national unity”, without really thinking about its implications. How do they ignore the reasons, obvious to all of us ordinary men and women, why such a proposal is stillborn? !
First, if ever there was a need for a government of national unity; if there ever was a predisposition of the population to accept this notion, it is certainly not now. The population is currently very wounded and is continually licking its wounds after all the evils inflicted on it by a reckless government which persists in squandering public funds, favoring its cronies and leaving the rest of the population in the cold. Even before Covid began to haunt us, it was clear what the government’s priorities were: to borrow and spend money on big projects for bragging rights that yield little in terms of meaningful income and jobs. Think of the billions wasted on Safe City cameras, the Côte d’Or stadium, the tramway… and think how much more useful that money could have been if it had been spent developing an industry like fishing. , instead of allowing foreign vessels to clean our vast deep blue seas while we import seafood of dubious quality.
Besides, I don’t think Mauritius has forgotten the blatant cronyism underlying the contracts handed out during lockdown by a government that was only interested in digging into our pockets and giving away millions of our rupees hard-earned friends and skilled mistresses from childhood. friends in an episode that led to a confirmed murder and a few deaths in very suspicious circumstances. A “government of national unity” led by the same Prime Minister is a clear invitation to more looting, more waste of public funds, more cronyism and more.
Beyond our finances, look at the state of our institutions and the ineptitude of the men and women who run many of them! How is that likely to change with the same people in place? Who would be able to dislodge all the cronies that clutter our now barely functional institutions without proper cleaning at all levels?
The current government is built on cronyism, clientelism, opacity and propaganda while kicking the streets. Getting everyone to “work together” is the best way to put an end to any hope of transparency, meritocracy and the cleaning up of our institutions.
The concept of a “national unity government” will keep coming up time and time again, especially as more and more chickens come home to roost. It will go through various sources, mostly close to or wishing to get closer to the government. This is an unacceptable idea in more ways than one. It is a chatwa concept even when it comes from non-chatwas. It is dictatorial because it does not have the blessing of the population. It’s also suicidal because it ends the few remaining checks and balances.
Above all, we have not mandated anyone to deprive us of our democratic rights, no matter how serious the economic situation. If the current government cannot run the country, as seems to be the principle behind the call for a ‘national unity government’, then it should make way for those who can by calling new elections. , presenting a new competent team and letting the people decide. It is the only democratic option they have. The rest is background music that needs to stop at some point for the country to get down to business.
