Endy Jay
The Privy Council’s ruling in Dayal’s appeal has thrown cold water on the expectations of Opposition forces – albeit not all in spite of fake stances of late, prelude of possible stunning plot twists in these ranks just ahead. And what jubilation in the Orange camp, buntings are out, a golden opportunity for the boo boys in the majority ranks to declaim, once justifiably, unlike their habitual clap trap. But for how long?
Personally – and here I know I will throw off balance many regular readers given my unflinching neutrality in political matters manifest in my notes of late, given the perspective from which I write that cannot have escaped the shrewd reader -, I welcome this ruling, not for the blue eyes of the Tsar, very far from that, but to allow the ruling incumbents to go unimpeded in the running to the forthcoming General Elections – (hopefully fair and free this time, no dubious computer rooms, no unexplained disappearance of names on electors registers) -, with all that implies in terms of the acrobatics they will inevitably engage in to end the present mandate in the manner they have reigned since 2019, even exacerbating ‘la dictature de la majorité’, their most common weapon, along with Zorro! Indeed to show their unmasked faces.
Hardly any need to indulge in protracted argumentations, a different ruling would have caused a lot of disturbances, political instability, feelings of uneasiness that would have added to the already putrid** atmosphere that has pervaded the whole country for quite some time now, with no sign of improvement given the style of governance where a handful have reigned unchallenged having installed all around a culture of sycophancy, indeed despicable kowtowing and fawning! Put simply, what would have been the purpose of annulling an election that took place nearly four years back, and more importantly almost on the ‘eve’ of the next General Election. Save perhaps for the sake of jurisprudence. Granted, a different ruling would have forced the Tsar into some sort of embarrassing public strip-tease, much to the delight of whom we know. While the ruling team are struggling from one crisis to another rarely emerging from the scandals that attract national attention, indeed condemnation. Mais il faudra repasser.
To come back to the ruling itself, many right-minded persons saw it coming, I being one of them, just as in the case of the Medpoint Affair when Pravind Jugnauth was exonerated that surprised hardly anyone. Whether there will be ‘baise-main’ this time around is another matter. We may nevertheless express appreciation for Dayal’s determination to have pursued a battle he was convinced to be right till the very end, where others threw down the gauntlet. But at what cost! It appears he failed to see the difference between an electoral promise and an electoral bribe, which the Privy Council has made clear that should preclude any contest in the future. On the eve of the 1976 General Elections, there was a promise of free education, out of the blue, by the outgoing rulers, in 2005 a promise of free bus transport by the challengers, beefed up BRP (pension de vieillesse) in 2014, again by challengers. In all three cases the promises paid off, even if it can be wondered as to whether such promises did not border on demagogy. Nevertheless, these belong to the past, but still precedents.
To conclude, I’ll remark it remains to us, without having recourse to foreign bodies, to decide very soon what should be the political configuration of the country for some years to come, albeit with the distressing, and saddening, perspective it may very well be a case of ‘sap dan pwalon tom dan dife’!!
Attendons voir.
(* Mr. Suren, cheer up, sweet revenge is still possible just ahead)
(** Albert Einstein once said that politicians and diapers must be changed often, for the same reason.)
