The excesses of an enthusiast
Ashoke Roy
The election turned out to be a moment in history with the massive mandate it delivered. The last decade was marked by widespread abuse ranging from the looting of state assets to pervasive cronyism; the subversion of laws with criminal intent and the stifling of parliament. There was a need to start afresh repairing our fragile economy and set it once more on the path of development and growth.
The new government has proceeded gingerly, allowing the expiry of contracts before replacing incumbents mostly by trusted and loyal hands. Investigations into abuses have followed due process. It has announced the review of laws to prevent the recurrence of such abuses. The new Attorney General was handpicked from the top of the profession. There is a new head of broadcasting with a mission to allow diversity of views. Parliament has a new speaker who has promised to give special attention to a skeletal opposition in the best tradition of Westminster. If she manages to come up to the level of the shrewd Sir Harilal Vaghjee (1) with his inevitable wig, we would have returned to where we started. The government that has emerged is made up of three centre parties allied to a party on the far left. The far left has been on the edge of the political spectrum. In the winning alliance, this party, provided the chemistry that worked towards this defining change.
The turning point of change should be the digitalisation of Mauritius. Its development had stalled over the last two years. It should now cover the whole country. In the public sector areas with poor infrastructure should be addressed as a matter of urgency to provide a seamless service to the population at all levels of government including local government. Commercial and financial services should continue to be upgraded to match the best that is available elsewhere. We should borrow the AI highway like many countries. The citizen should be provided with a unique and secure identity. The resulting gains would be exponential, with speed, openness, in turn improving work practices and processes. A seamless and complete digitalisation would power growth; unleash high-end employment whilst allowing the emergence of a host of ancillary services. Financial services through technology would allow better control by regulators and therefore add value to the Mauritian destination. There would be opportunities to partner such countries as the United Kingdom, the UAE and India and become a regional hub. Estonia achieved complete digitalisation including e marriage and e divorce. (One can see idle minds mulling possibilities!) The United Kingdom has improved its digital ranking and is set on a mission of powering growth through its financial services and IT sector.
Our national assets are in a pitiful state. Most are running at a loss. Some have received unjustified funding to cover these losses, straining national finances. There have been cases of bad governance and toxic industrial relations. Many of these assets are presently incapable of being operated, being in a poor state of organisation and maintenance after years of neglect. They include our port, our national airline, power plants and water supply. They should have provided valuable revenue for the state instead of borrowing from it. These assets need to be upgraded before being given to professional operators, possibly from overseas, who should be allowed to recruit staff. Against this their operational results should match international standards. It is only with such discipline that they would be able to realise their true potential.
But it is in the field of education and health that we need reconstruction. The young are our most precious resource. Their passage from nursery to high school needs to be memorable with every child being entitled to school until the age of sixteen, able to spend longer hours at school happily engaged in a range of activities including art, sports and music. Education must be imagined afresh, the school redefined and teachers reskilled within a framework of monitoring and measurement to determine outcomes. Schools should be under a manager regionally grouped around municipalities and district councils with a vibrant education committee. School managers should report to the education committee. An independent national inspectorate should report to an Education Authority. Education committees should equally report to the Education Authority. The Ministry could then step back. Mauritius should join PISA (2) to evaluate learning outcomes against international benchmarks. In this model, it is the Authority that would operate education, while the ministry would be involved in policy matters. In such an environment, there would be an ongoing programme of improving infrastructure with flexible classrooms and online teaching on digital blackboards. Classwork and homework would be monitored. The concept of online teaching extended to universities allowing them to upgrade standards through international lecturers and smaller tutorials, which is still at the heart of higher standards of learning. Imagine, mauritian universities rising inexorably in world rankings until sooner rather than later, some of their faculties tiptoe into the first hundred! The Minister seems to have a great ambition for education.
So far as concerns health some initiatives have already been taken. A long-neglected software for patients has been put in place. Initially each hospital and care centre should be run as a unit integrated to the national health grid. There is already duplication with private health insurance and private hospitals charging high fees. The system should be reformed to address this. Cost escalation of health services should be controlled now, with private clinics being imposed both an ethical code as well as proper pricing rules for their services. A health file for each individual should become a reality.
Bad governance has meant that the building of essential infrastructure has been woefully neglected. There is a new awareness to build dams, reservoirs, solar energy plants to make up for years of neglect. We probably need to take the solar energy route to make up for lost time. All these schemes and plans need a national effort. We need to harness mainstream Mauritius. There seems to be a desire among some ministers and officials to do well. One of the tragedies of Mauritius labour is the fact that Anquetil (3) could not unite the labour movement despite the visit of Kenneth Baker in 1945 because of divisive forces. A confederation of labour would have given the labour movement coherence and cohesion which it presently lacks.
Agriculture has been grouped with fisheries and the blue economy to make it the largest ministry. In turn, it faces many challenges. A contracting sugar industry with lands left fallow is allied to chronic shortages of labour. There is the widespread use of chemicals and pesticides both in growing sugar and in the production of vegetables. Solutions offered have not been effective. We need to seek the inspiration of Pierre Poivre (4), the brilliant Intendant Royal who left us the legacy of the Pamplemousses Garden. We need the blessing of this brilliant administrator to reinvent our agriculture maybe turn towards the green cultivation of vegetables, fruits, spices and medicinal plants. In fisheries, suitable aquaculture needs to be supplemented by sustainable lagoon and offshore fishing, while the blue economy is a boon that requires careful study to understand its potential.
Still the signs are hopeful. One section of the far left which claims to be true voice of the population has vehemently requested broadcasting time to express its views. The Director General it is whispered is inclined to give it late night viewing, as long as it does not interfere with late night football! The far right is in disarray. A leader of the brotherhood made a lame and sheepish statement justifying its presence on the Mauritian scene. Immediately after the elections, the new leaders stood together to proclaim a break from the past and provide a fresh model of governance. The initial steps have been encouraging but what is required is selfless dedication that carries the population with it.
The Deputy Prime Minister is looking more amiable. My admittedly failing eyesight discerned the faintest contours of a halo around his venerable head. But the halo will fade, if he continues to hound hastily cobbled leaders of the opposition and the young scion of a political family. In the wake of the Indian Prime Minister’s visit, we all seem to be in an ethnic mood. It provides an opportunity to quote a magnificent line from the great poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan (5) whom my father JN Roy met in Allahabad while he was at university (6). It is taken from Bachchan’s poem ‘Is par , Us par, ’This side, That side’
‘Jag me ras ki nadiyan behti, rasna do boond pati hai’,
‘‘ In the universe those flows rivers of juice, the press is left with two drops’’.
The word ‘‘Jag” for universe is culled from Sanskrit. It gives to the line the weight of an aphorism. The drops are not the paltry reward of the press but laggards who could not join the rivers of juice. Despite its perennial and extensive activity, the press has no reward. Rather its incessant endeavours give its task the quality of a spiritual quest. These magnificent lines place selfless service to the level of a sacred mission. It is to this that the new leadership followed by mainstream Mauritius pledged itself last November.
Notes
1.Sir Harilal Vaghjee (1912-1979) first speaker of the legislative assembly. Set a distinguished record as a tactful, discreet arbiter of parliament.
2.PISA Programme for international student assessment; a programme that measures the performance of 15 years olds in reading, mathematics and science conducted by the OECD.
3.Jean Baptiste Caromy Emmanuel Anquetil (1885 – 1946) the heroic figure of the Labour movement who died in harness on 29th December 1946.
4.Pierre Poivre (1719-1786) botanist and French colonial administrator of Ile de France who created the botanical gardens at Pamplemousses.
5.Harivansh Rai Bacchan (1907- 2003) Hindi poet. Is paar, Us paar is from the collection Madhushala (1933 – 1936)
6.From the book Prerak Sadhak, publisher Sasta Sahitya Mandal, pg 75.
