QUOTE OF THE WEEK
 Believe nothing until it has been officially denied.
                                                            -- Claud Cockburn

NMU’s notorious vicious slogan ‘Hindu hegemony’ has now graduated to a still more murderous one, known as cultural genocide!

-- Deepchand Beeharry

Honourable Dharam Gokhool is no newcomer to the world of education. In fact, before his appointment as minister in the present cabinet, he had already spent most of his professional career at the University of Mauritius, guiding, advising and teaching students. It is, therefore, mere exaggeration, if not a lack of fairness, to describe the present minister’s plan to give new dimensions to the island’s educational set-up as, inter alia, nothing short of cultural genocide.

Now the word genocide is not just any ordinary word. It specifically summons up the slaughter of communities of human beings simply because of their race, creed or colour. And this is condemned by all civilised men and women and human rights organisations. Genocides, it is well known, have been resorted to by dictators or authoritarian regimes throughout history but the word actually gained currency during the Second World War when more than six million Jews were butchered in the West by the Nazis and their allies merely because they belonged to a difference culture and religion. Incidentally, there are other communities like the gypsies that have suffered the same fate in Europe, and in Africa where Tutsis and Hutus massacred each other because of their ethnic/tribal differences.

Given this historical context and meaning of the word genocide, coming from someone who has had a long fruitful career in journalism and who, as chairman of the Media Trust, has had many wise and well-considered pieces of advice to give to the younger members of the profession, one is naturally taken aback by the explosive use of “genocide” in a public debate on an issue which is so emotive and of major concern for the present and future intellectual, moral, social and economic development of our fellow countrymen.

In Britain, commissions are put in place at about ten-year intervals to examine, amend and suggest new ways to fine-tune prevailing (inadequate) provisions in education. In France, teachers and students frequently demonstrate in the streets against what they consider organisational failings of their educational system. In India, the Supreme Court has only recently had to step in to repeal the privileges that some universities used to have when admitting students from the minority community to the exclusion of other deserving applicants. What this means, in other words, is that there is nothing static in life especially so in the world of education on which rests the prosperity of society in a world where the ruthless saying, the survival of the fittest, is once more gathering momentum. What this means also is that, in a democracy, which makes room for administrative or constitutional changes in the national set-up, it is the right if not the duty of any newly-elected government to initiate action in all fields of human endeavour so as to promote the interests of the greatest number of people by putting them first.

Again in a democracy, debates which usually go on despite political changes and have to do with the commanding heights of nation-building preferably take place in an atmosphere where logic and vision and learning are not blurred by the use of emotional language that is bound to vitiate the debates. Unfortunately, like other issues that have close links with the progress and development of the nation, such as law and order, crime, economic options or administrative and corporate decisions, education has resulted much more in divisive than constructive attitudes.

 Communal or ethnic stances have been more the rule than the exception. Hence the use of the word genocide in a paper, after having then analysed its stand vis-à-vis each of the other ethnic groups coexisting in the island. Things have no doubt changed for the better and national interests look like having superseded the initial slogan. Or have they really?

The use of the word genocide in the context of an education plan meant professionally, intellectually and administratively to give both parents and students an opportunity to prepare themselves for global challenges seems to have soured a well-argued exchange of views of national importance. It is supposed that such use is meant or intended to underline or point to the educational and linguistic injustices that the newly-elected government’s educational plan may give rise to, if implemented. One may argue that, if for decades parents and students of Asian origin, ever since they landed in the island, have been clamouring for equality of opportunities regarding admission in schools and colleges and the teaching of Urdu, Hindi, Tamil or Chinese for integration on an equal footing into the general curriculum and the employment and better salaries for the teachers of Asian languages and, in some cases pessimistically predicted their complete elimination -- why should not others do the same? Fair enough!

The fact however still remains that our official language English despite our commonwealth links is still at an ebb; the Asian languages despite the call of our economists and observers for more proximity with India and China are still taboo to most Mauritian students, many of whom are doing better in Creole and French and have won scholarships because of their proficiency and commitment to French. And to reach there, they and their parents have had, willingly or unwillingly, to turn the backs on their own rich cultural heritage, some even going to the length of publicly fighting it down. If this is not also cultural genocide, ça lui ressemble dangereusement!

However, it is a matter of satisfaction to note that Mrs Christiane Taubira Delannon who was invited in the context of the abolition of slavery celebrations has been wonderstruck at the cultural diversity existing in Mauritius. “Je suis fascinée par la diversité de vos cultures. C’est extraordinaire!” (l’express dimanche, 5 February 06). It would appear in the end that NMU’s notorious vicious slogan ‘Hindu hegemony’ has now graduated to a still more murderous one, known as cultural genocide! What a pity!