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The
Week in Review
The Return of the Prodigal Son
Family
Reunion is how we can best describe the events these last
few days in Bihar where Hon Dr Navin Ramgoolam, and Mrs
Veena Ramgoolam were feted in Patna, capital city of Bihar
State, from where a good many of our compatriots hail.
Around a century and a half ago, when sea travel conditions
were still harsh and uncertain, our rural forefathers left
the land of their birth and upbringing to travel to distant
lands in search of a better life and perhaps of fortune.
They
did not know exactly where they were going; their eventual
destination was more a matter of luck. Some were taken to
right round the world to distant Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica
and other parts of the Caribbean; some to Fiji, some to
South Africa and some to Mauritius. They were all taken to
work on sugar plantations, and many joined the rush because
they were cheated into believing that they would find gold
just by turning stones.
Life
in the new countries was very different from what they had
been led to expect. The harshness bordered on slavery. In
addition to the physical hardships, they were also subjected
to linguistic, religious and cultural genocide, in short to
moral torture. Many succumbed to the pressures, but most
outlived them. Like the proverbial ant of Aesop’s fable
“The Ant and the Grasshopper”, better known to
Mauritians from La Fontaine’s “La Cigale et la Fourmi”,
they saved up to educate their children, buy plots of land
to erect their huts and, in due course, proper houses, and
so escape the humiliating conditions of the sugar cane
camps; many also bought agricultural land to grow sugar cane
and vegetables. Their children became teachers,
professionals and civil servants; a very few even became
businessmen, but access into the business activity was not
easy; it was even often deliberately obstructed. That is a
field where we still have to excel and show our mettle.
But
while all this was happening, we became a little detached
from the mother country, regardless of what was going on
there on points of detail. Of course we never lost interest
in what was going on in the larger political developments.
People of my generation and older followed with keen
interest and at times with trepidation the political
developments in India that led up to Partition and
Independence, the abandonment by Nehru of a vital strip of
Kashmir providing India with a common frontier with
Afghanistan, the shaking off of all colonial ties by
acceding the status of Republic – with Dr Rajendraprasad,
a Bihari, as President, the Bandung Conference which
catapulted Nehru, Nasser, and Soekarno to the leadership of
non-aligned world, the unfortunate wars with Pakistan and
China, the rise of Bangladesh, the rape of democracy by
Indira Gandhi and the outstanding feat of Jayprakash Narayan,
a Bihari, who, even though sick, having to go for dialysis
sessions three times a week, brought her down, the Blue Star
operation which alienated the Sikhs and led to the
assassination of Mrs Gandhi and the ensuing pogrom of Sikhs
by Congress supporters, the short and, in the end,
disappointing leadership of Rajiv Gandhi which ended with
his assassination by the Tamil Tigers, the iniquitous and
shameful administration of V.P. Singh which classified more
than half of the population of India as backward and which
pegged all State affirmative action in favour of
disadvantaged Indians to their caste and their religion
instead of to their economic circumstances, ending with the
administration Narasimhao Rao who, with the help of Finance
Minister Manmohansing, liberated India from the bureaucracy
and slavery of Nehruvian socialism. And we watched with glee
how India took off. But all this was on the broad lines.
On
the smaller scale, we did not notice how the misguided
nationalism of the Bihar government led to abandoning the
English language in education even at University level, thus
denying ordinary Biharis positions in the Central Civil
Service, the gradual economic decline of Bihar and the loss
of self-confidence by Biharis, and the slow but sure slide
of the State into total lawlessness. People migrated in
large numbers to other States in search of jobs, and became
the butt of everybody’s jokes and even I am afraid the
object of laughter and derision in the rest of the country.
It became difficult to distinguish the political class from
the Mafia; the sad part of this is that the worst party had
the support of the Congress Party from the Centre. But “An
end to all good things must come,” and there came Mr
Nitish Kumar of BJP who has restored self-respect and
dignity to the office of Chief Minister of Bihar. It will
take a long time and a lot of effort to restore economic
self-sufficiency to Biharis but now there is light at the
end of the tunnel. This is a particularly significant moment
in the history of Bihar, and it is providential that it
should be at this juncture that a prodigal son in the form
of Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam should come back
and show himself to the population as living proof of what
old-fashioned Bihari behaviour and habits of work and study
can achieve.
Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar is not displaying to Biharis just a
man in a suit with his wife in a sari, he is displaying them
as a representatives of a flourishing community that started
off as poor as they are. May the statue of Sir Seewoosagur
Ramgoolam and the visit of his son and daughter-in-law
inspire confidence and the desire of self-improvement in
Biharis in general.
I
have frankly gone emotional about Navin Ramgoolam’s visit
to Patna. I feel a little that I am part of it – a little
like a small tributary meeting the mother river, a little
like the classical Jumna-Ganga story. To those who do not
share this feeling, I would say just accept it as your
neighbour feels happy at his child’s wedding. I was
frankly a little saddened by his awful Bhojpuri – he the
son of Sir Seewoosagur who was such a master of Bhojpuri. I
am pleased to say the Sir Seewoosagur often addressed me in
Bhojpuri when he visited what was then Plaisance Airport and
myself the Director of Civil Aviation. Navin seems to have
just – but only just -- survived the linguistic genocide
perpetrated on us in our adopted home country.
I
also feel that the event did not have sufficient media
coverage, particularly in the print media. On TV, in one way
there was too much, but in another way not enough. What the
Prime Minister does is certainly news and must be reported
– in brief, as all news is. But full details of
participation in ceremonies can always be presented at the
end of the main bulletin, to permit those interested in them
to follow them and others to switch to other things. When
all the details of events are foisted on people not
interested in them, it gives rise to disgust and unwelcome
comments, some of which break out into the printed media.
*
* *
The
Civil Service
A
couple of issues relating to the Civil Service attracted my
attention last week. One concerned a letter from the
Ministry of Health as reported in this paper by Dr D.C. West
(Mauritius Times, 15-21 Feb 2008, p3). Having been a civil
servant myself, from the colonial days through Independence
right up to 1982, just short of the famous MMM take-over, I
have to express surprise that a civil servant should be so
stupid as to sign the letter that was quoted. The civil
servant serves the public. The tone of that letter on the
other hand is one of a superior writing to an inferior.
Companies depend on customer complaints to improve their
service and products; they actually invite complaints. “If
you don’t like our service or our products, tell us; if
you like them, tell others.” This is a standard message of
companies to customers.
The
Civil Service is a special company where every customer is
also a shareholder. In the days of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam
and Sir Dayendranath Burrenchobay no Permanent Secretary or
other civil servant would have dared to write such a letter
to a member of the public. The government should wake up and
set up training for its officials for them to learn who is
servant and who master. Vice President Al Gore chaired a
committee in America on precisely this subject; its report
is readily available on the Internet, and will provide
useful guidance.
In
this particular letter there is one point that deserves
special mention, because of its utter stupidity. It tells
the complainant not to complain for having to travel
unnecessarily because he has to travel for other purposes.
Were it not for its stupidity, I would have called it the
rapist’s excuse for engaging in his act: “But surely she
enjoys it with other people! Why complain just in my
case?” God help us with such civil servants!
The
other point about the Civil Service was the introduction of
the new retirement age of 65. Everybody understands the need
for the change, but the way it was introduced by Minister
Sithanen in a small footnote to his budget is hardly the
proper way to do so. Besides, it is most unfair to tell
somebody who has already completed thirty years in the
service and looking forward to retirement in a few months
that he must do four and half years more. It may be
acceptable to tell that to somebody who has done only
fifteen years in the service. The people concerned should
make every effort to provide a more acceptable formula. Any
child can devise one. This one proposes that the full
five-year extension be applied to those who have done
fifteen years or less, but this should be decreased
gradually and linearly until it reaches zero for those who
have completed thirty years’ service.
*
* *
World
affairs
In
the world at large, the most significant event has been the
election in Pakistan. The brave people of Pakistan went out
and lined up at the polling stations in spite of the warning
by jehadis to blow them up. They have taken their courage in
their hands and said “Enough is Enough. No more of your
nonsense!”. They should seize this momentum to liberate
the country from the army and the ISI as well: these
organisations should serve the elected representatives of
the country and not the other way round as has become the
case after the death of the country’s founding father
Mohamed Ali Jinnah. The army in Pakistan has become the
largest landowner in the country, much of the land having
been acquired just by evicting peasants from their land. The
army also runs all the main industries, and the income goes
to swell the bank accounts of military officials. In
addition, they also benefit from substantial handouts from
America. Very little of that really goes towards the stated
purposes of such aid; there is currently an enquiry in
progress on the subject in the US Congress; the world will
be a better place if the new Congress and hopefully the new
President puts an end to the practice of supporting military
dictators regardless of what they do in their country.
The
Pakistan army’s doings explains why there is no civilian
middle class in Pakistan; no country can progress
economically without a thriving middle class independent of
the military. The only thing that the poor have received is
Wahabi-cum-Jehadi training in the thousands of madrassas set
up throughout the country and run by Saudi Arabia. It is
high time for this state of affairs to be brought to an end.
Will the new administration that emerges from the recent
elections be able to achieve that? We all pray for a
thriving Pakistan living at peace with its neighbours.
*
* *
Kosovo
has declared itself independent of Serbia. The countries
that sent their military forces to bomb Serbia have
intimated their intentions to recognise the new ‘State’.
It is a slap on the face of Tony Blair that the European
Union has declined from taking a united stand on the matter.
It is an equally shameful slap of the face of Javier Solana,
a Spaniard, that his country Spain has refused to recognise
the new ‘State’ which he so enthusiastically led the
NATO forces to create. Other cases that await the
‘justice’ of Blair and Solana are Corsica, Wales,
Scotland and, in a few years, the English Midlands aka
Inglistan.
*
* *
In
America Senator Obama has emerged as the clear front-runner
in the nomination as presidential candidate for the
Democratic Party. His oratory is clearing all before him
like Alexander or Napoleon driving away all in their path.
Senator Hilary Clinton is limping badly; the contests in
Texas and Ohio coming up in the first week of March should
decide the winner; if Hilary is to win, she must win both
States by a 60-40 margin. The outlook for such a victory for
her is bleak. Her campaign is also lagging behind
financially, unlike Obama’s which is raking in more than a
million dollars every single day – so much so that Senator
McCain, the Republican front-runner, is worried about it and
is calling upon Senator Obama for fairness in public
campaign financing. But at the same time, when Senator
McCain is about to secure the nomination of the Republican
Party, journalists have raked up an embarrassing story about
what is being called an improper relationship with a female
lobbyist about eight years ago. The Great American Soap
Opera continues.
While
on America, we must take note of the technical success of
the US military in shooting down a disabled satellite in
space; the Pentagon showed the spectacular pictures of the
explosion on TV. China had done something similar about a
year ago, and it is to be expected that a new arms race is
on. No nation will want to be left behind. Russia, India,
Israel, Iran and Pakistan will have started thinking about
this, and possibly also North Korea. Remember Zulficar Ali
Bhutto’s statement that “the people will eat grass but
we will make our Bomb.”
*
* *
Another
development not far from America was Fidel Castro’s
announcement that he was stepping down from the presidency
of Cuba. The ‘romantics’ will be saddened by this, but
for the rest of us there will be little change in the
situation in Cuba. Nearly 20 years after the demise of
Communism in the Soviet Union, there still is no freedom of
speech and no freedom of information in Cuba. But the
sanctions imposed on Cuba by the United States are also
unfortunate – the situation concerning democracy and
freedom in Cuba is not worse than in Saudi Arabia, a close
ally of the United States.
In
Germany, the authorities have uncovered a major tax evasion
scam – the amount ‘stolen’ could amount to billions of
dollars. They paid somebody six million dollars to get the
information. German CEOs were stacking away millions of
their fraudulently obtained funds in the small State of
Lichenstein. Needless to say, the Lichensteinians are not
happy at all about this discovery: their source of
prosperity is vanishing. One wonders how much the MRA might
be willing to pay for information on the slush funds of
Mauritian corporations.
Paramanand
Soobarah
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