Remaniement intellectuel
By KRJ Yash
Ce qui compte vraiment…
Premièrement
Après des mois d’atermoiements marqués par de fortes querelles intestines, voilà que des rumeurs de remaniement ministériel se font de plus en plus persistantes. Il ne faut pas oublier que nous sommes à la veille des rassemblements du 1er Mai et que le 5 mai marquera la première année du retour au pouvoir du MSM. Quand on y réfléchit, une année c’est peu, mais celle qui s’est écoulée fut tellement riche en rebondissements que certains ont l’impression que le retour du MSM aux affaires date d’au moins cinq ans. C’est dire comment les dirigeants de ce parti ont su être au four et au moulin pour occuper le devant de la scène politico-médiatique. Aux élections législatives du 5 mai 2010, le Premier ministre Navin Ramgoolam a fait élire 41 députés à l’Assemblée nationale alors que le Leader de l’Opposition Paul Bérenger et son Alliance du Cœur, n’ont obtenu que 18 sièges, malgré la campagne très controversée du Père Grégoire.
Cette cassure n’interviendra pas. Tout au plus, le Premier ministre pourrait décider de remanier le Conseil des ministres. De toutes les façons, un éventuel remaniement s’insèrera dans une logique de continuité de la vision actuelle du gouvernement. Remanier sans changer de cap, je n’en vois pas la nécessité immédiate. Le gouvernement ne montre aucun signe d’essoufflement, il fait face aux palabres stériles et à la démagogie de l’opposition.
Le seul reproche que je fais à ce gouvernement, c’est d’être trop à l’écoute pour diriger le pays convenablement. A l’écoute des associations socioculturelles, des syndicalistes, des fonctionnaires, des « malheureux » qui peuvent quand même se payer leurs appels téléphoniques aux radios privées et de la presse dite « nationale ».
Si des ministres avancent d’un pas pour ensuite reculer de deux pas, sont-ils en train de gouverner ? Nous sommes à quatre ans des prochaines élections générales, je pense que ce n’est pas le moment d’avoir peur de devenir impopulaire.
«Le meilleur temps pour réparer sa toiture, c’est lorsque le soleil brille, », disait John Fitzgerald Kennedy…
Deuxièmement
From bankruptcy to billions…
The National Transport Corporation (NTC) is again in the red. Whose fault is it? Of course, it’s the government’s! The government has to bail out the company as it is imposing the operation of loss-making routes on the Corporation! On the contrary, if the situation were reversed such that the NTC were to make a huge profit, it would have been thanks to the management of the Corporation.
Why do people find it difficult to own up to their mistakes?
It would have been much easier and more professional on the part of the management to admit that there is a serious problem and to start finding solutions to the problem. The government probably has its share of responsibility in this state of affairs, but the problem is not solely the government’s! I was reading some comments in the press – some people claim that this is what happens when you have political nominees at the top. However, political nominees are paid to do their job, aren’t they? It would only be ethical for the nominees to resign if they are not able to deliver, whatever the reasons. But who wants to speak of ethics?
When was the last time that the NTC came up with some innovative services? The last one I remember happened years ago. It was the Blue Line Services which, unfortunately, is no longer as reliable as it used to be. Why do we not have daily/weekly/week-end travel cards yet? What about the quality of the service? Why is it that other bus companies are not queuing up for public money? If one were to listen to the management of the NTC, one would think that they are the only ones operating loss-making routes in the country. Have they tried to find out the reasons behind the loss? Can the frequency of operations be modulated? What about the vehicles being deployed on those routes? Are these efficient? What about having the driver collect the bus fares from the passengers? I have seen buses equipped to enable the drivers to collect fares but these are not being used…
The Bihari Lalu Prasad Yadav has succeeded in pulling Indian Railways from bankruptcy back into profitability. Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest state-owned enterprises. It employs 1.4 million people, has over 63,000 kms of network and runs around 13,000 trains daily.
When Lalu took over, there was concern that he would turn Rail Bhavan into Bihar Bhavan…
However, from a situation of near-bankruptcy, Indian Railways moved towards a USD 6 billion cash surplus situation. I would like to recommend the following book to all those political nominees failing to deliver the basics: Bankruptcy to Billions: How the Indian Railways transformed itself, by Sudhir Kumar and Shagun Mehrotra. Who knows? It might inspire them…
* Published in print edition on 29 April 2011
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