National Unity Government

Editorial

There has been much speculation following the meeting and the conversational exchanges between the MSM leader Pravind Jugnauth and the LP leader Navin Ramgoolam at the Indian High Commission, last Sunday, on the occasion of the celebration of India’s independence Day. Several media commentators hypothesised as to the nature of such exchanges, some going so far as on to speculate about the possibility and desirability of an imminent ‘gouvernement d’unité nationale’ (national unity government – NUG). Not quite a NUG since the speculation was about an alliance between the MSM and the Labour Party, which might rope in Xavier Duval PMSD, but without specifying whether the MMM would be a party to such a political arrangement. Neither political leader at that exchange has denied any such conjectures and for probably good reasons of their own..

One should not read more or too much into what was most probably a fortuitous meeting, perhaps inevitable under the circumstances, between the two leaders than what political analysts would like to believe. That a national unity government would be reassuring for the private sector is rather self-evident given the guarantee of political stability that such a political arrangement would ensure with a much larger majority of the electorate behind it, as opposed to what is presently the case with the current mono-centric dispensation around the MSM. They know the latter is and has been assailed from different quarters for far too glaring faults, mishaps and failings that seem to have turned misgovernance in different areas of public life into a de facto reality.

On another level, that such an alliance should be reassuring for the hosts of the India Independence Day reception is also obvious in light of the economic partnerships as well as geo-political interests which have taken a substantially more important weight in the Mauritius-India relationship than cultural, historical and linguistic considerations though still important but now less critical. But it would take more than wishful thinking from whichever quarters to form a national unity government comprising in the main the Labour Party and the MSM, with the PMSD as junior partner, in a new version of the fabled “bleu-blanc-rouge” alliance of the eighties. The new political dynamics in the country since 2014 as well as the battle of political leadership of an important section of the electorate have distanced the MSM and the Labour Party from each other to such an extent that there now appears to be an unbridgeable chasm between these two parties.

Such a hypothesis would leave in the cold the MMM and perhaps even the leader of the Reform party. This would upend the workable option that the LP leader had promoted, until, that is, the creation of the ‘Plateforme de l’Espoir’ from which he was excluded and the more recent quasi-admission from the MMM leader that the platform was not what it promised to be. It obviously lacked traction, even with four presumed Opposition leaders doing their best at regular media briefings. Since then, there is no indication that the MMM leader has eaten some humble pie and considers now that the LP and its leader should lead the charge of a united Opposition.

Some would argue that the challenging agenda that the country has to face now and in the coming years implies that the government cannot take it on with a tottering majority. To drive this agenda, the argument goes, it’s necessary for foundations to be based on a comfortable majority, solidly grounded in its own natural pool acting as a stable base of support. Politicians of the past generation were able to rouse the required unity for that to happen because the pursuit of larger objectives dwarfed outrageous individualism and money-making. But that was the past. This brings us back to the MMM, which commands to this day an important minority following despite the waning influence of its leader and might still constitute the preferred option for a political arrangement with the LP or even the MSM. Time will tell whether that option would be revisited next time round, but the fact that neither the LP leader nor Pravind Jugnauth has deemed it necessary to deny any ‘rapprochement’ would suggest that they would both want to keep their cards close to their chests.

* Published in print edition on 20 August 2021