SAFE: Have the authorities brewed a storm?
Opinion
By Jan Arden
Each week brings new developments in the SAFE survey imbroglio that has spelled an immense cloud of suspicion around the country’s leadership and its standing. For once, the head of government was caught in the frontline when the allegations of Mauritius Telecom’s ex-CEO of 1st July failed to elicit a proper response or even a counter-strategy despite a coterie of advisors. Was it about “security” as he initially said or national security we may never know, neither who briefed the PM about such security issues nor when or at what level were such highly technical issues raised or discussed at his national security levels before sending PMO’s request for technical information in October 2021.
“UAE don’t have security concerns to Huawei’s 5G tech” – Pakistan’s Technology Times
In his various snippets of information after some functions, the PM clumsily dragged the Indian PM Modi’s name into the saga of Baie Jacotet Landing Station (BJLS). The public statements about exchanges reportedly between himself and PM Modi is rarely witnessed, particularly if security issues were at sake and this protocol gaffe has quite predictably opened a can of worms that has Mauritius Inc inflamed. If the Chief Technical Officer Report on the Indian tech mission leaked in the press is to be trusted, the “survey” was in real fact a more substantive data capture of internet traffic on the MT ports to SAFE-BJLS for purposes yet to be clarified. Neither is it known at this stage who on the Indian side (public or private sector) will analyse the captured data, uploaded onto laptops or pen drives, and the destinatories of whatever report should be expected after such analysis from the Indian technical team that had been commissioned by the PM.
We also have to wonder whether Orange appointed MT Board members, probably not our variant of political nominees, would have failed to sniff out such security issues or the disquiet that had been relayed to the PM and subsequently to the ex-CEO of MT since October 2021. It is a somewhat tall order to believe that their social, professional or other antennae over several months would not have tuned in to major issues or planned happenings at MT and if so, would they have failed to keep France Telecom headquarters or the French diplomatic mission and/or the French Foreign Affairs ministry abreast of developments in the pipeline? Read More… Become a Subscriber
Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 29 July 2022
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