Post-Mortem: Why we lost the 1960 municipal elections

From Our Archives: A Glimpse into 1960

Editorial

By B. Ramlallah

The Mauritius Labour Party suffered a crushing defeat at the Municipal Elections of Sunday last. It is a crushing defeat pure and simple, and, in this article, we are trying to find out the reasons which are responsible for the defeat at the hands of the Parti Mauricien — which suffered a more crushing defeat in the Legislative elections of March 1959. We are printing here our own views and judgments which have been formed after consultation with a large number of people. We feel they are bitter truths which must be told now; to what extent they are true and bitter will be known later on. The reasons for Labour’s failure can be classified into three groups: (a) the disadvantageous factors which were apparent during the campaign and on election day, (b) internal factors, and (c) external factors.

The Parti Mauricien fought the Municipal elections on a communal basis; it revived the alleged danger of Hindu domination and in this it was helped by Mr Dahal, who said that in fact Hindus were out to dominate the other communities. This is an old story, but this time the Parti Mauricien has succeeded in making Tamils feel that they are a separate community: a minority. “The Labour Party is a Hindu party” was their main slogan and, as proof, they mentioned the following: Messrs Hazareesingh, R. Ramsaha, and T. Callychurn are Heads of Departments because they are Hindus; it was also said that Mr S. Bhuckory was appointed Town Clerk because he is a Hindu and even that Mr R. Neerunjun was made Chief Justice and Mr H. Vaghjee, Speaker of the Legislative because they are both Hindus. That was the theme of the Parti Mauricien which was thoroughly hammered during the campaign. We have heard a candidate of the Parti Mauricien telling an elector: “Do not vote for Labour because they have sold us to the Indians.” All this is symptomatic of a serious disease.

The most serious factor against Labour was money, and it has always been a grave handicap. Labour will never be able to spend money on such a scale. Some people were paid to vote against Labour, others were paid to abstain, and some agents were paid to work against the Labour Party or to abandon their posts. Also, as Mr Koenig himself has pointed out, the Parti Mauricien made a political issue of the election whilst the Labour Party rested satisfied with an “administrative” campaign. This is an important point where we went wrong. On election day the organisation of the Parti Mauricien was as strong and effective as the Labour organisation of 1956 was, and it is here that we have lost heavily.

It is now agreed that with a better organisation we would have certainly won the elections. Who was responsible for the organisation? When did they start preparing for the organisation of agents and transport? Let it be said that Labour has not been serious in its attitude to the Municipal Elections. When did the Labour Party start its registration campaign? Almost at the end of the period allotted for registration. There was a sort of indifference on the part of the leadership. Everything was done at the last minute. And there was no cohesion in the efforts of the members of the Party. While the Parti Mauricien works as a team, there are in the Labour Party people who cannot subordinate personal grievances to the future of the Party. We should make no mistake about the fact that internal rivalries and personal bickering have directly and definitely contributed to the downfall of the Party.

Again, there was serious difficulty in the choice of candidates. Why were the candidates chosen at the last minute? Did not the Labour Party know that there were going to be Municipal Elections? The candidates ought to have been chosen before the registration of electors, and once chosen, the candidates could have started working for election day. Elections are not won by last-minute tactics or defective and half-hearted attitudes. We have said so on many occasions and we repeat that politics is becoming a full-time occupation. Let us hope that the lessons are well learnt now.

Another big factor against us was the inclusion of Mr Badry in our list of candidates. We have nothing against Mr Badry as a man, and he is free to go to Moscow or Pekin any number of times he wants. But since he started singing the glories of communism in Mauritius, we knew that he was doing himself a lot of harm — politically. The Labour Party cannot hope to attract Christian votes by presenting a candidate who openly declares himself to be pro-communist.

The external factors working against us were many and varied. Our press campaign was almost non-existent whilst the Parti Mauricien was backed to the hilt by most of the press. We were attacked from all sides and by everyone. And our campaign was very ineffective. The Syndicaliste-Travailliste have done much harm to the party and are greatly responsible for the Parti Mauricien. It will be interesting to know what the British TUC and the ICFTU think about all this.

To conclude, we say that it is time the Executive of the Labour Party and the Comité d’Action Musulman made a thorough inquiry to find out what had happened. The Labour Party must put its house in order, and it must organise the people. It must keep constant touch with the electorate. The way the Muslim community voted with the Labour Party is satisfactory, and we do not think that it’s true to say that followers of Comité d’Action voted for the Parti Mauricien. The Labour and Comité d’Action alliance stands and we feel that it must stand. The chimneys will spend enormous sums of money to break that alliance and to disrupt communal harmony in Mauritius.

7th Year – No 327
Friday 16th December, 1960

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