{"id":168,"date":"2010-03-19T06:50:49","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T06:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2010\/03\/19\/letters-6\/"},"modified":"2010-03-19T06:50:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T06:50:49","slug":"letters-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/letters-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Readers’ Response\/ Opinion\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To Our Readers<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Your views are of interest to us. They help us balance the argument in the correct perspective. We welcome you to draw our attention to anything or opinion expressed in the Mauritius Times (or any national or international event of interest) with which you agree from your own angle or disagree due to a different appreciation of facts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We will gratefully receive your communications at the email address:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

mtimes@intnet.mu<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We may decide to publish your comments or the relevant parts thereof if we consider that they will help our readers better understand specific contexts and maintain MT as the foremost and most balanced analytical newspaper of the country. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

* * * <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hypothetical vs Reality<\/strong> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a couple of weeks now that speculations have been very high concerning a Labour-MMM coalition. However, no one except a few privileged ones know whether talks would be fruitful and the coalition concluded. This reminds me of an American joke and which reads as follows:\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A lad reaching home after school asked his father whether he knew the difference between the hypothetical and reality. The father replied: Go upstairs and ask your mother whether she would sleep with the milkman if she were paid $ 500,000. The question was put to the mother, who readily answered in the affirmative. The father was then informed of his wife\u2019s decision. Then the father asked his son to put a similar question to his eldest sister. He did so asking her whether she would sleep with her School\u2019s Principal for $500,000.The answer was very positive. So the son reported his sister\u2019s answer to his father.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The latter replied: Well, son, hypothetically we are millionaires but in reality we have two prostitutes at home!!! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is typically what\u2019s happening here. Hypothetically, we have an MMM-Labour coalition in the making. But in reality, the Social Alliance is in power and both MMM and MSM are in the opposition, whether loyal or otherwise. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This being said, we can but condemn all past and present governments whose priority was never to change our electoral system and bring in the much needed reforms which would put an end to coalitions, whether pre- or post- electoral.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rakesh <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Port Louis<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

* * *\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The ball is in your court, Mr B\u00e9renger<\/strong> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Raj Dayal, leader of the Mouvement d\u00e9mocratique national, is right to ask the President of the Republic to revoke Paul B\u00e9renger as Leader of the Opposition. In the light of his strategy to form a coalition with the Labour Party before the general elections, the constitutional function of his opposition is effectively paralysed. Although there may be issues upon which they may agree upon, such as those relating to security and defence, the function of an opposition is to present a programme for an alternative government. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To add insult to injury, Paul B\u00e9renger makes as if the ball with respect to an eventual Labour Party-MMM alliance is in the PM\u2019s court; he goes on to insinuate that the non-conclusion of an alliance would be the PM\u2019s \u2018fault\u2019. While denying that an ultimatum had been given to the PM, the MMM now says that if the PM does not respond positively by Friday 19 March 2010, all negotiations between the two parties would be suspended. What cheek! Paul B\u00e9renger is certainly entitled to speak his mind, but PM Ramgoolam is under no obligation whatsoever to respond to the MMM leader\u2019s advances and flirtations.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Paul B\u00e9renger is the one who, to all intents and purposes, is desperate to rope in the Labour leader into an alliance, so the ball is in his court. One would expect him to take Navin Ramgoolam\u2019s response (by Friday 19 March 2010 or otherwise) as a \u00ab NO \u00bb. But is he prepared to do that? If not, why not? Could it be that he fears that the non-conclusion of an alliance would bring about the implosion of his own party, the MMM?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

M Rafic Soormally<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

London<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers’ Response\/ Opinion\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To Our Readers\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Your views are of interest to us. They help us balance the argument in the correct perspective. We welcome you to draw our attention to anything or opinion expressed in the Mauritius Times (or any national or international event of interest) with which you agree from your own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-2I","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}