{"id":263,"date":"2010-05-07T14:21:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-07T14:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2010\/05\/07\/letters-12\/"},"modified":"2010-05-07T14:21:53","modified_gmt":"2010-05-07T14:21:53","slug":"letters-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/letters-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

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

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

* * *<\/p>\n

Disqualification of candidates in election<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I was shocked to learn that 104 candidates were disqualified in the forthcoming elections. I was even more shocked to learn that the reason for disqualification was their refusal to declare their ethnic identity. Surely these are the heroes of the Mauritian future and the makers of a secular identity. I salute them. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I refer readers to my interview of February 2008 with the Mauritius Times in which I claimed that Mauritius \u201chas a poor reputation for shelving the findings of its own commissions.\u201d For example, Albie Sachs’ report on electoral reform quickly became a dead letter. Now that dead letter should be brought back to life. I have studied Justice Sachs\u2019 report carefully, corresponded with him, and now again in the wake of this disturbing news I have read it. I believe it to be an impeccably reasoned and progressive document, well suited to being publicly aired once more. There is, of course, no mention of candidates having to declare their ethnicity. There is a lot of discussion of how to reduce the atavistic domination of men (Mauritius has the poorest sex ratios of MPs in SADC). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I hope the Mauritius Times can find some place to reproduce the findings of the Sachs’ report in forthcoming days.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Robert Shell
<\/strong><\/span><\/span>University of the Western Cape
<\/span><\/span>South Africa<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

\n

<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Cry, Beloved Country; Rejoice<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

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

Talk of the \u201cIllovo deal<\/em><\/strong>\u201d and of \u201cla couleur de ma peau<\/em><\/strong>\u201d in this electoral period, with the hints of our country\u2019s relations with South Africa that they evoke, have spurred me to connect the dots of my very eloquent personal experience. The distinct and coherent imagery that emerges holds important lessons for us. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

When the MMM appeared to embody hope <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

As late as February 1991, when the Association of African Central Banks held its second Joint AACB\/MF\/WB\/UNCTAD Conference in Gaborone (and possibly even later than that), I had been an ardent supporter of the MMM and of B\u00e9<\/span>renger. On the margins of that Conference, I had a memorable three-way conversation with one of Oxford University\u2019s experts in Debt Management and with a highly-placed lady (possibly a lawyer with the Central Bank of Botswana: it is unfortunate that I have to mention, for the sake of clarity, that she was Black) who was quite active in the Conference and was a zealous anti-apartheid sympathizer. The conversation naturally turned to the momentous changes that were taking place in Southern Africa, and the choice of economic development strategy that a post-apartheid South Africa would take. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While I was enthusiastic about a Lance Taylor-type of \u201cstructuralist economics\u201d <\/em>development plan, most economists felt that the only viable choice lay between the neo-classical \u201cWashington Consensus\u201d approach and the neo-Keynesian approach that some of the more self-confident professionals of the Bretton Woods institutions were prepared to defend in front of their boards. I mentioned the case of Mauritius. I put forward my assessment that, even if the programme on which the MMM had been voted into power in 1982 had had \u201cstructuralist\u201d dimensions and that B\u00e9<\/span>renger had, prior to 1982, been branded a \u201ccommie\u201d by the news-bulletin Africa Confidential<\/em><\/strong>, the latter, unlike Joe Slovo of the South African Communist Party (SACP), was committed to a market-friendly development path. The lady-lawyer thereupon got extremely angry with me, and asked harshly \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with Slovo?\u201d, evidently playing up to the White (again, this fact has to be noted for the sake of clarity) expert from Oxford that, anti-apartheid Black activists in Southern Africa are colour-blind. I responded that what I had hesitations about was Slovo\u2019s and the SACP\u2019s communist, state-controlled economic-development orientation, but both the lady and the Oxford expert were silently but unmistakably congratulating themselves in having caught a \u201cracist Asian\u201d with his pants down! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Silly bluster and connecting the dots<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Of course, one dismisses these types of silly bluster out of hand. One dismisses them, until other similar incidents come up and a nasty image emerges. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

I have been connecting the dots during the past few days as I followed Paul B\u00e9<\/span>renger\u2019s contortions about political alliances, his kangaroo-like dances whether he will position his political party\/personal-support-club on the extreme left, the moderate left, the centre, the right or even the extreme right. The picture that was starting to emerge grew more distinct as the unfortunate event about Eugene Terre\u2019Blanche in South Africa occurred and B\u00e9<\/span>renger, instead of toning down his language to annul any congruence that ill-intentioned people might wish to make, chose to play up tensions with reference to the \u201ccouleur de ma peau<\/em><\/strong>\u201d. The narrative appears inescapable to me, in retrospect, now, that my two interlocutors had, back in 1991, perversely misrepresented, in their distorted minds, my opinion about Slovo in South Africa being unlike B\u00e9<\/span>renger in Mauritius, into a false interpretation that I was an \u201cAsian anti-White racist\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And, in Mauritius right now, this is again what Paul B\u00e9<\/span>renger is trying to do: misrepresent the choice of values that guide society, the choice of economic model that underpins the short and medium-term development path of the country as an Asian anti-White agenda. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

All this would not matter at all except for the deadly-serious facts that what has transpired in South Africa during the past twenty years, and what lies ahead for Mauritius during the next ten years will have serious consequences for the material, mental and spiritual welfare of the population.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Choices \u2013 In South Africa<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

In South Africa under the presidential mandate of Mandela, the \u201cstructuralist<\/em>\u201d model proposed by Lance Taylor as Consultant to the Government of South Africa was to underpin the Reconstruction and Development Programme that was subsequently implemented during the period 1994-48. When Mbeki succeeded Mandela, a shift to a more centrist economic development model, the GEAR \u2013 Growth, Employment And Reconstruction — was effected, underpinned by a Jeffrey Sachs-inspired analysis congruent with the Washington Consensus mantra. That elite-focused economic orientation choice, coupled with a vacuous and overly-ambitious African Renaissance mirage centered on a deceptive African Peer Review Mechanism process, added to tragically inevitable tendencies towards corruption to culminate in the Pholokwane debacle for the ANC old guard. The flawed new President Jacob Zuma is now at the helm and the dangerously-populist Julius Malema is rocking the boat, helped in that by extreme right wingers who cannot seem to understand that the effective way to counter Malema is to emphasize moderation and accommodation.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Hard-earned and undiluted hope \u2013 in Mauritius<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

But there is another important part to the connected-dots image that I mentioned above. I have never liked the paternalistic caricature that Alan Paton draws, in his book \u201cCry the Beloved Country\u201d of the main character of his novel, the Priest Kumalo, his sister Gertrude and his son Absalom as victims of an apartheid system which can be corrected with any chance of success only by the son of his White neighbour Jarvis, and that without having to suffer any pain of redemption. Paton\u2019s vision of the future of Blacks in South Africa is one of their being raised as the children of Gertrude having turned into a prostitute, and Absalom having turned into criminal who is rescued from prison only by Jarvis\u2019 son. With such an inheritance, there might be reason to say \u201cCry the Beloved Country\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In Mauritius, which Gandhi visited on his way back to India, and that in the company of Dr Yusuf Dadoo, and where he gave a soul-elevating lecture to his audience at a historic gathering at the Taher Baagh, we have the memory of the sacrifices that our forbears silently consented to encourage us to raise our heads high. In Mauritius, we can hold our heads high and take the helm of the vessel of our country, steering it to face the rough waves of the high seas with confidence, sure that we will reach safe harbour. And we can tell all aboard, irrespective of skin colour or whatever other superficial attribute they may have, \u201cDon\u2019t Cry, Beloved Country: Rejoice\u201d.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

SM Malleck Amode
<\/span><\/em><\/strong>Canada<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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

Readers’ Response\/Opinion To Our Readers\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 angle or […]<\/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-263","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-4f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","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=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}