{"id":45049,"date":"2025-12-22T15:38:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=45049"},"modified":"2025-12-22T15:38:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T11:38:22","slug":"en-prevision-de-lindependance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/en-prevision-de-lindependance\/","title":{"rendered":"En Pr\u00e9vision de l’Ind\u00e9pendance"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Our Archives: A Glimpse Into 1960<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Par Philippe Forget<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

La presse a, ces jours-ci, donn\u00e9 publicit\u00e9 \u00e0 l’annonce d’un nouveau plan du Gouvernement britannique qui consacrera entre 12 et 16 millions de livres par an au maintien des 21 000 fonctionnaires britanniques des colonies, apr\u00e8s que celles-ci auront obtenu l’ind\u00e9pendance. Ce soutien durera jusqu’\u00e0 ce qu’un personnel local exp\u00e9riment\u00e9 puisse les remplacer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ce plan a \u00e9t\u00e9 g\u00e9n\u00e9ralement d\u00e9crit comme une offre d’assistance et d’aide coloniale. Il a aussi \u00e9t\u00e9 rapport\u00e9 que Sa Majest\u00e9 la Reine, au cours d’un discours prononc\u00e9 pour clore la session parlementaire, avait d\u00e9clar\u00e9 : \u00ab Mon Gouvernement a publi\u00e9 son plan pour mon Service Civil d’outre-mer<\/em>, qui pr\u00e9voit pour les membres de celui-ci une plus grande mesure de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 et permettra aux territoires qui ont obtenu le gouvernement autonome de les conserver plus facilement en leur emploi. \u00bb<\/span><\/p>\n

S’il est enti\u00e8rement l\u00e9gitime et louable que le Gouvernement britannique s’occupe de pr\u00e9voir une plus grande mesure de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 pour 21 000 de ses nationaux, qui en pourraient \u00eatre r\u00e9absorb\u00e9s, m\u00eame graduellement, dans les cadres administratifs et techniques de leur pays, il n’est pas moins l\u00e9gitime pour nous de r\u00e9fl\u00e9chir aux graves cons\u00e9quences de l’acceptation possible de telles dispositions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Les d\u00e9tails de l’utilisation projet\u00e9e des 12 \u00e0 16 millions pr\u00e9vus par an ne furent pas donn\u00e9s, mais, vraisemblablement, cette somme servirait \u00e0 rembourser en totalit\u00e9 ou en partie les salaires d’un nombre important de fonctionnaires anglais que les gouvernements autonomes continueraient \u00e0 employer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c0 un pays qui, comme le n\u00f4tre, est appel\u00e9 \u00e0 se trouver continuellement en difficult\u00e9s financi\u00e8res, ces propositions peuvent para\u00eetre particuli\u00e8rement attrayantes. Si attrayantes m\u00eame, qu’il pourrait sembler moins urgent d’\u00e9tablir et de r\u00e9aliser le vaste programme de bourses d’\u00e9tudes pour les Mauriciens sans lequel ni ind\u00e9pendance, ni augmentation de la production, ni progr\u00e8s technique, ni r\u00e9veil national ne sont r\u00e9alisables.<\/span><\/p>\n

La tentation se fera sentir, en effet, d’\u00e9conomiser non seulement sur les salaires des fonctionnaires anglais, mais encore sur les \u00e9tudes des Mauriciens qui auraient remplac\u00e9 ces m\u00eames fonctionnaires. On se doit d’exercer sur cette question-l\u00e0 la plus grande vigilance, car le plan britannique a certaines propri\u00e9t\u00e9s soporifiques qui peuvent entra\u00eener une trahison de l’avenir.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cette vigilance est d’autant plus justifi\u00e9e que, malgr\u00e9 et depuis le Report of the Ministerial Committee on Recruitment and Training<\/em>, aucune preuve n’a \u00e9t\u00e9 donn\u00e9e que le gouvernement est convaincu de l’urgente n\u00e9cessit\u00e9<\/strong> de pr\u00e9voir un meilleur avenir par le placement, aujourd’hui, des sommes indispensables dans des techniques, des connaissances, et un niveau \u00e9lev\u00e9 de comp\u00e9tence mauricienne<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nous recommandons au Gouvernement en g\u00e9n\u00e9ral et au Ministre des Finances en particulier l’opinion du Professeur Kalelkar sur un sujet analogue : “Imported rivers cannot fertilize this Sahara.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Reconnaissons clairement que le nouveau plan britannique pourrait nous \u00eatre utile dans certains cas, et ne m\u00e9nageons donc pas notre gratitude. Mais comprenons \u00e9galement que l’ind\u00e9pendance serait un vain mot sans le d\u00e9veloppement et l’utilisation de nos propres ressources intellectuelles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sur cette question, la primaut\u00e9 n\u2019est pas \u00e0 l’\u00e9conomique.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0<\/strong>Politics and Economics<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Philippe Forget<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

That the present political climate is “des plus d\u00e9favorables” to capital investment is maintained by the possessing class, and this prevalent opinion was persuasive enough to lead, some time ago, to the abolition of the 80% rate of income tax. The persistent effort to find evidence of infiltrating communism in Mauritius, symptomatic as it is of a fear-syndrome, is unlikely to improve matters.<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer to fears of communism and communal oppression alike lies in a wholehearted mobilisation of all available resources and energies for planned economic development, for increasing the income per head of population and establishing a socialist structure of society. To cling to the sugar industry a few of them own while they eschew any responsibility in the national issues; to flaunt the varieties of life in the eyes of those whom the capitalist structure of society deprives of essentials; to defy, from the security of interlocking pinnacles of wealth, the spirit of socialism even \u2014 let alone its institutions \u2014 is to bring the very foes they fear nearer to reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The calculated risk, for the possessing class, is no other than to marshal the whole of their wealth and undoubted personal gifts in an endeavour to increase the national income and improve, with his standard of life, the dignity of every Mauritian. Such a policy, which purer hearts will undoubtedly enjoin them to adopt for the sake of the human values involved, happens to be equally sound as a cool-headed calculation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The urgency of economic development is all the greater because contraception, to many, represents an unacceptable method of rescuing a falling income per head. Whatever be the resolutions with which Mauritian families individually propose to counter the tremendous rate of population growth, the priority feature of planned development is maximum production; and, to the majority of the possessing class, it is a compensation for the ten-year-old upset of a hundred and-fifty-year-old traditional political order, that the new economic and social order has no small need of their contribution \u2014 it might even be a sort of revenge, had this low emotion any likelihood of appealing to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

At a time when all wish Mauritianism well but few seem concerned with devising the institutions it needs for its development, surely a truly national effort in the economic field is the logical first step. It may not be possible to integrate different modes of life and attitudes, dependent as they mostly are, on the unconscious psychological mechanisms which favour prejudice and conformity, into a single Mauritian way of life. But we know that the great tides of life drive us closer: the comrade-instinct, intellectual and artistic common grounds, intermarriage, the warm tolerance which flows from culture, the common essence of religious needs. We know that attitude and behaviour change at different rates. We will not expect, therefore, a linear path of progress towards Mauritianism. We will not scrutinize, therefore, the oscillations or even the jerks on the path; we must train our mind’s eye to focus on the long-term process and will be satisfied with general trends. Meanwhile, since we are as much part of the short-term process, we will insist that tolerance and co-operation be built into the national institutions we raise. Because they are urgently needed, economic development and organization will be the first serious tests of our wish and capacity for tolerance and cooperation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mauritius Times – Friday 18th November, 1960<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 19 December 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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