{"id":46043,"date":"2026-05-25T11:31:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=46043"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:31:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T07:31:58","slug":"where-is-mauritianisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/where-is-mauritianisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is Mauritianisation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Our Archives – A Glimpse into 1961<\/strong><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

In our issue of 13th January, we reviewed the declared policy of mauritianising the public service. We made it clear that even posts which can be filled by Mauritian officers are being given to overseas officers. Among some cases we mentioned, we pinpointed the posts of Senior Education Officers created last year. <\/span>
\nWhen we wrote our article referred to above, we were not in possession of all the facts concerning these two posts of Senior Education Officers. But on Monday last Action<\/em> mentioned that the two local officers competing for these posts are Messrs D. Burrenchobay and Lamy. The British officer who is looking forward to having one of these posts is Mr D. Hollingworth, who is an Education Officer, but who is junior to Messrs Burrenchobay and Lamy.<\/span><\/p>\n

We gather that the appointments have not been made yet and therefore we think it is necessary to warn Government against the dangers inherent in the policy of discarding Mauritian officers for the benefit of British officers.<\/span><\/p>\n

We wish to make it clear that we have nothing against Mr Hollingworth. We have had the pleasure of knowing him personally and working together with him. He is an able, energetic, and honest officer. We know also Mr Burrenchobay, who is not in any way inferior to Mr Hollingworth except that he is a Mauritian.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we do not have the pleasure of knowing Mr Lamy, but according to information available to us, he is as capable as his two colleagues we have mentioned. We are against the appointment of Mr Hollingworth because we feel that these two posts should go to Mauritian officers: we want Government to keep its word: we want Government to follow the straight line and, in the circumstances obtaining in Mauritius, there is none but the straight line to be followed.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is worthwhile observing that if Mr Hollingworth is appointed, the Government would directly play into the hands of the Parti Mauricien and its allies who want, by hook or by crook, to prove that the Government is working against the people. If Mr Burrenchobay is appointed and Mr Lamy discarded, the Government will but strengthen the current of opinion that the Labour Party is bent upon favouring Hindus.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, if Mr Lamy is appointed and Mr Burrenchobay discarded, the impression will be confirmed that merit, efficiency, and seniority are but empty catchwords uselessly bandied about by a hypocritical administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, there can never be any dream of appointing Mr Hollingworth: the two posts of Senior Education Officers must go to Mauritian officers whoever they may be.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are well aware of the possibility that some may frown at us and accuse us of deliberately mixing administration with politics. But we hope that no one will dare do so, or else they will betray their glaring ignorance of both politics and administration, and they will thus expose their ignorance of local conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is high time we know that politics cannot be utterly divorced from administration: they do meet somewhere. Moreover, what is administratively good is not necessarily politically correct, and it is here that we have been erring so far; it is precisely at this very point that the Opposition is constantly beating. This is extremely serious and we would ask our Ministers to look seriously into this situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, we must say that our faith in Mr Beejadhur is as strong as ever. He has shown his stamina, and when he took the Ministry over, he abundantly showed that he was not prepared to stand any nonsense on the part of any obstructionist whoever he happened to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Minister of Education, Mr Beejadhur has already a claim to a brilliant place in our history. We wish him well, and if he is determined to keep to the straight line he himself has drawn, he will have our unreserved support. We know that, after all, Mr Beejadhur does not have a completely free hand in this matter. We would appeal to His Excellency the Governor and Mr T. D. Vickers to consider our views and the case we have made out. The situation is grave indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

About the Police<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In August last year, two workers, supporters of the Mauritius Labour Party, were arrested at a meeting of the Parti Mauricien in Port Louis because it was alleged that they were causing trouble at the meeting. They were kept in jail for a whole night and subsequently they were taken to court where they were fined.<\/span><\/p>\n

We do not dispute the verdict of the Magistrate. Although we could have questioned the action of the Police, we preferred not to. Let us say that probably the Police was right. But it appears that the Police is not keen to do its duty in the same way in all circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us consider a few facts \u2014 disturbing facts indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Labour Party and Comit\u00e9 d’Action Musulman’s meeting at Vacoas on 29th of January, a group of Parti Mauricien (PM) supporters, including a few VIPs, was present and kicked up quite a row. It was clear that they were bent upon disturbing the meeting. The police did not touch them. The police kept mum and some officers were good enough to smile at the drunken hecklers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, at the Labour Party meeting in Beau Bassin, a few PM hecklers came and tried to kick up a row; they could not be as vociferous as in Vacoas, but here too the Police was silent and smiling. We want to know why? And the sooner Mr Vickers, or Ministers in charge of the Police, look into this matter, the better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Vickers has a lot of experience in such matters, and he knows that if such fissiparous tendencies are not curbed, the situation will become explosive and the outcome will be difficult to foresee.<\/span><\/p>\n

We want to know why the Police are so quick to lay hands on humble workers and why so hesitant with so-called cultured brigands. This too is a point which we would like Mr Vickers to study. It will not be difficult, and it won’t take much time either.<\/span><\/p>\n

8th Year – No 336
\n<\/strong>Friday 10th February, 1961<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 22 May 2026<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Our Archives – A Glimpse into 1961<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[37114,10523,4609,61431,46359,51192,61428,322,41474,61429,60792,36,55968,61427,1202,3639,2058,273,5142,60804,41187,61430,6096],"class_list":["post-46043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-administration","tag-beejadhur","tag-burrenchobay","tag-comite-daction-musulmans","tag-efficiency","tag-government-policy","tag-hollingworth","tag-labour-party","tag-lamy","tag-mauritian-officers","tag-mauritianization","tag-mauritius-times","tag-merit","tag-overseas-officers","tag-parti-mauricien","tag-police","tag-politics","tag-port-louis","tag-public-service","tag-senior-education-officers","tag-seniority","tag-t-d-vickers","tag-workers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Teacher-1960.jpg?fit=1200%2C668&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-bYD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46043","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=46043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46044,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46043\/revisions\/46044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}