{"id":7133,"date":"2017-08-11T10:36:56","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T06:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=7133"},"modified":"2017-08-14T12:08:01","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T08:08:01","slug":"the-constitutional-proposals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/the-constitutional-proposals\/","title":{"rendered":"The Constitutional Proposals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The constitutional proposals are nothing but organised gerrymandering designed to confer sectional advantages on the minorities by denying social and political justice to the majority<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"There are in particular two proposals in the document Constitutional Development in Mauritius<\/em> which are wholly bad and which must be strenuously opposed. They are the proposal to retain up to 12 nominated members in the enlarged Legislative Council; and the proposals to introduce proportional representation as the system of voting.<\/p>\n

As a colony advances towards self-government, the number of nominated members in its Legislative Council gets smaller. At the last stage before self-government, there are often only two or three officials in the Council apart from the elected element. Mauritius is advancing to self-government, but the number of nominees is not reduced in this latest proposal for a revised constitution. O, but it may be that there won\u2019t be 12 nominees, someone may say; to which I retort that there will be just as many nominees as are necessary to put Labour in a minority in the full Council, should Labour get a majority of elected seats. The presence of nominated members is a device to frustrate the democratic will of the electors \u2013 as the 1953 elections showed.<\/p>\n

If there are nominees, they should represent scheduled interests, or they should be appointed by the Governor after consultation with the leader of the majority party. Mr Macolm Macdonald recognised this in his despatch about the Malayan Constitution in mid-1954; to this despatch, from which I have quoted in Advance, I commend Sir Robert Scott\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

Proportional representation is wholly bad as a democratic system of voting, wherever and whenever it operated. As Mr Roy has said in the Mauritius Times recently, France has unstable governments simply because of her voting system \u2013 which is P.R. But in the particular circumstances of Mauritius, it is even worst. Elections conducted according to P.R. will transfer to the Legislative Council those racial and religious differences which beset the population generally. Reflecting a community divided, as Sir Donald Mackenzie-Kennedy said, vertically by race and religion and horizontally by class, the Legislative Council will be a perpetual reminder of the divided society. Instead of leading to national unity and racial harmony, P. R. will accentuate and perpetuate racial and religious differences to the detriment of possible eventual emergence of a spirit of pan-Mauritian consciousness. Mauritius has a plural society, it is true, as have Trinidad and Malaya, and no one has suggested proportional representation there.<\/p>\n

The implication running throughout the Governor\u2019s despatch and appearing in less veiled fashion in Mr Lennox-Boyd\u2019s is that Labour representation in the Legislative Council should be diminished, and anti-Labour representation should be strengthened. This is an odd way to treat the only organised political party in Mauritius; the only political organisation which, Sir Robert Scott has had to admit, cuts across the curtain of race and religion and colour. One is driven inescapably to the conclusion that the constitutional proposals are nothing but organised gerrymandering on the grand scale; designed to confer sectional advantages on the minorities by denying social and political justice to the majority.<\/p>\n

The people must express their opinion of this travesty of a constitution. Let there be full and frank discussion everywhere; after all, as Edward I, King of England, is reputed to have said in 1295, \u201cWhat is the concern of all must be approved by all.\u201d And certainly there can be no general approval of the proposals as they now stand.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Eloge Funebre de Rozemont <\/u><\/h3>\n

Par Guy Forget<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u00a0Ami,<\/p>\n

Avant que cette fosse ne se comble, avant que ta bi\u00e8re ne disparaisse \u00e0 jamais dans ce petit carr\u00e9 de terre que tu vas d\u00e9sormais occuper, nous voulons te redire notre douleur et t\u2019adresser notre dernier adieu.<\/p>\n

Par mon humble voix, toutes ces femmes qui pleurent, tous ces vieillards attrist\u00e9s, toute cette foule constern\u00e9e, veulent te rendre hommage et te dire leur gratitude \u00e9mue.<\/p>\n

Qui donc, parmi eux, ne te doit un bienfait, un conseil, un r\u00e9confort. Qui donc, parmi eux, n\u2019a b\u00e9n\u00e9fici\u00e9, directement ou autrement, de ce dynamisme, de ce courage, de ce d\u00e9vouement que tu mis si pleinement au service des petits, que c\u2019est \u00e0 41 ans que la mort te frappe dans l\u2019usure de tes forces vives.<\/p>\n

Parce que tu vis souffrir tes fr\u00e8res tu compris leur mis\u00e8res mais tu compris en m\u00eame temps que tu ne pourrais rien pour eux sans d\u00e9clarer la guerre \u00e0 l\u2019oppression et \u00e0 l\u2019exploitation.<\/p>\n

Ce combat, tu le menas aux c\u00f4t\u00e9s de Cur\u00e9 et d\u2019Anquetil, et, \u00e0 la mort de ce dernier, (m\u2019entends tu, \u00f4 Jean Emmanuel Anquetil\u00a0!) ce fut comme Chef que tu dirigeas l\u2019action travailliste \u00e0 Maurice.<\/p>\n

Tes amis, tes coll\u00e8gues et tes collaborateurs sont conscients de ce que la Mort leur a enlev\u00e9, mais ils te promettent solennellement ici, comme tu le promis \u00e0 Anquetil, que l\u2019\u0153uvre continue\u2026<\/p>\n

Qu\u2019importe que je meure, a dit le po\u00e8te, si mon \u0153uvre doit demeurer\u00a0: mais, pour nous, l\u2019action publique ne vaut que si le combat continue, et ce combat nous le continuerons dans la voie que, jusqu\u2019\u00e0 hier, tu nous d\u00e9signais du doigt\u2026<\/p>\n

Repose en paix, ami\u00a0!<\/p>\n

Repose en paix parce que ta moisson fut belle\u00a0!<\/p>\n

Parce que tu fus d\u2019abord le d\u00e9fenseur des petits et des opprim\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Parce que, gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 toi, le travailleur sent qu\u2019il n\u2019est plus la b\u00eate de somme, et qu\u2019il voit enfin se lever, pour lui et ses petits, l\u2019aube d\u2019un peu de s\u00e9curit\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Dors\u00a0!… Dors dans la tranquillit\u00e9 de cette terre arros\u00e9e par la sueur de tes fr\u00e8res.<\/p>\n

Dors dans la paix de l\u2019infini puisque tu aimas pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment ceux le Ma\u00eetre aima le plus\u00a0;<\/p>\n

Dors dans nos c\u0153urs et sous ti\u00e8de ros\u00e9e de nos larmes.<\/p>\n

\u2026 Et voila que se l\u00e8ve, comme un levain purifiant et vivifiant, le souvenir immortel de Guy Rozemont\u00a0: les archives le retiendront \u00e0 la mani\u00e8re des archivistes\u00a0;<\/p>\n

L\u2019Histoire le retiendra \u00e0 la mani\u00e8re des historiens\u00a0;<\/p>\n

Tes coll\u00e8gues le retiendront pour stimuler leurs actions\u00a0;<\/p>\n

\u2026 Mais, Ami, pour bercer ton sommeil d\u2019un immense et doux ronronnement, d\u2019un bout \u00e0 l\u2019autre de l\u2019\u00eele, c\u2019est dans toutes nos chaumi\u00e8res et toutes nos cabanes que s\u2019installe \u00e0 jamais le souvenir de celui qui s\u2019\u00e9tait donn\u00e9 aux humbles\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Published in print edition on 11 August 2017<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The constitutional proposals are nothing but organised gerrymandering designed to confer sectional advantages on the minorities by denying social and political justice to the majority<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":7137,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[2908,2912,231,2913,2911,2909,1267,739,75,1306,619,2910,1772],"class_list":["post-7133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-constitutional-development-in-mauritius","tag-guy-forget","tag-guy-rozemont","tag-jean-emmanuel-anquetil","tag-lennox-boyd","tag-macolm-macdonald","tag-maurice-cure","tag-mauritius-times-60-years-ago","tag-peter-ibbotson","tag-proportional-representation","tag-self-government","tag-sir-donald-mackenzie-kennedy","tag-sir-robert-scott"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/MT1-e1537517822692.jpg?fit=700%2C389&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-1R3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133","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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}