By SAMUEL NICHOLAS DUYMUN
According to certain information from India in which certain press both in Mauritius and India have revealed in their front pages that the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has aked and advised our new PM, Pravind Jugnauth to dissolve parliament and provoke a general election. If this information is correct, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi hold strong reasons to give such an advice to our PM, Pravind Jugnauth. On this point we fully agree with PM Modi of India. Mauritius is economically and politically in the red alarm under the administration and governance of Pravind Jugnauth as PM.
It should not be forgotten that Pravind Jugnauth was sentenced to 1 yr imprisonment by 2 Senior Magistrates of the Intermediary Criminal Court. That sentence was quashed on appeal by 2 judges of the Supreme Court. The same 2 Judges of that Supreme Court have given leave to the DPP to go ahead with the appeal to the Privy Council. Now that an appeal is official and pending, does that not disqualify Pravind Jugnauth from holding the office of a Prime Minister?
Pravind Jugnauth was only appointed as an illegal PM by his father who has step down from his office of Prime Ministership in order that his son , Pravind Jugnauth take over his old job. The population of Mauritius is against this manoeuvre of Anerood Jugnauth and the President of the republic because Pravind Jugnauth is not mandated by the people to be a PM.
Why it is that Pravind Jugnauth as a PM takes also the Ministry of Finance under his aegis and responsibility?
All these above reasons could have caused the Indian Prime Minister to suggest our PM to dissolve parliament and let the country starts from scratch. Besides both the World Bank and the IMF are not too happy with the economic situation in Mauritius under the Jugnauth government.
Since this government is in office nothing is moving progressively. Instead of good governance, the country is going to the dogs due to the layoff of workers in various government institutions such as the Mauritius Telecom, Cooperative Sector and other private Sectors such as Textiles where 2,500 jobs are at risk to be lost. So far unemployment has gone up to 51, 100 inclusive of 6000 university graduates.
During the past two and a half years since the government is in power, the country was hit by a growing insecurity such as atrocious crimes, tragic road accidents, drugs transactions have been infiltrated in the outskirts of Port Louis and other towns. While in our hospitals, patients are today facing with a general shortage of drugs and other medicines.
In certain areas of the country such as Trou D’Eau Douce, Bramstan, Triolet, Goodlands, L’Escalier people have been in the streets protesting vehemently against CWA and Ministry of Energy due to water shortage. In some other parts of the country people have no tap water but have to rely on CWA lorry cisterns for the supply of their water. Such inconveniences are causing constantly great harm to many households. And yet no actions have been taken to remedy this catastrophic situation.
On the economic plan, the cost of living has gone beyond the purse of the majority of the people in this country where prices in the shops and supermarkets are rocketing high. The economic figures are bad, unemployment is ravaging the country, growth is at half mast, and public debt has gone up from Rs 135 billion in December 2014 to about Rs 240 billion, foreign investment has considerably gone down.
Certain constituencies have been neglected by their MPs for the past two and a half years. There are no street lights at night in some rural constituencies. If it rains, it causes flood everywhere due to blocked drains. The government is doing nothing to control stray dogs across the country, on the beaches and near market places.
So this is what this government has achieved throughout this past two and a half years for this country. The gaps between the rich and the poor are still widening. Poverty is still increasing across the country. It remains to be seen whether or not progress and development, jobs and law and order can be achieved in the next remaining three years before the general election of 2019.
This government has failed to deliver the simple bread and butter tasks for the country but is too much pre-occupied with foreign matters trying to boost Africa and other nearby regions in new transitions. Mauritius, according to certain economists could face bankruptcy if we are not careful about the state of our economy. Some politicians misused the Mauritian Parliament through their immoral actions and yet no actions have been taken against them. Let us hope the World is not watching us with disgust!
