Voters are likely to sanction turncoats
Strange logic from a turncoat: “It’s no use having clean hands and clear conscience, if you stay in ‘karo kann’; for fifteen years the ‘militants’ are in the ‘karo kann’,” said Steven Obeegadoo, during his speech at Vacoas, implying indirectly that to attain power one has to make some concessions in the fight against corruption, nepotism, youth delinquency, drugs, law and order, income inequality, injustice and environmental challenges that we have been facing in the past five years.
He believes that activists have the right and the duty to contribute to the advancement of the country. This is how he is trying to justify his departure from his former party the MMM to join the others who have also broken ranks with ‘militant’ family – Ivan Collendavelloo, Eddy Boissezon, Kavi Ramano, Alan Ganoo among others. The MSM had banked on these turncoats to make an impact on the MMM’s followers, but this strategy may have backfired as the MMM seems to have overridden this momentary scare with support from its ‘militants’ who have sworn to give the turncoats a hard time at the hustings.
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The MSM-ML government created only 5,400 jobs over past four years
According to the programme of Alliance Morisien,any young person who has a qualification or a diploma will not stay unemployed until his 25 years. They will create 10,000 jobs in the public sector. That’s a rather tall order for a regime that has created only 5,400 jobs during 2015-2018 compared to 25,000 jobs created by the previous regime. This government has also failed to improve the youth unemployment rate. In 2018 it was 25.1%.
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Is that development: Metro Express, Safe City, C. d’Or Sports Complex… ?
Pravind Jugnauth has made an appeal to voters not to stop the development train. One may therefore justifiably ask: Which development?
Lots of promises were made, but very little has been achieved. The impact of the “chantiers” or public investment splurge in terms of expansion of the opportunities for citizens and its spill-over effects on people’s purchasing power and standard of living has been marginal.
We are stuck with a sluggish economy. Several key sectors namely sugar, tourism, manufacturing and the financial services are facing increasing difficulties and government has failed to come up with path-breaking policy initiatives to spur our economic development process.
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Rezistans ek Alternativ calls for a clear sanction of Alliance Morisien
The MSM leader has disqualified himself as Prime Minister and does not deserve to be re-elected. Rezistans ek Alternativ therefore calls for a clear sanction of the Alliance Morisien in the polls. According to Michel Chiffonne, by not taking any action to allow Mauritians to stand before the electorate without declaring their community belonging, Pravind Jugnauth has impeded the forging of a national identity.
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The last manoeuvres of a loser
It’s a wave of indignation that is rising all over social media. Several profiles and pages have undergone ‘censorship’ according to Internet users, last Friday 1st November. The official page of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien has seen several posts removed, considered to be against the standards of Facebook. These are political publications, obviously disturbing.
ION News has complained that links to its site were not available since Monday. Citizens have also complained that their publications were removed without any justification. TOP TV and TOP FM had also been victims of content deletion.
Most of the censored contents on Facebook are neither offensive nor defamatory.
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Sherrygate: The planned human chain cancelled due to lack of participants
The march of the defenders of Sherry Singh on Top FM was cancelled. Rajcoomar Lokee had announced that a chain of employees was being mobilized in favour of Sherry Singh. They were to hold hands around the Telecom Tower. This initiative has also turned upside down, according to our information, for lack of participants. It seems that the majority of people in front of the Telecom Tower were onlookers.
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Big Business: Dr Krishnan Kumar Malhotra invests Rs 1.2 billion in Seychelles
This is a transaction that has generated a lot of controversy. In Seychelles itself, Opposition Leader Wavel Ramkalawan was contesting the sale. In Mauritius, a letter was sent to the Financial Services Commission and the Stock Exchange of Mauritius alleging that the hotel was worth much more. On July 12, the Seychelles Council of Ministers approved the purchase of the shares of Reef Resort Limited by two Mauritian investors, Dr Krishnan Malhotra and another doctor, Jadoo Hermann Dookun. Krishnan Malhotra is none other than Pravind Jugnauth’s brother-in-law, and after his setbacks with regard to the Medpoint Clinic, he seems to have decided to turn to the hospitality industry.
Kirshnan Malhotra was able to buy 76 shares of Reef Resorts for Rs 166 million. His partner, Hermann Dookun, bought the remaining 24 shares for Rs 52 million. The transaction was made in US dollars and through an offshore company – First Invest Limited based in the United Arab Emirates. The recipient of First Invest Limited is none other than Pravind Jugnauth’s brother-in-law.
The Seychelles government has agreed to the purchase (Rs 200 million) against Malhotra and Dookun’s commitment to invest Rs 1.2 billion in the hotel project. It may be noted that the Rs 200 million paid represents only the purchase of the old hotel Reef Resort which is to be completely demolished and replaced by a hotel with 135 rooms and several apartments. The Seychelles government has also made it a condition that the hotel project should be ready within 3 years.
Where to find this much money?
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SMEs are missing from the manifesto of the Alliance Morisien
Nothing is planned for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the electoral manifesto of the Alliance Morisien, deplores Amar Deerpalsing. The president of the SME Federation highlighted the MMM’s proposals, especially regarding support to reduce the cost of imports. The proposed 25% cut in electricity rates promised by the Alliance Nationale is also expected to benefit SMEs, Deerpalsing estimates.
The SME Federation has also been critical of the outgoing Minister of Enterprises and Cooperatives Sunil Bholah. SME Mauritius, which has replaced the Small and Medium Development Authority has also not delivered, it said, because it lacks, among others, the proximity of regional offices which have been closed down.
The Minister of Labour did not play its role of facilitator of SMEs either, and many of the election promises and budget measures of the MSM-ML alliance for SMEs over the last five years have not materialized, Deerpalsing argues.
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The Fishermen’s Union castigates PJ for his lack of consideration
The outgoing Prime Minister has not received them despite abundant correspondence to this effect, say the members of the Fishermen’s Union. They deplore that the electoral manifesto of the Alliance Morisien did not, either, take into consideration their demands. Why should we to grant them a new mandate under these conditions if it is to inherit another incompetent fisheries minister?’ asks Judex Rampaul.
On the other hand, the Alliance Nationale and the MMM have proposed measures to improve the lot of fishermen, added the president of the Fishermen’s Union. The Union expects each of the main formations to publicly commit themselves to implement their proposals for the fishermen. One of their main demands is the cancellation of their loans.
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A ‘galimatia coalition’ after the elections
“They are all desperate…” This is how Lindsey Collen of Lalit qualifies the three main political parties which are fighting for the seat of power.
There are no big differences between the three political parties. Their political campaigns are based on promises to different sections of the population using the people’s money. It’s insulting. The clips and propaganda are degrading and the communal element is ever-present. All this is more likely to end in a hotchpotch coalition after the elections – a ‘galimatia coalition’ indeed.
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Quote: IMF FSAP 2007 on BAI
“Although the group may not pose a systemic threat, the issues are potentially serious for the policyholders, depositors and investors and the weaknesses that allowed the problem to remain unresolved for so long, could also result in more serious failure of a systemically more important institution.”
* Published in print edition on 6 November 2019
