I came across this obituary on Gorbachev:
“Gorbachev explained that it was the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl that convinced him that the Soviet Union could not continue as it was: “I thought to myself, if the state cannot control a nuclear power plant of this significance, then the state is no longer functioning as a state. The state is kaput ...
We also have a state which is no longer functioning , a kaput state that needs a new path!
- A state where corruption has started spreading, swelling, mutating, and becoming monstrous.
-A state where acquisition of power and resources by this regime and their corporate allies has been allowed to flourish: from the appointment of cronies to public office to the funnelling of state funds to specific constituencies and chums, to the awarding of government contracts to friends, relations and supporters – a practice for which the Covid epidemic and the Ukraine war opened up many opportunities...
-A State that has become increasingly autocratic - it is now the great contractor, the great buyer, the great provider, the great receiver( with proceeds of all the forms of corruption flowing back to the party coffers under the control of our spin dictator).
-A state where the election of our politicians still relies on traditional communal and caste-support bases which have spiced up lately by firing up communal feelings and resentment (India-bashing) and peddling half-truths and doctored facts on some national issues and events (on Agalega, Sniffing, Wakashio, Angus Road, Joanna and Stephanie's comments,...)
-A state where some 50 years of efforts and attempts at forging l’arc-en-ciel mauricien and consolidate our “vivre ensemble” have been obliterated by the calamitous , divisive ways of this regime still banking on fractious identity politics and societal fragmentation.
-A state on the brink of an economic crisis -with elevated levels of current account deficits , budget deficits and debt , a rapidly depreciating rupee and a faltering Central Bank failing in controlling our double digit inflation - and the end result was a Moody’s downgrading.
-A state where the government is fiddling while the country burns and failing to wake up to the critical state that country is now in, going the Sri Lanka way.
-A state which is not aware of the priorities of its citizens …implementing prestige and grandiose projects while failing to satisfy the essential needs of its population, …a useless Metro to Cote D’or project is more important than providing for subsidies on the essential consumption items of our households and for Rodrigues' Airport and water facilities...
-A State that continues to fail in advancing a system of education that will meet our future needs-persisting with a system that have trapped generations of students at the margins of society and locked them out of the economy ..
-A State where its citizens have lost trust in most of the institutions , trust in our electoral system, trust in our governance, the rule of law and economic management , among others…
-A state where there has never seen such abuse , impunity and cover-up exposed so clearly and in such an authoritative, detailed fashion- the 12 billions loses at SBM, some more billions at Air Mauritius, CWA, STC, NIC, …Some state-owned companies, are being bled so dry that their debts are threatening the stability of our financial sector and even the country’s credit rating .
-A state where the culture of abuse and impunity has spread to all of our prime institutions including the country's police force.
-A State where our only national television has become the Govt’s lapdog, its propaganda arm.
-A State which has have been guilty of using draconian laws to silence inconvenient critics; there has been a growing and worrying trend of the state cracking down on dissent.
-A state that is failing to meet the aspirations of our youth …our youth disillusioned by the choices before them, and by joblessness and the skyrocketing drug abuse that have hit all levels of our society.
…the list is long
"We discover history doesn’t have to shape us. The world is more malleable than we imagine, and things do not have to be the way they are. History is clay and can be pummeled or punched, corralled or even caressed, into a whole new shape."
So this had been a moment when Mikhail Gorbachev changed his own history.
We also can, we just have to dare to change it into a whole new shape.
