In his summing-up of the debates on the Financial Crime Commission(FCC) Bill, it seems to a non-legal commoner, that the Prime Minister has demolished each and every argument of the opposition and neutralised the issue of the exclusive right of the DPP to institute criminal proceedings. He replied tit for tat to the critics of the opposition. More than that, he attacked their credibility…”ban créveurs !”
How is it possible that, with their team of experts and seasoned lawyers, they failed to anticipate the PM's condescendingly precise and well-supported responses citing numerous judgments from the King’s Privy Council, cases from other Commonwealth countries, and quoting esteemed figures in the legal field such as former DPP Cyrille de Labauve d’Arifat QC and Professor de Smith ?
They were not up to par with the legal arguments; if they were unsure of themselves ,it would have been better if they had focused on the hollowing of our institutions and on the inability our institutional structure to withstand unwarranted political interference. One after another, our institutions are being undermined and invariably hijacked by this unscrupulous and incompetent regime and leading to profound disillusionment and complete mistrust of most government institutions among many Mauritians.
The DG of DIS-MOI would have done a better job arguing along the lines that «Pravind Jugnauth a ouvert la voie à une démocratie des médiocres…»….
“Qui serait contre une loi qui vient vraiment s'attaquer aux malfaiteurs et autres crapules économiques ainsi qu'aux trafiquants de drogue et aux mafieux ? Personne. Mais le problème, c'est que Pravind Jugnauth ne nous a pas démontré qu'il était un démocrate soucieux d'améliorer les institutions et la bonne gouvernance. Par conséquent, la population aurait toutes les raisons de craindre une telle loi et l'utilisation qui pourrait en être faite. Avec Dip aux commandes de la police, Ramsurrun aux manettes de notre «manipulation» nationale, le speaker Phokeer jouant à l'épouvantail de service au Parlement et avec le combat contre la drogue comme un prétexte pour arrêter des opposants, la tentation totalitaire serait trop forte, vous ne croyez pas ?
Yes, under Pinnochio’s spin dictatorship , day by day our democracy is being battered and weakened; day by day it is collapsing. The National Assembly, the judiciary, the executive, the bureaucracy, the rule and implementation of the law are being corrupted ; our institutions are crumbling under the weight of nepotism, cronyism,… of an ethical and governance deficit— we have moved much beyond mere mistrust, beyond mere tolerance …we may already be in the abyss and we had better brace ourselves for the consequences…
Yes, it makes no difference whether we have different units combating financial crime or if they are merged into one unit FCC….we know they will all be at the service of the spin dictator ….hollowed institutions -ICAC, FSC, FIU, ARID,IRSA….. have little credibility and have proved totally ineffective in implementing effective and risk-based supervision, in handling the anti-money laundering(ML) mandate- you recall that the FATF had noted the that the number of money laundering prosecutions and convictions was too low; they had also pointed out the failure of law enforcement agencies in Mauritius to conduct parallel investigations, i.e., investigations of both the ML offence and the drug offence ; the FATF had also critically observed the lack of proper supervision of casinos, bookmakers, gambling and other related non financial activities as well as the failure to disclose accurate basic and beneficial ownership information(secrecy jurisdiction!).
Merging these ineffective entities into a new institutional setup and appointing politically-connected and incompetent stooges will not in any way help in strengthening their supervisory and investigative capabilities - The new institutional setup will not in any way be more effective in identifying, investigating, and prosecuting financial crimes but for sure it will only be a replica of the non-performing ICAC at the service of the spin dictator.
In such an environment , just by being in the National Assembly and engaging in the debate on the FCC on purely legal grounds, provides legitimacy to Pinocchio’s autocracy and abets this populist authoritarian regime whose real goal, however, is to control the whole state apparatus and the economic and financial resources for a “new elite” , “Nou Ban”- the chatwas from all communities but adhering to a blind faith in the leader as a symbol of change to be created for their benefits.
The parliamentary opposition which is pretending to dislodge Pinocchio from his lofty perch , has on the contrary, provided him grounds to take advantage of the current rule of law deficits in an autocracy -namely the gap between legislation/policies and practices .
Pinocchio won over the core argument on the FCC bill by showing that there was nothing wrong with the enactment of the FCC legislation and policies ; the opposition fell into the trap of focusing on the legislation and policies rather than addressing the regime's consistent failure in the practice and implementation of the law.
Democratic freedoms are effective only to the extent that the political elite is bound by the rule of law . When the institutions are purposely corrupted and exploited by the authoritarian regime, which can misuse these fragile institutions to its advantage, what’s the point of just arguing about the policies and legislation ? Having good legislation and policies in place is not enough , we have to ensure the effectiveness of the legal framework and institutions in delivering the desired outcomes.
The failure of the opposition to get their act together and the one-sided focus on the enactment of legislation -which Generalissimo Pinocchio does not give a damn about but knows how to play to the gallery- seem to have provided a much-needed morale-booster to Pinocchio and his team. He even went to the extent of ridiculing the opposition, depicting them as amateurish, unprincipled and unprofessional. As of now, it’s advantage Pinocchio.
Bhadain may be right; seven members of the opposition should resign from the National Assembly and force the regime to come out and face the voters…..a more fruitiful move that may turn the tables on Pinocchio's present advantage.
