My comments on Nad Sivaramen’s editorial in today’s l’express: "The Perpetuation of Ethnicity and Loyalty"
“…This year, it seems, the same ethnic formula will likely follow… …These politicians who plow their constituency know that it's not on the level of ideas that a legislative campaign is played out. When they "go down" to the field, when they go door-to-door, they appeal to the lowest instincts of the population, those that divide people while promoting a supposed discourse of national unity. ……In short, it appears that nothing is changing despite all the talk of change. So, what exactly is change?”
My comments :
Yes Sir, our political institutions, by making the ethnic declaration of political candidates obligatory, feed the communal and casteist division of our society and undermines our nation-building…But there are some new political parties, some leftist parties,especially the ReA, a growing number of bloggers and some genuine Mauritians here and from the diaspora , who believe that the the question of ethnicity cannot be a qualifying criterion for a citizen to be a candidate in elections. “It is unconstitutional and a violation of Section 1 of the Constitution. “ But this is not shared by the mainstream political parties which still abide to their communal and casteist political game provided by a system which suits them- A Vaish as PM, someone from the general population as the first DPM and a Muslim as second DPM …a Ravived as President…a Rajput as ….
And we have some other politicians who also display the same
identitarian thinking and obsessed with placing people into racial boxes. The more we despise identity politics and racial thinking, the more we seem to cling to it, ‘We want to see a young and dynamic non-Hindu prime minister …."
Should we not be choosing our PM, Hindu or non-Hindu, on the basis of competence/integrity/commitment etc. not ethnically ?
They are not different from these very people who side with most of the political parties in feeding the communal and casteist game, especially the best loser system, under the guise of “local realities"!
How many of these political parties and their followers supported the ReA’s decision to go to the Privy Council challenging the ethnic declaration requirement for general election candidacies ?
No, Sir, it is not only the politicians who are the consummate hypocrites ! What about our social institutions ? What about us ?Are we not supporting the perpetuation of such "ethnicity and loyalty" by being compliant to many of our non-secular structures/institutions/organisations and the non-secular policies of both govt and the private sector? - "an unavoidable compromise in the drive for our Viv Ensam" some will argue !
Our social institutions' reactive identity politics segment people along caste and communal lines and tend to band them together into ethnic groups or identities that promote and defend “Us” against “Them”, make them feel more secure, fighting for their vested interests ….such that unfortunately systemic racism seems to ripple through all our social institutions and into our daily social interactions, whether in our shopping or in the newspaper we purchase, the radio channel we listen to, the friends we have, the team we support, the leaders we admire and follow or hate and the comments we share on social media in the echo chambers and the polarised silos reinforcing our biased convictions/prejudices …
Indeed, we seem to be regressing instead of progressing .
And many of us, including the traditional news and social media platforms , are not doing enough for Mauritius to reach its true ideals and the only way this can properly occur is acknowledging and removing the systemic communal and casteist barriers that prevent us from getting there.
For e.g we can start with our education system. “The right education is that which creates a reverence for diversity in nature and a sense of belonging with the whole world. Opening up a youth’s mind to respecting other religions and cultures, bringing up a young person in a world that encourages human values, like a sense of oneness with others, trust and compassion is the only sustainable solution .
“When youths begin to understand that human values exist in all the great traditions; , when the young glimpses the humanity of believers of other faiths; and when they know that truth is expressed outside their own religion, then narrow-mindedness, will not survive." And our own typical Mauritianism will prevail.
And beyond; we are one world family; we are equally concerned about the brutal and repressive dictatorial regimes that seem to be sprouting everywhere and even with our real personal hardships and limitations, each of us can still do something to bend “the arc of the moral universe” towards greater justice and a broader concept of religion based on humanism and humanity - whether it's Soopramanien Kistnen , Alexei Navalny or Narges Mohammadi or.....in Palestine ..in Ukraine and in any other country where minorities are being mistreated and butchered. The big mind thus takes over the small mind and you start to take responsibility for the healing of our fragmented world.
