(Published in L'express Nov 2024)
Unquestioinably, like many others, we wish to express our solidarity and support to the protesters of the movement “Rann Nou later' who have been subjected to “ an extraordinary abuse of power”and violence by certain members of the police.
The “Rann nou later” movement are demanding the return of land previously granted to the Mauritius Tamil Cultural Centre Trust in Réduit, contesting the alternative site offered in Côte-d’Or.
While strongly rebuking the abuse of power , “à la tontons macoutes “, the Chief Editor (CE) of L’express commented that “Idéalement, l'État devrait éviter de financer les mouvements sectaires/religieux/socioculturels et encourager l'émergence d'une maison de la culture mauricienne qui, elle, abriterait, comme un héritage commun, les différents mouvements culturels et religieux qui font de nous ce que nous sommes et ce que nous ne sommes pas.....Nous devons nous ériger comme défenseurs de ce mauricianisme qu'on nous refuse encore. Cette fusion nationale s'imposera au final puisque c'est inscrit dans nos gènes : le bien commun demeure le plus fort. Pour notre part, on continuera à défendre ces valeurs communes.”
To which, according to the CE, an interesting reply-adding to the debate- was… “No to balkanization, but Nation Building has no price. Resources are not to be wasted.The purpose of unity in diversity and diversity in unity is virtually enshrined in our Constitution. It is not spelled out but taken as a RIGHT: There is no one-size-fits-all society. UN CENTRE POUR LA CULTURE MAURICIENNE can be a tower in the building block. But the pillars remain our identity as a NATION de PEUPLEMENT.»
Extracts from another reply that agrees to the the CE’s point of view "Je suis parfaitement alignée au principe selon lequel le mauricianisme doit enfin prendre le dessus sur les considérations communales - "country before party", dit Kamala Harris ;j'irais un peu plus loin en disant "country before community”.
But the commentator does add that “Ce qui ne signifie pas qu'il faut minimiser ou mettre de côté l'attachement et la fierté que chacun peut avoir envers ses origines et sa culture ancestrale.”
This is the issue ; this is exactly what’s not being properly done in Mts .“ Il y a le vivre-ensemble . What we need is “c'est l’être-ensemble.” as commented by Le Grand Maître du Grand Orient de France during his recent visit here. “C'est-à-dire avec l’être ensemble qui transcendent leur appartenance culturelle, ethnique et sociologique. IIs apportent la richesse de leur culture, mais dans un esprit de concorde pour faire l’Humanité.”…Sublime !
We keep seeking the comforts of silos, competing or comploting against other silos. We are living in this nation as in a rented house. We are failing to create a collective belongingness in the hearts of the people of this nation . And until we create this feeling within every Mauritian, we will be more busy in shutting off the nation than running it.
For a more integrated understanding of each other, the different religions and cultures have to be brought together and strung in a beautiful garland and our Diversity needs to be honoured, acknowledged and celebrated. I believe that the key to understanding and appreciating each other , lies in education - a multi-cultural education that encourages pluralism. -“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.” .
We will thus be able to see a more progressive evolution from our presently hopeless multiculturalism to more of cross-cultural and inter-cultural communications, exchanges and activities. And our own typical Mauritianness will then prevail.
We are not there yet but to attain "Cette fusion nationale " , we will have to consolidate “notre laïcité”, that is, by being genuinely secular …
We need to have more reforms at the social and political levels, more of changes towards the separation of religion and the state ….less dependence of the religious bodies on government…
It’s time to revisit some of the arrangements between the state and religion to find new ways that will help us "d’etre-ensemble" and transcend our tendency to restrict ourselves to our “appartenance culturelle, ethnique et sociologique”.
Our variant of secularism does not enforce a strict separation between religion and the state but tries to maintain a ‘principled distance” between the two but the continuous accommodations and concessions by the state to the the different religious groups and identities (bargaining for more for their community, a greater share of the national cake , more of concessions to their community, more of this and that ..more of land….) has on the contrary legitimized the politicisation of religion and weakened our state of secularism. In the long run , this may conflict with our long-standing commitment to the credo of “unity in diversity.”
We believe that funding for religious bodies should not be privileged in our society at the taxpayer’s expense. Why should faith-based organizations rely on taxpayer’s money, rather than funding from their members- to fund their religious activities and promote their particular faith?
