In her maiden speech in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Babita Thannoo called for far-reaching changes. Hailing the govt programme 2025-29 as a beacon of hope, the MP emphasised social justice and the need to overcome community divisions. She has stressed the urgent need to rebuild the country and undertake major reforms to meet people's expectations.
“Above all, we have been bestowed with a duty of rebuilding the country with a programme that encapsulates the essence of struggles led by workers, ecologists, human rights activists, feminists and engaged citizens who firmly believe in a fair and just society for each and every citizen.
As an eco-socialist with an unflinching faith that a free and equitable world can be constructed for us all, this programme empowers me to continue the people’s struggle for social, economic and ecological justice.”
She emphasised that system change is what we need to build a better, fair and just society which is embedded in the Government Programme where the Just Transition Commission will be set up to anchor a firm ecological consciousness in every socio-economic endeavour."
This Govt , she stressed , is being called upon daily to respond to multiple cases of genuine and heartbreaking human distress. “This programme precisely seeks to give us the tools to support our most vulnerable fellow men and women. We welcome with our whole heart the much-required change in the social security system. We will not only care but we will act upon our care.”
Yes, we have to care and act upon our care. Didier Michel, a candidate in constituency no. 1 in the last elections, recently noted that social exclusion remains deep-rooted in certain localities such as Richelieu or the Cité Débarcadère in Pointe-aux-Sables. ‘Several families live in the same house. They are also faced with a lack of access to basic services such as electricity and water’, he stressed.
He also denounced the difficult conditions that drive many young people towards scourges such as drugs, prostitution and alcohol.
For many of our social workers in deprived areas , the fight for social justice remains as pertinent as ever.
The MPs of ReA should be the main drivers in the execution of the programme-especially on the main issues that they have at heart- ensuring thus that the Programme 2025-29 is not another of the past govt programmes which are high on promises and low on implementation.
What is required are solid action plans to deliver on sustainable development ensuring social justice, economic stability and inclusiveness - the implementation of social safety nets, including a greater focus on pro-poor policies and spending.
Shivam Anadachee
Young and brillant outclass most of them .
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Prak Nee
This speech was an exercise in style and substance. For one moment, I thought I was listening to a speech in the House of Commons as we did not hear “zis, zat, zoz”. I believe she set the bar high in terms of intellectual debate. She touched upon many fundamental issues with a clear insight. It’s up to other MPs to follow the trend. What a difference from the last Parliament under the notorious loudspeaker.
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Raj Ramlugun
She deserves fully our appreciation & encouragement , but in the pays ‘ des complexés’, let’s not get carried away or gloat over simply based on accents or style. If that’s what held most of us ( mainly intellectuels de salon) in awe, for my part, I’ll better wait a bit more how these people of high convictions & deep sense of social justice & environmental concerns influence the new government’s delivery in ACTIONS.
If it were just based on bombastic accents and discourses, no one can impress any shallow follower more than Shakeel Mohammed. Isn’t it? Let’s not condition people ( like our public opinion leaders, media and influencers often do) to assess our public figures etc more based on accents/ showmanship than substance and proven track record/actions. The likes of Mathieu Laclé etc didn’t master such art and yet were with convictions and substance too perhaps . Would we be ready to grant such less articulate figures the same level of praise? I doubt it with our ingrained linguistic and cultural complexes & prejudices. That’s why I have been consistent to state that Kreol Morisien should be allowed in proceedings in our Parliament( & Courts of Law) . Then real democracy will prevail to a large extent. Not the tyranny of the intellectuals or masters of rhetoric who keep manipulating us with their subjective yardstick for assessing real worth and delivery. Knowing R & A well, I have no doubt they’ll share my point on this issue of language and place of having Kreol Morisien introduced in our Parliament.. to create that level playing field in debates for all our representatives.. especially those from the grassroots. 
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Shemida Ramdewar-Emrith
She got my respect indeed. Best wishes to her and ReA. She made me hopeful...
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Sameer Sharma
The true asset value of the MIC assets is much lower than currently priced on the BoM BS. From massively overvalued land assets and convertible bonds which are busted to dodgy deals and to an insolvent mk and hence low ahl value , the mark to market of mic assets would be large eg 30 pc at least if not higher. This would largely wipe out the equity of bom which is largely positive anyway because of the weaker rupee.
The problem is that the bom has a major asset liability problem with negative carry. In such a scenario where its expenses are continuously larger than its income and given valuation losses which are still not being carried out in the land of exotic accounting, a central bank with negative equity Rattan Chand would in the conexy of this context need to print money to fund its domestic liabilities such as monetary instruments. This is not a Swiss National Bank situation. Bom also does not have the same credibility to have negative equity and carry.
SNB typically has negative equity from the past but with positive carry
The reality is that the bom needs to bite the bullet, improve returns on int reserves post asset liability study and mic mark to market
So that it gets into a position where it can at least generate positive carry. It's cost of borrowings are higher than the returns at generates right now in international Reserves and the income it is generating from mic assets are extremely low versus the losses it will make so the situation is very bad which is why I believe they have yet to conduct this independent International audit and also there must be a lot of pressure from private sector players who are concerned about all of this which is why the only solution in the end also does require some kind of windfall profit Taxation and all the winners of those Hadley priced bailouts they need to help the contribute to fix this economy we can just expect that magically things will improve by putting people there at the bank of Mauritius that has to be the fiscal side that takes a hit and the prime minister of the country must sit with the private sector and say enough is enough you have gotten too much we have bent over backwards for you and now you need to help us sort out our problems which is essentially going to be a Readjustment because they got too much and we gave them more than we could afford and now we need to bring this somewhere back in the middle again and they need to pay a bit for it through a windfall profit tax. Anyway anybody with common sense would have noticed that the hotel and other big foreign exchange earners are not bringing their foreign exchange back to Mauritius they are keeping it abroad and they are minimizing conversions so they have gotten bailed out at cheap rates and when it comes to playing the game they're not playing it either the only thing they want is to maintain oligopolistic positions in Mauritius and then they want to invest abroad and the government unfortunately because of the way things are financed in Mauritius as we all know they're not targeting these people they're getting squat free but we're focusing on all those small things like the 45 million rupee deal at the mic did on some small little polling company so everybody's focusing on that but I'm saying what about all those overvalued land assets and the convertible bonds and how about the private sector not playing the game how about having a frank conversation with them and saying enough is enough why are we hesitating to do this when we don't have the money and we are in desperate need for money why do we need to keep fake asset values why does the state and the consumer always have to pay? The banks are now worried about a credit rating downgrade when they themselves benefited from this mic Adventure and the depreciation that also came along with it which bloated their revenues in rupee terms so they should also be incentivized to help contribute to fixing this economy including fixing those balance sheet problems that the government and the Central Bank have. Why is it that we are not having these real conversations in this country? Why are we focusing on the small stupid deals for vs who should be paying their fair share given the lottery and freebies they got over the past 5 years!
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