Sunday, May 17, 2009

Guarantees in Politics

They are as likely to be honoured as hyenas promising one morning to become vegetarians or Nosferatu suddenly announcing that he prefers soya milk to haemoglobin. It is funny that the last time such a guarantee was offered the political landscape was almost identical: Ramgoolam was PM and he was made to believe that Federation I was dead. The person offering the guarantee was to get to hole up at Le Reduit had Labour won the 2000 elections.

Surprisingly, Ramgoolam's strategy at that time didn't include some basic scenario planning that would have allowed him to carry on with his mediocre style of leadership for another 5 years. I am not too sure he has gotten any wiser since then. Anybody for some game theory?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Game theory is a pet theory for nerds! Successful leaders around the world, you name the field, continue to prove they can do without.

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Successful leaders around the world have a lot of smart people doing a lot of smart things for them. Game theory has been applied in a lot of fields including the auctioning off of Orange, politics, corporate governance and transportation planning.

ERIC BAHLOO said...

Besides the so called 'Game Theory' or any other smart theories again, could Mauritius at once dream of a better system not forcibly based on castes, communities and religions ?
Are we ripe enough to think differently that 40 years after Independence we (a majority) are unable to voice out a single word without things like : communauté majoritaire, ti nation gran nation, noubann zotbann etc etc..?
Is Mauritius therefore deserve the name of 'a civilised democratic society' or should we be contented with just a 'communal and casteist one of the Middle age' ?

Sanjay Jagatsingh said...

Or that we are racists if we don't vote for Berenger. I am sure we can do better than what we are getting from the politicians we sent to parliament. I don't know if you've noticed but there is a little revolution going on in our country. Jack Bizlall had an interesting piece in Le Mauricien today.