For sure we have to be quite grateful to that small group of people who have shown a formidable amount of persistence to try to eliminate the best-loser system from our electoral traditions. But the problem is that they haven't proposed any serious alternatives so far or what they have proposed doesn't have a strong basis. Let us consider three arguments made by Ashok Subron, the movement's strongman:
- The current set-up is not good because it doesn't allow new parties to emerge. Really? What about the MMM in the 1970s then? Was it beamed into the political arena by Scotty? Besides Mauritian voters have demonstrated that they know how to send sophisticated signals.
- He wants all political strands to be represented in parliament. What is a political strand for Karl's sake? If I dress up as Elvis do I become a political strand? Or rather a political strand however extraordinary it may be needs to be validated by voters?
- Our constitution has institutionalised communalism. He seems to forget that it's the same excellent constitution that has seen us move from a left-for-dead country into one which has provided upward social mobility to many many thousands of our citizens. And will see us flying even higher as soon as the tax structure catches up with monetary policy. Let us imagine for just one moment that the BLS is gone so that nothing stands in the way of the face of R&A to run as PM. What is your plan for Mauritius Mr. Subron?
Matters get more comical because Subron is also in a big hurry. Wrong place to be in a rush. Besides the PM's white paper is due soon.
They should change their name to Rezistans and Alternative Facts :)
ReplyDeleteWait a second. If I remember comments from Lalit on this they are actually not asking the elimination of the BLS but just the right not to register as one of its four categories.
ReplyDeleteI had a careful listen to My Subron the other day, he was on Rdioplus. This man is misguided, totally.
ReplyDeleteHis major problem is this -- he is none of the 4 categories he says and at the same time he is all of them. The only solution I see is to just include a new category and let people like him tick that box and list his self-declared attributes he wants. I am amused to see how people have confused nationality (being a Mauritian) over ethnicity/race/religion as if the latter cluster is an obscenity. Subron, I fear, is a classic case of 'little knowledge is dangerous'.
Consider the actual wording of the UN Human Rights COmmittee ruling at para 15.5:
ReplyDelete"The Committee observes that in the absence of any classification, a candidate is effectively barred from standing for general elections. It notes the State party’s argument that the category General Population is the residual category comprising those who neither are Hindus, Muslims or Sino-Mauritians. According to the First Schedule to the Constitution, the additional eight seats under the Best Loser System are allocated giving regard to the “appropriate community”, with reliance on population figures of the 1972 census. However, the Committee notes that community affiliation has not been the subject of a census since 1972. The Committee therefore finds, taking into account the State party’s failure to provide an adequate justification in this regard and without expressing a view as to the appropriate form of the State party’s or any other electoral system, that the continued maintenance of the requirement of mandatory classification of a candidate for general elections without the corresponding updated figures of the community affiliation of the population in general would appear to be arbitrary and therefore violates article 25 (b) of the Covenant"
From plain simple English used above, it merely requires that the system uses 'corresponding updated figures of the community affiliation of the population in general' for it not to 'appear to be arbitrary'. C'est tout!
So can anyone tell me where does it say that Best Loser System is wrong? And why do all people keep believing in the dubious and wrong interpretation made by R&A??
This ruling just requires that the State updates its figures of the constituting communities of Mauritius - but that's apparently a hot potato that no-one wants to handle. As if they drive a vehicle without ever looking at the speedometer, never shave with a mirror, never do anything without monitoring their deeds... How do hospitals, households, stores, shops restock their supplies? How do you ensure that whatever you are doing is achieving your intended objective or not? How do you know that a certain type of vaccine is needed - don't you need to know the kind of potential patient (sex, age, genetic profile, etc) of the target population?
What I mean is that in any activity, you need to measure it for adjusting your actions over time. Same for representation of people!!
Er, wait a minute, who knows, maybe this would explain why so many things are done completely bizarrely in Dodoland...