Vote for the MMM because Lepep ended up with about 10 MPs more than what was necessary? Or stick with Lepep based on what they've achieved in the first five months of their mandate? The plus points are mostly the increase in pension payments and fully subsidising the SC/HSC exams. The appointment of Ms. Fakim as head of state is definitely a history-making event but that doesn't really change the lot of the victims of the neocons.
The main negatives are the significant depreciation of our rupee while the BOM supposedly waited for the budget to set the tone, the joke of the Finance Minister claiming that his bland budget was a no-tax one, not passing on the collapse of oil prices and of course the BAI affair. The latter has embroiled Government into a thick cloud of confusion and suspicion that is not going away any time soon. Indeed the BAI saga is so far looking more like a political vendetta than a ponzi scheme. That's especially evident when you consider the kind of help our Governments have dished out to hubris-infected companies in the past. There have also been surprising statements by the President of the Bar Council and many are not happy with how the biometric ID project has evolved.
We'll find out on Monday how voters weighed the facts.
One has to ask Mr Parkar of Star Knitwear (and the thousand employees to be laid off) whether he is happy that the ruppee has appreciated significantly against the euro?
ReplyDeleteYou mean depreciated? Plenty resources available on this blog to get a good handle on competitiveness.
ReplyDeleteMunicipal voters have abstained massively, but those who did cast their votes overwhelmingly sided with the ruling alliance. Some of questions are raised now:
ReplyDelete- Will this government perform now that it has the legitimacy of two large-scale voting exercises?
- How much time will opposing parties retain their long-standing leaders, now that both of the main ones have been spat in the face, yet again just six months of another crushing defeat after being proven that their assumption of 80% acquired votes has been proven wrong?
- Will this government live up to expectations of their "miracle economique", now that there is no more any opposition in the towns?
- What will happen in the next village council elections?
- How much of their programme, especially regarding good governance, will this government be able to execute to completion? Now that near-absolute political power is in their hands, how far will they be able to resist gathering skeletons in their own cupboard?
- Where is the alternative to the stale political game that is exclusively fuelled by black money?
OK, anou attann zott lor kontour...
Abstention is about 10% lower than last time. Understandable given the departures of two waves of MMM faithful (Ivan last year and Ganoo and friends this year) while I believe the Labour Party made a big mistake of deciding not to line up candidates that too after telling us that their candidates list was almost ready.
ReplyDelete- Government indeed has a very clear mandate and all is set to show us how good they are at moving Mauritius forward.
- What will Berenger say now? LP's fault again. He should step down immediately. So must Ramgoolam who doesn't really have anything to offer to Mauritius. He had his chances. He squandered most of them. P.S. Maybe they'll say they lost because they were not provided with some out-of-this-world simulations ;-)
- The myth of 'Miracle economique' is under pressure because people are getting smarter.
- The temptation to display arrogance must have increased. And that could be a big minus.
- There is no alternative really, at least for now. It's a choice between stupidity and political financing.
Step down? Polo? Now that all the nay-sayers have turned their backs his autocratic regime, all the remaining yes-men had only one choice: beg him to stay as lider-maximo. Until the end...?
ReplyDeleteSo why do we just make comments and not do anything about it. Ensam is no longer ensam. Are politics too frightening for the young, bright professionals that we are?
ReplyDelete@SJ June 15
ReplyDeleteAbstention 10% higher not lower.
@Anonymous
Better to make comments than not make any (and mind you that the Arab spring started with FB/Twitter). Actually we live with our times. If we didn't have the internet or smartphones we would have had to meet and discuss and have somebody take notes etc. Which is why people will tell you that internet time is 7X faster than normal time.
Our main parties have also closed their doors to talent. The alternative is to create a new party or to wait for the current slate of leaders to die. The latter might happen first.
People are also hyper-connected which leave less time for politics. And you have to wonder if their lives have not purposely been made more difficult just so they don't' have to join politics. Still there is no question that we have collectively gotten smarter if you check the quality of some of the comments on our media sites.
There is a lot more knowledge out there.