Why Recall Elections Are Seriously Overdue in Mauritius

How Will You Use Your Free Electricity?

“Je suis là pour travailler dans l’intérêt du pays

et tant que je serais ministre,

il n’y aura aucune baisse du tarif.

Que ce soit bien clair.”

Ivan Collendavelloo, 2016

The one the CEB will soon supply to you if it does a very average job of using current technology to make us benefit from our geography and topography. See, the cost of producing electricity using wind and sun has decreased significantly while storage has improved enough – one option is a giant version of your smartphone battery – to bring renewable energy close to base-load status. So two things should happen very soon. One is that the cost of electricity – by the way we’re talking clean power here – should fall and two it will be free and even negative on a increasing number of days.

This will require that we tweak our weather reports so they inform us of the expected daily electricity production and its cost which will in turn determine for example when we wash one or two extra loads of clothes and run our businesses a bit more intensively. Other countries like Germany and the UK are already there. We should too. To crawl back from the deep mess we’re in. And not waste another five years.

References

1. Prices Go Negative in Germany, a Positive for Energy Users, New York Times, December 25, 2017.

2. Government Programme 2020-24, Comments, S. Jagatsingh, Forthcoming, 2020.

Why Dookun-Luchoomun Must Allow 3 Credits to Go Through This Time

Because she doesn’t want to make a massive blunder like Nando Bodha did in early 2015 when he scrapped the point system without assessing its effectiveness and replaced it with a more ‘user-friendly’ alternative. As the chart shows road fatalities for the past five years have never been lower than the level they reached in 2014. Unlike in Singapore (in green) where they’ve fallen in every one of those years save 2018 when they increased by two. In fact if we had managed to have their cumulative number of fatalities over that period – which is setting the bar too low given that they have four-and-a-half times more people than us – we would have saved 75 lives between 2015 and 2019. Mr. Bodha has also been working hard to make the traffic Frankenstein meaner and road-users have already noticed that his tram which he calls a metro didn’t solve anything as expected. 

Instead, Ms. Luchoomun should rather want to take 2020 to properly assess the life and academic trajectories of those thousands of citizens that were allowed in Lower Six with three credits for a number of years and to compare them with those of their friends that had a few more credits. This will provide her with the hard facts of the matter, essential ingredients for good decision-making. My hunch is that there will not be a big difference between the two groups. Definitely not large enough to take the kind of risk the Minister is currently assuming. Too much is at stake here. The more so that we may currently have the worst substance abuse problem in our history and our old industrial education system that relies too much on rote-learning is not adequate anymore for a hyper connected world. Besides Cambridge has computed that 70.93% of the most recent SC-takers have passed their exams – these overlapped an election campaign. That’s 13,235, not 5,518, and therefore means that the British examiner has deemed that even 2,129 of the 3,092 who got 1 credit have passed. Government should in fact allow everyone who took these exams to either have a place in Lower Six or in a polytechnic and to move ahead – Jony Ive isn’t going to be there forever.

Ms. Luchoomun will also want to contact the OECD fast so we participate in PISA 2021 and find out if we have improved from the 56th place we clocked in Maths in PISA 2009, the only time we ever participated in this serious survey. As for the 5 credits needed by the PSC they can be kept but arrangements must definitely be made so that SC exams are available every three months or better still online. The blah blah blah about the necessity of shutting out any student without five credits otherwise we’ll end up with a stupid elite will die out rapidly if we consider two facts. The first one is that our savings culture was killed by someone who did very well in his HSC Economics exam and then proceeded to the LSE on a special scholarship when one Kher Jagatsingh was Minister of Education. The other is that a Minister who has a first degree in law wanted to literally sell our clouds because he didn’t like the CWA hotline.

Worried parents should of course get in touch with their MPs and Ms. Luchoomun. Because we don’t have recall elections yet. 

Sithanen Flat Tax Fuels More Street Protests

This time it was in Curepipe. Citizens were outraged that they've been without running water for up to two weeks. But what else could we expect when regressive tax policies have crippled government so much that it can't even pay for its own eye-hospital? And things will get worse as long as we remain on the wrong side of compounding. Boolell was there trying to score some cheap points -- the government revenue shortfall between 2005 and 2014 was big enough to change the 1,600km of leaking pipes at least five times over.

24/7 water is unlikely to happen when Collendavelloo completes his first term as Minister in the next few months. This is kind of obvious. See, when he took over about 45% of households enjoyed an all-day supply and this week he said it had reached 70%. So if it took 4 years to increase the percentage of subscribers getting round-the-clock water by 25 percentage points (by probably changing around 730km of leaking pipes) it will surely take more than a year to add the last 30% subscribers. Even if the Bagatelle dam comes into operation soon. In fact on the current trajectory 24/7 is not happening before the 2024 election year. Which is a good reason to put as much pressure as possible on government so it brings back some sanity to our tax structure. Because we surely don’t want 400,000 people to have water problems for another 4-5 years.

Public debate on this matter can also be enhanced if the Minister puts at least three very basic series of data on the CWA's website (the last annual report available there is for 2015). These are the length of the water network at the end of each year and the length and cost of pipes laid each year since the end of 1967. 

2018: The Year in Review

Q1: Lepep Tram will not be biggest project ever. By-election hints at how return to 40 SMCs would make our democracy more vibrant. Error found in app of Electoral Commission. Reconstruction of great party cannot happen while he's there. Two Nobels didn't get Mauritius wrong. Sithanen toohrooh will grow by Rs300 billion if sanity not brought back to our tax structure. Mauritius turns 50. PJ announces resignation of President, latter has other plans. Calculation of Sithanen toohrooh explained. Road fatalities in Singapore fall by 14%. Next general election is going to be a lot more open.

Q2: Sound management explained. Chuttoo thinks Ivan wants to be kicked out government. The best Kreol dictionary in town. Why we shouldn't legalise pot. Is recruiting at the CEB biased? Recall elections are seriously overdue. More than 30% of World Bank reports never downloaded. Big electoral imbalances almost never last. 24/7 water for all should happen within five years. Putin begins last term with brand new car. Why creating the URA was a mistake. Wasn't 2018 supposed to be the year of the second 'economic miracle'? Some days are way better to present the budget. SEG has at least two more flaws. Another budget to nowhere. Only idiots will love Mars.

Q3: Water is a great role model. When will NASA go to the moon again? Weighing an elephant is no easy task. Sadhguru explains how India is different. Politician taking us for morons. Looks like something is brewing. That sugar has no future has been obvious for more than a decade. 10,000 Yankees died from cocaine addiction in 2016. Sharks want appointment with Minister. World listens as story of Chagos told at the ICJ. Road fatalities may hit all-time record this year. PM makes URA redundant. A framework to analyse decolonisation.

Q4: Pravind al lapes rekin ek enn lapipi danzere. Canada rejects proportional representation. Marx at 200. Shelina eksplik kuma fer zasar lisu. How important is ethnicity in deciding elections? Our roads killed 6,716 in 50 years. Although it promised several one referendum would be a great start. Mauritian voters are quite mature. Why politicians want a dose of PR. Why we lost two decades on electoral reform. Division of votes should become standard parliamentary practice. Doing Business is a misnomer. PM presses ahead with plan to make us a banana republic. Worse than termites.

Si Rapor Komisyon Ladrog Fini Deor

Ankor ek sa lavites la, be sa rapor la bank mondyal lor afermaz CWA la pa kav pa vinn piblik deswit.

Pa Tigit Zordir Nun Tande Lor CWA

Collendavelloo ti truve ki bizin privatiz CWA parski li pa kontan so hotline. Apre lin dir striktir CWA ki pa bon. Lerla lin dir ki lin konpran ki bizin labank mondial pu develop nu sekter delo. Pa komik sa? En pake pei fin remet an kestyon striktir labank mondial depi si pa komie banane. An plis se en institision ki an deklin – an 2011 Lasin ti pe deza don plis lohn Lafrik ki labank mondial.

En lot so ban argiman bidon se ki person pa pu perdi travay. Lol! En mari dialog sa. Be eski nu pu privatiz ADSU ek lakur siprem osi lontan ki person pa pu perdi zot plas? Mo sir pwena dimun interese zer sa de institision la. Sof ki gran mazorite sitwayin pa pu dakor. Parey kuma person pa dakor pu mont pri dilo uswa zet en ta nu kas dan en kontra afermaz debil.

Why the Utility Regulatory Authority Should Be Scrapped

Given the size of our island prices of energy sources can and should be determined by Cabinet after some analysis is done at the Ministry of Finance. The more so that the link between international energy prices and what we pay for them here has been severed for almost a decade to finance a flat tax which has broken our economy. Even some back-of-envelope calculations would be a big improvement. This is especially true in a global environment where clean energy is becoming increasingly cheap and abundant as storage options expand.

We certainly cannot consider the price of water in isolation – the CEB and the CWA regularly clip an annual combined surplus of around Rs2 billion – especially when we've been ripped off with uncompetitive electricity prices because of abusive and confidential contracts or Ministers who don't know what they are doing. The argument that the CEB produces less than 50% of our electricity and therefore disqualifies it as the one who sets its price is ridiculous because it is an institution that belongs to every Mauritian even those that are shareholders in the IPPs.

24/7 Water For All Should Happen in 2023

If the rate of progress achieved between 2015 and 2017 – see chart – is maintained. Earlier probably as the big Bagatelle Dam will go live soon. Or if more money is pumped into our network. All of this has been achieved with the existing structure and people in place and without any dumb affermage contract as recommended by an international loan shark. And despite the continuous bad-mouthing from a massively incompetent Minister. Recall elections are seriously overdue.

Did 36% of The New CEB Recruits Come From Rose-Hill?

This is what MP Osman Mahomed essentially wanted to know from our DPM on Tuesday. He actually requested four pieces of information on each recruit that joined the utility since January 2015. One of these was their residential address. Collendavelloo replied that it would be unlawful for the data controller who keeps this information to release it. He also mentioned the numbers per district had already been given in reply to a previous question by the same MP.

Residential addresses might indeed be the wrong information to ask. What could instead have been asked is the size of the smallest radius of the area from which most if not all of the 103 recruits – out of 290 – came from. In fact the data should be sliced in any which way and any bias should be flagged and reported to the relevant authorities for further action.

Chuttoo Panse Collendavelloo Pe Rod Enn Kudpye Onorab

Parski li kone ki li pa pu dan prosin lalyans Lepep. Se pa inposib etan done ki Collendavelloo finn enn bann minis pli inkonpetan ki nun gayne. An plis li lider enn mari ti parti kot ena manb finn konpar zurnalis a femel lisyen. Jayen Chellum ki ti usi lor plato inn poz enn kestyon interesan: eski labank mondyal se bondye sa?

Bann lezot pwin interesan ki sa de la finn suleve inklir ki nu finn deza kontribye par milyar a traver Build Mauritius Fund pu sanz tiyo, ki reveni CWA pu ogmante a mezir plis dimunn gayn delo pandan plis letan tulezur, ki sa fu si delo inpe bon marse parski nu gayne telma lapli ek ki ti bizin reget bann water rights.

Prem Saddul, enn ansyen Chairman CWA truve ki ti bizin ogmant delo par 10% sak lane parksi nwena linflasyon ek li pur enn partner strategik. Dan lansanb so bann argiman byen byen feb sirtu pu enn ansyen Chairman.

Radhakrishna Sadien osi ti tenir enn pwin de pres kot linn dimand PM pran kont bann azisman bann manb so guvernman ki pe pratik enn politik neoliberal. Sadien finn osi dimand la popilasyon lev zot lavwa aster lamem. Tiena enn zoli poster dan sa pwin de pres la: "kare kare agent la banque mondial".

What The PM Should Do About The CWA

Put the names of his deputy, the chairman of the CWA, the other board members and that of the General Manager on little pieces of paper in a jar. Then every week take a couple out of the jar and immediately fire and/or replace them. Then listen carefully to the kind of sounds that comes out from the new board and the parent ministry in the following few days. If common sense is back – that is the unpatriotic and stupid ideas of raising the price of water and paying for its management by a private firm are cancelled – stop pulling out new names. If it is not take out a few more.

There is of course no reason why the whole process cannot be completed in a few hours. 

Choice in 2019 Not Between Pravind and Navin

As Ramgoolam has framed the issue. Where our country is right now there's little else we can do than to vote for 60 good candidates and then see what happens. People are less shy about voting for smaller parties now. We saw that recently in the by-election in Belle-Rose – Quatre-Bornes last December. For the first time it took the vote shares of six candidates to reach 90% of the votes casted. Until now all you had to do to get nine-tenths of the votes in a by-election was to add the votes of the top two or three candidates. This is a tectonic shift. That too after voters expressed their feelings about the wicked scheme of three politicians in December 2014.

Ramgoolam is a neoliberal who doesn't give two hoots about Mauritius. We've seen this in his last two mandates. Maybe the 70-year old politician considers Mauritius as a piece of disposable paper. Or something that shouldn't exist after he breathes his last. All that he looks able of dreaming for our country is a bigger safe and carte blanche to that Paglanomist to sink our nation further.

Pravind is not any better. He's a neoliberal too and has been slashing taxes which will speed up the rotting process. As for the MMM the best it can hope is to sign an 'akor a la palestinyenn' as minority partner with Parti Malin.

Can't wait to see us voters flush the ML whose leader – one of our worst ministers ever – found bliss when he looked in the eyes of an Angolan.

Fakim Digs Heels In, Sues Barclays For Half A Billion Rupees

Not only she didn't resign as PJ had announced but the President has made a couple of fast moves. The first one is to sue Barclays Bank for Rs500m. Fair enough, statements of her infamous credit card were printed in a daily. We learned today that she has instituted a Commission of Inquiry to essentially investigate how Sobrinho got his licences and if she had not behaved properly.

It feels kind of strange for Fakim to ask for a commission to investigate her. What is even weirder is that a President is empowered to appoint a Commission of Inquiry into "any matter of public interest or concern, or into any matter in which an inquiry would be for the public welfare" [see Paragraph 2.2]. Then why didn't she ask for one on the Metro Express and another one on the completely stupid and unpatriotic plan of Collendavelloo to privatise water? Should we also mention that the National Assembly can advise her to revoke the Commission she just appointed [see Paragraph 3.4]?

All eyes are now on the Prime Minister who may use article 30 of our Constitution to institute a tribunal to investigate AGF and suspend her in the meantime with the support of the opposition. 

Some History On Its Way

With the departure of Soodhun there's a possibility we might see Fazila Daureeawoo in the front bench of our Parliament. This would open the door for her to become the first female acting Prime Minister. All it will take is for the three ministers that are highest in the hierarchy to be out of the country. And it might happen when President Fakim -- who's been awfully quiet about recent threats to our national unity -- is in the Le Reduit. The odds of Ms. Daureeawoo making history are actually higher as PJ would have to dump Collendavelloo, a huge and growing electoral liability, soon. Very soon.

And if you noticed more history was made last 12 March when for the first time a Prime Minister of Mauritius who attended our flag-raising ceremony at historic Champ de Mars hadn't declared a community in a general elections. It would have been basic poetic justice for this honour to go to SSR the first time the Four Bands replaced the Union Jack. But that was not possible. This didn't distract the team he built from proving Meade wrong. A very tall order.

Collendavelloo Whisked Away After Making Insensitive Remarks

That was in Barkly on Monday when he said that opposing parties could eventually sit around a square, round or oblong table but that he preferred one which is karé karé. As the clip shows no one on his side found that funny. The residents of Barkly present at the meeting were not in a laughing mood either. It couldn't have been otherwise when we know that some of them had just been through the traumatising experience of seeing their houses demolished. For the Lepep tram which we don't really need.

It's not exactly the first time the Minister makes controversial statements. He's the same politician who wants to privatise the CWA because he doesn't like its hotline. 

What Do You Know About the Sachs Commission?

The one about electoral reform. It's mentioned so often by politicians. But as a thinking-person what have you taken away from it? How would you explain it to a friend in a couple of minutes. Incidentally there was also a select committee on electoral reform chaired by Ivan Collendavelloo in the early 2000s. Do you know what were its recommendations and if they make any sense to you?

Democracy Needs A Little Help From Fowdar

That is resigning from Parliament to provoke a by-election in riding No. 6 of Grand Baie/Poudre D'Or. It's necessary because our electoral system doesn't yet allow for recall elections that we could have used to immediately remove Collendavelloo from our National Assembly. And because Lepep seems to be taking a bit too long to make good on its electoral pledge of organising referendums on matters of utmost importance. The Minister must go as he wants to colonise CWA for all sorts of bogus reasons including because he didn't like its hotline. Besides he forgot how to resign. Unlike in 1989.

Mr. Fowdar would of course be most welcome to run again for the same seat. His position on this fundamental issue has been a rare breath of fresh air. All the way. Voters have definitely taken note. It would also be a great opportunity for the tiny ML to test the declaration it made at its rather lacklustre congress that it had now become a national party. Fielding a candidate and having the right poster like the one below during the campaign might help reverse the general feeling that it is a one-term party. At most.

Sindikalis Pare Pu Zet Guvernman Si Banla Pa Aret Badine

CTSP pe diman guvernman donn bann dat kan lalwa travay retrograd pu amande sinon zot pu kumans enn kanpayn nasyonal pu Lepep pa eli prosin eleksyon. An dot mo zot pe anvi ki guvernman respekte so bann promes elektoral kuma inplemantasyon saler minimum ek organiz enn referandum lor Metro Express ek kolonizasyon CWA. Zot panvi Ramgoolam revini nonpli. Pa kav donn zot tor etan done ki Ramgoolam, Berenger, Jugnauth, Duval ek Collendavelloo pratik enn politik ekonomin neoliberal e antipatriotik ki pe kontinye mari kul Moris.

Inn ler pu avoy zot dan karo kann pu de bon.

Wanna Know How Absurd the 15% Flat Tax Has Been?

Then consider our recurring water problems since its implementation. Government ran out of money and the efficiency of our water network didn't improve. As much as it should have. Had Sithanen's growth forecasts happened there would have been a lot more cash in the Government coffers. Enough to change 11,585km of leaking pipes. Given that there's only about 1,600km of them do the math and find out how Mr. Sithanen has turned the clock of development backwards.

Had Dr. Kontu not messed up our economy and we had kept on growing at a very reasonable 5.5% there'd be an extra of Rs51 billion of cash in the Treasury. That would have been enough to change all the leaking pipes more than two times.

So it's a money problem. Not a management one.