Where Main Parties Stood When We Voted in November 2019

The three main blocks were very similar at the time. Lalit was right on all but one major issues.

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. 

Our FPTP System Has a Built-in Recall Election

Kind of. But it happens only when there's a general election. Given that politicians can inflict significant damage to our economy or take totally unpatriotic and completely stupid decisions like privatising water a lot faster voters need to be able to boot them out of office anytime between two general elections. So our excellent FPTP system should be improved by equipping it with standard recall elections -- something which Lalit suggested in early 2014.

We also need referendum legislation so our elected governments can ask for our permission on matters of national interest. For example Lepep campaigned against the Metro Leger but it is now proceeding with essentially the same unnecessary project. It should have organised a referendum to ask for our green light first. Same thing for the idiotic idea of privatising the CWA. It's nowhere to be found in their electoral manifesto. We never voted for it. Lepep cannot go ahead with that project before asking us what we think. We are not children. As they found out in Barkly recently.

Of course you realise that party lists and double candidacies are totally incompatible with recall elections. These two contraptions prevent us from deciding which politicians -- some might be inclined to shoot others -- we want to keep out of parliament. It's like a football game without a red card. Or one where selected players show a brown card to the referee to stay on the pitch after being shown a red one. Not a bad idea to make a list of the parties who are in favour of double candidacies so we can avoid them like the plague. Plus there's a by-election soon. So let's start: Rezistans ek Alternativ, ...

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. 

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.

Referendum Legislation Could Save Lepep From Electoral Mayhem

Beyond satisfying an electoral pledge it would provide it with important feedback on pressing national issues and opportunities to course correct. For example there is a very wide consensus in our country that we don't need the Metro Express just like saddling the CWA with a management contract is an act of zero governance. While it's true that Government can reverse immediately these two crazy decisions without organising a referendum there are other matters of utmost national interest that it would not want to lump together with a general election. These include electoral reform and the full legalisation of abortion.

Lepep has nothing to lose and everything to gain from deepening our democracy with such a legislation. It knows how smart voters are in seeing through all kinds of wicked schemes. Like the one that was put in front of them in December 2014. And of course a referendum organised before the next by-election would steal a lot of the opposition's thunder plus allow Mauritius to strike something off her bucket list.

Heads Roll As May Tries to Form Minority Government

With the help of the DUP. That might not be enough as there have been calls for her resignation within her own party. Jeremy Corbyn is also making plans to form an even smaller minority government. Brits may have to vote again if 2/3 of the MPs so decide or if two different minority governments don't survive a no-confidence motion.

Corbyn ran an effective campaign and promised to "...build a Britain that works for the many, not the few." This included following a worldwide trend of bringing back utilities under public ownership because "...water bills have increased 40 per cent since privatisation, and our private energy providers overcharged customers by £2 billion in 2015."

How A Referendum Would Deepen Our Democracy

There are some issues that are really fundamental to our well-being and these are better addressed in a referendum. Especially when they are not discussed in manifestoes and electoral campaigns. Here are four.

1. Tax policy can break an economy and send a country to the dogs. Which is what the Sithanen flat tax has done. And that too without asking us for our permission. 

2. Currency policy. Only morons believe that competitive depreciation is Tiger stuff. Plus it matters a whole lot who call the shots at the BoM. For example in 2010 we were told that Manou was coming back. We didn't know depreciation-obsessed Basant Roi would after 2014.

3. Party lists are the equivalent of an English Premier League without red cards. We don't want them.

4. Privatisation of any part of our public utilities or other national assets. A government that wants to sell the CWA or saddle it with a management contract because it doesn't like its hotline is a good-for-nothing government.

Poll Says Almost Nobody Will Follow Collendavelloo Into Opposition

If he was to be sacked as Minister. It's a very small sample but we can compare it to the actual events when they happen. Hopefully very soon. All 12 poll participants thought Husnoo would stay in the PJ government. No big surprise here. Fowdar and Benydin (Toolsyraj is the correct name, sorry) are not expected to accompany the leader of the kare kare party. Fowdar is dead against the privatisation of the CWA -- wonder what he thinks about the private companies that the CEB has just set up -- while Benydin has been a union boss for a long time.

Boissezon is a Minister for the first time. Don't see him leaving this behind. Especially when you consider that the ML should join the Dodo on the list of extinct animals shortly. Looks like Rutnah might not stay back. But that was before he said that he was a little fed up with the party. He has also showed up at the Line Barracks before to express support to his "elder brother" Rama Valayden and told the media that he was not desperate about being an MP. Plus if Boissezon leaves Rutnah could get his portfolio.

Gayan should be the only one following IC into the opposition. So overall PJ's majority should improve a bit. And we might get 2-3 new Ministers.

Unions Wonder if Layoffs Linked to Hidden Agenda

That's not the only thing they're wondering about. They are also asking themselves if it's not time to ask for the resignation of Ivan Collendavelloo.

Platform Anti-Privatizasyon Anvi Enn Deba Televise Ek Collendavelloo

Union Very Disappointed With Former Adviser

How could they not be? Collendavelloo wants to privatise CWA. And that too after having been its legal adviser for at least two decades. If Government wants to sell CWA it should ask us voters about it in a referendum first. Or dissolve Parliament and ask us to put three little crosses again. ASAP.

One of the Union bosses reminded us that in 2000 SAJ cancelled the plans to privatise the utility. That costs us Rs30 million. Hmm, who was there before 2000?

ACIM Does its Homework

State Flip Flops On the CNT

First it reallocates routes to private companies because a number of the CNT buses are apparently unfit for our roads. That seemed to have been discovered right after 11 people died recently in a gruesome accident in Soreze. And then workers strike because they feel it's a disguised attempt to privatise their organisation essentially asking why would the most profitable lines be transferred if not to further weaken the company.

Government then u-turns under pressure and hands back the lines. The strike stops but then on Friday Cabinet maintains the reallocation of the routes saying it cannot play with the security of passengers.

Now, isn't that funny? Tolerance for killer buses doesn't seem to be uniform among cabinet members. It would be interesting to find out the safety features of the CNT buses compared to let us say those of the official cars that are provided to Ministers. And about the operational history of each of the buses that the CNT bought over the last 20 years or so. Not bad either if we could be told what exactly was done after the accident in Montebello in 2009 where four people lost their lives.

By the way, how come the state buys sophisticated transport equipment like the Airbus A-340 and then buys crap for the travelling citizens. That too after an early harvest and a bumper crop?

Iron Lady Dead At 87

Margaret Thatcher was the longest serving British PM. She was for deregulation, weak trade unions and privatisation of state-owned enterprises. The former PM also waged war against Argentina to recapture Islas Malvinas. Here she is talking about socialism at the end of her 11-year Prime Ministership. 

And here is Meryl Streep winning another Oscar for her extraordinary portrayal of the Iron Lady.

It's corruption, stupid!

According to Fernando Lugo, the new President of Paraguay, the fight against poverty goes hand in hand with the fight against corruption. To put it bluntly, GDP growth and job creation alone, no matter how upbeat, do not provide "an antidote to poverty". Why? Because poverty is created, or exacerbated, when "national" prosperity is diverted massively and subtly into the pockets of the "chosen few". How? Through "privatisation" of policies and lullabies filled with distorted data. Should the legislation proposal submitted by the Independent Commission against Corruption to query dubious asset ownership and prosecute offenders be enforced, it could potentially turn out to be a critical disincentive against graft. To be even more effective overseas purchases should also be scrutinised.