SAJ Returns To Parliament, History Accelerates

We now have a Prime Minister who has lived 84 years or 3 years more than my all-time favourite at the time he lost power in 1982. Today is also the first time the Speaker of our National Assembly was addressed as Madam. More history is on the way at Le Reduit when Ms. Fakim will replace Kailash Purryag. The sooner the better.

SAJ is also making a comeback 11 years after having announced his retirement in 2003. This never happened before. Mr. Lutchmeenaraidoo is back too for a third term -- or a fourth one -- after almost a quarter of a century. If he does that again -- assuming he loses his seat in 2019 -- he will be eligible for one of those phones that centenarians receive.

So a larger pension has been paid and there will be a Rs10 billion item in the next budget to unleash the creative capital of Mauritius.

Not missing Sithanen and Mansoor by any chance?

Should Up To 1/3 of Our Ministers Not Need To Be Elected?

That's one of the proposals in the Carcassonne report. Currently only the Attorney General and the Speaker may not have stood in general elections to get into our Parliament.

What do you think? And don't forget to vote in our poll.

How to Fix our BOP Problems

That's kind of simple and, no, we don't need to depreciate our rupee as one ex-Governor has again been suggesting. We just need to reduce imports and increase exports. First, imports.

In 2008, we imported for Rs8.5 billion of fish and fish preparations, Rs3 billion of milk, Rs2 billion of vegetables and fruits, Rs1.5 billion of meat, Rs6 billion of road vehicles and Rs24 billion of petroleum products. That just doesn't sound right. If you recall, our exclusive economic zone is more than a 1,000 times larger than our land area or if you prefer each Mauritian can be supported by 1 square kilometre of sea (although it would make more sense to speak in terms of cubic kilometres, right?). So am positive we can cross that one out in a few years. There is a milk project underway so imports should decrease there too. As far as vegetables go we could adopt a few of Kreppalloo Sunghoon's recommendations: subsidise fertilizers, remove VAT on agricultural machinery and create a land bank to optimise the use of arable land. Likewise I am sure we can do something about all the meat we're bringing over from abroad by getting Rodrigues into the loop. Finally, we can reduce both the amount of fuel and road vehicles we import by having a sufficiently comfortable public transportation system. Having it run till 2 a.m. everyday will also make our economy more dynamic.

As far as exports go we should favour those that will provide meaningful jobs to a maximum of our fellow citizens. We don't need entrepreneurs of the sweat-shop variety whose greed knows no bounds.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I now commend the Bill to the House.

P.S: BOP = Balance of Payments.