Dose of PR Would Create Chronic Political Instability

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Why Recall Elections Are Seriously Overdue in Mauritius

Three Things to Make National Anthem Ring Truer

 1. Outlaw door-to-door religious proselytism. Freedom of religion includes freedom not be regularly harassed by groups of people of varying size trying to convert you. Religious belief should essentially be a private matter and a good indication of the absence of any hidden agendas is religious groups growing at roughly the same rate. This hasn’t been the case. Plus a citizen should not be allowed to change her religion before she’s 21.

2. Freeze foreign real estate speculation. Prices should be determined by local purchasing power of Mauritians, not by those of the wealthiest foreigners. Especially when we have a serious housing problem in the republic. We can add banning deproclamation of public beaches here.

3. Recall elections and a couple of other tools so we can get rid of lousy MPs between general elections and toxic policies before they hurt our country. This will keep politicians on their toes, improving governance.

One Reason the FPTP System is So Good

Five Key Ingredients For a Vibrant Democracy

1. First-past-the-post (FPTP) system to have strong and stable governments that form fast after general elections and don’t collapse after partner(s) leave winning alliance. Temporary lopsided results we got a few times can be mitigated with prudent tweak without making bloated Parliament bigger or suppressing dissent with stupid anti-defection legislation. 

2. Progressive taxation (PT) and top tax rates at the right level (35%) instead of a ruinous flat tax (FT) of 15% for better economic growth and distribution after savings culture resuscitated, good drains, 24/7 water, halving of road fatalities fast, preservation of our world-famous views and harmony and respect of nature.

3. Recall elections (RE) to get rid of incompetent politicians within months and not five years. Cheap. Only Rs30m. The cost of a by-election. Expect better behaviour after we use it a couple of times. Think of it as excellent meksin laryaz. 

4. Statute referendums (SR) to reverse toxic policies or anti-patriotic ones and to get rid of Presidents. Relatively cheap. Rs300m. Would have prevented Rs300bn government revenue shortfall and GDP gap of Rs1.5tn at the end of 2018. And tense celebrations of Mauritius@50.  

5. Initiated constitutional amendment (ICA) to get rid of the BLS, allow kreol in our Parliament, prevent holders of constitutional posts from leaving with hefty benefits in all cases and impose term limits on PM and other important posts.

Second ingredient will allow us to resume a much better development path like between 1968 and 2005. Ingredients three and four will improve the situation further and will be infinitely better than what we’ve experienced after ultra liberal policies were implemented thirteen years ago. Their combined use may make ICA redundant as common sense would have made an interesting return. 

Berenger (PB), Ramgoolam (NR), Jugnauth (PJ), Sithanen (RS), Subron (AS) and Boolell want proportional representation (PR) to push us into an autocracy. That’s a situation where they implement toxic policies and it’s a lot harder to keep them out of parliament. But it’s wonderful for political dynasties. We don’t want this. 

Massive Irony Lost on Too Many

The Truth and Justice Commission was set up in March 2009 to look at the complex consequences of slavery and indentured labour. The thing is that this happened at a time when trickle-down economics – the closest you can actually get to slavery in a democracy without recall elections and statute referendums – was implemented in Mauritius for the first time. And this happened a bit after new labour laws which many have regarded as being regressive and have been fighting to get repealed since were passed.

Fixing the pain and injustice of the past requires the same two ingredients as good government: money and talent. Money has obviously been in short supply – there was at least Rs300 billion missing in the government till at the end of last year compared to what the flat tax was supposed to bring in – and so has talent. This has led to an expected deterioration of the living conditions of way too many people. Add the massive disappointment with parties that had members of Cabinet over the last 13 years and you have the recipe for another shock general election.

Why Division of Votes Should Become Standard Parliamentary Practice

And available in a spreadsheet on the website of our National Assembly. Simple. So we can know how each MP voted on each bill or motion. This will help us understand what the representatives we send to parliament stand for. And if her speeches are consistent with her voting pattern. This is useful information before getting in an election booth or deciding whether to trigger a recall election. See, who wouldn't want to know who was for the negative income tax, rise in old age pension and the ICT 'annoyance' law to name just a few?

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.

2017: The Year in Review

Q1: iPhone turns 10. Voters elect candidates wisely. Oxfam says income for bottom half hasn't grown for past three decades. Average performance for Mauritius. Countries use PISA to improve education system. Nation surprised to learn than history of Labour Party is larger than two Ramgoolams. Citizens evaluate ministers continuously. Metro Express not needed for now. Parliament goes live and direct. Sumputh resigns after PM finds package shocking.

Q2: Splitting the Sithanen toohrooh. Soornack explains how she made it. Le Pen gets closer to L'Elysee. Who is the fastest footballer? Two really dumb reasons we need party lists. Madhuri at fifty. MK said to fly understaffed planes. The Saint dead at 89. How you know you're not a big cat. Taxpayers handed multi-billion rupee bill. Top tax rates go up by 5%. Fighter jets have own sign language.

Q3: Meet the articulated bus. Referendum legislation can help avoid mayhem. Chester found dead. Singapore knows plenty. How Fowdar can help our democracy. Cleaners earning Rs1,500 per month have reason to smile. World discovers the SJ Theatre. Easy for Mauritius to boost its GDP by half. FPTP system allows general election to have recall component.

Q4: Why Mauritius is not in high-income group. Dead animal should be removed from coats of arms. They should be referred to as 30/3 and 3/5. A woman in the front row. Mauritius finds out she has an MP called Tarolah. Use the two o'clock rule to save lives. Simple tools to understand social contracts. Berenger makes new prediction. Podcast to find out things launched. December 2014 was worse than a 60-0. Look who's worried about inequality. 8 questions for voters. Voodoo economist is back. A plan for Mauritius. 4 out 5 voters don't vote for Boolell. 

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, ...

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.