Things that I will definitely remember when I’m voting in 3 days…

In 3 days time, over 900,000 Mauritians will be required to head towards their respective voting centers to exercise one of their constitution rights – The right to vote. With 2 consecutive mandates, the current government is looking forward to another victory and one of their main points in their manifesto is the implementation of the second republic, whereby the new president will have new super powers. If you ask me my opinion, I will definitely say that’s very frightening. Over the past years, we have seen so much with our own eyes. Some don’t even need to be reported by the media.

Yesterday, I asked my Facebook friends what they could remember of the past 9 years and below are the responses. As far as possible, I am also linking the points to related articles on my blog :

The negative points :

• Water
  A large majority of the island suffers from water problems and despite this has been a serious inconvenience, the present government has not deemed it proper to find adequate immediate solutions. Instead, they want to go forward with the Metro Leger project, a project which will deepen the country’s debt position.
• Unemployment
  Especially for fresh graduates who cannot find a job due to job mismatch on the market
• Betamax and Hedging
  Mauritians had to pay a very high price for petroleum products while the price was decreasing on the worldwide market. Strangely, there’s now a second price decrease 3 days before the elections!
• Unsolved mysteries
  For example, a suspect found hung in a Police station after being arrested in the “Roche Noire” case whereby he has been accused of stealing the prime minister’s watch there.
• Law and Order
  – The country’s Attorney General had to step down after being accused of boxing a guy after an accident.
  – Rise in the number of crimes, including rapes around the island.
• Repas Chaud
  Several students have been poisoned and needed hospitalization after they consumed food served to them in a programme set up by the Ministry of Education.
• Regulations reviewed by ICTA regarding imports
• Flurorescent jackets for 2-wheelers
  The government had to review its position after hundreds of people started protesting on the streets
• Meteo and flash flood
  Several persons lost their lives, vehicles carried away and much damage to public infrastructure after a flash flood strike in the island. The meteorological station was blamed because of their forecast and lack of adequate working equipment.
• Accidents at Soreze
  Several accidents have been registered in Soreze, including one which made 11 victims as far as I remember. That dangerous curve on the motorway was subject to much controversy.
• Strike by employees of the National Transport Corporation
  Employees of the state owned bus company, the NTC went on strike to make their voices heard, especially after a series of accidents caused due to bad state of buses.
• The Mauritius Shopping Fiesta and Carnival
• The ring road
  A failure whereby several areas of the new road have collapsed and been damaged, without even being put to use!
• Construction of Melrose prison
  Weeks after the official opening ceremony earlier this year, the prison started to leak. More money had to be invested!
• Medpoint case
  There was a huge scandal around the purchase of the hospital and the MSM members left the government.
• Sousnouk
  It is no secret anymore. The extra-marital affair of a high profile politician with this lady went public after the latter made the police confiscate a camera used to shoot her picture. The media then exposed her life publicly, including the birth of a kid some years ago, and another one, just a few weeks ago.
• The prime minister’s Rolls Royce
  The PM has been seen travelling in a private Rolls Royce in London. The authorities have been unable to investigate this matter.
• Illegal universities operating in the island
  Several institutions have closed down while others are still operating without the necessary permits. Degrees given to candidates have been found invalid in some cases.
• Incapable of handling the Street Hawkers problems
• Production of electricity
  While the authorities have been promoting green energy, negotiations to allow a coal-based electricity power station in Albion have been contested. At the same time, several acres of land have been allocated to the family of a minister.
• A Rs 50 millions governmental web site and infrastructure
  A local company associated with a foreign partner have charged the government Rs50 millions rupees
• Government migrates to new domain after losing access to the gov.mu domain
• Restaurant Pandit at Trou Aux Biches
  Part of the public beach’s parking has been closed for the construction of a restaurant belonging to a religious person, close to the prime minister. Recently, that person announced that the PM has himself given the land to him willingly.
• Construction of a boat house at Trou aux Biches by a person close to the PM
• Access to Mon Choisy public beach closed and given to a hotel belonging to a person close to the PM.
• During the economy crisis, stimulus package was given to companies without any transparency.
• Free transport for students and elderly persons was very badly managed and these people are still suffering on a daily basis.
• Wastage of money denounced by the annual audits in most of the governmental institutions and departments.
• Tablets given away to students are subject to much controversy and problems.
• Implementation problem with the Permis à Points and the Driving License Counterpart
• Problems with speed cameras and their positioning in regards to inappropriate road infrastructures and for penalizing drivers.
• Allocation of permits for jet ski to persons close to the PM
• Ponzi schemes whereby people lost millions of rupees
• Taxes imposed on people.
• Other scandals related to Airway coffee, goljory, sournack, bangaleeaa.
• Cheating in the Mauritius Turf Industry
• Several reportages by foreign television channels
• The new Biometric National ID card

Nevertheless, I can’t deny it. There has been much good work done too. But unfortunately, I feel that I am strongly deprived of my rights and joy of living in a so-called democratic country known as Mauritius.

The positive points

I will try to remember some of the developments made in the country during the past years :

• Installation of surveillance cameras in different regions have contributed to decrease crimes and thefts there.
• Construction of new hospitals, medi-clinics, playground areas in different regions of the country
• Recruitment of large number of public officers including in the police force, fire service and in health.
• More universities, also opened for foreign students.
  However, point to be noted : Several of these universities were subject to controversies after it has been found that they do not hold the necessary licenses and permit!
• Construction of new roads (including Terre Rouge Verdun and by-passes to solve traffic problems

If you have other points to add here, feel free to contribute in the comments section. Personally, I think that I will stop here. It takes ages to build a reputation but it takes seconds to destroy it. I think that whatever positive things they might have done, the long list of negative points is enough, for me at least, to think twice before voting.

No 5 – Triolet / Pamplemousses

As an inhabitant of Triolet, the constituency in which Navin Ramgoolam has been elected top of the list for several elections now, I will now write this section without any bias. Truly, Triolet lacks nothing in terms of infrastructure, services and facilities. Just name it! A brand new mediclinic, a bypass road to avoid going through the dense traffic of the village, banks, children playgrounds, stadium, fire services, police station, a huge market place etc etc. And a top-class gymnasium is currently being constructed. I can’t complain about anything. Navin and the other elected PTR members have always worked for the village. However, is the same consideration given to other smaller villages in the same constituency?

But however, there are some things which hurt me. The arrogance of some people because they are close to the power is sometimes so evident. If you watch MBC frequently, you can probably notice them in the front line each and every time. As I sometimes call them, they are the “toutous” of Navin. Similarly various organisations and so called religious groups have complete support of the government. They say that they represent the hindous. Who gave them that right to say such things? On top of that, they can do anything they want. One thing for sure, I never met anyone who agrees or support these groups.

Next thing : I can’t enjoy the beach anymore. As a sea-lover, I used to be at the beach every weekend, for a swim or just for relaxing. The Trou aux Biches beach should probably be closed now. The parking space has been converted to a restaurant, handled by the Pandit Sungkur or whoever. I’ve never seen anyone eating in the restaurant. This is suspicious but who cares? The PM gave him the beach, as the pandit said some weeks earlier. A few kilometers from Trou Aux Biches, you got the longest beach of the island. Mon Choisy. I can’t say if it can be called as the longest anymore since the government has closed access to a part of the beach for the benefits of a hotel owned by another person close to the PM. And coincidentally, the authorities have also decided to close vehicle access to the beach under the pretext of sand erosion.

The story of the “pti copains”, alias “rodère boute” does not stop here. Stop reading about Robin Sharma or other inspiring leaders. All Mauritians should be asking for a biography of Mme Sousnouck. From a simple wife of a bus conductor, she now has businesses worth over several millions all around the country. That’s what I call a success story!

I wrote about this earlier : I’m neither fascinated into getting engaged into politics,  nor I’m not a “rodère boute“. There’s no “mot-d’ordre” given by yashvinblogs, but one thing for sure, I want to see new faces at the head of the country and I think that 2 mandates are too much. A new government must lead the country and grab this opportunity to solve all the problems, scandals and society issues while keeping in mind that the guilty ones need to be punished!

I published this on Facebook several times, I prefer to give a vote to Mr Aubeeluck, the leader of Party Malin. He always find ways to pull the crowd without having to give any bribes, money or food. Kudos to this man, although he has a few weird ideas. Not all of his ideas. He did announce a few things which were later included in the manifesto of the other large political parties.

Talking about other political parties, I would have definitely given a vote to Resistance, Lalit or the new Parti Justice Sociale. However, I find it a pity that candidates are presented to the public only a few weeks before the elections. Although the leaders stand good chances of being elected, same cannot be said for their candidates. The work on the field should have started years back if they want to get known by the public. Some of them might probably be engaged in social works but perhaps in one area only, not representing the whole constituency. However, if all of these small parties worked together and came to some agreement, I believe that they would have stronger probabilities of getting votes.

Remember this saying? United we stand, divided we fall!

Go out & vote!

I have come across so many people who are very reluctant to vote on the 10th December 2014. A large majority of them are youngsters. While some of them are fed up with the dirty world of politics, others think that their votes won’t change anything. The graphic below sums up pretty well the idea I wanna share.

You should agree, that one sperm did a pretty good job! So, don’t waste its efforts!

Do make the right choice on the election day so that for the next 5 years, you can at least say that you tried  to change things!

VIRE MAM !