Corruption

Are Mauritians puffed up with pride because of our economic success?

Are we prejudiced in our judgement of Africa? Have we left the Creole Community out in the cold? If one is to believe what a foreign lady told a reporter some time back, then a large section of the Mauritian population suffers from all these negative traits.

Mauritians are proud because this resource-poor country has achieved what few countries on the continent have accomplished -- free education for all, free transport for students, an old age pension to all citizens even if one has not worked a single day in his life, a monthly pension for the physically and mentally handicapped, for widows, a daily allowance to fishermen when it is too dangerous for them to go out on the high seas, a monthly allowance to families with a bedridden parent to pay for a maid, free medical care, a dispensary in almost all villages run by a qualified male or female nurse, free medicine in hospital and dispensary pharmacies.

All priests of all recognised religions are paid by the State even though Mauritius is a secular state. Foreigners are flabbergasted to learn that even the maids and male servants in government services are entitled at their retirement to two plane tickets paid by the state in order to give them the opportunity to visit foreign countries.

Mauritius belongs to the African continent--we are a member of the African Union, of SADC and the COMESA. Maybe our judgement on certain African countries could be flawed, but it leaves us speechless to understand the level of corruption, the abuse of human rights, the lack of freedom of expression, the imprisonment of journalists on flimsy charges, the "insult laws" and the incessant rebellions in many sub-Saharan countries.

Foreign oil companies recently discovered a great difference in the payment they made to the Nigerian state and what Nigerian officials claim to have received. Between 1997 and 2001, 8.5 billion $US have disappeared from the coffers of the Nigerian state. According to the World Bank 100 million $ (US) of oil revenue are unaccounted for every year in Angola. The earnings from the oil industry in Equatorial Guinea is a state secret. Chad recently reneged on an agreement with the World Bank to keep 10% of oil revenue in a special fund for future generations, claiming that Chad is a sovereign state and the World Bank behaviour was akin to that of a colonial power (read France). And the first earnings from the sale of oil went to buy weapons and a new presidential jet. Teachers in Guinea Bissau has not received any pay since the last nine months. Imagine the Mauritian state not paying teachers on time for even one month!

MPs in Kenya recently blocked certain bills in Parliament to blackmail their government to increase their mileage allowance. They now have a take home pay of nearly £5000 Sterling when 2.5 million of their citizens may face famine this year.

A new and fashionable trend is sweeping certain African countries these days – change the constitution to allow the President to stand for another term of office. Chad and Uganda recently experienced it. Fortunately for Nigeria, the Senate threw out the bill.

Zimbabwe’s ill-conceived and controversial land reform has reduced its once booming economy to tatters with an inflation rate of over 1042%. And the Murambatsvina exercise (drive out filth) colloquially known as 'the tsunami', has left more than 700,000 people without roofs over their heads.

Had some African states managed their economy a bit better and organised a very strong multinational intervention force, the Janjaweed in Sudan would never have dared to plunder, rape and kill so many black civilians in the Darfur, where two million people have been uprooted. Countries are respected when they speak from a position of strength. Today, China and India are vivid examples of this old adage.

Dumont, an agronomist working in Africa in the late 50s wrote a book ‘L’Afrique est mal partie" (Africa has had a bad start) which enraged so many African leaders of newly independent Africa that he was declared persona non grata in many African states. What Dumont prophesied is still true today.

It is unfortunate that the Creole community never had the guidance and encouragement that other communities have enjoyed. They did not also avail themselves of the facilities that can be had and it would be a fallacy to blame others for their misfortunes The Indo-Mauritian and Sino-Mauritian communities have succeeded due to their solidarity and hard work and perseverance.
When they arrived here our Indian ancestors started rearing cows and goats. They brought from India the system of "Adhia" by which a fairly well-off family would buy a cow and "lend" it to a poor one to rear. Half of the milk would go to the owner and the first calf would be his property. My maternal grandfather, the first Hindu headmaster of a primary school, always had 5 to 10 poor youngsters from the villages staying at his place with free board and lodging. He paid for their college fees. He opened a primary school in Ecroignard with his own savings. Later government built a bigger school which today bears his name: Gopichand Chuttur Government school.

The next preoccupation of indentured labourers would be to get a plot of land from the sugar estate to plant vegetables. Encouraged by social workers, they would later start sending their children to school. At the end of the 60s Indo- Mauritians started sending their children to India for higher studies. Some youngsters would even work in government services for four years, save their money and then take a leave without pay to join Indian universities.

We have come a long way, regardless of the discrimination and humiliation meted to our forefathers and fathers.

Labourers sitting by the roadside had to stand up when the White master would pass. In 1951, Whitehall issued a directive which was sent to the Colonial Secretary in Mauritius. The directive read: No Hindu should be promoted higher than Sergeant major in the Police Force. We were compelled to join the Catholic or Protestant Churches in order to aspire for a job in the Civil Service. The sugar estates would not take us as apprentices in their workshops so that we would not be able to become artisans. We were good only to plant and harvest sugarcane. And the Chinese too had to get baptised before being allowed to open a small shop in the sugar estate camps.

In a debate last year on TV to commemorate the Abolition of Slavery, one participant urged the Creole Commununity to make sacrifices as the Asian communities had done. His appeal was met with a resounding NO from another participant who claimed that the Hindu community had its baithkas to advise them. The Creoles are mainly Catholics and still have the Church. What role has the Church played in the emancipation of the Creole community? I was very much intrigued to see very few Afro-Creoles studying in the Soviet Union until I learnt that the some priests prevented them from going to socialist countries. A High Commission here always reserved a scholarship for a brilliant Afro-Creole student, but there were almost no takers. Whoever would think of going to study in the land of beggars!

Soodhakur
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