Your old road is Rapidly agin'.

Please get out of the new one If you can't lend your hand For the times they are a-changin'. Bob Dylan, The Times They Are Changing

Dj-vu
2011 is almost over. Now that 2012 is dawning upon us, nostalgia beckons. The time is right to indulge in a retrospective of the year gone by. The question we should ask ourselves is the following; Is Mauritius a mediocrity-bound country where change is absent? For every year in Mauritius bears a striking resemblance to the former one, as if there was the desire to leave us stuck in a state of a status-quo. Then not so astonishingly, 2011 is eerily reminiscent of 2010 or of years before. Corruption was the show stealer all-along, the anticipated general elections talks were evidently thrown in the litany of premonitions, the National Propaganda Machine did its best to get our minds focused on the greatness of our leaders, talks of a tailored electoral reform resurfaced and undue privileges enjoyed by some protgs grabbed headlines. But the now perennial fixture of the Mauritian Annum remains rumours on the possible conclusion of an alliance. This downward spiral of politics has long been in gestation. The absence of new debates and the lack of democratic tools to empower citizens have meant that the focus was stealthily switched to consolidating the tyranny of the parties at the profit of the citizens. For there is nothing about or for the people in what our politicians do, nevermind say nowadays. Rather, and unsurprisingly so, it is about family interests, about reports that are talked about lengthily without nothing truly revolutionary in them and about financial considerations that have usurped political ones. In Dodoland, politics is the repetition of old slogans with renewed fervor, Bisin ser ceintir , Situation economik pu difisil , Pas laisse pouvwar sap depi nou la main . Rigor Mortis seems to have struck the minds of politicians from different factions, so much so that there is no longer any discernible difference between one party and another. Tocqueville said that we get the government we merit. A more apt description of the Mauritian situation would be We get the class of politicians we deserve . And readers, have we been badly served. Even the staunchest of labourites has grasped the flaws of those governing us. What we need is a pledged project that gives us an alternative to the present model. Those that purport to bring change have yet to bring a clear answer on how they would achieve economic growth with a credible job creation plan in the medium to long term, nothing yet on how they plan to protect and upgrade the liberties of citizens, not much either on the measures that they would implement to combat corruption.

It s not all bleak

On the upside, the demise of the Alliance de L Avenir stood out; the MSM and the LP, unable as they were to weather the pact of tolerance to each other s blunders. Less people at the helm means there are fewer possibilities of failure. The year ended on talks of an electoral reform. And we do need one but should this be an la carte choice for the leaders of the different parties? No. What we need is a referendum which would offer citizens the choice between a PR model and a direct democracy one. The latter would be the harbinger of real change and would give a new impetus to politics. Some seem to be bent on incepting the idea that we should be concerned about party hegemony, that quotas are a viable solution and non-elected ministers constitute a pas en avant. Fanon s words would seem fitting to counter such views ; "Politiser les masses[ ]C est s acharner avec rage faire comprendre aux masses que tout dpend d elles, que si nous stagnons c est de leur faute et que si nous avanons c est aussi de leur faute, qu il n y a pas de dmiurge, qu il n y a pas d homme illustre responsable de tout, mais que le dmiurge c est le peuple et que les mains magiciennes ne sont en dfinitive que celles du peuple."

Les Damns de la Terre (1961), Frantz Fanon

Happy New Year People of Mauritius.

Yeshwant Ramchurn