As an American of Indigenous and freed enslaved African descent comparative historical sociologist of multicultural restorative justice in African Slavery Legacy Societies, I first came to Mauritius as the 2019-2020 University of Mauritius(UoM) SSR Chair of African Studies in joint venture with my non-aligned policy-advocacy think tank ASARPI: Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas (asarpi.org). The purpose of this distinguished position was to raise the profile of UoM as an African university.
As one whose inclination has been to bounce around Africa here and there, I had planned to stay in Mauritius for a couple of years, no more than 3 actually, and then move on to other adventures. It has been five years now and this is where I am staying, to my utter surprise. There are several reasons for this decision which has amazed even me, the hobo I have turned into over the past 12 or so years.
Someone who does not know me well but who knows well the physical beauty of Mauritius, would suspect I have probably put down roots here totally unexpectedly as an American due to the stunningly beautiful beaches and the friendliness of the people. Such are secondary reasons.
The primary reason is from my first meeting with the then UoM Vice Chancellor to the present, I have found more than a few leaders in all sectors of society to be much more receptive to a think tanker concerned with public good conversations and changes than anywhere else I have lived, including my own homeland.
Public good matters rise above party politics and those otherwise in power, as quality of life challenges in need of identification, advocacy, and addressing well for justice for everyone concerned. Public goods are basic cultural, political, and socioeconomic human rights such as access to affordable health care, housing, safety, drinkable water, nutritious food, legal services, adequate public transportation, the preservation of the cultures and histories of minority, marginalized, and excluded citizen communities and populations, quality education and employment, digital technologies and protections against violence be it domestic or street, human trafficking, drug abuse, and private and public sector fraud and corruption, and demographic discriminations based on prejudices such as age, caste, class, disability, ethnicity, gender, language, race, religion, or tribe.
And certainly, public good extends to how local and national governments, businesses , and civil societies (e.g. education, faith, media, grassroots communities) relate to international affairs near and far in promoting and activating good will and fairness in areas such as trade, immigration, and in diplomatic relationships beneficial to citizens and immigrants in a nation state.
The universal propensity for political parties in nations to take on the character of exclusive religious identities and communities is problematic in bringing all citizens together to effectively address public good challenges. The labelling of citizens based upon their political party affiliations distracts attention from public good bigger pictures in need of addressing and effectively resolving . It also means too often singular parties or coalitions in power politicize public good problems to get into office and stay in power rather than resolving them well if at all.
Opposition parties solo, or in coalition , too often promise to address public good matters as a way to get votes , or as sincere promises , then once in power can’t or don’t deliver for reasons within or beyond their control. Also, once in power, the used to be opposition too often refuses to give their governance predecessors credit where credit is due in addressing critical public good problems; sometimes in fact, stealing credit, ignoring such accomplishments, and even wasting time in trying to do the same thing all over again.
Such difficulties in rising above political party interests when party(ies) are in elected and appointed power or gain such power, is especially problematic in small island states with declining populations like Mauritius. The turbulence of multiparty politics in a small island like Mauritius in size with a declining population with deep internal schisms, is a recipe for rapid decline or at best stasis with misleading positive measures of global development and distorted celebrations of Indian Ocean and African national global status.
The past ten years of Mauritius governance has been characterized by intensifying autocratic rule with increasing repression of freedoms and with money laundering and drug corruption in a corporate development driven import driven economy. It could not help but deepen the misery index of ordinary citizens, especially the poorest, the oldest, and the disabled, ill, and unemployable. It has been enough for Alliance du Changement, a promising coalition of political parties led by Dr. Navin Ramgoolam, to win the national election on November 10th, by a nearly 70% margin.
This son of founding Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (SSR) is a victor for the fourth time. He has ousted former Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth’s standing government by a sizable margin given the deeper problems than the well said though oversimplified public post – election assessments such as the massive rising cost of living complaints and well publicized scandals during the two weeks of the eve of the national elections.
Namely, Jugnauth government’s downfall more intricately can be attributed to in some respects, overlapping factors, such as the politicalization of public good issues to get votes rather than careful coordinated government – business – civil society planning and monitoring, such as the subsequent mixed records of free public university for citizens, raising the minimum wage, and increasing pension checks. These governance ill planned ventures converged tragically with ill planned financially strapped cash cow projects impacting local community quality time of life without adequate community participation in decision making such as building the light rail Metro which has destroyed the economic and environmental fabric of towns such as Quatre Bornes and the building of smart city Ebene where thinking of adequate underground parking spaces was not even an afterthought in architectural design .
Besides the ousted government’s less than impressive relations with African countries beyond the minimal symbolic and blunders with South Africa in particular , there was another international governance problem with the negative domestic consequence of losing at the ballot box so drastically . That is poor and self-serving government import trade practices which line the pockets of a few while crippling if not devastating local suppliers’ capacities to compete with foreign supplier entrepreneurs and companies ranging from seafood, fruits, and vegetables to textiles, building construction, technologies, and certificates/degrees offerings .
Perhaps in bigger countries governments can get away with allowing foreign traders to intrude a bit in and compete with local businesses and still manage to stay in office. In a small island state’s fragile small trading market like Mauritius even a little bit of competitive importing can be the kiss of death for an island state government at the polls and was in this case with the flood of import goods and services in competition with local traders.
The soaring costs of housing in the face of not a few low occupancy to empty well overpriced foreign investor high rises for the international upper crust who have yet to flock here aligns with the over populated mall culture here with their overly expensive empty stores and restaurants while most Mauritians chow down in still too expensive food courts just good for family outings and status dating for the few fortunate.
The runaway train food costs in local markets and grocery stores during and after COVID-19 cries for stricter enforced government food security regulations and controls and incentives for corporate and small-scale grocers to engage in local food redistribution programs to feed the growing hungry indeed starving.
The family preferences , skin color, language, gender, religious, and caste biases of public and private sectors leaders’ employment recruitment, retention, and promotion practices during the past ten years, and especially during and after the COVID-19 epidemic, have spurred an immense out migration of talented youth and older citizens treated unfairly in labor markets.
The former government’s generous immigration incentives to attract African and Asian students, service workers, and professionals have complicated growing labor shortage problems in the country. Many of them are English or non-English speakers who don’t speak French or Creole or even if they do, they are often not hired beyond entry level service sector work. No matter where in labor market strata African and Asian immigrants land , they are often exploited time wise and compensation by employers with the Ministry of Labor turning a blind eye.
Though, in fairness, there is a public good reason for pity for the ouster of now former Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth’s government as a consequence of its governance hiccups and flaws including its reputation for being incompetent or/and non-responsive to the needs of ordinary citizens as particularly seen in the cyclone warning blunders and the 2020 Wakashio oil spill disaster and repressing freedom of speech including jailing critics.
That is, the potential loss of Jugnauth government’s innovative approaches to several pressing public good problems as the victors take over the reins of governance. Hopefully, the new government will continue, indeed improve on such public goods while giving their predecessors due credit.
For instance, in my time here, now former Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth government ‘s concern for preventing violence against girls and women, the establishment of the Special Education Needs Authority (SENA) and of a state of the art TVET (Technical and Vocational and Education Training) system , and the establishment of museums and heritage sites focused on Indian contract labor and African enslavement and rebellions are illustrations of public goods deserving preservation and expansion.
The incoming Alliance du Changement coalition of parties proclaiming to be the agent of change due to the mentioned and other underlying reasons for soaring costs of living and the last minute wiretapping scandal, may have lost if the latter had not occurred due to the power of the Hindu vote and the capacity to buy the Creole vote.
But they won largely due to their effective galvanization social media and traditional retail galvanization of the Creole Catholic and non-denominational Christian, Muslim, and Chinese vote, topping off Hindus disaffected by the party in power.
Yet, this is a coalition victory with fragile longevity since the demographic appointments of the recently announced cabinet demonstrates a dismal business as usual governance leadership attitude rather than a justice adjustment attitude rewarding Creole and other Christians and Muslims and Chinese for propelling the coalition to victory. Explanation.
According to the 2013 population census, there were 33% Christians, 17% Muslims and 48% Hindus (including Tamils, Telugus and Marathis), the remaining 2% being made up of residual religions like Buddhists, Quakers, and atheists. According to the Best Loser System, based on the well outdated census of 1972, there must be at least 28% of the General Population (GP) in Parliament, i.e., 19. So, you would expect to have 28% of Christians (GP) in the list of candidates, i.e., 17. There were only 13 Creoles as candidates in the Alliance du Changement. In fact, there have been claims that the percentage of 28% in the Best Loser System (BLS) should be reviewed upward to 33% to reflect the current demographic reality of the country, but this has not happened.
The unfairness in the selection of the number of Creole candidates is clear. The unfairness in the appointment of Ministers is in fact glaring: 15 Hindus, 5 Christians(mostly Creoles) , 4 Muslims and 1 Chinese. There are at least 6 high caste Vaishya Ministers. Somehow the Creole and other non-Hindu rights and expectations are suppressed.
This initial business as usual in discriminatory rather than good and fair governance attitude , will gravely injure the Coalition’s ability to survive beyond one term unless the mentioned inequalities are eradicated, as well as service deliveries addressing the education, employment, housing, health, law enforcement, and food access needs for Creole and other minority and other vulnerable populations who voted for the coalition, dramatically improve.
Interestingly enough though, as the history of governance in Mauritius, like elsewhere, shows improvement in the delivery of services to enhance the quality of life through the efforts of the President, Prime Minister, the cabinet ministers, and National Assembly has to do with their authentic personal values and commitments of these key policy makers, not their demographic characteristics.
Indeed, for instance, it has been common for those of Creole,i.e. at least of partial African descent, to cease identifying as Creole and with the justice interests of Creole interests once in office if they ever did identify as such. This Creole paradox is a well-documented global African Diaspora case of the often disconnect between those of at least partial African descent ancestry and their common disassociation from African descent justice interests . That is, once elected or appointed to high business /civil society /private/public offices in majority non – African descendant nations, not a few of those of African descent ancestry partial or full, prefer the non-identity politics route.
What matters are the winds of change in Mauritius this last national election, in harmony with what’s going on these days in other African countries such as moving away from family embedded party and national government leadership, and the development of new parties which win national elections.
Given the post 70 ages of the newly elected President and Prime Minister, with no politically interested or well-placed descendants in sight and the likely retirement from politics of Pravind Jugnauth, the son of former Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth, their families will be no more in national politics and there are no comparable families which have their comparable clout. So, the door for new politics and governance has swung open the widest for the first time in history. What to make of it and by whom and most importantly how, we shall see what unravels and emerges.
No matter who is in power now or stays in power or passes down power, Mauritius is at a critical point in its development where decreasing the gap between the false image of middle income status based upon corporate development driven economic realities and the realities of ordinary citizens of all statuses, especially the vulnerable in many cases barely living, and to institute public good policies which really work for all people. Otherwise, why come as a visitor, worker, or investor or stay as a citizen in Mauritius?
This will require a different kind of governance political culture now and for future government administrations. It must be rooted in public good pursuing collaborative public-private partnerships, entrepreneurship, community law enforcement, intercultural values, problem solving and human variation in learning curriculum in all levels of education, flexible education and employment opportunities, actively fighting against all forms of demographic prejudices, and incentivizing holistic family policies to be practiced by citizens and immigrants to address problems such as domestic violence, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, life taking stress related diseases, and older persons neglect and abuse.
And finally, as a throbbing Mauritius public good in need of addressing and resolving rather than ignoring and dismissing are the 2010 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report and other knowledge-based reports recommending land redistribution to the descendants of long exploited enslaved and freed Africans and Indian contract laborers and political economically marginalized Chinese people.
Instead of ignoring, denying, and watering down such restorative justice reports, there is an imperative public good government leaders in collaborative partnership with the leaders in business and civil society must get the nerve to long overdue air and resolve. It is how White native and immigrant hegemonic land ownership prevents needed land redistribution reforms to deepen the nation’s needful transformation from being an “obsolete dehumanizing of all “ 18th to 20th centuries segregated and discriminatory plantation society to a 21st century authentic reconciled inclusive developmental empowerment plural society .
These and other critical public goods policies and practices must be passed down to succeeding governments, businesses, and civil societies until these insidious dehumanizing human rights problems are no more. Otherwise, Mauritius will fail to globally compete effectively in a world and with an electorate demanding more of the nation than its beautiful beaches and impressive global development measures hollowed when we take a much more transparent sobering look at why the defeat of the standing party is so resounding.
So earth shattering was the Alliance du Changement win that for the third time since the 1968 legal independence of Mauritius (1982,1995,2024) a coalition has no opposition in the National Assembly (parliament).But this unique historical electoral event has a different feel, different generations demanding more than a different 99 years landlord over Chagos, tired of all the incompetency and not willing to stay silent any longer about governments not doing good things, tired of joblessness and hunger. Rather than fleeing abroad, they are staying and fighting. They are using Facebook, WhatsApp, and Zoom to share notes and expose government, grocer, university, business, media, medical, court, and police wrongs with relatives and friends domestically and abroad.
Will the new coalition government go with the winds of change on the continent(e. g. Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, the West Africa Francophone coupes) and create new winds waiting to burst open in their nation with such an impatient demanding and electorate or just do the same thing thus allowing their nation to just wither away as an idyllic spot in the Indian Ocean while other regional island states such as Madagascar and Seychelles continue to awaken and move towards becoming global powers of substance rather than of beach brochure form? We shall see.
