In the electoral programme of l’alliance Lepep, SAJ promised that, if they win, the President would be the scientist Ameenah Gurib- Fakim, a woman from within the muslim community. Unlike the present and former Presidents, Mrs Gurib-Fakim has and had no political affiliations, thereby being entirely apolitical.

Now that Sir Anerood Jugnauth is PM, he is not putting any pressure on the President to resign, and rightly so. Unlike the utter disrespect which former PM Ramgoolam showed SAJ in 2005, the latter has shown Kailash Purryag all the respect the Office of President deserves when he and his team took the oath of office. But the time will almost certainly come when PM Sir Anerood Jugnauth will discuss the issue of Mrs Gurib-Fakim with President Kailash Purryag.

With the beating “sans appel” that the PTr- MMMalliance took from 84-year old SAJ, people voted for real change. From this optic alone, Kailash Purryag should, in his own conscience, realise that he should do the honourable thing and resign.

As one who is supposed to be the guardian of the Constitution, President Purryag took no steps to revoke Paul Bérenger, who was discussing an alliance with the government while being the opposition leader himself. When the PMO admitted negotiations  between Ramgoolam and Bérenger, on 19 August 2014, Barrister José Moirt petitioned President Purryag to revoke Bérenger in virtue of the President’s powers under Section 73(4) of the Constitution. President Purryag ignored the petition. Me Moirt filed a second petition on 1st September 2014 and insisted that the President has a duty to uphold the Constitution.

Office of conscience

The President then replied that he saw no “valid reason” to revoke Bérenger. He gave Ramgoolam every opportunity to clinch a deal with Bérenger. Is this really what being the «guardian» of the Constitution means and how a supposedly apolitical President should behave? Section 30 of the Constitution does make provision for the President’s removal from office, for example, due to “violation of the Constitution or any other serious act of misconduct”, but this is a very expensive and time-consuming exercise since it involves the setting up of a tribunal upon a motion made in the Assembly by the PM.

The Office of President is also regarded as an office of conscience in upholding the Supreme Law of the land. When, in conscience, the then President Sir Anerood Jugnauth, in March 2012, criticised Ramgoolam’s government for the degradation of people’s lives. Ramgoolam said that the Presidency is an apolitical office and invited SAJ to step down and join active politics, a challenge which SAJ gladly took and won.

By voting in Sir Anerood Jugnauth and his team, the people have liberated the country and they are breathing again. Through his behaviour, President Purryag ought to know that he is perceived as a man of Ramgoolam. As Dr Bunwaree advised, President Kailash Purryag should do the honourable thing and resign rather than hold on to power as Navin Ramgoolam tried to do by concocting all sorts of excuses.