More than one, the people of the street as well as the political observers,  have been surprised, if not perplexed, by the terms of the alliance between Navin Ramgoolam and Pravin Jugnauth.  The first observation was how quick the alliance was made.

As soon as Paul Beranger announced that his party had put an end to the talks with Navin Ramgoolam, the latter turned straight away to Pravin and the discussed  the terms of joining forces against the MMM.

The agreement did not take long, which means that there were not many points of contentions at stake. Now we discover that  Pravin’s demands  did not meet with resistance from his counterpart. This is in strange contrast with Navin’s negotiations, or if you prefer the “ koz koze”, with Paul Beranger. With Paul, Navin asked for a lot knowing that he was in a “position de force”. However the talks failed because Paul Beranger did not agree to all of Navin  demands.

Actually Navin  wanted to be a President with full powers, (he is surely an admirer of Nicholas Sarkosy), a President who can change his Prime Minister and reshuffle cabinet at his leisure. We have seen this with French politics, with Mitterrand, Chirac, etc….

Under such a regime, Paul felt that he would be a puppet in Navin’s hands and rightly so, neither he nor his party could accept this request.

There is need at this point to stress the difference between the way the PTR and the MMM operates. Jayen before, and Paul Berenger later, was mandated by the party and at each stage, gave an account of the talks. But with the PTR no one apart from Navin knew what was being discussed. That is why all the members and partisans of the PTR were shocked to learn from Navin’s mouth that he has been talking to the MMM over the past three months. Had the talks been brought to the BP or Central Committee of the PTR, since the beginning, things would have been different.

The same scenario happened with the MSM, no one knew or agreed to what was negotiated. It is now more than certain that a majority, if they would have agreed with the alliance with the MSM, would not have accepted the disproportionate number of tickets and surely not giving the Ministry of Finance to Pravin. Here again the members of the PTR was put in front of a fait accompli and now asked to accept and gérer le conflit.We are all witnessing the repercussions of Navin’s decision: It amounts to a bad start for the PTR. But Navin in his belief that he is le maitre a bord and le prince incontesté is sure that his followers will end up swallowing tranquillement la couleuvre. Do the have a choice? For sure not at all.

Coming back to the Jugnauths, they prepared this alliance long in advance slowly but surely. If Navin had always relied on his sondages and other reports to believe firmly that he is imbattable and Maitre supreme, he failed in that to take care of his friends and concentrated on his enemies. Navin was naïf to think that the Jugnauths had no hidden agenda and that the MSM is only but “une opposition loyale”. This was actually their strategy, but Pravin has always claimed that he and his party will be in the next government i.e. be it with the MMM or the PTR.

The role of “opposition loyale” was a good plan to stay on the fence and watch how the events unfold and act in consequence. Knowing that the tide was in favour of Navin and the PTR, they played the game well. Even though SAJ was always “koz koze” with Navin, Pravin was also “koz koze” with the PMSD and using them as the medium to pass on their message to Navin. XLD and the PMSD were well aware that their only chance to stay in power was to stick with Navin. When they were offered only one ticket, they redoubled their efforts to convince Navin Ramgoolam not to ally with the

MMM. Instead they offered the MSM as alternative and initiated the alliance Blue-Blanc-Rouge, a reminiscence of 1983. And so Navin was convinced that such an alliance will easily defeat the MMM and said YES to XLD. But when he moved to the next step, he was far from knowing what Pravin had planned. He was probably shocked but could not turn back to the MMM, nor could be go alone. This is where he acted under pressure and succumbs to the whims and demands of both the MSM and the PMSD. “Couto emba mo la gorge” as he once said to Miss Stephanie  Anquetil.

Louis de Lamare-Lamvohee

Read also