Kierkegaard would find enough material to theorise about the existential crisis of Mauritius. This sense of despair related as much to the erosion of morals as the sacralisation of false values is but the culmination of years of laisser-aller on our behalf.
Yet, if you ask most ‘neutral’ observers about the Mauritian mal-être, they will retort that economic figures show robustness in the face of adversity, that we have a rising per capita income and that the greater number of shopping malls attests to the fact that Mauritians are far from being afflicted by any form of depression. Others will refer to the number of graduates and the fact that our parrot-learning system produces the type of robotic elite that is sought after by leading companies across the world. The only concerns according to such dogmatic analysts will always linger on the lack of openness of our economy and the dearth of privatisation and fiscal advantages to investors.
These achievements, if they can be deemed as such, do not suffice to get our Nation on the happiness path. They cannot veil the fact that we have transformed politics into a most lewd affair. They do not masquerade the lack of concern for the widening income gap nor do they make us forget the extent to which parastatal and public bodies have been perverted by dubious nominations. Artificial successes which include the exporting of our supposed best brains do not mask the collective failure of our leaders and their long list of associated scandals.
How do we put an end to our country’s woes? By replacing those having recently failed when in power by others who were considered inept in a more distant past? Through quotas that uplift the careers of a few while furthering the plight of the many? PR stunts such as these no longer fool anyone. What we need is a last spark of courage from all of us citizens, politicians, educators, experts and thinkers whereby there is the conscious effort to come together and rectify the failures of our system. This could be done through assizes which would cover the most pertinent issues: ‘Democracy and Democratisation’, ‘Education and Higher Learning’, ‘Fight against corruption’ and ‘Cultural Diversity’. Politicians longing for a legacy would gain by welcoming such an initiative. Mauritius and its people need another defining moment after 1968 and 1982. 2013 should be that year.
