On 21st Dec. 1988 evening, a tragic plane accident lit up the calm Lockerbie sky of southwest Scotland. It was a Pan Am 103 flight which had burst into flames. On board were 243 passengers and 16 crew members. All were instantly killed. On ground 11 people met their death and many others were seriously wounded. Soon after, a three-year-full-scale and painful international investigation revealed that the cause of the explosion was a Libyan terrorist bomb. That’s only a traumatic reminder and a sheer analogy.

Back to some 9900 kms far away from the Lockerbie plane crash. We are in Mauritius. Oddly enough, in my opinion, the overall comparison is the same – in the figurative sense of course.

With the fast-deteriorating social and economic situation, this is the unfortunate and distressing picture I have in mind. The plane represents the country. The 243 passengers symbolize the Mauritian population. The crew members embody all our leaders— be they political, socio-cultural, religious or others. The ground dead and injured personify future generations. Still, the terrorist time bomb typifies all the breeding, brewing and other un-hatched real problems of the society. And the terrorists who planted the time bomb on the plane epitomize all our decision- makers at every level of the society. It’s all but just a parallel: an image and a metaphor to better illustrate the growing frightening situation – spinning out of control.

(…) Before the Pan Am plane exploded in midair, neither the passengers nor the crew knew that there was a hidden time bomb on board. In our case, in sharp contrast, the lot of decision-makers – across all divide – cannot plead ignorance or insanity. Why? Because they themselves have fixed the social time bomb “enconnaissance de cause”. Sooner or later, the entire society will be engulfed in flames. (…)

More appalling and alarming: with the present growing trend of events with all sorts of undreamt and unheard crimes – I really fear the worst before December next. Challenge to the social order, social democracy and social exclusion will all lead to an inevitable social but popular explosion. (…)

In the dock are the following prime accused – all political, socio-cultural, religious and youth leaders. Of all, the principal ones are all Government and public-financed religious heads. Also stand accused are all political appointees including the President of the Republic and all his likes. What are they all worth in public eyes? In truth, at the root of each and every problem or crime is politics. Our politicians and their henchmen have all destroyed the very fabric of the society and the psyche of the nation. It’s they who have introduced a three-tiered economic development with the following base: make money by all means and become rich as quickly as possible. In effect, their tribe caters for material gains only.

To strengthen their hands and stand, they have also corrupted a section of the religious class. Let there be no misconception. Some religious leaders are exploiting and looting their own followers more than the political class: Money talks and numbers count!

Question arises: how to stop the rot? True, we should stop wallowing in self-pity and put an end to lame excuses, and blaming, shaming and finger-pointing exercises. We should hurry up. (…) Desperate situations call for desperate remedies. You can’t utilize the small one-centimetre hammer of a jeweller. Oh yes, we badly need the sledgehammer of a blacksmith. Only a theory of the big bang can deliver the goods. Indeed, there should be a complete re-hauling and a tsunami shakeup: to wake up the population and inspire confidence and faith. Obviously, without any hypocrisy, cosmetics, lies or window-dressing! Listed below could serve as an immediate short-term and long-term cure:

1. Lack of trust in the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic is more than evident. Both should only serve as facilitators. Confidence in the Supreme Court has also waned.

SO: There should be a high-level confidence-inspiring committee set up by the UoM – University of Mauritius. The best cadres of the Government and the Private Sector should be enrolled. The committee should not waste its time in hearing the accused.

They know the disease. They have to provide the prescription without delay. They should not listen to any religious or political leaders. The dying patient needs medicine or a surgical operation this very minute – and no sermonizing.

2. For one full month, there should be a total political truce. It can send the right signal.

3. The MBC/TV and all the government-run bodies should make a drastic U-turn and stop political broadcasts or engineering for one month. People will feel the change.

4. The Prime Minister should sack all the advisers (more than 350). In reality, most of them are at the root of our diseases – social and others. The common people should sense the transformation in their hearts and minds.

5. The committee set up by the UoM should ask the government to immediately reconsider its economic action plan. Special attention should be given to the deprived, the unemployed and the underprivileged. Up to now, they have all been left out or not considered as Mauritian citizens.

6. The media should play its role of an educator for one full month. Attention should be focused more on the positive side than the negative one.

7. The UoM committee should ask the Ministry of Education to re-examine its policy. It’s been a flop till now. We are producing a generation of frustrated and ill-prepared citizens.

8. Government should consider the possibility of immediately releasing some of the prisoners who have shone by their good conduct.

9. Our citizens are ill-equipped, ill-informed, ill-served and ill-prepared! There should be scientific leadership training courses at all levels of the society. Keep politics, politicians and religion far away.

10. Justice is blind. It should be felt, seen and perceived. Introduce fast-track special Courts to deal with corruption. ICAC should be disbanded. And the Supreme Court has cut but a poor figure. It’s time to review all its procedures.

11. Most important: The number one culprit in all the problems rocking and shaking the society is the Police Force. There are some 300 intelligence officers. They are all but political agents working for politicians in power and not the State! There are more than 2500 officers at the SMF and the NCG. Dismantle the intelligence agency.

Release all of them out on the field. Ask Servansingh of the SMF and Sooroojballi of ADSU to head this special tracking mission. I bet they will destroy the very den and womb of the lawbreakers and that within one month.

In the end, no one can deny the fact that events are moving unexpectedly with lightning speed. With the same speed we should act and stop the rot and the gangrene. No mouth-to-mouth resuscitation can save the cardiac arrest. Try a direct current electric shock!

Equally important: history indicates that the following have no friends, no love and no sympathy: fire, tsunami, flood, earthquake disease, epidemic (flu or cholera), scorpion, death, cemetery and all their likes. Likewise, nobody will be safe and sound with a social explosion. It’s a ticking time bomb which will engulf one and all.

Sadly, the terrorists are our own leaders. Mauritian-made!