![[Paul Lismore] Six years since taking power: the huge credibility gap caused by the insolence of office](https://www.zinfos-moris.com/photo/art/grande/50247077-38837069.jpg?v=1601569536 "[Paul Lismore] Six years since taking power: the huge credibility gap caused by the insolence of office")
![[Paul Lismore] Six years since taking power: the huge credibility gap caused by the insolence of office](https://www.zinfos-moris.com/photo/art/default/50247077-38837069.jpg?v=1601569539 "[Paul Lismore] Six years since taking power: the huge credibility gap caused by the insolence of office")
The celebrated pop artist and film maker Andy Warhol once commented that "They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
That comment rings so true for Paradise Island where the inhabitants continue to vest an inordinate amount of confidence in the ability of their politicians to live up to the promises made with such synthetic sincerity in the days preceding a general election. A population that has been reduced to a state of learned helplessness continues to participate like automatons in the cruel game of musical chairs that inevitably means the alternate positioning of a repeatedly failed group of politicians to take over the levers of power every five years.
How do we get out of this mess?
How do we find a new group of real patriots who will see our votes for them as a sacrosanct and incorruptible privilege to govern this country on behalf of all its people, and not as a shortcut to undeserved wealth for their families and friends, or as the opportunity to indulge themselves to satiety with the exorbitantly expensive fripperies that successive generations of politicians have quietly voted for themselves? Perhaps the more pertinent question would be to ask whether there are still sufficient individuals who have remained unscathed from the suffocating fog of corruption and nepotism that has shrouded this beautiful island since its independence.
What is becoming increasingly apparent is the need for a wholesale injection of fresh blood into a political process that is bogged down in a quagmire of corruption, selfishness, and a fake grandeur caused by all the governments of this country.
We have political parties that are led by leaders in perpetuity and who talk about democracy all day long without ever subjecting themselves to any democratic accountability regarding the leadership of their own parties. This crude political dictatorship is then shamelessly transformed into a dynasty, and the son (never the daughter, in this land of equal opportunities…) takes over the mantle of leadership without any democratic consultation or election; and the toadies queue along with the appropriate amount of forelock tugging to express their gratitude to the new leader, in the hope that they will be appointed to a position that is distinctly way above their intellectual pretensions.
The history of Mauritian politics is littered with brave and foolhardy promises made in opposition which are reneged on the moment the Electoral Commissioner declares the merchant of dreams as the new Prime Minister.
Politicians in opposition never feel better than when spitting venom on the vast amount of money spent on missions, and then show the same level of obscene prodigality whenever we have foolishly entrusted them to run the country responsibly on our behalf; promises are made that all appointments and promotions will be carried out in total transparency, and we then find out that the new government has blatantly appointed a worse group of idiots to run our ailing para statal organisations than those whose integrity and competence were questioned whilst in opposition; the MBC is rightly criticised by every opposition for its crude impersonation of Pravda and for its lickspittle tendencies towards the government of the day, only for its management to be replaced by a new bunch of sycophantic toadies who consider a good day's work as the number of times the ministers of the new government are allowed to break into and enter our living rooms at will.
The examples of saying the right things in opposition and then jumping on the same roller coaster ride of pomposity and self importance fed by the reckless and criminal expenditure of our money by all governments are too many to mention. And there is no better example of this callous behaviour than the self serving nonsense of every idiot under the sun being provided with a limousine entirely at our expense, simply because his appointment as chairman/director/advisor, High commissioner, etc stems entirely from his support for the idiots we have voted into power, and has no relationship whatsoever with his ability to fulfil the functions of the new role with even a modicum of efficiency.
I did not believe it was possible to exceed the level of shameless dipping in the public purse during the Ramgoolam years, but it is obvious that we can rely on all our governments to stretch our credulity with the sheer stupidity of their decisions and the criminal abuse of taxpayers' money. Isn't there anybody in the government who can summon sufficient energy and moral backbone to scream to the cabinet this simple word of three letters: WHY?
Politicians talk about reducing or removing subsidies, something which I agree with, provided the poor are not left behind. But what about the subsidies for the political class, something that never appears in the manifesto of all our political parties? How come none of these wretched politicians ever ask for our permission before they take our money to buy all sorts of ludicrous luxuries for themselves and their friends that only the bone headed will find appealing? In the final analysis, there is not even a paper thin difference between the politicians, irrespective of the party they belong to. They all vote assiduously in favour of anything that will fill their pockets, keep their fat arses in comfort, or fill their greedy mouths to satiety. Why has it become almost normal that any coler lafis appointed by his equally stupid political master to be a 'special' adviser or to run one of the many failing parastatal organisations that are such a burden on our economy gets a chauffeur driven limousine as part of an already immoral salary and expenses package?
If you are waiting for the opposition to say anything meaningful about these grotesque limousines, I would advise you to save your patience for something infinitely more possible, like winning the lottery!
Do these people take us for absolute idiots? Or are they so vain and selfish that they find nothing wrong in positioning their fat arses in luxury cars bought with our money? Here is a simple message that even these grabbing, self serving parasites ought to find easy to understand: if you want a BMW or a Mercedes or whatever other penile substitute you think will enhance your insipid, dull personalities, BUY IT WITH YOUR OWN MONEY!!!And this applies to the opposition too, because, as night follows day, they too will have no compunction at all to raid the public coffers in order to pamper egos that are inversely proportional to their intelligence or sense of shame.
How much longer can le pep admirab bear the whips and scorns of time, the wrongs and arrogance of our political masters? When will our rulers learn to stop spitting at the people who gave them the privilege to run the country on their behalf? When will we have politicians who refuse to be corrupted by the power that we have given them, and spurn any temptation to succumb to the insolence of office?
So much hope was vested in SAJ to learn from Ramgoolam's mistakes of 1995-2000 and 2005-2014 especially, and to sweep away with a clean brush the detritus of past governments which have abused the trust of the people by imposing a dictatorship of the political class. What have we found instead in the first six years of a Lepep government? More of the same, except on a much more horrendous scale! We now have many ministers who are even more incompetent, stupid, and amateurish than the previous lot, and who make the cabinets of 2005-2014 look like it was made up of geniuses.
A small country like Mauritius has 24 ministers + God knows how many PPS? Why?
And so many people on these fucking useless missions, which have been especially designed for morons who think that carrying big bags with 'Duty Free' marked on them is the highlight of their miserable lives? Why can't our governments repeat what the then new President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, did, within a week of taking power, by cancelling 90% of all missions? Why can't our Prime Minister impose his will and discipline on the Civil Service and para statal organisations, and give them set deadlines to achieve what is so glaringly obvious, and if they can't or won't, sack the lazy, pampered bastards? Why can't he order his minister of finance to prepare a budget for the poor and the homeless instead of always cosseting with the rich and the powerful? Why can't any government stop all these frivolous tax exemptions that favour the rich, whilst the poor have no choice but to continue to pay tax via VAT?
True leaders shine by trailing the road ahead with their own irreproachable conduct; telling people to ser sintir whilst taking their money without their permission in order to buy polluting monstrosities and gallivanting around the world is indicative of poor leadership, and an obsession with the self to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. It is immoral, disgraceful, and a sad indictment of a political class that believes our votes are exclusively cast so that idiots and their idiotic friends can place their grubby hands on our money.
How can you tell people to ser sintir when you yourself take over Rs 550,000 every month as PM and give over Rs 350,000 to ministers who are as thick as two short planks?
The government will find it very hard to recover from this ghastly display of the insolence of office during the first six years of its mandate. It can recover, but only if the will to bring in 'vrai sanzman' is there. The only real break from the past has been the removal of the hidden treaty between all parties that no politician will be charged following a change of government. This has created a precedent which will bite them in the arse. Should Ramgoolam become PM again, then expect the Jugs and their parasites to not only regularly visit Casernes but to take up a long residence in our prisons...Ramgoolam will do it, I have no doubt about that. Boolell won't, because he is too much of a gentleman and therefore an average politician...Berenger won't, because he is too busy devising stupid tactics to show how 'intelligent' he is....
The Lepep government has yet to understand that the rules have changed: a large section of the electorate no longer trusts the press or the MBC to give us the real news; internet has now allowed us to bypass them, and to compare actions with past promises. The sooner PJ understands this and forces that message down the throats of his cabinet, the better.
As things stand, 2015-2020 have been years of lost opportunities to effect the vrai sanzman that we all believed SAJ would. It might be now too late for his son to repair the damage. But time is not on his side. There has been theft of taxpayers' money on a scale never seen before; mention 'la cuisine' and the next word that comes out of people's mouths is a swear word.
Whatever verdict the Supreme Court comes up with regards to the electoral petitions, the fact remains that most people now believe the elections were stolen. Respect for our institutions has been lost, the people no longer trust the police, the courts no longer grab the imagination and awe of the people...in fact, everything seems now lost in a fog of despair and helplessness, and the blame is being put entirely at the feet of the government.
Time is definitely not on the side of a government that looks leaderless and showing less sense of direction than a headless chicken. The only thing left for them to do is to continue to exhibit the insolence of office in a crude and disgusting manner; and let's face it, that is one thing that they do exceedingly well...
That comment rings so true for Paradise Island where the inhabitants continue to vest an inordinate amount of confidence in the ability of their politicians to live up to the promises made with such synthetic sincerity in the days preceding a general election. A population that has been reduced to a state of learned helplessness continues to participate like automatons in the cruel game of musical chairs that inevitably means the alternate positioning of a repeatedly failed group of politicians to take over the levers of power every five years.
How do we get out of this mess?
How do we find a new group of real patriots who will see our votes for them as a sacrosanct and incorruptible privilege to govern this country on behalf of all its people, and not as a shortcut to undeserved wealth for their families and friends, or as the opportunity to indulge themselves to satiety with the exorbitantly expensive fripperies that successive generations of politicians have quietly voted for themselves? Perhaps the more pertinent question would be to ask whether there are still sufficient individuals who have remained unscathed from the suffocating fog of corruption and nepotism that has shrouded this beautiful island since its independence.
What is becoming increasingly apparent is the need for a wholesale injection of fresh blood into a political process that is bogged down in a quagmire of corruption, selfishness, and a fake grandeur caused by all the governments of this country.
We have political parties that are led by leaders in perpetuity and who talk about democracy all day long without ever subjecting themselves to any democratic accountability regarding the leadership of their own parties. This crude political dictatorship is then shamelessly transformed into a dynasty, and the son (never the daughter, in this land of equal opportunities…) takes over the mantle of leadership without any democratic consultation or election; and the toadies queue along with the appropriate amount of forelock tugging to express their gratitude to the new leader, in the hope that they will be appointed to a position that is distinctly way above their intellectual pretensions.
The history of Mauritian politics is littered with brave and foolhardy promises made in opposition which are reneged on the moment the Electoral Commissioner declares the merchant of dreams as the new Prime Minister.
Politicians in opposition never feel better than when spitting venom on the vast amount of money spent on missions, and then show the same level of obscene prodigality whenever we have foolishly entrusted them to run the country responsibly on our behalf; promises are made that all appointments and promotions will be carried out in total transparency, and we then find out that the new government has blatantly appointed a worse group of idiots to run our ailing para statal organisations than those whose integrity and competence were questioned whilst in opposition; the MBC is rightly criticised by every opposition for its crude impersonation of Pravda and for its lickspittle tendencies towards the government of the day, only for its management to be replaced by a new bunch of sycophantic toadies who consider a good day's work as the number of times the ministers of the new government are allowed to break into and enter our living rooms at will.
The examples of saying the right things in opposition and then jumping on the same roller coaster ride of pomposity and self importance fed by the reckless and criminal expenditure of our money by all governments are too many to mention. And there is no better example of this callous behaviour than the self serving nonsense of every idiot under the sun being provided with a limousine entirely at our expense, simply because his appointment as chairman/director/advisor, High commissioner, etc stems entirely from his support for the idiots we have voted into power, and has no relationship whatsoever with his ability to fulfil the functions of the new role with even a modicum of efficiency.
I did not believe it was possible to exceed the level of shameless dipping in the public purse during the Ramgoolam years, but it is obvious that we can rely on all our governments to stretch our credulity with the sheer stupidity of their decisions and the criminal abuse of taxpayers' money. Isn't there anybody in the government who can summon sufficient energy and moral backbone to scream to the cabinet this simple word of three letters: WHY?
Politicians talk about reducing or removing subsidies, something which I agree with, provided the poor are not left behind. But what about the subsidies for the political class, something that never appears in the manifesto of all our political parties? How come none of these wretched politicians ever ask for our permission before they take our money to buy all sorts of ludicrous luxuries for themselves and their friends that only the bone headed will find appealing? In the final analysis, there is not even a paper thin difference between the politicians, irrespective of the party they belong to. They all vote assiduously in favour of anything that will fill their pockets, keep their fat arses in comfort, or fill their greedy mouths to satiety. Why has it become almost normal that any coler lafis appointed by his equally stupid political master to be a 'special' adviser or to run one of the many failing parastatal organisations that are such a burden on our economy gets a chauffeur driven limousine as part of an already immoral salary and expenses package?
If you are waiting for the opposition to say anything meaningful about these grotesque limousines, I would advise you to save your patience for something infinitely more possible, like winning the lottery!
Do these people take us for absolute idiots? Or are they so vain and selfish that they find nothing wrong in positioning their fat arses in luxury cars bought with our money? Here is a simple message that even these grabbing, self serving parasites ought to find easy to understand: if you want a BMW or a Mercedes or whatever other penile substitute you think will enhance your insipid, dull personalities, BUY IT WITH YOUR OWN MONEY!!!And this applies to the opposition too, because, as night follows day, they too will have no compunction at all to raid the public coffers in order to pamper egos that are inversely proportional to their intelligence or sense of shame.
How much longer can le pep admirab bear the whips and scorns of time, the wrongs and arrogance of our political masters? When will our rulers learn to stop spitting at the people who gave them the privilege to run the country on their behalf? When will we have politicians who refuse to be corrupted by the power that we have given them, and spurn any temptation to succumb to the insolence of office?
So much hope was vested in SAJ to learn from Ramgoolam's mistakes of 1995-2000 and 2005-2014 especially, and to sweep away with a clean brush the detritus of past governments which have abused the trust of the people by imposing a dictatorship of the political class. What have we found instead in the first six years of a Lepep government? More of the same, except on a much more horrendous scale! We now have many ministers who are even more incompetent, stupid, and amateurish than the previous lot, and who make the cabinets of 2005-2014 look like it was made up of geniuses.
A small country like Mauritius has 24 ministers + God knows how many PPS? Why?
And so many people on these fucking useless missions, which have been especially designed for morons who think that carrying big bags with 'Duty Free' marked on them is the highlight of their miserable lives? Why can't our governments repeat what the then new President of Tanzania, John Magufuli, did, within a week of taking power, by cancelling 90% of all missions? Why can't our Prime Minister impose his will and discipline on the Civil Service and para statal organisations, and give them set deadlines to achieve what is so glaringly obvious, and if they can't or won't, sack the lazy, pampered bastards? Why can't he order his minister of finance to prepare a budget for the poor and the homeless instead of always cosseting with the rich and the powerful? Why can't any government stop all these frivolous tax exemptions that favour the rich, whilst the poor have no choice but to continue to pay tax via VAT?
True leaders shine by trailing the road ahead with their own irreproachable conduct; telling people to ser sintir whilst taking their money without their permission in order to buy polluting monstrosities and gallivanting around the world is indicative of poor leadership, and an obsession with the self to the exclusion of everyone and everything else. It is immoral, disgraceful, and a sad indictment of a political class that believes our votes are exclusively cast so that idiots and their idiotic friends can place their grubby hands on our money.
How can you tell people to ser sintir when you yourself take over Rs 550,000 every month as PM and give over Rs 350,000 to ministers who are as thick as two short planks?
The government will find it very hard to recover from this ghastly display of the insolence of office during the first six years of its mandate. It can recover, but only if the will to bring in 'vrai sanzman' is there. The only real break from the past has been the removal of the hidden treaty between all parties that no politician will be charged following a change of government. This has created a precedent which will bite them in the arse. Should Ramgoolam become PM again, then expect the Jugs and their parasites to not only regularly visit Casernes but to take up a long residence in our prisons...Ramgoolam will do it, I have no doubt about that. Boolell won't, because he is too much of a gentleman and therefore an average politician...Berenger won't, because he is too busy devising stupid tactics to show how 'intelligent' he is....
The Lepep government has yet to understand that the rules have changed: a large section of the electorate no longer trusts the press or the MBC to give us the real news; internet has now allowed us to bypass them, and to compare actions with past promises. The sooner PJ understands this and forces that message down the throats of his cabinet, the better.
As things stand, 2015-2020 have been years of lost opportunities to effect the vrai sanzman that we all believed SAJ would. It might be now too late for his son to repair the damage. But time is not on his side. There has been theft of taxpayers' money on a scale never seen before; mention 'la cuisine' and the next word that comes out of people's mouths is a swear word.
Whatever verdict the Supreme Court comes up with regards to the electoral petitions, the fact remains that most people now believe the elections were stolen. Respect for our institutions has been lost, the people no longer trust the police, the courts no longer grab the imagination and awe of the people...in fact, everything seems now lost in a fog of despair and helplessness, and the blame is being put entirely at the feet of the government.
Time is definitely not on the side of a government that looks leaderless and showing less sense of direction than a headless chicken. The only thing left for them to do is to continue to exhibit the insolence of office in a crude and disgusting manner; and let's face it, that is one thing that they do exceedingly well...
