Mauritius: A View of the News

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L'Express (Port Louis)

OPINION
9 July 2008
Posted to the web 9 July 2008

Port Louis

Listening to an interview of the minister of Finance recently, I felt that it was more like a lecture than an in-depth interview.

He was given an easy ride by the interviewer who failed consistently to ask any probing questions, thus allowing the minister to deliver his monologue. If an interviewer feels out of his depth on a specific subject, he should either do his homework better or enlist the help of a specialist on the subject to prepare some searching questions instead of agreeing to everything being said by the interviewee.

The prime minister is back from his mission in Europe and we are told that it has been highly successful. Yet on the topic of the Chagos, we note that there has been a promise of more talks about talks, in other words, the status quo. On Tromelin, we are advised that the differences in opinion are not far from being resolved, nothing more than a possibility, so in other words, nothing new.

Listening to the news on MBC, I ask myself why the bulletin must always start with what the prime minister does or says. Yet sometimes other news which can be more important, are relegated to a later part of the bulletin. Does the prime minister have the monopoly of headline news? Must we suffer this servile attitude of the MBC to the government forever?

Why do presidents of parastatal bodies find it so important to phone radio stations whenever a customer complains on air? Is it for their personal glory? Why do they not ask the consumers to visit them instead or provide a telephone number where they can be contacted on specific days and specific times? Surely that would help us all. On the other hand, may be not a good idea after all because this will not have the same self glorifying effect for them and listeners will not realize how wonderful they are.

There was a debate on the radio recently about the decline of football in Mauritius. You do not need to be an expert to know the reasons. Firstly, we have a minister of Sports who is not up to the task. Secondly, we have no structure in place at grassroots level, namely in primary and secondary schools, in village and district councils and no junior football league. Thirdly, we have a national stadium with a pitch like a quagmire and lack of adequate facilities throughout the island, no wonder we are always also ran.

Last year the government earmarked a capital budget of 10 billion rupees to be spent on infrastructures yet only 35% of that sum was spent. Included in this year's budget is a list of projects as long as your arm, are they going to be completed or are they going to be just empty promises? Remember the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We have heard expressions like" early harvest and bumper crop being used repeatedly, let us hope that the government does not come a cropper instead with inflation at 8%+ and likely to rise again. Perhaps instead of the slogan "Amigo" that has been used to promote this year's budget, it should have been "Attrappe-nigaud"!

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