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One day, during his yoga classes, my brother was counting the number of times he was doing a particular posture. And at that moment I told him: "This is not a competition for the ultimate. This is yoga. Don’t count. Just focus on the experience of doing it and on the various benefits that your body, soul and mind are bathing in.”
This attitude is sadly missing in our democracy, which is all about notching up votes and capturing all the 60 seats in the assembly.
The political arena is competitive, full of fierce antique rivalries.
It is based on the assumption that one with most votes is most popular hence most worthy of managing the country. Popularity has become the measure of capability. Or at least, this is what the politicians often make of popularity, forgetting that it is only quantitative in nature.
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But here yet again, Mauritians believe in the figures more than in the facts. For Mauritians, it is about the minority and the majority ethnic groups. For Mauritians it is about the 18 women in parliament. For Mauritians it is about the age of the political leaders. For Mauritians it is about the 'sole' 2/3 major political blocs.
Many fail to recognize or rather feign not to recognize that what matters more than quantity is quality. It's not how many votes this party (or rather 'Alliance' as per the Mauritian-now-exhaustive culture) gets that matters. What matters is that the population benefits from the those elected..once they join parliament and serve the country as Ministers...or rather, what some people benefit of before during the electoral fever. Benefits are of all sorts in the Mauritian Society. They range from being given Macaronis to being promised much cherished posts.
The elections are commercial and are commoditized – with boisterous teams galvanized to be better than others. They wear T-shirts to inform us to which ‘alliance’ they belonged to. They paint their houses and shops. Youth energy harnessed by political recruiters. It became about huge sums of money that would be put in voter's pockets- the newest trend being smartphones gifted just like that. Somehow.
The elections are commercial and are commoditized – with boisterous teams galvanized to be better than others. They wear T-shirts to inform us to which ‘alliance’ they belonged to. They paint their houses and shops. Youth energy harnessed by political recruiters. It became about huge sums of money that would be put in voter's pockets- the newest trend being smartphones gifted just like that. Somehow.
According to private sources, the electronic gadgets being gifted with the purpose of voters taking snapshots of their Voting Sheets as proof of their fidelity and being paid for their 'tick' afterwards.
The Mauritian Voter's Dilemma
You spot something good in a politician you reward him or her with a vote. You spot something bad you give your vote to somebody else. What if that somebody else is somewhat good and somewhat bad? What do you do? How do you choose between the various shades of grey?.jpg)
Instead of applying our minds to the task of choosing between shades of grey, we think we are being good citizens if we re-construct our choice in our mind.
But what's important is that as citizens, let us place Mauritius’ progress over any political party’s progress.
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The Vote Bank
Yudhishtira, the eldest Pandava(The Mahabharata), once said, “A king must not be a palanquin that people must carry. A king must be a boat who takes people across the river of problems.”
Some leaders do consider themselves to be palanquins that people have to carry. It is time they think of themselves as boats who help people ferry their way across the river of problems. This is not easy. For leadership on our island is won after a long-fought battle called elections. People are divided along party lines for the sake of democracy. The land is split to create vote banks, often by using ethnic differences.
Yudhishtira, the eldest Pandava(The Mahabharata), once said, “A king must not be a palanquin that people must carry. A king must be a boat who takes people across the river of problems.”
Some leaders do consider themselves to be palanquins that people have to carry. It is time they think of themselves as boats who help people ferry their way across the river of problems. This is not easy. For leadership on our island is won after a long-fought battle called elections. People are divided along party lines for the sake of democracy. The land is split to create vote banks, often by using ethnic differences.
Moreover, turns out that when it comes to vote bank politics in Mauritius, women are the new 'minority'.
The recent spate of gender crimes and the increasing concerns about women’s safety have made gender-related issues more important than before.
Therefore, one finds politicians making statements like — don’t you want your women to be safe? (Of course we do. In fact, we’d like men to be safe too.)
Some propose reservation in Parliament as the Speaker. Others talk about women in apparently praise worthy folkloric nach meri jaan.
The recent spate of gender crimes and the increasing concerns about women’s safety have made gender-related issues more important than before.
Therefore, one finds politicians making statements like — don’t you want your women to be safe? (Of course we do. In fact, we’d like men to be safe too.)
Some propose reservation in Parliament as the Speaker. Others talk about women in apparently praise worthy folkloric nach meri jaan.
The Mauritian Electorate
An endearing, almost cute trait of Mauritians is that we never really lose hope. We always feel a messiah, or a great grand scheme will soon come and deliver us from our woes.
Also, Mauritians are prejudiced, aiding such thought. Many of us Mauritians feel their community/religion/caste is somehow superior to others.
Of course, this is highly flawed thinking. For our prejudice itself is often the reason behind our woes. If we were not prejudiced, we would not have voted on the basis of identity. (Best Loser System among-st others!) We would have chosen instead a leader based on ability. We didn’t, which in turn led to the misgovernance mess, corruption and discrimination we find ourselves in today.
We never buy stories involving us taking responsibility. We never blame ourselves. It is always an external demon, and usually from another caste/community/religion that causes our woes. Not us.
When the truth is that the devil lies in us.
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| 10 December 2014 |