Deepa Bhookhun
30 July 2007
Port Louis — How much money does it take to make one happy? Oh if only it were that simple. If only it were that simple to make people understand that money cannot buy much that matters really.
Why is money that important to us mortals? Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against the old monetary currency, myself - we know how "having it" makes one's life so much more enjoyable - and that's an understatement if ever there was one - than not having enough but surely there is a difference between need and greed? What is it that makes us compromise our self-respect, what is it that makes us swallow our dignity in the pursuit of money, that good servant but that bad, bad master?
Yatin Varma could probably enlighten us on this one. He could, for instance, tell us whether, while drafting his now famous letter, he felt any shame at all? Whether the drafting of this degrading letter didn't make his stomach turn, whether the thought of other people reading this letter didn't make him cringe? I guess it didn't.
Often, sick and tired of the usual suspects in politics, we yearn for new blood. How many times have we not wished that the time-worn politicians would just retire so the young would come like knights in shining armours and rescue us from the greed-infested political beasts we are so used to and whom we secretly despise with all our might?
And so Yatin Varma enters the world of Mauritian politics. He is a young thirty something, the youngest member of the current National Assembly. He seems able, he is not afraid to speak his mind and he gives the impression of being light years away from other grovelling politicians we have known. Great, we have all thought. Except that the young Varma is oh so greedy.
Yatin Varma is an MP. He is also a barrister. He is also the chairman of the parliamentary committee on the Independent Commission against Corruption. So no, as you can see, he is not exactly dying of poverty although one could be forgiven for thinking that his total income is not enough to sustain Varma's lifestyle as well as his ego. Goodness!
Then I guess his thirst will never be quenched. How can it when it has started to show its ugly head so early on in Varma's political career? The Prime minister was talking on Saturday about how higher salaries could be a motivation not to hum, compromise on ethics, to put it nicely. It's a nice theory. But how do you counter greed? But honourable Varma need not hang his head in shame. Oh no. No need to. May he take comfort in the knowledge that he is joined in his greed by many of his fellow colleagues, past and present. He can tell the opposition to go to hell, really; they certainly can't talk. By the way, I thought I read something about some ethical code that all MPs were required to adhere to. I wonder what happened to it.
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