Kumara Venkatasawmy
15 August 2007
Port Louis — How much longer shall we be able to sing those words without feeling that "ils sonnent faux"? In the name of economic development we are selling off the Motherland to rich foreigners arguing that this is bringing in foreign investment. It started with the Integrated Resort Scheme (IRS) which basically consists in selling the most beautiful spots of the country to foreigners. This scheme, launched by the previous government, was initially supposed to provide funds to the sugar industry to enable it to restructure itself. We know what sort of restructuring the sugar industry has been doing: laying off workers at enormous cost to the nation. I do not wish to go into an analysis of the IRS but suffice it to say that the scheme shows a total lack of imagination on the part of those who conceived it both in Government and outside; the scheme could have been made into something much more profitable to the nation without selling a single square toise of our land. Selling your most precious assets to foreigners is not development, certainly not sustainable development. What do we sell next time? It is to be noted that the Alliance Sociale bitterly criticised the scheme before the elections; they are now extending it to cover the whole island in their desperate move to attract foreign investment. Government is going even further, they are now even giving our land free to foreigners for development. Riche-Terre will soon be a rich concrete jungle consuming vast amounts of electricity and water and air and producing even vaster amounts of waste that will pollute our land, our atmosphere and our sea. It is unfortunate that in this matter there is not a lot of difference between the various political parties. Government has received the blessing of the leader of the MMM who seems to be blissfully unaware of the ecological and other implications of this project.
Those responsible for our development have not forgotten that the Republic does not consist of the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues only; there are a number of smaller islands scattered like pearls in the ocean that would fetch quite a packet; therefore in the name of development let us sell them too. More, the Republic does not consist of land only; we are lucky in being surrounded by the sea and to possess a vast economic zone. These are also worth a pretty packet. Tourists like beautiful beaches and the blue sea. Hotel development have made Mauritians foreigners in their own country. Land in the pas geometriques and on the coast will be so expensive that they will be out of the reach of all Mauritians except the extremely rich and the rich foreigners. Now, the sea will be parcelled off and privatised. Even our vast economic zone is no longer ours; the European Union has been given fishing rights up to twelve nautical miles of our shores. Soon we shall have fleets of fishing vessels catching all our fish, leaving us to beg for a share of the catch. At this rate we shall soon be left with only the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues large proportions of which would have been sold to foreigners anyway.
More privatisations
The selling off of the Motherland is not limited to our land and sea; our National companies are also the subject of convoitise. A 40% share of Mauritius Telecom has been sold to France Telecom who would have been given complete control of the company with the right to review and veto decisions taken by the Board of Management. Fortunately, a few patriots fought hard against this sell-off. One wonders whether the ministers of the previous Government were sleeping or did not understand the implications when the matter was debated. Now we are told that there will be more privatisations; the Central Water Authority, the Central Electricity Board, the State Bank, the port, the airport and, the jewel in the crown, Air Mauritius. We can see the manoeuvres to bring down the shares of Air Mauritius to rock bottom so that those who will buy it will get it for cheap.
What is happening is an insult to the memory of all the Mauritians who have worked hard for the past four hundred years to make of Mauritius what it is today. Soon the lucky Mauritians will be those who will have shares in a company called Mauritius Incorporated largely owned by foreigners. Then there will be a lot of frustrated Mauritians whose only means of having a piece of the cake would be to steal, to sell drugs, do illegal business or sell themselves. The road that we are on leads straight to economic and social disaster. It is time for all Mauritians, political leaders as well as ordinary citizens, to wake up and examine where we are heading.
Our Motherland is the basis our existence as a nation, as a people. We cannot look upon it as so much property that can be can be sold for cash. What is money? Money in itself is nothing. It only represents the things, material and immaterial that we possess. What would we be worth when we would have sold the country to foreigners?
In 1905, Sri Aurobindo, the great Indian patriot and mystic ,at the start of his movement for the liberation of India wrote: "While others look upon their country as a piece of inert matter-a few meadows and fields, forests and hills and rivers- I look upon my country as the Mother. I adore her, I worship her as the Mother. What would a son do if a demon sat on his mother's breast and started sucking her blood?" Sri Aurobindo was the first Indian National leader to declare that the aim of the struggle should be complete independence while others were aiming for self government. On this 15 August , Sri Aurobindo's birthday, the Indians will be celebrating the 60 years of Independence of what to them is very much Mother India. Our own National Anthem reflects very strongly this vision of the country as the Mother. We gather around her and find her beauty and fragrance sweet. Today after 37 years of Independence her integrity is in danger. We have to gather around her to defend her. Selling off the Motherland will leave us without dignity. To those who claim that there is no other way I wish to say my total disagreement. I do not put in doubt their sincerity; I question their proposed solution. We have faced many difficult situations before; the present one is not the worst. We do not have to sell the country to get out of it. We have a beautiful country, a lot of sunshine, a vast expanse of sea, people with brains and talent. These are ingredients for creating something beautiful. With imagination and some hard work we can create a place where Mauritians and foreigners can live and work and enjoy life. I am not against foreigners. Far from it. I simply feel that it is important that the present generation of Mauritians and those to come shall still be able to sing " Motherland, Motherland of mine", without having to hang their heads in shame.
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