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Mauritius: The Pitfalls of Parochialism
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L'Express (Port Louis)
18 July 2008
Posted to the web 18 July 2008
Nicolas Rainer
Port Louis
"I was born on the tiny atoll of Peros Banhos in the middle of the Indian Ocean." Thus began Olivier Bancoult's recent lecture at Bristol University. The leader of the «Chagos Refugee Group» will soon find out whether he has the right to return to the hallowed archipelago.
Sadly though, there seems to be no limit to how low some of our countrymen are prepared to stoop. I'm talking about the self-proclaimed patriots, the potentates of impotence, who accuse the Chagossians' crusade against injustice of undermining the government's sovereignty claims over the Chagos.
Although this parochialism is to be expected of the bitter and the idle, it is nonetheless highly misplaced.
Personally, I haven't seen too much to persuade me that this country deserves to reclaim the Chagos. Its performance in Agalega has not exactly been stellar. Admittedly, things have started looking up recently for the 300 inhabitants of these two tiny islands located 1,000 km north of Mauritius. For example, a secondary school has recently opened there. Yet what kinship do Mauritians feel for their Agalean brethren? How many patriots are aware that Agalega is part of the
Port-Louis-Maritime-Port-Louis-East constituency? Does anyone worry whether any elected member of that constituency has been anywhere near the place in recent times?
Secondly, the government's pursuit of its sovereignty has been a few degrees short of zealous. Apart from some sporadic saber rattling and attempts at diplomatic manoeuvring, not a single government since independence has been able or inclined to pursue a coherent and consistent policy with regards to its claim.
In his introduction to Olivier Bancoult's Bristol University lecture, David Snoxell described the plight of the Bancoult family, a tragedy that Sophocles would've been proud of and one that most exiled islanders can identify with.
"In 1967, Olivier Bancoult was four when he left Peros Banhos with his mother to go to Mauritius because his sister badly needed hospital treatment. The sister died and the family was not allowed to return to their homeland.
The injustice of this situation and the urban poverty in which they found themselves instilled in Olivier and his mother a determination to fight back." Despite having been the focal point of much of the community's ire (the seminal 2000 and 2004 High Court judgments came during his posting here), the former British High Commissioner revealed: "It is good in retirement to find myself helping to promote a noble cause alongside my former adversaries".
I would advise anyone who is tempted to rage against the islanders' historic struggle against two of the world's most powerful countries to ask themselves when was the last time they did anything remotely noble. Chances are, a very long time ago. If that doesn't suffice to cure your wrong-headedness, then get out do some exercise.
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It's a lot more efficient than ranting about something that is more consequential than anything you'll accomplish in your lifetimes. If that's still not enough, you can mull over this famous phrase by Samuel Coleridge. "If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?"
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