[Blog] Fake MMM: Putty In Ramgoolam’s Hands

By Rama Valayden, Senior Counsel

Berenger has left the Government on issues that will become clear as the days roll on. The Prime Minister has said unequivocally that he will take his time before nominating another Deputy Prime Minister.

The person he will nominate is within his discretion as per our Constitution but no nomination is against the Constitution more particularly section 59 of the Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius which stipulates “There shall be a Prime Minister and a Deputy Prime Minister who shall be appointed by the President.”

Failing to do so is a violation of our Constitution. In any circumstances, the Prime Minister is bound as per our Constitution to nominate two other ministers:

(a) The Deputy Prime Minister 
(b) The Attorney General

But it seems that we do not care about that basic requirement which gives the Prime Minister (because of a weak public opinion) much leeway to the detriment of our Constitution.

The attitude “I decide when I want and if I want” is clearly not the DNA of a democratic leader. It speaks volume about how the country is running.

Another issue is whether Navin Ramgoolam will nominate somebody from the fake MMM. On the other hand, does MMM have enough political muscles to flex to force Navin Ramgoolam to nominate somebody from its ranks? Will the fake MMM ask for somebody to be nominated from its ranks? Is there somebody from the MMM who carried enough influence to gather enough subscription to his/her name? Will the nomination cause more division among their ranks that they will prefer to avoid that obstacle?

The Deputy Prime Minister if it comes from the fake MMM will not carry a lot of weight as we all know that without Paul Berenger, the MMM has lost its soul.

But what is more worrisome for me is that today the fake MMM is Putty in the hands of “Navin Ramgoolam”. Navin Ramgoolam will control the whole political and economical and the fake MMM will only acquiesce and defend public to be in the good books of Navin Ramgoolam so as to get some goodies for the “Militan Koltar”.

Navin Ramgoolam is surely contemplating someone from his own party. And here he faces some dilemma. Who is the dilemma? Will it be Patrick Assirvaden or Shakeel Mohamed?

At the end of the day, it will boil down not to merits but to communal strategy. Another danger here in his mind is that the Village-Elections are not far and the Labour Party cannot have the luxury to let the MSM or its allies to win all the big villages. Navin Ramgoolam knows that despite all sorts of tactics all socio-cultural organisations are in the zone of influence of MSM. The future is bleak.

And now if the MMM does not get the post of Deputy Prime Minister, it is clear that they will have no power to influence the Government policies. At least Rezistans ek Alternative have been able to say which route the Government must take. Will the fake MMM muster enough courage to do so?

They have now robbed themselves of the beggar’s role and as such they cannot choose. Like political beggars, they will become the appendix of the Labour Party meaning that they will have no role on major issues.

The fake MMM will surely exist for a while but their impotence will be there for everyone to see. From the above, one can see why true “Militans” should opt out of Government and support Bérenger.