[Blog] LALIT’s Program on the Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius

So, here are some of our thoughts, in LALIT, on a new Constitution. No more than that. We indicate what might be included and what avoided. It all depends for success, however, on working class mobilization.

Mauritius is its Territory, its Natural Environment, its People and their “Ordinary” Culture

Since our Republic is its territory, its natural environment and its people, these must all be given Constitutional protection.

* The Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius, that is to say of the land and people, as well as the waters and smaller islets around the Island of Moris, Rodrigues, the Agalega Islands, Tromelin, St Brandon (Cargados Carajos), and the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia, must open with a declaration that one day all the land and all the sea of the Republic will be public property, belonging to all those that live here. Similarly, one day all the wealth created by the labour of past generations of the working class – the enslaved working class, the indentured working class and the modern wage slavery working class – wealth that constitutes the means of present and future survival will become public property, controlled democratically. For this reason, it is important, in the meanwhile, to keep in place the Constitutional Amendments of 1982-3, after the working class swept the MMM-PSM into a 60-0 victory, amendments which did away with colonial provisions so as to ensure the possibility and practicality of nationalization of private property created or developed by past labour. We must avoid changes that once again make nationalization of this kind of property more difficult. (See the section below in this chapter on the 2 kinds of private property).

* The Constitution must in future abolish the presence of foreign military bases and banish all warships from all Mauritius’ ports, i.e Port Louis, Diego Garcia, Port Mathurin, Agalega, St. Brandon and any other point of debarkation, and ban such ships from our waters. Our airports, too, must be closed to war planes. This means that an army of occupation, like the UK-USA’s in Chagos including Diego Garcia, must be expelled and its base dismantled. It means the Treaty with India over Agalega must be made public, and any military installations there, too, will be unconstitutional. 

* The Constitution must ensure that all Mauritians have Mauritian nationality, and can therefore give it to their marriage partner, and the Constitution must abolish, by contrast, any according of nationality on the basis of capital investment or any other moneyed transaction. This will prevent re-colonization, in particular by rich investors and any international Mafia. 

* The Constitution must continue to ensure that “everyone” in all our Islands, including workers from abroad and other visitors, are assured fundamental rights, and this, without discrimination. Many existing clauses of our Constitution refer specifically through careful drafting to “everyone” and not only to the more restricted category of “citizens”, or “residents”. This is important to maintain in any new Constitution or in any amendments. The existing Constitution already says, for example, “... in Mauritius there have existed and shall continue to exist without discrimination by reason of race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex” [then the list of rights], meaning for everyone, or “No person shall be deprived of his life”, or “No person shall be deprived of his personal liberty” or “No person shall be held in slavery or servitude,” and “No person shall be required to perform forced labour.” The carefully chosen words ensure the rights are for all humans. It would be a serious error to restrict rights only to “citizens” leaving unprotected a category of “non-citizens”, as some seem to propose.

* The Constitution must work towards equality for all, including class equality.

* The Constitution must ensure that the State does not categorize people by race and/or religion, or force people to categorize themselves this way. The communal Best Loser system must be amended, even in the short term, to a Best Loser system that is a kind of “proportional representation for under-represented political parties”. This, while continuing to link the right to vote to residence in a constituency. (See our Program on Democracy on our site.)

* The Constitution must ensure, free and universal health services, social security, housing and education for everyone living here. 

* The Constitution must ensure stable employment for every person, and if it cannot, then a sufficient guaranteed monthly revenue.  

* The Constitution must ensure equality for men and women, and for people who identify as neither man or woman. It must aim to abolish patriarchal hierarchies in society, not to merely let women rise to domineering positions within them.

* Marriage must be freely entered into by adults, and the State must recognize marriage between any two adults who wish to marry and are not already married to someone else. Divorce must be a simple procedure without any charges, other than symbolic ones like the charges for Civil Status marriage. 

* Freedom of association must include the Constitutional guarantee of freedom for workers to withhold their labour power i.e. to go on strike. Infringement must be an offense under an Anti-Slavery Clause in the Constitution. 

* Freedom of thought, freedom of conscience must be assured as well as religious freedom. The Mauritius Constitution is already progressive in this instance. It reads, “No person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of conscience, and for the purposes of this section, that freedom includes freedom of thought and of religion, freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and both in public and in private, to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.” Any narrowing down of this right must be avoided. Art and creativity must be protected form state censorship.

* All existing freedoms protected under the present Constitution must remain, and be extended. 

* However, the protection of “private property” must be made on the basis of two different kinds of property that are in the existing Constitution been conflated: property that is truly personal (your house, your motorbike, your toothbrush, your mango tree, and all your genuinely private property) must be protected from confiscation or nationalization. However, property created by past labour of those enslaved or indentured or cowed into wage slavery and then expropriated by private individuals and which constitutes the means of survival for us all today, must no longer be protected as “private” property. It never was “private”. We refer, in particular, to land and capital.
 
Democracy Extended

* Democratic control must be extended to cover decisions on land-use and capital investment.

* Democratic control must also be extended over the entire permanent State apparatus i.e. the civil service, police and parastatals. And our aim is to gain democratic control over all of big capital. 

* Representatives must be elected and also subject to recall (revocation) by means of an argued electoral petition. A newly elected Parliament, as well as local and regional elected assemblies, must elect their Speaker or Chair, and then immediately elect the leader of the assembly concerned. For the National Assembly this would be the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister would then present his cabinet for ratification by the Assembly. This way, logically, they would all be subject to recall by those who elected them. 

* Regional Assemblies, and a Constituency each, must be established for Agalega and Chagos, with more advanced regional and local democracy for the Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues.

* The mother tongues Kreol and Bhojpuri, our collective means of thinking, must be protected from the present banning in schools, including from banning as medium of text-books and evaluation exercises. The main news bulletins must be given in good spoken Kreol and Bhojpuri, as part of the right to information. All aspects of the judiciary must be understood in Kreol, and interpretation available, on request, in Bhojpuri. The banning of Kreol and Bhojpuri in the National Assembly and other official instances must be lifted, as must language and literacy qualifications for election.  

* Freedom of Information must be given constitutional force, meaning every person has access to any information or data held by the State or by any private company about them, and every journalist is entitled to all information of public interest. 

Transparency

* All Treaties must be made public.

* All clauses concerning secret contracts like Non-Disclosure Agreements must be made illegal, if there effect risks: 

*  Covering up of any criminal offense.

*  Territorial integrity or national security.

*  Freedom to seek new employment. 

* Banking transactions and accounts must no longer to be shrouded in secrecy.

* All firms must publish proper accounts. The evaluation of their assets, and liabilities, must be the same for the purposes of tax and for obtaining loans.

* The Constitution must ensure that all nominations and appointments for jobs or any other position of responsibility are published, giving the person or people’s names, area they are from, and qualifications for the job, as well as the list of all applicants, and their qualifications. The reason for the choice must be listed, too. 

Some New rights

* The Constitution must find a formula for obliging all big land-owners to participate in the production of basic foodstuffs, so as to ensure a level of food sovereignty for the country.

* The environment – the land, its fresh water, the oceans and the air and sky above us, must have protection from pollution by the owners of industry and industrial agricultural effluent, of public transportation and energy production, and from waste. Diego Garcia must be demilitarized at once so as to address the worst pollution afflicting our land. 

* The Constitution must ensure that people’s privacy (not “private life”) is respected relative to the State, employers and big data companies.

* The arts and crafts, sports and pleasurable activities, must be recognized as human rights. As human productivity increases through AI and automation, the gains must be shared in terms of less work-hours for the same pay, and to a higher minimum revenue for all.

All these changes will come about alongside nation-wide debate in all social centres, village and municipal halls, as well as over radio-TV and social media, and alongside nation-wide mobilization behind the demands for proper democratic control over all aspects of life.

This is Chapter One of 20 Chapters of our Electoral Program, published now 10 May 2024, based on years of meetings.

It goes hand-in-hand with our book “Filozofi LALIT” and booklet “Stratezi LALIT”, Both published in 2023 and based on our 6-day Congress of 2022.