The celebration of May Day tends to become more a matter of crowd struggle than an occasion to discuss important political issues. Not only is this day far from being the celebration of workers? struggle for their rights ? supposed to be the real meaning ? but also none of the politicians seems interested in concrete political, economic or social matters that could yet be of interest to the whole population.

This is yet what was expected on this occasion, but both leaders of the main parties remained vague on their actions for the future. One could hardly imagine that general elections were only one year ahead. Although members of the Labour party had previously announced that they had already started their electoral campaign, nothing could make one think that it was the case.

Paul Bérenger contented himself with declaring that he had a ?winning formula? but the contents have remained a total mystery so far. Pravind Jugnauth himself has not been put in the know yet according to the Prime Minister. He announced that he ?would soon discuss this formula with (his) friend Pravind?. As for Navin Ramgoolam, he goes on saying that the government does not do its job and that there should be early elections but he has no concrete proposal instead.

Both alliances seem to show more concern for the evaluation of the crowd present at their respective rally than for the preparation of their speeches. This is at least the feeling that came out of their rallies and postmortems. They both announced that they were fully satisfied with the crowds present at the gatherings. Each of them is convinced (or says to be) that they succeeded in gathering the greater number.

It is as if next elections depended on the number of people that had attended the rallies. The Labour party even referred to figures ranging from 30,000 to 12,000. In reality, our own estimates showed that there were only 6,000 people in Quatre-Bornes. A small number compared with the statistics that they had announced. The Labour nevertheless gathered more people than the majority according to us.

But let us not back this type of competition that leads to nowhere. Our Prime Minister seems to be awaiting the official National Intelligence Unit report to examine the matter and know who finally won the crowd struggle? One could have thought it was a top priority on a national level !

The historical rally of the Mouvement militant mauricien in Rose-Hill turned out to be a lukewarm gathering from both sides that is to say the politics and the public. The one in Quatre-Bornes lasted about four hours and even the Labour advocates left the gathering before the end. This speaks volumes on the interest of the public in the speeches.

Political leaders did not succeed in pulling the wool over the population?s eyes this time. They are not taken in by political gimmicks. They expect concrete actions. They must be fed up with promises that never lead to real actions or at least concrete proposals.