Next year, being election year, we, the Mauritian population, will be entitled to a feast of politically motivated advertising. Every tree, bus stop, dustbin and défense d?afficher sign will be plastered with the smiling faces of people who would like to run the country for us. Every village will go into election euphoria mode, complete with blaring loudspeakers, gaudy platforms and prominent banners. We will be caught like unsuspecting mountaineers under an awry avalanche of keys, hearts and other symbols.

Winning formulas will be flogged and accusations of being big business lackeys leveled. One side will tell us that it needs another mandate to keep the country in the right direction whilst the other side(s) will promise to save us from the disastrous course their conniving adversaries have charted for us.

The beauty of democracy is that we, the people, have the final say in the matter. Or do we? Admittedly, we decide who will sit in Parliament. But then, who are we? The person with the most votes gets to be Prime Minister. Thus, the people, means not all the people, only the majority who voted for the winning candidate. We can take it a step further by saying that, in the case of close elections (which seems likely next year), a party and a candidate can achieve victory with considerably less than a majority of the votes.

Democracy, like most important things in life, is far from being perfect, or, a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Like those other less-than-perfect important things, we learn to live with it. After all, it outlasted communism, didn?t it? Look how happy the Iraqis are since the Americans so unselfishly brought them democracy. Without democracy, we wouldn?t have all those colourful rallies and meetings where politicians of certain persuasion demonstrate their powers of dissuasion. As you can see, Mauritius is a very democratic place indeed.

Perhaps, that?s where this tirade originated. It?s not so much a question of persuading the electorate that this or that party is right for them, as much as an exercise in pointing out why this or that party is WRONG for them. Call them deconstructionists.

As Mauritians ? as a nation that, daily, has to balance the insecurities of communal tension and corruption ? our only option, if the next five, ten or however many years are to be pleasant and prosperous, is to turn to each other and the treasure we each enclose. It may sound like something Ravi Shankar told the Beatles in Goa during their eastern mysticism phase but it truly is our greatest wealth.

We can hope that, come next year, we will vote for the right person but his-her role will be limited to doing a good job at the negotiating table when our trade agreements run out. He-she might even reduce poverty and crime and improve our hospitals and schools. We might even discover a great leader in our midst.

A great leader can be an established figure that rises to the occasion or a total newcomer. We shouldn?t really wish for one though, as men of the great leader ilk are usually revealed to a nation during times of great strife. Remember Churchill during World War II?

Ultimately though, life will go on, irrespective of who we choose. Death will call every so often and bills will arrive far too often. So, if we expect politicians to stop blaming each other, then maybe we should stop blaming politicians for all the ills that befall us and get on with our lives. In a perfect world, we might be able to hold politicians accountable for their shortcomings but this world is somewhat less than perfect.