As minister Jayen Cuttaree joins the race for appointment as World Trade Organisation director, another Mauritian is putting the country into world perspective. Former Education minister, Armoogum Parsuraman, is preparing to take up the post of executive secretary of the Unesco Executive Council in Paris. His appointment proposed by the Unesco director general was ratified by the 58 member states of the Council and he was introduced to them last week.

He will be replacing the outgoing secretary, Mohammad Al Shaabi, from Yemen as from 1st November for a four-year mandate. He proudly states that his nomination is, first of all an honour for Mauritius as he is the first African called upon to take this challenging position, which is “both strategic and diplomatic”.

Armoogum Parsuraman started as a teacher in Friendship College in Goodlands and was engaged in Northern village and district councils before becoming one of the founder members of the Parti socialiste militant. Elected in the June 1982 general elections, he became vice-president of the Mouvement socialiste militant in 1983 and, from March 1983 to 1995, he was minister of Education and Culture.

In 1995, he decided to take a break from politics and accepted an offer as consultant from the World Bank for three years. He joined Unesco in 1998 and soon became the head of the Regional African Bureau in Dakar, where he spent four years before moving back to the secretariat in Paris.

This appointment is the crowning achievement for a man who very humbly served the cause of education in our country for thriteen years. He then felt he could offer his experience as a “modest”contribution to the building of “a new Africa” and to “the noble mission of Unesco: promoting peace and security in the world”.

Congratulations to this patriot, who will certainly continue to serve the cause of small countries and of Africa!