Why are so many Mauritians unhappy these days? And what is happiness? Americans equate happiness with self-esteem and personal success. Japanese derive joy from self-discipline and fulfiling one?s obligations to family, company and community. What about Mauritians? Their source of happiness is a stable government, demonstrating good governance in words and deeds and spreading security and ?joie de vivre? over the island.

Our world is changing rapidly. We have to adapt or perish. Precious time cannot be wasted in finger-pointing. We should not forget that Bill Clinton, the democratic party?s master salesman, had asked Kerry to stop focusing on Bush?s vulnerabilities and instead campaign as though Iraq was stable, the economy was going great guns and Bin Laden was dead.

Americans are looking for answers to immediate problems. Topmost on their list of priorities appears the war. All eyes are focused on Bush and what the world wants from him is to listen to his heart first before falling into the trap of others.

Back home, Mauritians are asking questions - how will the future parliamentarians react to the spaghetti-like tangle of problems we are currently plunged in? The beauty of globalisation is that every corner of the world can learn from others. Few nations can match the Netherland?s mix of altruism, wealth and international awareness. In India, GDP growth this year is forecast to reach 70%, rivalling China?s. Manmohan Singh is a reformist - ?no pain, no gain reform? is his mission statement.

India now has a world-class economic team, with the PM, the Finance minister Palaniap-pan Chidambaram, and planning Czar Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Now, India simply has to push forward disciplined, reformist policies to move from poverty to plenty. And it has started already. Take, for example, Renuka Chowdhurry. She is taking tourism in a new direction as she is convinced that tourism isn?t just running hotels.

Take China. Although it still attracts far more foreign investment annually, the governing institutions of India are much more mature. India, with a population of 1 billion is the world?s largest democracy, with a transparent legislature, independent judiciary, private TVs, radios, press, and free and fair elections...

We must make of Mauritius a nation of micro managers. In China, nearly all the 24 members of the poliburo have degrees from universities with names such as the Beijing Petroleum Institute, the Harbin Military Engineering Institute and others. Wan himself is the n° 2 person in China?s Water resources and he actually worked on the Three Gorges Dam, the world?s largest construction project.

In our island, some people are born ministers and ministries are thrust upon many overnight and somebody from the legal profession becomes an Arts and Culture minister. Because somebody is a woman, she becomes minister for Women?s affairs and any body can become a minister because of his religious beliefs or caste. This is a dangerous game we have been playing for the last three/four decades.

Times have changed. What we need urgently is a change in our political landscape. We need men and women who are technocrats and can build up the shattered economy and re-establish the battered faith of citizens. Trust is important. Democracy is obviously the most delicate of political systems. It is an unmatched power source. Politicians whom people trust can do almost anything. Without trust, democracy dies.

Our education sector is in turmoil. Nobody seems happy. Are we getting value for the amount of money this sector is fed with? We need to keep the education system bubbling with innovative approaches. Nowadays, why are education specialists flocking to Finland? Partly, their interest has been piqued by how well Finnish students fare. In a 2001 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report that compared 15 year old students from around the world, the Finns scored first place in literacy and were placed in the top four of 43 nations in mathematics and science, trailing only Japan and Korea in science and New Zealand in maths.

Simply look at the qualifications HSC students require to join the local university. So many students get stuck and tertiary education becomes a dream. Parents who have means send their children abroad and, finally local and foreign graduates become colleagues with the same salary. Who is left behind? The poor and declining middle class.

All colleges in the island should run night classes. Education should have no age limit. The investment is worth the pain. Mauritius goes to sleep too early and the world knows about it. May be such courses will not create jobs but just think about the awareness that will be created.

Likewise we may think about many fields that affect our daily lives and decide on the changes that should be brought in. But, right now, we should think about the colours we should choose to paint the political landscape. We need a responsible government, that places the country and its citizens first and sees to its own needs afterwards ? especially on e that neither squanders public funds nor drains government coffers to satisfy personal needs. What the Mauritian nation is hoping for from the forthcoming government may be summarized as ?great expectations?.