The week after the Nomination Day was supposed to give the signal for a “real beginning” of the electoral campaign. But, quite astonishingly, the public has been exposed to a lot of red. The social alliance has taken the bull by the horns while the ruling alliance has been very quiet so far.

Of course, Paul Bérenger keeps saying that this is only a matter of perception and that the rallies organised by the alliances could not be compared, as they did not target the same public. But his confession that the MSM-MMM alliance went through difficult times at the beginning of last week spoke for itself. The government definitely had some problems beginning the campaign. However, he insists that the problems have now been solved and that the ruling alliance is now ready for an overwhelming victory.

The question is important however and remains unanswered: why are Paul Bérenger, leader of the Mouvement Militant Mauritian (MMM) and his partner the MSM encountering so many difficulties entering the campaign? It seems as if they have nothing to defend, as if they did not do anything during the past four years? And, despite some remaining difficulties especially with unemployment and the rise in the cost of living, it is a fact that their mandate was quite a successful one.

The population has been used to seeing a biting Paul Bérenger, always ready to attack his opponents – sometimes basing himself on personal attacks. This time, he hardly attacks the opposition but rather opposes it! That beats everything, knowing that we are talking of our prime minister.

Dangers from abroad (sugar, textile, rupee devaluation) are of course factors that could undermine the government’s campaign but any political party which will come to power by the beginning of July will have to face the same problems. But no one speaks of any of these concrete problems. In fact, Bérenger hardly speaks. Navin Ramgoolam has at least the merit of being present and showing that he wants to become the next prime minister. Though he may not have much more to offer than the current government, he at least shows some of the conviction that the ruling alliance lacks.

This strange behaviour by Paul Bérenger makes rumours rife about a possible alliance with Labour after general elections. The public doesn’t understand why he is so far from his usual behaviour and thinks the only reason is that he doesn’t want to castigate his future partner too much.

The reason that seems to be coming out however is that Paul Bérenger has decided to lead a more quiet and civilized campaign. This is a honourable initiative by a prime minister but are electors ready for it? Isn’t he taking the risk of not being fully understood by his eventual electors thus losing their votes? Personal attacks should definitely be abandoned but more conviction is really needed in this bland campaign…

One of the themes which never dates in a campaign for general elections is definitely the matter of religion, cast, and community. Once again, the population is playing the game of politicians and vice versa. The ruling alliance insists that no Hindu has suffered from a “White” prime minister while the opposition continues to rap out that five (White) families own the great majority of the Mauritian fortune.

The only party deserving praise in this context is definitely Rezistans ek Alternativ. The party’s candidates faced the risk of having their candidatures rejected, as they refused to state the community to which they belong. They accept to be nothing else than Mauritians as they are of the opinion that all candidates must serve the interests of all the electors. Their honour is safe though their candidatures were all rejected by the electoral commission.

<B>Members of Rezistans ek Alternativ say they are nothing else than Mauritians. They believe that candidates must serve the interests of all electors regardless of their community.</B>

But they will not stop there. The eleven members of the party have asked the Supreme Court to include their names on the list of candidates for the coming general elections. They “feel (they) cannot be forced to ‘categorise’ (them)selves as one of the four communities listed in the First Schedule of the Constitution without having (their) fundamental human rights of absolute freedom of expression, religion, culture and conscience violated.”

They are of the opinion that “the State, including our Republic, endowed with basic principles of democracy, cannot afford unnecessary subjective classification of its population.”

Lalit has the same convictions on this issue and all candidates have drawn lots to decide which community they will state on their registration forms.

Morevover, the PM left for Rodrigues on Sunday. During this visit in the 21st constituency, the PM met the two main political parties separetely, the Mouvement Rodriguais (MR) and the Organisation du Peuple Rodriguais (OPR) as well as non-governmental organisations. Paul Bérenger promised that the election will be “free and fair” and stressed that he doesn’t intend to interfere in the internal affairs of the island. He is due back today.

The main parties in the forthcoming polls expressed their satisfaction at the end of their meeting with the PM. The leader of MR stated that they did not exclude the possibility of making an alliance with the MMM-MSM after the poll. Alex Nancy, OPR campaign manager, denied some allegations made by his opponent to the PM.