When Paul Bérenger came to power, he tried to target the press through a subtle build-up. He started by giving lessons in journalism to those reporters who, according to him, did not ?check and counter-check? their pieces of news.

Paul Bérenger went at it hammer and tongs, and the insinuation of dereliction of duty by the press became clear to those who could read between the lines. We saw the threat and promptly reacted in these columns under the title ?Pressuring the press?.

We reacted again when Bérenger talked once more of control over the press following a live debate on Radio One. Comments aired during that debate were thought to be highly communal and full of communal hatred. At the end of the day, Berenger left it to the Independent Broadcasting Authority to decide over the matter and the idea of government control of the press was forgotten.

Not for long, alas! Navin Ramgoolam seems to think that new laws are necessary to prevent the local press from continuing ?to put anything it wants? into print. Shocking! And unforgivable, even in the face of Navin Ramgoolam?s wrath against some quarters of the press, which might be concocting another Macarena affair, version 2005, against him.

The prime minister is well-versed in the British legal system and he must be well-acquainted with the control the British press exerts over its members through the Press Council.

Instead of threats on the eve of Xmas and New Year, Navin Ramgoolam would have appeared a wiser prime minister, had he proposed a measure of self-control of the press by the press. Such control would indeed be a very healthy move for the sector.

Navin Ramgoolam has not yet realized to what extent poking his nose into press affairs could be damaging to his prime-ministership. Instead of threatening the press, he had better ponder over his government?s communication system. An utter failure.

It has failed to such an extent that, today, a large percentage of voters do not know the names of most cabinet ministers. This was and still is the case with mayors of our different towns and presidents of district councils. Most of those ministers and the prime minister himself, do not realize that they should not only do their jobs, but that their jobs must be seen to be done.

This is not the case. Most of the press attachés hired by the government think that their job is to write communiqués and invitations to press conferences. Some cannot even write a communiqué and one cannot expect these attachés de press to trek along that slippery path of image-building and damage-control. They have never heard of spin doctoring.

The government is thus crippled by this failure in communication whilst the opposition and part of the private sector are wasting not a single day in their attempts to rub off the aura with which the government and the prime minister came to power.

The aura is being replaced with smear. With talk going around about what supposedly happened during a dinner in India, about an accident at midnight, about what he said during a flight from Paris to Mauritius, Navin Ramgoolam may soon be perceived ? again ? as a ?Macarena boy? out for lust. A ?no-work and all-play? prime minister. No amount of control over the press could prevent that.

The answer to this negative image-building through the press has never been in new control laws. The answer lies simply and merely in spin-doctoring. Has the prime minister not yet learned how to wag a dog?