<B>By Raj JUGERNAUTH</B>

Soon after he came to power, Navin Ramgoolam gave strict instructions to his ministers concerning expenditure, hiring of advisers and general behaviour in public. These instructions, which were pointing towards a cleaner government, were discussed during the very first cabinet meeting.

They also pointed towards something else. They had a smell of authority. In fact, at the very start of his mandate, prime minister Navin Ramgoolam came to be perceived as a determined leader, who had learned his lessons from his past failures, who was keen to assume command, to inspire his team and achieve great results for our country.

But alas, this perception has melted away all too quickly. When Paul Bérenger says that there is no leadership and no moral authority in this country, he may be expressing a feeling which has started to invade the minds of the common people during the last few months.

Many factors have contributed to creating this perception of an absence of leadership and moral authority. One of them might be the fact that there seems to be no minister at some ministries. Most of our cabinet ministers are keeping a low profile, so low that the general public has already forgotten their names and faces. It is difficult for the layman to give you the names of the mayors of most of our towns. It has also become difficult for them to give the names of all our cabinet ministers.

If we didn’t see reports of parliamentary sessions on television, most of our ministers would not have been in the news at all. The public has rediscovered the face of Indira Seebun in the wake of the bakers’ strike.

Ask a question to minister of Health, Satish Faugoo, and his press attaché will refer you to some State doctors or NGOs for the answer. Is the minister so poorly informed that he cannot even open his mouth to explain his policy concerning the needle exchange programme? According to a UN expert he himself brought in, this programme is a must. A necessary evil to prevent the expansion of the Aids epidemic among drug users. Yet, the minister is dilly-dallying over this programme and a lot of other very serious problems in the health sector.

What about the medical council’s concern regarding bogus medical certificates being sold in some of the independent Soviet states? The medical council has asked the minister for power to hold examinations for those doctors who have qualified in medicine from such universities without having passed in chemistry, physics, biology and maths at School Certificate level. The medical council is still waiting for minister Faugoo’s answer. An answer, which might never come.

What kind of minister is this who seems to be answerable neither to the public nor to the prime minister?

But, in fact, many ministers seem to be no longer answerable to Navin Ramgoolam. This behaviour is becoming more and more common since they can behave the way they like, as they appear indifferent to criticism from the press or other pressure groups. We are getting a very bad smell of arrogance.

And when no corrective measures are seen coming from the PM’s office, the general public becomes convinced that there is no leadership.