The prime minister is convinced that some people are so intense in their dislike of him that they will stop at nothing to harm him. He has said this enough times for it to warrant some attention. I don?t know how true this is but, if Navin Ramgoolam says it so insistently, he must have his reasons.

But, then again, Ramgoolam is not the only person, let alone politician, loved by many and hated by an approximately equal number. There are those people who love us and there are those who would gladly strangle us. MMM leader Paul Bérenger is no stranger to this fact, SAJ wasn?t either.

The other little guy?s case is slightly different I might add; tolerated by a few and ignored by the rest.

It?s unpleasant but it?s not a tragedy; adversity, they say, introduces a man to himself. But the prime minister shouldn?t be worried about those who don?t like him - at least they are genuine in their dislike. If I were he, I?d be suspicious of my grovelling friends and of their motives. Like the people at the MBC, for instance.

I don?t know who was the unenlightened soul who decided that the best way to ?communicate? was to devote 20 minutes of Saturday?s news bulletin to the inauguration of the market in Triolet by the prime minister. That the best way to show people that the government is not twiddling its thumbs in the face of the disturbing law and order situation was to broadcast once again excerpts of the PM?s reply to the law and order PNQ posed on Friday.

Some insight in people?s psychology would have told Ramgoolam?s supposedly well-wisher (the unenlightened soul) that overexposure has the exact opposite effect on people; they get angry, they think (again) that the MBC is taking them for a ride, then they switch off because they are bored. And they wait endlessly for the next news item.

So, at the end of a scandalously long news bulletin that has only served the purpose of getting people?s backs up, the prime minister ends up welcoming more people in his ?I dislike Ramgoolam Club? because they think that, if the MBC overdoes the exposure, it is surely on a prime ministerial request.

The irony is that the MBC news bulletin is used by the ?well-wishers? to counteract what is published in newspapers and said on private radios. Fair enough. But there is a difference between giving people the news from a different perspective and shameless propaganda. On the MBC propaganda will not have the desired effect because the MBC suffers from a wound that it seems in no hurry to heal - lack of credibility.

So Navin Ramgoolam should not be worried about those who do not like him. He is prime minister and this is his karma. When one has this kind of good fortune, one owes it to oneself to help the stars reach higher. And not let false friends pull them down.