?Mauritius opens to the world.? What a futuristic slogan coined by one of our parastatal bodies, under the dynamic leadership of the Lam-Jaddoo duo. And now, Shyam Seebun has been roped in to brand Mauritius. At the same time, Darga?s Enterprise Mauritius and Karl?s MTPA are leaving no stone unturned to promote Paradise Island abroad. The overall objectives are to attract two million tourists, draw in the much needed foreign investment to achieve full employment by 2010 and battle for new markets for our products. Now, the common ambition of all these agencies is to make Mauritius, not known, but better known worldwide. And one intelligent method to achieve this was to nominate as vice-president of the Republic.... a very high profile personality who possesses all the qualities necessary to play the role of an ambassador for our label on the international scene, just like Prince Andrew is doing for Britain. Definitely, His Excellency Angidi Chettiar does not fit the bill.

In a fiercely globalised economy where trade, investment and tourism promotion is becoming rough and tough, developing countries are exploring new avenues to reinforce their identity. I therefore disagree with the argument that the post of vice-president does not bring any return to taxpayers. In fact, we fail to derive maximum benefit from this honorific post. The budget assigned to this function is less than 1% of that of the MTPA, but the returns in terms of potential publicity for Mauritius are immense. Imagine just one scenario: the vice-president embarks on an official world tour. Every country he visits offers him state honours, and he gets free media coverage, gives press interviews, meets various organizations, speaks at miscellaneous forums, etc. Each of these functions is an opportunity for him to talk about Mauritius, its achievement and its future aspirations. There is no better and cheaper way to promote our country, our people, our culture, our economy, our industries.

Now, who could have played such a role? Of course, Mauritius being Mauritius, competence and track record alone would not be the only prerequisites, as ethnic consideration is bound to take place. Therefore, to maintain the imaginary ethnic balance, a professional from the Sino-Mauritian community would have been the ideal choice, especially since Mauritius is opening up to China and the East, and China is poised to invest massively in the country.

Angidi Chettiar has a legitimate right to aspire to the post of vice-president, but as he occupied the post before, he could have declined the offer in favour of another deserving ?fils du sol?, younger in age, and more prominent in style and leadership. A win-win situation for the country and the nation!

That would have happened in an ideal Mauritius. But oh, hang on; our politicians think we are still in the 60s!

M. C.

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