Greetings to you, my friend. Hope you are doing well. 

The last three weeks have been very difficult for all of us. I am acutely conscious that as the Leader of the Opposition, you have naturally felt concerned for the Mauritian people and are doing your best to stand by them in these incredibly challenging circumstances. Thank you for going the extra mile to ensure that the people who rely on you are supported. Thank you for grappling, ever since the National Assembly has been postponed due to the sanitary curfew, the different issues that have made the headlines so far, via your numerous videos and press declarations. 

I am sure that as a patriot who has at heart the interest of our country you must have thought, as I also did, that in this period of great uncertainty, it is the duty of politicians of all stripes to forget about party politics and try to put their heads together to thrash out a plan to save our country and its people from this unprecedented pandemic. It is not only having a devastating effect on human life but will manifestly slowdown the global economy, with all the risks that this will entail to our already unsound and fragile economy. 
    
To tell you the truth, I earnestly prayed that the Prime Minister, who has been clearly under increasing pressure ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, would have been wise enough – especially when he knows that he is at the head of a government which has been mandated only by a minority of the Mauritian population – to recognize the importance of making an appeal to all party leaders to work constructively in one way or another together. Today, after 24 days of sanitary curfew, I have to confess that I have been completely wrong in my judgment. As things are presently evolving, there is absolutely no sign that this Government, which has been mistaken and wrong ever since the beginning, will change its course as it is evident that it is resolutely determined to remain in its own “conceited cocoon”, in spite of the fact that it is completely bankrupt of ideas that will indeed save this country from the abyss that lies ahead. 

At a time when the National Assembly is out of service and the IBA has dared to reduce a private radio to silence for two long days, at a time when people can’t have easy access to newspapers due to the curfew and that journalists have been reduced to ask questions via the Net only, without being given the opportunity to ask any supplementary questions, at a time when hundreds of questions have remained unanswered and that the government is everyday ducking and dodging questions on important issues – such as the reason why the Prime Minister has waited to close the airport and the port only on Thursday the 19 March and not before, at a time when the government has deliberately decided to abandon heartlessly many of our compatriots to their own fate in many different countries around the world, at a time when we still don’t really know whether the critical care units in our hospitals are sufficiently equipped to cope with the coronavirus epidemic in case, God forbid, there will be a huge health sanitary emergency, at a time when people have no other choice than to stand in one or two kilometre queues for very long hours to get some basic commodities and there are long queues in front of filling stations and pharmacies to buy respectively a gas cylinder and medicines, at a time when the price of almost all basic commodities, including local vegetables, have exaggeratedly increased and that the government is sitting on its hands instead of helping the people by controlling the prices, at a time when the government is turning a deaf ear to the grievances of the consumer associations, at a time when there is no one to find out and report what is exactly going on in the ENT and Souillac hospitals and other places, where the victims of the coronavirus are being treated and in the quarantine centres – by the way I sincerely hope that you have you seen the video that has been circulating on the Net since Thursday 9th April in relation to the existing conditions at ENT hospital, at a time when nobody knows for sure whether all those who are waging this crucial battle at the front have really been provided with masks, gloves and protective equipment to protect themselves adequately (if this has really been the case, how do you explain the high number of persons who have been contaminated in the health service – including the Minister himself and his secretary, as well as Dr V. Gujadhur and his driver, and among the police personnel?), at a time when the Prime Minister has found no one else but a MSM candidate, who was defeated in the last general election and who is presently an adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office, to chair the coronavirus National Communication Committee and to brief the nation, at a time when the spokespersons of this committee have wrongly been using, until a few days back, this daily briefing platform to blow their own trumpets and the personnel of their respective departments, at a time when the spokespersons of the same committee have made it a habit, until very recently, to exaggeratedly scare and blame the Mauritian population as if we were and still are the sole persons responsible for the propagation of the virus, at a time when the average citizens of this country are asking themselves how they can continue to have confidence in the government’s management and control of this Covid-19 pandemic, when many of those on whom they have been relying to save them from this ruthless virus have themselves, including the Prime Minister, been compelled, since Thursday 9 April, to go in self-isolation due to gross negligence somewhere (the irony is that no later than on the eve, the Prime Minister personally explained on TV to the population the precautions that were taken before the meetings that he had to preside were held. He said that even the files were disinfected…) 

What a huge mess! I wonder how the High Level Committee, which is presided by the Prime Minister, will function now. Maybe by video conference, just as Dr Z Joomaye is daily doing to run the briefing of the National Communication Committee from his residence. Is he so indispensable that no one can replace him to brief the population and answer the questions of the journalists? And the cherry on the cake will be no doubt this one: am sure that you are aware that a few hours before the Prime Minister went in self-isolation, the MSM party had shamelessly deemed it appropriate to launch a video on the Net, to celebrate the glory of its leader Pravind Kumar Jugnauth in his fight against COVID-19, ignoring completely that at the same time 284 of our compatriots were coronavirus positive, 7 had already died, 4 were in a critical condition (2 of them died a few days afterwards) and 977 others were still in quarantine and hundreds others were stranded outside the country. How can you explain this! Just unbelievable isn’t it?

This list is non-exhaustive, but I will stop here as I am sure that you are fully armed and prepared, most probably with a competent think tank, a plethora of advisers and a powerful network of contacts that you must have built within the government and other centres of power and decisions, that are keeping you well informed of the actual situation in the country. Under the present circumstances, I humbly suggest that you change your strategies and pay attention to what is taking place right around you and that you continue to closely shadow the government’s policies and especially the absence of policies in this time of crisis, on a round the clock basis. 

As you have rightly pointed out a few days back, enough is enough. Time of the truce is over. It is time to act. Don’t forget that in this time of countless anguish and sorrows, the eyes of the whole Mauritian population will be focused not only on the government’s actions but also on you, on what you have been doing so far and what you will be doing as the Leader of the Opposition in the days to come. At a time when the going is really getting tough in our country, many will want to test your mettle. It is for you to show that you have got the endurance, the strength of character, the necessary skills, the abilities and the traits to succeed in your task.  
    
As the Leader of the Opposition, you must always strive to unite the opposition and don’t let any inch for the government to divide and rule. You must continue to work in very close collaboration with the other leaders of the opposition parties, so that a perception of perfect cohesion and solidarity in the opposition’s action could be projected against the government. There is absolutely no reason why the opposition has to wait for the coronavirus crisis to ease or to end or for the National Assembly to re-open, to start quizzing the Prime Minister and his other ministers on the numerous scandalous and controversial decisions that they have taken during the last three weeks.

Pressure should be maintained constantly on the government and it is the opposition’s job (i) to ensure that all the decisions that have already been taken, fall within the parameters of our existing laws and (ii) to warrant that the decisions that have been taken are correctly being implemented. There is nothing unpatriotic in this. No one must be made to feel that there is a conspiracy of silence in this country. With the advent of modern communication tools, you have a multitude of devices at your service to empower you to remain constantly in the limelight and keep in touch with the people – a press article, a posting on Facebook, weekly press conferences, frequent participations and interventions in the different radio programmes will not only enable you to comment , share your observations and keep everyone informed on what is really taking place in the country, but will no doubt also attract a lot of reaction. As the Leader of the Opposition, you can also write press articles to express succinctly your views on government policies, malpractices and on the major important decisions that the government takes.

An urgent appeal of mobilization has also to be made to all elected members of the opposition parties, to act as guard dogs in their respective constituencies, so that a constant watch is maintained everywhere around the island, to ensure that the Government is really doing what it has promised to do. There have been too many bluffs lately, too many “pou fer”, “nou pou fer” et “nou pe fer”, without any concrete results. Constant shadowing will without any doubt compel the government to stick to its promises and thanks to this concerted efforts of the opposition parties, human suffering will be slashed and the miseries that the people are presently going through in our beloved country will be considerably curtailed. This will also dissuade all those who are presently confused and distressed to believe that the members of the opposition have also abandoned them and have deserted the battle front.

Appropriate actions have to be taken to counteract the plan of the government to use, as it is presently the case, the spectre of the invisible enemy, to divert the attention of the people on what is really going on in our country. Pravind Jugnauth and his ministers should also be barred from trying to exploit the coronavirus to continue to lead this country in the pitiful and pathetic way they have been doing before and especially after the announcement of the first three coronavirus contaminated cases in the country on Wednesday 18 March. Similarly, everything should be done to wipe out once for all the Prime Minister’s attempt to asphyxiate opposition pressure, so that his government is relatively safe from the criticisms that it has normally to deal with in normal period.

Let me move to another important issue. Thousands of daily-wage earners have been told overnight to stay indoors, with no prospect of any income. As you must be aware, most of them do not have access to any pension, sick leave, paid leave or any kind of insurance. Many do not even have a bank account as they simply rely on cash to meet their daily needs.

After almost twenty four days of confinement and sanitary curfew, I wonder how they are coping without working and without any income to sustain their families and themselves. Everyone knows that they need to earn to feed their families. I am sure that there are thousands of them around the island right now as I am writing this letter to you, who must have run out of food and are suffering silently. I wonder for how long more they will be able to bear to see their wives and children and close parents without food. I agree that we have to keep our people in at all cost to curtail the spread of the virus, but at the same time, don’t you think that it is the sacred duty of the opposition to ensure that the government does not let leave this category of people behind in this very difficult period? 

Emergency confinement and curfew measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19 have been in effect for three weeks and has been extended a few days ago for another two weeks. But as things are going, I am afraid that if we go by epidemiological projections by health experts, the virus is not going to disappear anytime soon and the disease will continue to spread. Just as individuals, businesses and community groups have adjusted their routines to honour their duties within the parameters of the public-health imposed restrictions. The population legitimately expects the government as well as the opposition to do their share too. 
In this period of profound crisis the government should have set the good example and act in the sunshine and public decisions should have been conducted in full public view. Without total transparency in deliberation and decision-making, it is not surprising that rumours and fake news have proliferated and will continue to do so, just as the virus itself. The consequence is that the Mauritian community is daily being inflicted with misinformation and fake news that are breeding mistrust in the whole population. Something has to be done about this. As it is clear that as long as our fellow countrymen will get the impression that the truth is being hidden from them, they will never be serene and optimistic.

As a matter of urgency, in this unprecedented scenario, I am sure that in your capacity as the Leader of the Opposition, you must be in contact with the leaders of the other opposition parties, to fine-tune your actions and to find a creative and lawful way to question the Prime Minister and his ministers. It’s true that the opposition’s scope of action has been reduced considerably when the sitting of the National Assembly has been postponed due to the coming into operation of the Curfew Order made by the Minister of Health and Wellness under regulation 14(1) of the Prevention and Mitigation of Infectious Disease Regulations 2020. But how do you explain that the same regulation has not been applied to the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA)? As it is obvious that Top FM would not have been suspended on Friday 3 April if the members had not met before to approve the decision. A decision that you were quick to condemn by the way as “unacceptable, irresponsible and in gross violation of freedom of information.”

It is hard for the general public to understand why a constitutional institution like the National Assembly cannot meet under the new 14(1) regulation when the IBA can. Is there really not a single provision in our laws to allow the government to call for an emergency meeting of the National Assembly when an unexpected disaster like the coronavirus pandemic is threatening the country at large? Has the State Attorney General’s office been consulted to advise whether the current situation is not, by itself, sufficient grounds for an emergency meeting of the National Assembly? If not, it is high time to do so. What if the Curfew is extended for another month or two? Does this mean that the National Assembly will remain dormant for another month or two? Now that the curfew has been extended to the 4 of May, does this mean that nobody will be able to question the Prime Minister and his government as it should be until then?

Ok, let’s assume that it is really not feasible to hold a sitting at the National Assembly. Failing that, don’t you think that it will be wise for you to use your prerogative as the Leader of the Opposition, to launch a gentleman’s invitation to Pravind Jugnauth to have a virtual televised debate/discussion with you and the other leaders of the opposition parties which are represented at the National Assembly? As per his status as the Prime Minister of this country, Pravind Jugnauth must obviously be allowed to enjoy the liberty to choose not only the venue and the time, but also the other members of his government with whom he wants to be accompanied on that day. It also goes without saying that the debate will have to take place only after all the precautionary measures as per the established sanitary coronavirus protocol will have been taken, to avoid any unnecessary problems. 

I don’t see why the Prime Minister, who has been trumpeting daily that he has always been telling the whole truth to the people and that his government has been working in absolute transparency, will not react positively to your invitation. The Prime Minister will surely not forget that since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, as a patriot, you have put the country first by adopting a consensual approach and that you have also positively responded to his invitation to meet him a few weeks back. 

I don’t see what can really prevent the government to hold this virtual meeting. Every day this technique is being used extensively all around the world by numerous TV stations to organise debates. Only a few days ago, the Minister of Health, before he went into isolation, had been bragging during a briefing of the National Communication Committee that his hospital staff would soon be having virtual meetings with their colleagues in many other parts of the world. Dr Z Joomaye is also using this technique to brief the nation every day and there is no doubt that the Prime Minister will also be using it soon? What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander. Isn’t it?

The participants can always be convened by video conference and the meeting can always be broadcasted live on the MBCTV channels. The agenda can also be streamlined as to include only the most time-sensitive and essential matters that can be deliberated lengthily in a civilized manner by both parties, with a prerogative for the members of the opposition to question the government as they want. Everyone will thus be able to do their job while keeping appropriate social distance and the general public will be happy as they will also have the opportunity to watch the proceedings at home. It can be as simple as this, with a little bit of goodwill on both side. 

Let’s find out whether the Prime Minister will display the same solidarity that you have shown to him, over this issue which is of national importance. Anyway, you will have nothing to lose, isn’t it? So please just give it a try. If he agrees, you and your other colleagues will have the opportunity to quiz him and the other members of his Cabinet in the name of transparency, on the various issues that are presently preoccupying a vast majority of the population. If ever he refuses, he will simply be answerable to the people. 

One last point. As you are aware, at the end of March, a Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma, the co-founder Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, had benevolently taken the decision to make a donation of prevention materials, which consisted of 1.1 million testing kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 protective suits to be distributed to EVERY one of the 54 African nation as a preventive measure to prevent the coronavirus to spread in Africa. The donation was sent to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, as the Prime Minister, Mr Abiy Ahmed Ali, had taken the initiative vis-à-vis the Jack Ma Foundation, to distribute the donation to the other 53 countries. The donation reached the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia on the 22 March 2020. In a tweet addressed to the donators on the same day, Mr Abiy Ahmed Ali informed them that the distribution of the donation to the other 53 countries would start as from the following day, that is 23 March 2020.

It is however very unfortunate that a vast majority of the population is not even aware of the existence of the donation and does not even know that the donation of 20.000 coronavirus test kits, masks and protective suits has already reached the country. I hope you do. This is another flagrant example which has prompted us to believe that the government is not telling us the truth. We have to ask ourselves why has the Government Information Service, which is under the aegis of the Prime Minister’s Office, completely ignored the receipt of the donation in its press release. 

What the use of having a daily briefing of the coronavirus National Communication Committee if such an important and reassuring piece of information has been hidden voluntarily from the population? As far as I know, no member of this committee has ever made any mention of the donation of Jack Ma to the government. It was only a few days back, on Monday the 6 April, to be exact, that Dr Z Joomye was compelled to mention the name of Jack Ma Foundation, evidently with a lot of discomfiture, in reply to a question of l’express newspaper. What a shame! As far as the Prime Minister and his ministers are concerned, you know as well as I do that we cannot expect anything better from them. As members of the government, they have to defend tooth and nails the decisions that they have taken and the methods that they have adopted, be it good or bad. Isn’t it?

How can we expect them to concede that they have simply been overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus in the country and that they have not been able to cope effectively with the situation due to a lack of farsightedness and professionalism? I am sure that you must still remember the haughty and overconfident way in which the neophyte Minister of Health, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, had answered your PNQ at the National Assembly on Monday 3 February. Does anyone really believe that they will acknowledge that from the very beginning, due to their arrogance and sluggishness, they have not been able to control (i) efficiently the entries of passengers from abroad at the airport and the port, and (ii) the spread of the epidemic in the country due a lack of vital detecting instruments and testing kits to do the contact tracing exercise efficiently? Similarly, we can’t expect anything much from the Chairperson of the National Communication Committee. We understand that as a mere political nominee, he is there to do the bidding of his boss.

But what about the two civil servants who have been present almost every day for the daily briefing of the committee until a few days back, when  Dr V. Gujadhur had to go in isolation and DCP Jhugroo completely disappeared at the same time. Who will believe that Dr V. Gujadhur, who has been so eager to relate to us meticulously every day what he has seen and what he has done , often illustrated with photos and charts, could have forgotten to tell us about the importance of the Jack Ma donation?

Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt as to whether it was deliberate or not. Maybe he thought that it was not his job to inform the public about the donation or maybe someone has simply requested him not to talk about it as God only knows how the daily briefing is prepared. It has been a fact however, that on several occasions the facial expressions and body postures of the two civil servants have revealed that they were not always at ease on the platform of the briefing. They gave us the impression that their hands were tied.

Strange, isn’t it? Strange but not really surprising as it is indisputable that the civil service has always been infested by a category of civil servants who are ready to go down to any level, to be or remain in the good book of their ministers. Don’t get me wrong as I am not trying to impute motives here. I just want to put into the limelight and blame this fraction of civil servants who are present at every level of the civil service hierarchy, and who tend to forget easily that transparency is the legal and ethical responsibility of public officials. I just want to humbly remind them that they should not be afraid to voice out boldly their opinions and have the necessary guts to refuse resolutely to be dictated on how to perform their duties by anyone especially politicians. Their conscience must be their supreme guide.

Before I close this chapter, allow me to stress on a very revealing factor. It is worth noting that it was only after the government had received the donation of about 20,000 testing kits from the Jack Ma Foundation that Dr V. Gujadhur was able to increase the daily number of tests. This is the reason why his teams have been able to detect and confine so many infected people in the last few days. It’s not a secret that all those who have only recently been detected and confined, have been involuntarily shedding this virus for days and days to others in the community, just as most of those who had been infected before them had done before. So, the moral of this pathetic story can be resumed as follows:  the longer we wait to test all those who are potential carriers of the disease, the more we will have other "silent" serious spreaders in the community.

A word to the wise: health scientists of the WHO have always insisted that the best way to get rid of the virus is to test, test and test the largest number of people as possible. It seems that the message has not yet been well received. I hope it will be, soon. In spite of all our misfortunes and the miseries that we are all going through, allow me to conclude on a positive note. 

On the 6 April, in a tweet to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the Jack Ma Foundation had informed him that a second donation to 54 countries in Africa, consisting of 500 ventilators, 200,000 suits and face shields, 20,000 thermometers, 1 million swabs and extraction kits and 5,000,000 gloves was on the way. So very soon Mauritius will be able to benefit once again from the generosity of the Jack Ma Foundation to relieve the health personnel and all those who have been infected. It is a pity that up to now, we have not heard a word from neither any member of the government nor Dr Z Joomaye about this donation. 

I am also happy and relieved that after so many days of high expectations, a first batch of two million masks and 100,000 protective visors, from the “enormous order” (Dr Z Joomaye dixit) that the government had placed from China, has finally reached Mauritius on Friday 10 April. I sincerely hope that we will not have to wait for another 15 days, with red candles in our hands, to get the rest of the medical equipment that we are so urgently in need at our hospitals, especially the testing kits.

I wish you good luck as I am aware that under the present circumstances you will need a lot of courage and determination to accomplish your task properly.

Warm regards, 

Boo PILLAY
Retired rector and educator