One of the few outstanding performances of the last financial year barely rated a mention in most of the press. An underachieving government department, notorious over many decades for its many corrupt practices, has managed to add four billion rupees to the state coffers during the last two years. It has been able to achieve this by simply ensuring that people comply with the law or by making it more difficult for anyone to flout it ? a sine qua non of any democracy.

Despite the vociferous and racist campaign targetted against its figurehead by the opposition parties, some customs officers and some trade-unionists, the results show conclusively that the right man was appointed to the job of heading that department. Mr Bert Cunningham can rightly feel proud of his performance as Customs Controller and has shown, like so many others, that ability is not dependent on race or nationality.

It was a brave decision for Paul Bérenger to appoint a foreigner to such a sensitive position and to publicly support and encourage Cunningham?s measures to improve performance in the perenially inefficient and corrupt Customs and Excise department. Although the jury is still out on the performance of other contracted foreigners (and the verdict is unlikely to be positive on a few), it is undeniable that some departments do benefit from the leadership of outsiders who are immune to the typical cultural and ethnic pressures of Mauritian institutions.

● ?Shouting loudly but filling their pockets?

Sometimes, a new broom is required to sweep away years of institutional rubbish and clutter and encourage the workforce to be more inventive and efficient. In order to expose and clean the stamped-down filth, the carpet has to be lifted and a new cleaner often finds the filth that has been conveniently brushed there over many years.

The reservations about Cunningham have nothing to do with his salary. The hidden message is that he is a white foreigner who has taken a job that should have gone to a Mauritian, preferably from a specific caste and ethnic community.

Extrapolate from that and you get the main message for the Labour Party?s campaign at the next elections: that the Prime Minister of this independent democracy must always be a Hindu, irrespective of his abilities to govern the country efficiently and responsibly for all its citizens. That is why between now and election day, we will constantly hear the mantra about a handful of people (white) owning most of the wealth, etc. and how the majority must get what it is due.

One can only hope that people will not be that gullible and instead ask the obvious question. If this is such an injustice, what did you do to repair it when you were in power during 1995-2000?

Cunningham resigned on Wednesday. The only people celebrating his enforced departure are the feckless and the corrupt customs officers who have done everything to thwart the much needed reform of their department and the bent businessmen feeding greedily off them.

He joins Indira Manrakhan as the only two people who fought a genuine battle against corruption only to find themselves sidelined by an establishment rendered putrid by the stench of corruption at all levels. We can now look forward to the most corrupt bastards on earth shouting loudly about corruption whilst disdainfully filling their pockets at the same time.

I have constantly commented about the musical chair element of national politics in Mauritius. The opposition always shouts loudly about the thieves in power until we vote it to office and then we realise that not one of the miserably hypocritical words on corruption spouted with such synthetic anger in opposition will be put into practice.

● A robotic merry-go-round

We then endure the nauseating prospect of the new opposition telling us for the next five years about the new thieves in power and how they will balie tou sa malpropte la when we vote for them again. The political carousel continues its robotic merry-go-round and the only thing that changes every five years is the identity of the thieves with access to the national treasures and the effortless effrontery to shout ?Open Sesame? at will.

You want evidence of the above? Here are a few, but I am sure readers far more intelligent than me can point to a much longer list.

1. What happened to the N?Tan report? Ramgoolam talked so much about it only a few months ago that I was worried he was having nightmares about it. Since he has become Prime Minister, we have not heard a single word on this topic.

2. What has happened to the Cuttaree file which led to the hasty disbandment of ECO?

3. How many times did we hear Ramgoolam exhorting us to believe that larzan in bizin pase during the award of so many contracts? Perhaps I am becoming deaf in my old age, but I am sure I have not heard one single word about these contracts since the election.

4. Any one heard anything about my dear friend Teeren Appasamy lately? Please ask him to get in touch as I would dearly love to borrow the book on the secrets of becoming rich quickly and finding out who V.B. is. Perhaps he could also tell us who the T.H.I.E.V.E.S. are. But don?t worry : his lawyer is now the Minister for Justice (surely a contradiction in terms in the context of paradise island!) and I am sure he will activate the extradition proceedings once he has finished trying out the latest fashionable suit from Bombay.

5. Talking about Rama Valayden, I used to feel so sorry for the man as he continually harangued us about his detailed allegations of corruption against the irrepressible twosome, Bachoo and Choonee. You can only marvel at his depth of forgiveness and generosity as he now has no problems in sitting with these two at official parties and not choking on the delightful hors-d?oeuvres whist making small talk.

Something dreadful happened last week and everyone behaves as if it is just part of the natural state of our society and that we should not worry our pretty little heads over such finer points. The annual Audit report was published and again highlighted the terrible waste of public money.

We are up to our neck in debt and last year we borrowed another Rs 12.6 billion to maintain us in the lifestyle we have become complacently used to but can no longer afford. We now spend 10 billion rupees every year simply to service that debt. Now, there is nothing wrong in borrowing as long as you spend the money wisely and hope to make sufficient profit in order to repay the original debt.

What have we done instead? We elevate consultants to the status of gods whose authority cannot be questioned and who take a large cut out of every project financed by public money. Invoices for millions of rupees? worth of work are paid without even the most cursory examination simply because they are accompanied by consultants? certificates.

We have spent over 300 million rupees to upgrade a castle for a rich, retired pensioner in exchange for a couple of begrudging public appearances per year. We have given him a decorative festival lighting system for Rs 4.5 million rupees, a music distribution system for Rs 700,000, and a top of the range kitchen for 7 million rupees. Why in God?s name do we allow megalomaniacs complete licence to dip into our pockets with such impunity? He must be holding some amazing techno-rave parties in that place to justify such obscene expenditure!

And you would have thought that at the very least he could smile now and again, if only to show us some gratitude for the regal lifestyle we provide him and his family for free. Instead, he resolutely believes that a miserable face is indicative of deep thinking and ethical behaviour. That was the President.

● ?Not even a whimper...?

His Prime Minister, Paul Berenger, demonstrated to us why Mauritius is considered by him alone as the best managed country in the world by freely giving a cheque for Rs 402 millions to car dealers during the SIDS conference. Vast amounts of money were spent with no accountability whatsoever. No one certified if any work, claimed to have been done, had actually been done. Rs 111 millions were spent by the Prime Minister?s Office for work that cannot be audited because no one keeps any receipts on Paradise island.

Someone called Ajay Gunness was promoted to Minister and his thankfully short ministerial career is notable only for the extravagant expenses to his office. He is the prime example of why this country is in such a mess : the quality and standard of our politicians is lamentable and giving monkeys ministerial positions does not automatically turn them into people of integrity who have the national interest at heart.

Paul Berenger?s attitude to the Audit report is breathtaking in the arrogance that appears to be second nature to him. He claims that the report is often published without ministers having the chance to comment on its contents. Well, he has had ten days to digest its contents, so presumably he can tell us now why he spent millions of our rupees in buying those limousines.

You would have expected at least his opponents to make some political capital out of his extravagant waste of our money. Nothing, not even a whimper. You know why? Check on the ownership of those limousines sold at knock down prices and you will see the names of politicians of all parties.

Forget about the fact-finding or high powered committees that James Burty David is talking about as experience has taught us that they do nothing to catch the thieves. They are just aspects of the cosmetic exercises that we excel at in order to give the feeble appearance of doing something against the evils of corruption.

We are unlikely to ever reach the position of other democratic countries because, unlike them, our democracy is artificial and based on the race to power in order to steal from us.

Ariel Sharon?s son is facing jail for illegal election funding in Israel. Ex-Vice President Zuma of South Africa is awaiting trial for corruption. David Blunkett and Peter Mandelson both lost their ministerial positions twice in the UK for appearing to breach the ministerial code of conduct. Edith Cresson was found guilty of corrupt behaviour and President Chirac is likely to face court charges when his presidency ends. So will Silvio Berlusconi. Ex-President Fujimori of Peru is locked up in an Argentinian prison awaiting extradition.

And so on. In Mauritius, we do the opposite. We get rid of people who show any signs of integrity and who genuinely want to fight corruption.

Cunningham?s departure is a tragedy for the country. We have a substantial number of foreigners who are earning a fortune here by simply maintaining a low profile and making sure that they do not rock the boat. They are the foreign equivalent of our local parasites and we never get to hear about them.

You know when someone is doing a good job? When there is a concerted campaign by a vociferous minority who are scared to death that he will stop their corrupt practices. Nobody complains about the foreigners who are here on extravagant salaries simply to maintain the status quo.

But God help any foreigner who does the job he is paid to do with integrity and honesty. Cunningham falls into this category and unfortunately even God deserted him in his crusade to clean the filth in Customs and Excise department. Unfortunately for us, not for him.

R.A.J.