Will he, won’t he? Well he has. Sylvio Michel has finally submitted his long overdue resignation letter… After the prime minister took it upon himself to announce the imminent departure of the procrastinating minister.

Sylvio Michel, in his letter to the president of the Republic, writes, “I submit to you my resignation letter that prime minister Paul Bérenger has been impatiently waiting for since the day following the general elections of 2000.” Only the author of those lines and a few privileged ones know what he meant by this. What we do know, on the other hand, is that the last thing Sylvio Michel wanted to do was resign. Otherwise there would not have been as many ultimatums. If anything, Michel would have preferred Bérenger to revoke him. But indifference is worse than open hostility; any reaction is better than no reaction at all. And this is exactly what Sylvio Michel got: no reaction. On a few occasions, the majority leaders chose to humour Michel. The “We are very upset about minister Michel’s stand” has been heard a few times complete with the correct dose of sadness in the affected tones.

We remember Sylvio Michel’s warning to the government on Mayday: “May those who are thinking of sacking me think twice.” We also remember Pravind Jugnauth’s reaction, “We are very disappointed”, but the deputy prime minister still wished to reassure Sylvio Michel that “no action would be taken against him.”

If Sylvio Michel thinks he is coming out of this sordid intrigue as the victim, he has another thought coming. He does not have our sympathy, he has our pity. The fact that Michel, his party and his people have had such little regard from the ruling majority is not to be taken lightly. But when a man of honour has had his dignity trampled, he walks away with his head held high. He does not give ultimatums, privately praying that they are met so he can retain his ministerial seat.

This sorry episode does not do much for Bérenger either. His contentions with Michel is not known to us – well, we know what we have been told but the tone of Sylvio Michel’s letter suggests that there is more to this story than meets the eyes. By humouring Michel for so many months and allowing the man to make a farce of the principle of collective responsibility, Bérenger did no favours to anyone, least of all, his “good friend Sylvio.”

Sylvio Michel is not the first person to say outright that something is wrong within the ranks of the majority. And we have seen how the prime minister and his deputy treat uneasiness within the government. Remember Anil Gayan, Meghduth Chumroo, Anil Baichoo, not to mention other MSM backbenchers?

Sylvio is the first one to walk out. He had his reasons. The question is: Who’s next?