by Raj JUGERNAUTH

?... The law is an ass ? an idiot?. So says Mr Bumble, in Dickens Oliver Twist. It is rather a blunt way of putting things. But later on someone added another line to this bluntness. And it read thus: ?The law is an ass and most of those enforcing it are donkeys.? Saying this to our learned Mauritian court magistrates and judges would be tantamount to contempt of court. Suffice to say that it is no contempt in Great Britain from where these two famous lines originate. Most magistrates are not learned at all in this country where there is a tradition of lay magistrates.

The situation is different in Mauritius. But still we cannot say that in Mauritius the law is not an ass, many of our laws have been made by donkeys. This leads to take a closer look at the judgement of the court concerning the electoral petition against Ashock Jugnauth. We are not at all saying here that the learned judges in that case erred in their judgement.

This type of analysis and statement is out of our scope. What we would like to ponder upon is the concept of electoral bribery and the law pertaining to that offence.

Electoral bribery has been part and parcel of our electoral system. Most of our electoral laws are flouted. No control can be exercised on the amount of money that a candidate can spend according to the law. Who has not heard about ?election tempos (pressure cookers)?, who has not heard about free cinema tickets distributed, sarees, and money distributed on a large scale during a particular election campaign. Who has not heard of picnic parties and outings for senior citizens held almost daily during electoral campaigns. But can these types of bribery decide the issue of an election?

?Pran zot kas, al dan zot fet me pa vot pou zot? ? meaning ?take the money they give, go to their outings but don?t vote for them.? In fact, this is what happened with most of the senior citizens the ex-government took by thousands on different outings some weeks before the general elections. For, once in the secrecy of the voting booth, the electorate is free to vote for anyone, those who bribed him after five years of bad and incompetent governance. The Mauritian electorate being what it is, it would be unthinkable that it will vote for a particular candidate because that candidate gave it a ?tempo? (pressure cooker) as gift.

But there is another aspect to electoral bribery, which is very dangerous and which has been used openly or in a very subtle way during some of our general elections.

Job offers or, most dangerous, firm promises of jobs. After what happened in 1982 when the MMM-PSM government fired thousands of people hired on the eve of the general election by sir Seewoosagur's government, those getting jobs on the eve of election and their parents are very cautious when voting. Ousting the government, which offered the jobs may mean losing the jobs.

It happened in 1982 and it happened in the ministry of Health after the last general election.

Forcing those who have been promised or who have obtained jobs to ?show their faces?, meaning to make regular appearances in public or private meetings is also another dangerous strategy, for big crowds in these meetings have a powerful influence on a large proportion of the electorate, which are undecided and hesitant.

But these things are now done in very subtle manner. A particular party used in the past one of these strategies. Parastatal bodies advertised for jobs and thousands of letters were sent to applicants telling them that, according to their application letter, they were qualified for the jobs and that interviews would be held shortly.

This strategy forces the applicant to vote for the government of the day, for fear that a new government might have a different recruitment policy.

Electoral bribery can go very far and be very subtle, so much so that the law needs to be revised as different strategy evolves.

And the Mauritian citizen has to ask himself today if Ashock Jugnauth got elected through electoral bribery or because of the good job he didin the ministry of Health. We remember the statement made by Rajesh Bhagwan after his election in Beau-Bassin-Petite-Rivière. He said to members of his party and ex-ministers who had miserably failed that they should bear in mind that the electorate had voted for members of the MMM-MSM government who had delivered the goods and worked hard in their ministries.

It is true that Ashock Jugnauth did a better job than his nephew, Pravind Jugnauth.

I mean a good job apart from what he did to the Medical Council, making of that organisation a toothless bulldog. The next by-election may answer the question.