?The central government and more particularly the present minister do not understand anything about local government.? The former mayor of Beau-Bassin-Rose-Hill, Jean-Claude de l?Estrac, did not mince his words for the launching of Local democracy in Mauritius: the way forward. He, as well as other personalities present, including the outgoing Lord Mayor, Reza Issack, did not hesitate to castigate the government over its ?asphyxiating? attitude towards the municipal and district councils.

The magazine is an initiative by the non-governmental organisation, Selex, chaired by Chit Dukhira ? and the ?watchdog for policy implementation? as Shakuntala Hawoldar mentioned at the beginning of the launching ceremony. It is the result of a two-day workshop at the municipality of Port-Louis last July where the ?openness, frankness, audacity and intellect of most participants concluded that municipal and district councils are suffering from asphyxia,? as the Lord Mayor suggests in his foreword. ?Chained-up, one cannot be as result-oriented as one wishes.?

All the speakers during this ceremony were there to raise the alarm bell, to ?shout a cri du coeur?, as Reza Issack pointed out. For him, if everyone present at the workshop and all those present yesterday found it useful to shout this ?cri du coeur?, it can?t be untrue. And it is not Jean-Claude de l?Estrac who would prove him wrong, as he feels that ?local government is dying out. Because everything is being done to kill it?.

He stressed on the numerous times that Reza Issack had tried to make his voice heard but told the latter: ?I am afraid you were talking to deaf people who did not want to hear you.? This is why he is simply in favour of the abolition of the ministry of Local government so that there is ?no more super mayor?. Local politics is supposed to be close to people, reactive to their needs and result-oriented. With such a centralising government that does not leave any responsibility to municipal councils ? whose members are elected ? there is no chance of achieving any results.

Strangely enough, this is also the opinion of former minister of Local government, Régis Finette, who also attended the ceremony and has contributed to the magazine. ?Time has come to reform local administrations to achieve total autonomy and give them the means to take action.? He considers that the budget is one of the main problems of municipal and district councils. ?Financing should not be done according to projects presented but rather be based on a system taking the number of inhabitants and the area of the town into account.?

Shakuntala Hawoldar also pointed at the lack of budget of municipalities since 70% of their budget is devoted to the payment of salaries. However, Jean-Claude de l?Estrac attenuates this argument because ?municipalities have never been allocated large budgets?. But there was a time when there were motivated, committed and passionate councillors but it seems that present ones ?no longer have any vision?. He suggested that Selex or any other organisation convenes a meeting with heads of local administrations to reflect on the way forward and put them in front of their responsibilities. ?Otherwise, this ministry and the following ones will still feel they own municipalities and their employees.?

It is precisely to try and make it better for his successors that Rez Issack chose not to remain silent. ?Because being silent would mean lying. Now I can talk because people won?t say I am saying this in my own name?, he declared to l?express. ?It is not about courage to state things, it is about telling the truth.?

Suffer from numerous humiliations</B>