I do not intend to engage in a philosophical discourse on nationalism and one?s communal identity, their opposition and their complementary nature. Eric Bernard in l?express of 8th May finds Father Grégoire?s stand unpatriotic and parochial. I contend that, for Mauritius to be a united nation, we must ensure that every strand of the country?s kaleidoscopic population feels at ease on its soil. In the course of our history, every community has produced movements, leaders who have contributed to its development. A university lecturer said that the Arya Samaj has consolidated the foundations of the Hindu community through baitkas? literacy campaigns, acceptance of birth control. Asian values may have done the rest. Greg Sheridan in Asian Values, Western dreams outlines the economic virtues associated with the Asian economic superiority.

Propensity to defer consumption even across generations

? Strong work ethics

? Bias towards the interests of producers as opposed to consumers

? General stress on the maintenance of social and political stability

? Stress on the group?s interests and willingness to sublimate individual interest to that of the group

Father Grégoire refers to an adage perverted by transmission from one generation to another. ?Kreol pares, kreol kontan amise!? The archetype of the Creole reflected in the term ?Joe? is reductive because it has unfairly been associated with jobs needing manual labour. The association of the Hindu with ?diri dal?, ?dal bhat? has gradually evaporated since the 50s and has even been relegated to oblivion. Somehow, the pejorative name ?Joe? has clung to the skin of the Creole. The cause of Creoles has been spearheaded by communal heroes of this ethnic group who found in the community a catalytic agent to catapult them into power. Most of the heroes of the Creole community who have withstood the test of time have belonged to the Franco-African group and have been in a position to make capital of the Creole?s naiveté.

Father Grégoire is, after Anquetil and Curé, the first Creole to vindicate the rights of the Creole as an individual in his own right. Even if Mr Bernard find the priest?s mission narrowly centered on ethnic interests, I believe we must give him full support. To find a place in the rainbow nation, every strand must be strongly rooted in Mauritian soil. The triangular location of Roche-Bois, Plaine-Verte and Tranquebar is grandiloquent of a population distribution along ethnic lines. But why does Roche-Bois carry greater opprobrium notwithstanding a mixture of population that the other two regions cannot boast of having?

One should not expect the State to eradicate or accentuate poverty because poverty has prismatic faces which a job, a house, or provision of food cannot reveal. Poverty is a state of mind, an attitude or mode of behaviour, a mentality, a product of culture, custom and habit. A priest is in a position to fathom the atavistic nature of the poor because religion reflects the most primitive and the most sophisticated, the animal and the divine, the spontaneous and the deliberate. That is why the priest has chosen status, language and property as the three main areas of the Creole?s resurrection. Education becomes another spearhead of action. The Creole must recognize his dignity, recover his self-esteem. The State cannot pander to this need. Status, employment and property are meaningless to the poor who lack self-esteem. How many slum dwellers in Bombay have sold State-given land to meretricious plunderers among the middle class? The proceeds of this sale were squandered on drink, gambling and other transient pleasures.

Role fraught with risks

The role of the State is to provide a framework for progress, individual or communal. The State builds schools and makes education free and compulsory. It does not have the means to force a parent to send his child to school. Even if it can, it does not arrogate the prerogative of supporting the child at home. The State can formulate policies towards giving. It cannot be the wise taker. Many alcoholics return home after detoxification and find themselves again in an asylum because poverty weakens the mind, debilitates the moral nerve. That is why Father Gregoire is talking about the emotional, moral and psychological revival of the Creole. The term ?population générale? is demeaning.

The non-recognition of Creole language is self-abusive. When a person?s vernacular is not given the respect it deserves, it is like a mother who becomes an object of ridicule. Land is that which gives the individual roots, helps him to found a family and usher new generations. Squatters, people living in dilapidated rented houses are putting the concept of the family at risk. It is unfortunate that NGOs have failed in their poverty alleviation task. Finally leaders of NGOs sever their links with the base for financial gains, ego-trips and political benefits. Father Gregoire?s task is Herculean. He cannot fail to fulfil the expectations of thousands of persons who look up to him as a messianic hero.

And again this role of the priest is fraught with risks. He must guard himself against people of his own denomination who will wish to obtain political mileage from his action. Political parties have already expressed their affiliation with the priest?s mission. He cannot espouse demagogical stands like having a representation of 35% in the civil service. Why not the private sector? Do we expect to rehabilitate the Creole by making just policemen out of them? Getting into the civil service is anachronistic. The profile of the new Creole is that of the new Mauritian ? entrepreneurial in spirit, capable of creativity, innovativeness, critical thinking and originality, worthy of working in teams and, above all, patriotic. How can anybody guarantee 35% representation in the civil service? Is Father Grégoire slandering the PSC and accusing them of favouritism or nepotism on ethnic grounds. I am surprised that Father Grégoire is happy with the recruitment of Creoles in a recent past in the police force. Has the PSC been subjected to influence?

Father Gregoire should beware of appropriating theories that have not been tested. Will Creole as medium of instruction be the panacea for failing CPE candidates? Learning difficulties are the result of:

? emotional problems

? perception problems

? movement and co-ordination problems

? language problems

? spelling and reading problems

? concentration problems

? poor educational experience

? poor teaching related to poverty

Some general problems, affecting the ways children learn are:

? coming to school hungry

? experiencing violence

? not having pencils, paper and books before coming to school

? not having heard many stories or songs at home

? poor discipline at home

? few opportunities to observe the environment or to ask questions

? not understanding the language used in the classroom

We should not run away with manufactured ideas or ideologies. We do not benefit from a pool of teachers who are resourceful enough to understand the child from a challenging environment.

Mr Bernard has been too simplistic in his conclusions. The State cannot substitute itself for individuals who have the heart and the mind to accompany the poor in their travails ? civil servants will never do what dedicated missionaries like Vinobha Bhave have done in India, Martin Luther King in America and what Father Grégoire promises to do for Creoles. It should be understood that there cannot be a nation with ailing minorities or with an aggrieved minority. One rich person living in the midst of ten poor persons ultimately becomes the eleventh poor. It is in the interest of Mauritians to support Father Grégoire if we can do nothing concrete to help Creoles.

Santosh Kumar MAHADEO