by R.A.J.

? A cursory examination of the way all governments have behaved in Paradise Island since independence leads to the inescapable conclusion that we are very far from the État de droit that politicians like to enthuse about whenever they want to score cheap political points over their opponents. Our politicians appear to have never heard of the opening words of the founding charter of the Constitution of the United States of America which endorse the notion that «All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights...and that Governments are instituted among Men and derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.» Let us look at the application of each of the components of the Rule of Law in Mauritius and decide whether the concept of l?État de droit is a reality or a sick joke.

■ The law must be accessible and intelligible

A significant proportion of our population can hardly read or write and do not have the resources to instruct solicitors. The law is accessible provided you have a lot of money, an infinite amount of patience to endure the long years of waiting before a case is finally settled, and almost supernatural powers to understand the convoluted legal jargons that are designed specifically for members of the legal profession to impress each other.

■ Disputes must be resolved by application of the law rather than exercise of discretion

Politicians have their grubby paws on almost every lever of our society and a democracy has been turned into an executive dictatorship irrespective of whichever party is in power. The Prime Minister?s powers of patronage and the bullying tendencies of most of our politicians have ensured that discretion is exercised often wrongly and almost entirely for party political purposes by a Civil Service cowed into submission by threats to future promotion prospects.

■ The law must apply equally to all

Don?t make me laugh! If you are rich and powerful, you can always claim to be ill and therefore escape the due processes of the law; or you can simply tell the police officer trying to arrest you: To koner moi kisan la?; or you could become more technologically advanced and infect computer discs securely in the possession of the police with a virus so clever that it attacks the only incriminating disc available?Or you could be arrested with thousands of subutex tablets and be charged with possession only and not intent to supply, presumably because you planned to consume all of them yourself or, in the spirit of enterprise apparently flowing everywhere in Paradise Island, you planned to get an Empowerment Fund grant in order to turn the tablets into nice collar chains to be sold to the two million tourists we expect in less than ten years time?

■ It must protect fundamental human rights

In Paradise Island, it not only protects the rights of convicted criminals but also gives one lucky prisoner on the run the right to consult in person the Minister for Justice and to agree the best method for his surrender and the best place for his future incarceration ? and all played in the full glare of the TV cameras.

Other people like Rajesh Ramlogun are invited by the police for a chat and end up dead, presumably because, if we are to believe the version of the police, of a sudden desire to test the strength of his cell walls with his head?Teeren Appasamy must have his right to remain in the United Kingdom protected at all costs presumably because it would be unfair to expect him to spend the hundreds of millions siphoned from the MCB in such a small place as Paradise Island?

■ Disputes should be resoved without prohibitive cost or inordinate delay

Does an average wait of five years to settle a case in court sound attractive to you? As for the cost, I do not believe the general perception that lawyers? costs are exorbitant; they must be very poorly paid as very many of them do not think it worthwhile completing their tax returns or giving receipts for the work they claim to have done on your behalf?

■ Public officials must use power reasonably and must not exceed their powers

Read the recent interviews of Bijaye Madhou and Fareed Jangeerkhan as clear examples of the absolute need for Mauritius to invest in an aerospatial industry in order to bring these two grossly overpaid, pompous, puffed up, narrow minded individuals back to Planet Earth.

■ The system for resolving differences must be fair

How on earth can you do that when everything is subject to political interference? Here is one example of many that I have become aware of recently: The Minister for Public Utilities has still not responded to a letter of complaint submitted by one of his engineers at the Central Water Authority in august 2006; the letter asks him to take the same corrective action that he rightly took previously to redress an injustice to another engineer who coincidentally happens to share his religious convictions. Copies of the letter were sent at the same time to the Minister for Justice, the Minister for Labour, the Prime Minister, and others. No one has bothered yet to do anything and we somehow remain surprised at the chaotic state of the CWA. But let us be fair. Apart from stupidly getting himself involved with the Manand Fakhoo case, Rama Valayden is presumably too busy responding to phone calls from Cehl Meeah negotiating the best conditions for his surrender to the police; the Minister for Labour is apparently too busy looking over his shoulders for the next knife from Yatin Varma; and it must be very time consuming trying to keep your newly purchased Aston Martin in tip-top condition?

■ A state must comply with its international law obligations

Go and visit the living quarters and work conditions of the foreign workers that we have invited to come here and then decide whether they meet with the minimum international standards.

L?Etat de Droit remains a figment of the very fertile imagination of our politicians. From the TV and DVD set that Sailendra Gokool installed with our money in the limousine paid for by all of us to the inability of Harry Boolauck, the current General Manager of the CWA, to sue those who, according to him, are responsible for the theft of 80% of the water distributed by the CWA; from the powerlessness of the police and customs officers to arrest the major drugs dealers because of their political connections to the large segment of our population who have been brainwashed into thinking that the only decent job is a job dan gouvernman; from the hard working, decent folk in parastatal bodies who know that no amount of hard work will prevent a minister?s friend or close relative getting the job that should reward his efforts to the numerous civil servants who suddenly find incompetent, ill educated advisors acting as their line managers; from the iniquity of asking bungalow owners on the pas geometriques to fork out Rs5 millions per acre as a one off payment and Rs 250,000 annually to the incredibly careless generosity of asking hotels and restaurants in the same exclusive zones to pay no more than a maximum of Rs 100,000 annually whilst making massive profits on state, i.e. our, land. All these, and many other examples, point to the desecration by our politicians of the noble concept of l?Etat de Droit.

Our democracy is fine in principle; we have elections every five years and, by and large, the electoral process runs smoothly. But we always end up with an elective dictatorship where the winner takes all and the new Prime Minister does as he wishes with the enormous powers of patronage that we have allowed him to enjoy. He can hire and fire at will and does so with the child like fascination of the power experienced by a kid with lots of loose change on his first trip to the sweet shop. It does not matter whether it is Ramgoolam, Berenger, or Jugnauth who is Prime Minister; they have all abused the powers of that office in a manner bordering on the criminal.

The latest example of this gross abuse of power is the manner of selection of the next Governor of the Bank of Mauritius; all the candidates mentioned so far have very close links to the Labour party. A serious selection of candidates would have invited applications from the many other Mauritians who are better qualified than those mentioned. But what can you expect when Ali Mansoor was presented as the bees? knees of the World Bank by his friend Sithanen when in reality he was at best a middle manager from that organization?

L?Etat de Droit? It will only happen in Paradise Island when our politicians understand exactly what the Rule of Law means. And that is a very long time away.