<B>By Deepa BHOOKHUN</B>

Asraf Dullul, honourable minister, made a rather outrageous statement the other day at a political function in his constituency. He said: ?Bérenger is saying ?let?s abolish the Best Loser System (BLS)?.

I say loud and clear that I am against the abolition of the BLS. Tell me what?s sectarian about it? People from every religion have benefited from the BLS at some point in time.?

Besides the fact that minister Dullul?s statement is shocking beyond belief (we?ll get to that in a minute), it contains a fallacy. The minister will forgive me for pointing it out to him.

What Paul Bérenger said was that he was in a hurry to see the electoral system reviewed.

I don?t recall ever having heard him say he was dying for the abolition of the BLS; he?s too much of a coward for that.

And in this, Bérenger is like all the other politicians; how many of them have used the word ?abolish? when talking about the BLS?

They want to but they don?t dare. How pathetic!

But ironically, the same Paul Bérenger is now pushing Government to go ahead with the electoral reform. He is so keen that the system be reformed that he doesn?t hide his annoyance at what he calls the ?inaction? of the Prime minister. Well that?s rich coming from Bérenger; somebody should ask him why he didn?t do it himself when he was in power if he?s so convinced of the imperative of reforming the system.

Now on to Asraf Dullul. He is against the abolition of the BLS? Good for him but he should do us all a favour and keep his thoughts to himself. While every sensible person agrees with the fact that it is high time for us to get rid of this stupid and senseless division contained in the Constitution that divides the nation into four unequal parts and gives legitimacy to the BLS, minister Dullul keeps busy by playing on the fears of his constituents.

He doesn?t see what?s sectarian about the BLS?

I would love to explain it to him but I really do not like to waste my time.

But as the Sachs report and Cassam Uteem say, the reassurance that the BLS gives to the Muslim community is purely psychological. In actual fact and practice, extra care and effort is made by politicians to ensure adequate representation of every ethnic group at election time. Of course they would because otherwise they?d be shooting themselves in the foot, wouldn?t they?

I?ll be damned if Asraf Dullul didn?t know this.

So the question I would like to put to him is ? instead of encouraging ? and igniting ? the fear of people, shouldn?t he instead as a ?leader? ? I wrote that word very reluctantly ? try and explain to hisconstituents why they shouldn?t fear the abolition ? if we ever get there ? of the BLS?

Or is that too much to ask?