One of the few outstanding performances of the last financial year barely rated a mention in most of the press. An underachieving government department, notorious over many decades for its many corrupt practices, has managed to add four billion rupees to the state coffers during the last two years. It has been able to achieve this by simply ensuring that people comply with the law or by making it more difficult for anyone to flout it ? a sine qua non of any democracy. Despite the vociferous and racist campaign targetted against its figurehead by the opposition parties, some customs officers and some trade unionists, the result show conclusively that the right man was appointed to the job of heading that department. Mr Birt Cunningham can rightly feel proud of his perfprmance as Customs Controller and has shown, like so many others, that ability is not dependent on race or nationality.

It was a brave decision for Bérenger to appoint a foreigner to such a sensitive position and to publicly support and encourage Cunningham?s measures to improve performance in the perenially inefficient and corrupt Customs and Excise department. Although the jury is still out on the performance of other contracted foreigners (and the verdict is unlikely to be positive on a few), it is undeniable that some departments do benefit from the leadership of outsiders who are immune to the typical cultural and ethnic pressures of Mauritian institutions. Sometimes, a new broom is required to sweep away years of institutional rubbish and clutter and encourage the workforce to be more inventive and efficient; in order to expose and clean the stamped-down filth, the carpet has to be lifted and a new cleaner often finds the filth that has been conveniently brushed there over many years.

Politicians who have at best a nodding acquaintance with the truth often resort to an appeal to the most contemptible of human instincts in the forlorn hope of getting votes. This invariably translates into verbal attacks on minorities by highlighting and exploiting the ?us? and ?them? mentality and subconsciously implanting the notion that the majority is under attack by the minority. Michael Howard, the Leader of the Opposition, is currently using the race card in the United Kingdom by making immigration and asylum the centrepiece of his campaign at the next general elections; the same vile tactic failed miserably in 2001 with his predecessor, William Hague unable to persuade white voters that British culture was under threat from foreigners.

Ramgoolam, Dulloo, and Jeetah have all asked perfectly legitimate questions about Cunningham?s salary package and I am surprised that the government has so far failed to disclose how much the taxpayer is paying for his services. This reticence betrays an inexplicable feeling of guilt and gives the impression that something wrong is being done and must therefore be hidden from public view. Transparency is paramount in a democracy and the taxpayer is absolutely entitled to know how his money is being spent. Now that Cunningham has shown that he is worth every cent that we are paying him, Pravind Jugnauth must stop being so coy and compare Cunningham?s salary and performance with those of so many others on ludicrously high salaries but performing poorly. After all, no one can dispute facts and an extra Rs 4 billion in the state coffers render any criticism of Cunningham untenable.

The reservations about Cunningham have nothing to do with his salary; the hidden message is that he is a white foreigner who has taken a job that should have gone to a Mauritian, preferably from a specific caste and ethnic community. Extrapolate from that and you get the main message for the Labour party?s campaign at the next elections: that the prime minister of this independent democracy must always be a Hindu, irrespective of his abilities to govern the country efficiently and responsibly for all citizens. That?s why between now and election day we will constantly hear the mantra about a handful of people (white) owning most of the wealth,etc. and how the majority must get what it is due. One can only hope that people will not be that gullible and instead ask the obvious question: if this is such an injustice, what did you do to repair it when you were in power during 1995-2000?

Mauritius has had Hindu prime ministers continually until 2003. Is anyone seriously saying that Hindus have done badly in the last year and that in all the previous years they did well? That a handful of white people have owned most of the wealth only in the last year? Of course not. This is nothing but shameless opportunism and odious racism and all decent people must fight it. If Ramgoolam wants to become prime minister, let him do so on the basis of clear policies that will show exactly how he intends to make life better for everyone. To claim the prime ministership on the basis of his ethnic origin whilst trying to deny it to someone from a different ethnic background is insulting to all Mauritians. He is telling Hindus that irrespective of his personality, character, and past performance, they should vote for him because, er, he is a Hindu! How patronising can you get?

On a personal level, I am a Hindu and this is what I will do and hope others will do too: I will vote for whichever party tells me clearly what it will do to (a) combat corruption properly (b) make the police far more efficient than it has been despite the enormous resources poured into it over the last 4 years (c) address the budget deficit and cut waste in public expenditure (d) make politicians and civil servants more accountable. If Ramgoolam?s party?s manifesto contains clear commitments and policies, not just slogans, addressing these issues, I may vote for him, although I will compare his promises with his past, highly unsatisfactory performance. But I will never vote for him just because he is a Hindu and nor should he expect me to. Although we share the same religion, we do not share the same values; for example, I value hard work and nobody can dispute that Berenger,for all his faults, is far more diligent than Ramgoolam. I also value people of integrity and no person of integrity would ever use racism as a tool to garner votes. I simply hope that people will vote for whoever is the better person to unify the country and make all of its people prosper. To do otherwise will be ?unmauritian? and betray a paucity of intellect and imagination and a sense of fair play, qualities always in abundance in all of us.

<B>by R.A.J. </B>