<B>By Deepa BHOOKHUN</B>

“My leader is better than yours!” “Yours just likes partying”, “Yours has betrayed”, “Yours hasn’t done anything for this country!”, “Your coalition wants to legalize marijuana!”, “You’re a liar”... Does this amuse you? I have to admit, it does, me. And then, in the middle of my mirth, I usually suddenly realize that those people who are getting hysterical behind a mike are actually the same ones asking for my votes. Asking me to let them serve my country.

Not later than Wednesday, I heard Usha Jeetah and Kalyanee Virahsawmy on air trying to debate like intelligent people. Then I heard Mrs Jeetah say accusingly “there’s someone in your coalition who wants to legalize cannabis.” The other lady, taken aback , does not know what to say. Like Mrs Jeetah, others in the MMM-MSM coalition regularly use this “argument” at their meetings. “How can you vote for someone who wants to legalize sodomy and cannabis?” they ask, outraged that someone has dared propose such a “revolting” thing. And no one from the other side dares say anything in defense of Rama Valayden’s long ago made proposal.

Well, I don’t think the proposal is “revolting” and I think it’s a damn shame the Alliance sociale is not going ahead with it. First of all, unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think Valayden said “legalize”, I think “depenalize” was more what he said. And can’t those obtuse people see there is logic to what Valayden is saying? When you depenalize gandia, you do not send those consuming it to overcrowded jails, making them come out of prison a worse person. You give them some other means of “punishment”. Depenalizing sodomy does not mean rape becomes legal. It simply means leaving two adults free to choose what they consent to do in their bedroom. It means getting rid of an anachronic law.

What amazes me about the 2005 campaign is that nobody wants to say too much in case they say the wrong thing. What happened to saying what you feel? What happened to convictions? I cannot wait to see what the next government is going to do about the issue of abortion. Are they still going to turn a blind eye to the daily sufferings of women? Are they still going to let religious bodies dictate to them what their policy should be? Or will it be the people who will come out the winners? Electoral reform? What next?

While the likes of Eliezer François and Adam Sahoodeea are still stuck in their narrow mindedness and are protesting against Ram Seegobin’s decision to write “muslim” down next to the question entitled “community”, let us hope that the team who will govern us next will start thinking out of the box, will start thinking for themselves, will have the courage of their convictions because as they all too readily say, they really want to “serve the country”.

Well, serve my country, whoever you may be. Serve her well. Because that’s exactly what you guys will be mandated to do.