“Democracy is fragile.”



It is in these words that the US President elect Joe Biden summed up the unlawful occupation of Capitol Hill on Wednesday 06.01.21. The elected representative of the beacon of democracy qualified the onslaught of Congress by right wing thugs as ‘a siege of the house of democracy’.

The armed standoff between police and protestors, where guns were drawn and tear gas fired, ended up with deaths, some severe casualties and lots of arrests. This is a sad conclusion of the day when Congress met to certify the Biden/Kamala Harris electoral victory over Donald Trump. So, what was meant to be a celebratory transfer of power within the peaceful meaning of the Constitution, turned out into a bloody tussle between those who could not accept the verdict of the people and the police, at the risk of compromising law and order, the rule of law and the spirit of democracy.

And this challenge to the rule of law is happening in Mauritius too, every day, in small dose, in slow motion, on some broad papers, on some radios and online. This is happening since the last general elections which some sore losers have not been able to digest. ‘The lowest of the low’, as the President elect puts it, is the manipulation of public opinion into a constructive conspiracy theory around ‘flawed elections’, as he says, leaders can inspire as well as incite. Unfortunately, in our case here at home, it is the latter that we see manifesting every day and inciting people into acts that defy any common sense.

Nothing is spared, the management of social housing and social allocation after a flooding (and the communal innuendoes that go with it), the unfortunate accident of the Wakashio and its incidence on the environment and livelihoods of people on the coast, the Covid19 pandemics and its management, albeit a successful one compared to other countries.

And now, we are witnessing daily Cinerama, teledrama, onlinerama, any script that would have made Agatha Christie proud of. A continuing and continuous telenovela about some crime fictions and some people playing Sherlock Holmes at the risk of compromising proper police investigation, and an accompanying psychological climate of collective fear of an ‘escadron de la mort’! At a sad time when the psyche of the people is already fragile having undergone the world trauma of the daily deaths and dying of the Covid19! A cast of ex-politicians and ambitious emerging young lawyers constantly parading online, giving themselves the right to indulge in the duties of people with a constitutional responsibility.  We now see some new Fomo’s (Fear Of Missing Out) joining the mediatised cast to give it the ultimate objective some were suspecting of: ‘The last elections were rigged’! Question is, are they overplaying their hands? Even children are well aware that access to electronic devices and things like deep fake and cheap fakes are readily available online and are the joke of the day! 

Oh remember, the Trump cast did also have its lead person in his ‘Avengers’ legal team: a certain Rudy Giuliani.

Yes, democracy is fragile indeed, but the work for democracy goes on!

Gwala Bansi.

Posted by on Jan 10 2021. Filed under Economie, Featured, Politique. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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