Hope for change as old guard retakes Mauritius

Hope for change as old guard retakes Mauritius
REUTERS

PORT LOUIS, SEPT 13: The political old guards swept back to power in Mauritius this week with voters pinning their hopes on a team which has promised to return the Indian Ocean island to prosperity and growth.

An opposition alliance of former premier Sir Anerood Jugnauth's Socialist Militants (MSM) and Paul Berenger's Militant Movement (MMM) party won 54 of the 62 seats up for grabs in the National Assembly elections.

The ruling Labour Party of Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam won just six seats, with the other two going to a small local party on neighbouring Rodrigues island.

It was almost a complete reversal of the 1995 election when an alliance of Berenger's MMM and Ramgoolam's Labour Party won all 60 seats on the main island to end 13 years of rule by Jugnauth.

Political kingmaker Berenger joined forces with Ramgoolam then despite having for years served as Jugnauth's foreign or finance Minister during the island's most prosperous years.

The pair were credited with transforming Mauritius from a sleepy backwater known only for sugar and tourism to becoming one of the world's most important finished textile manufacturers with a vibrant Export Processing Zone (EPZ) and a fast emerging financial services base.

Analysts say there are real hopes of a return to the days that yielded that kind of double digit growth.

"There is no doubt these personalities have more opportunity to instil confidence in the way Mauritius is run," said Professor Dev Virahsawmy, a leading social commentator.

"But whether this confidence is justified remains to be seen."

Berenger himself admits it won't be easy.

"The economy is not in good shape at the moment," he said. "There has been virtually no economic development in the last five years. They have been wasted."

His first priority, he said, is to "look at the books" and work out a true balance sheet for the island.

The current budget -- with GDP growth estimated at 8 per cent for the year 2000 -- takes into account revenue from privatisation processes that have yet to be started or are far from complete.

It also does not account for the enormous amounts of money being swallowed each day because of the old government's reluctance ahead of the election to pass on global oil price rises to local pumps.

A swift increase in the price of fuel is certain, and how the new government deals with the inevitable protests could be its first real test.

Berenger says also that many EPZ companies are "technically bankrupt", but he hopes a change of government will give banks the confidence to increase lending to pull them out of the mire.

Socially as well, the new government has promised change.

Disgusted with what they saw as blatant pro-Ramgoolam bias by the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Jugnauth and Berenger shunned the traditional victory address to the nation from MBC's headquarters and instead called a news conference at a hotel in the capital.

They said they would move swiftly to grant licenses for upto five new private radio stations and three television channels.

Apart from the economic spinoffs, this would also be likely to reassure the island's disparate ethnic communities that they will have a greater say in the state's affairs.

Ethnic Indians make up the majority of the island's 1.2 million people. Fifty per cent of them are Hindus, while ethnic Indian Muslims make up a further 16 per cent and Chinese three per cent.

The remaining 30 per cent are chiefly Afro-Creole --mixed-blood descendants of former slaves -- and the rest white Franco or Anglo descendants of colonial settlers.

Change is inevitable at the very top too.

Under the terms of their alliance, Jugnauth will initially take up his former position of Prime Minister before becoming president in 2003 with increased powers modelled on India's constitution.

Berenger will then assume the premiership, in the process becoming the first white person to lead an independent African state.