OIM held its first dialogue in January 2015 on the above subject. The summary of the Dialogue as well as the videos are on OIM’s website (www.oxfordmu.com) and can be viewed at leisure. Nothing has fundamentally changed during that one year. In fact the situation may have worsened : it is agreed that if the economy does not grow by at least 5 per cent per year unemployment will rise - and the growth rate is still less than 4 per cent; the light at the end of the BAI saga tunnel is still being awaited, even though collateral damage to the financial regulators and the financial sector has already been done.
Instead of holding another workshop we have decided to engage in a virtual dialogue with some reflections by Percy Mistry (he was in Mauritius in January 2016) aimed at stimulating thought and discussion.
In the intervening period three major policy documents have been produced: Achieving Meaningful Change, the Government Programme 2015-2019 (Jan 2015); At The Crossroad, the Budget Speech 2015-16 (March 2015); and finally the PM Vision 2030 (August 2015).
En vrac the key directions postulated in these documents are summarised below:
From the Government Programme:
And in Vision 2030 the 4 key focus areas are:
With good communication and marketing tools you may sell snow to Eskimos – but for how long? Poetry can make people dream about miracles. But, prose cannot sustain popularity for too long when there is a crying lack of substance, when ignorance is so unabashedly and brazenly exposed. The conundrum then is: if one is steeped in ignorance, how can one realize that one needs to seek knowledge? Ignorance of basic governance is clear when ministers start acting like executives, when ministers operate beyond their portfolios, namely the minister for good governance runs the national TV channel and gets involved in building a City, and the minister for housing and land discusses the opening of embassies and the sending of troops to take part in military exercises! Is there a “Kitchen Cabinet” operating here?
Let us conclude this introductory note by reproducing for inspiration the poem, Where the mind is without fear, by Rabindranath Tagore
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Nikhil Treebhoohun
Instead of holding another workshop we have decided to engage in a virtual dialogue with some reflections by Percy Mistry (he was in Mauritius in January 2016) aimed at stimulating thought and discussion.
In the intervening period three major policy documents have been produced: Achieving Meaningful Change, the Government Programme 2015-2019 (Jan 2015); At The Crossroad, the Budget Speech 2015-16 (March 2015); and finally the PM Vision 2030 (August 2015).
En vrac the key directions postulated in these documents are summarised below:
From the Government Programme:
- Responsible and judicious use of public funds and a crusade to weed out wastage;
- An open and transparent bidding and procurement process to combat fraud and corruption;
- A transparent and merit-based recruitment and appointment policy to ensure meritocracy;
- An in-depth reform of our public sector institutions to inject productivity, efficiency and quality service;
- A zero tolerance policy against crime and violence;
- Freeing our society from the shackles of widespread corruption, favouritism, nepotism, mafias and political interference; and
- Guaranteeing access to information and broadening of the democratic space.”
- “A no policy-change and a business-as-usual approach will condemn the country to low anaemic growth, high unemployment and a bleak future.
- Almost all the areas of our economy are at the crossroad.
- Decisions we take now, decisions we take in this Budget, will have a profound impact on the country’s future, and will determine whether we will make it to the next level.
- The novelty was the announcement of 13 megaprojects and the creation of smart cities.
And in Vision 2030 the 4 key focus areas are:
- “Addressing unemployment;
- Alleviating, if not eradicating, poverty;
- Opening up our country and new air access policies; and
- Sustainable development and innovation.”
- “First, a revamped and dynamic manufacturing base with clearly identified focus on promoting high end, precision driven and technology enabled manufacturing in the country.
- Secondly, we are leveraging on one of our largest asset base which is our Exclusive Maritime Economic Zone to develop our Ocean industry.
- Thirdly, it is crucial for us to revisit our services sector. With the aspirations that we have for our economy, it is now crucial for us to embrace higher value added services and activities.”
With good communication and marketing tools you may sell snow to Eskimos – but for how long? Poetry can make people dream about miracles. But, prose cannot sustain popularity for too long when there is a crying lack of substance, when ignorance is so unabashedly and brazenly exposed. The conundrum then is: if one is steeped in ignorance, how can one realize that one needs to seek knowledge? Ignorance of basic governance is clear when ministers start acting like executives, when ministers operate beyond their portfolios, namely the minister for good governance runs the national TV channel and gets involved in building a City, and the minister for housing and land discusses the opening of embassies and the sending of troops to take part in military exercises! Is there a “Kitchen Cabinet” operating here?
Let us conclude this introductory note by reproducing for inspiration the poem, Where the mind is without fear, by Rabindranath Tagore
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”
Nikhil Treebhoohun
SNIPPETS from Percy Mistry’s Q & A:
“You don’t need a techno-park to innovate”
“The future of Mauritius is being compromised by its dysfunctional, anachronistic politics and political system”
“I do not think that this Bihari mentality can be turned into a positive force”
“Can you have a smart city or several of them without a smart government?”
“After 50 years of Independence , Mauritius shamefully remains a ‘salad bowl’ rather than a ‘melting pot”
“It would be easier to have a single smart island city-state, than to have disparate, fragmented ‘pockets of smartness’ scattered all over the island”
“It is high time for Mauritius to forget about negotiating the right kind of Double Taxation Agreement Avoidance Agreement with India”
“The Mauritian economy is severely constrained by the overweening presence of parastatal corporations which dominate the commanding heights of its economy”.
“Why can only a Bihari ‘vaish’ that is a member of the Vysya caste in proper Hindi aspire to become the top political leader on the island?”
“The environment created by government now provides a powerful incentive for every qualified young professional with backbone and integrity to emigrate and work elsewhere”.
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