Creating a democratic alternative

Mauritians must build a democracy that is not just a system of government, but which will become a way of life alive at work, at home, everywhere. At the heart of it must be gender democracy.

A combination of long-term difficulties eroding efficiency and performance of export sectors, including tourism, coupled with a dependency on increasingly expensive fossil fuels, means that Mauritians have to rethink their development strategy and lifestyle.

Besides judicious adjustments and innovations to keep our textile and tourist heads above water, the country needs energy producing schemes, but for heaven’s sake, not the ‘nuke-crazy’ route. The sugar industry will willy-nilly have to become ‘the cane energy industry’ and sweetener will be just a mere byproduct.

New daring town and country planning leading to locally centred economies, which encourage the use of bicycles, also will be part of the new landscape. Most importantly food production must top our political agenda and that would probably mean an agrarian reform capable of releasing our creative and productive potentials. Import substitution of a new kind could be envisaged. It will be argued that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules rule this out. This is true if protective administrative measures are taken, but if the people of Mauritius freely choose to buy Mauritian, it would be undemocratic to stop them.

This new orientation to the economy and culture will not be the oeuvre of bureaucrats or technocrats of the old order. It requires new thinking and new leadership at all levels to mobilise human and material resources.

Of course ‘compradores’ will initially be dead against. But the world economic and ecological reality will eventually force them to join national efforts. This survival strategy rests on a class alliance, which is all-inclusive. This is not to be interpreted as a reneger, an abandonment of class struggle. The struggle against neocolonialism is an expression of class struggle.

There is no doubt that in the process of rebuilding Mauritius, the establishment of strong links with the country’s immediate neighbours (Indian Ocean Islands, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), etc.) and the adoption of environment-friendly policies, will strengthen Morisianism (positive nationalism) and build a new forward-looking culture.

This new culture will have to be based on tolerance, justice, caring and sharing. Above all, it will have to be democratic. Mauritians will have to build a democracy that is not just a system of government, but which will become a way of life alive at work, at home, everywhere. At the heart of it must be gender democracy.

The most difficult task at present is to find the leadership, which can incarnate all of this.

Dev Virahsawmy is a Mauritian poet, linguist and writer.

This article is part of the GEM Opinion and Commentary Service that provides views and perspectives on current events.

janine@genderlinks.org.za for more information.