Aneerood Jugnauth Government dissolved, New Government Sworn In

24.01.2017

 Yesterday, 24 January, 2017, Aneerood Jugnauth dissolved his Cabinet, and the President of the Republic Amina Gurrib-Fakim swore in Pravind Jugnauth, who in her own deliberate judgement “can command the support of a majority of the members of the Assembly” (1).

 Then Pravind Jugnauth formed a new Government.

 Each Minister was sworn in. Aneerood Jugnauth has taken on the Lee Kwan Yu role of “Minister Mentor”, and is number three in Government after Ivan Collendavelloo of the Muvman Liberater.

 Surprises were that Roshi Bhadain just didn’t turn up; he has been sulking for a while as he has gradually been given less and less responsibility, and he seems to have surprised his colleagues by his theatrical gesture of just not showing up for the ceremony.

 Ms. Marie-Claire Monty, who resigned from the PMSD when it left Government, was thought to have perhaps been in the running for a Ministry, but was not named. Anil Gayan is the new Tourism Minister, transferred from Health where he had, after a very destructive start, just begun to take on head-on the vested interests that tend to run down Government services (specialists who also do private practice); this is not a good sign.

 Taken as a whole, the Cabinet, however, is not much different from the previous one, and how could it be. So, we can expect the very same lack of a proper strategy to re-launch production and in particular job creation in production; we can expect, unless we protest against it, a continuation of the selling off of good arable land in real estate, including a form of neo-colonization a-la-Israelienne. So, LALIT will have to continue protesting against this new Government and coming up with programmatic challenges.

 Here is the list of new Ministers:

 Prime Minister       Pravind Jugnauth

Vice PM                Ivan Collendavelloo

Minister Mentor       Aneerood Jugnauth

VPM & Housing       Shawkutally Soodhun

Foreign Aff.           Vishu Lutchmeenaraidoo

ICT                     Yogida Saminaden

Infrastructure         Nando Bodha

Education              Leela-Devi Dookhun

Tourism                Anil Gayan

Health                  Annwar Husnoo

Culture                  Prithviraj Roopun

Social Security &

Environment          Ettienne Sinatambou

Agriculture             Mahen Seeruttun

Industry                Ashit Kumar Gungah

Att. General           Ravi Yerigadoo

Sport                    Stephan Toussaint

Co-ops                  Soomilduth Bholah

Social Integration      Alain Wong

Gender Equality       Fazila Daureeawoo

Marine Resources      Prem Koonjoo

Labour                  Soodesh Callichurn

Local Gm.             Mahen Jughroo

Civil service          Eddie Boissezon

Good Governance   Vacant so far

 On the more political front, the new Prime Minister did a TV address to the nation which was low-key, as is his usual style. Meanwhile, the Opposition parties (PMSD, Labour, MMM and Ganoo’s Muvman Patriotique) will be holding a demonstration on Friday; the PMSD, Labour Party, Jack Bizlall and Rezistans are all threatening to prepare legal challenges to the President’s nomination of Pravind Jugnauth as new Prime Minister. This kind of challenge seems to be instead of a programmatic challenge, which is so sorely needed.

 (1)  Section 59 (3) “The president, acting in his own deliberate judgement, shall appoint as Prime minister the member of the Assembly who appears to him best able to command the support of the majority of the members of the Assembly …”

and Section 57 (1) (b) of the Constitution reads: “(b) where the office of Prime Minister is vacant and the President considers that there is no prospect of his being able within a reasonable time to appoint to that office a person who can command the support of a majority of the members of the Assembly, the President, acting in his own deliberate judgement, may dissolve Parliament.”

 Midday, Tuesday 24 January, 2017