Sherry Singh “Denunciation”: Bourgeois democracy Reaches its Limits

07.07.2022

As Sherry Singh makes his bombshell “denunciation” against Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, it brings to light the serious trouble that bourgeois democracy is in in Mauritius. How to get to the bottom of the problem he raises? And this is happening in Mauritius just as the USA, UK and France, each in different ways, are bumping into the limits of their own bourgeois democracy, too. How does the little democracy that the working people have fought for and won over the past century or so stand up to the dual pressures of rising populism and of tenacious rulers of the ever-powerful “executive” branches of Government against the elected representatives of the people.   

When Sherry Singh resigned last Thursday as Mauritius Telecom boss, little did we know that Bruneau Laurette, an ex-MSM agent up till and including the 2019 elections, now co-leader with Rama Valayden of the new populist Linion Pep Morisien party, would, within days, be his port-parol. But such is Mauritian politics today. Laurette has announced that Singh will come out with all the missing details of his allegation “Friday at latest”, i.e. tomorrow. Meanwhile in L’Express of 7 July he has put out some questions to the Prime Minister.

Sherry Singh was the Opposition Parties’ principal enemy for years, as he was the closest political aide that Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth ever had, and they credited him with the MSM’s political and social media “nous” that they believe led to the MSM’s victories in the 2014 and 2019 elections.

Singh cited as reason for his resignation from his Rs700,000 per month job (a sum he by-the-way says is less than he deserves) that the Prime Minister had asked him to allow a “foreign entity” to install “sniffing” or spying devices into the internet system for all data coming into and leaving Mauritius. This is a very grave accusation. He, being a patriot, did not agree, he said on Radio in a meticulously planned resignation “event”. Workers at MT were organized to support him by a work stoppage and applause. And he admitted to, or bragged about, having a “maquilleuse” for his media and other events. And that was the first time we heard any hint of a link with Bruneau Laurette: his make-up artist is Laurette’s girlfriend. Small world.

Anyway, Sherry Singh’s bombshell accusation rang true. Not only is the Jugnauth Government often wholly reliant on repression and on police surveillance, but we all remember the specific attempt of the Jugnauth government to amend the ICTA law to allow “oversight” of the internet, otherwise known as spying. The proposal was withdrawn after public outrage. See our article on www.lalitmauritius.org.

But, the Prime Minister denies Mr. Singh’s allegation. At first he put out a weak denial referring to “every word” of what Mr. Singh said perhaps not being true. He challenged Mr. Singh to go to the police with a formal complaint. This is hardly a solution when the police fall under the responsibility of the Prime Minister. Neither logically, nor politically, is this a plausible way to get to the bottom of this. Some Opposition members instead called for a Commission of Enquiry. This would, of course, also need to be triggered by the Prime Minister, himself. And in any case, it would take so long that it is just a non-starter. Others said the DPP should open a judicial enquiry. They were reminded that the DPP already has a Supreme Court challenge on the issue of whether he had the power to open such an enquiry in the case of the Slovak national who was “deported” (by whatever other verb used for this expulsion). So, the DPP seems unlikely as a resolution. 

By then, the Opposition was accusing the Prime Minister of sedition. 

So then, the logical solution is to take this eminently political conflict to the elected National Assembly for a resolution. This would be the democratic way to resolve whether the accusation can be replied to or not.

The Opposition Leader, Xavier Duval, got off his sick-bed to do exactly that. He asked a precise Private Notice Question. In his answer, Jugnauth’s denial firmed up a bit, compared with his previous denial. However, the minute Duval came to his first follow-up question, before he had iterated it, the Speaker Sooroojdev Phokeer cited a Standing Order to rule him out of order. This broke a 50 year tradition that the Opposition Leader has his half-hour for a PNQ’s supplementary questions.  So, the democratic way of resolving the problem was stymied.  

So, how does one get to the bottom of this? 

The situation is grave. 

While the Government is clearly in a very weak situation, relying ever-more on the police even as the violence of the CID and ADSU is exposed as torture. But the Opposition is in a very weak situation, too. The Leader of the Opposition is in the absurd position of being leader of only the third-biggest party in the Opposition. In addition, all the Opposition Parties have run a “Trump-like” attack against the last general elections. As they, like Trump, have lost every single legal challenge so far – where the facts have totally discredited their claims – their position is now doubly weak. First, if the elections were, as they say they were, “trike” or “marday”, it is not only the government MPs who are not legitimate. It is them, too. The Opposition seems congenitally unable to realize that a three-way split in the elections means that Jugnauth could legitimately “win” with less than 40% of votes. He has kept a comfortable majority in the National Assembly. This is the logic both of the system and its arithmetic. This refusal to accept the results of the last election makes even the calling of an early General Election to resolve the political problem raised by Sherry Singh’s accusation problematic, too. If Jugnauth wins again, the Opposition parties will again say the elections were not free and fair.

The Opposition Parties – Labour, MMM and PMSD – have been so unfocused, so without a proper analysis of the situation nor program to change it, that they have had to “tail-end” the populists like Bruneau Laurette and Rama Valayden, who jump on any bandwagon available.

Anyway, the reasonable attempt by the Opposition Leader to solve the problem inside the National Assembly with a PNQ, failed. The Speaker put a lid on it.

So severe was the outcry that the Prime Minister came on to the MBC TV last night, 6 July, to clear it up. He did it in a Point de Presse in the wake of a ceremony celebrating 50 years of Mauritius’ diplomatic links with the Chinese Government. In reply to questions from journalists, he said that yes, there was a telephone conversation, as Mr. Singh alleged. But the subject was permission for a technical team to do a survey on the security of the Baie Jacotet Safe Landing Station, he says, and not to insert any sniffing or spying equipment. That Mr. Singh, who had originally refused, did give the access, and the survey done by technicians provided by the Modi’s Indian Government was done. The Prime Minister then said he was “frustrated” that he was not able to answer the supplementary questions in Parliament because the Speaker ruled them out of order. He added that the “real reason” for the resignation is something quite different.    

All this shows how bourgeois democracy – skimpy as it is – is now really unable to offer the kind of popular control that working people demand. Jugnauth is able to hide behind any number of institutional or tactical issues to avoid proper accountability.

So, just as we see Boris Johnson’s government unraveling, and in retrospect we observe Trump’s complicated and failed coup d’état exposed, and Macron’s refusal to hold a resolution to show his majority, we see Jugnauth’s government left unaccountable by an Opposition that is tail-ending a populist challenge to his repressive government. 

LALIT’s six-day Congress coming up is at the perfect time. Its theme is “The Class Struggle, towards a socialist revolution: Let's put our minds to work!" We are really in times of a bifurcation: Socialism or Barbary!”