A Little Bit of Déjà Vu in General Elections
15.11.2024
The déjà vu we get in the general elections of 2024 stems from what happened around the elections of 2014. The déjà vu is not as surprising as the generalized pretense that there is no such déjà vu. The pretense is disarming. It means lots of people have strange blanks in their political memory. Maybe it comes from shame at collectively repeating one’s errors, errors committed during the serious process of democracy, itself – the little democracy the capitalist system has conceded to the people.
Here are some examples of déjà vu – in a light vein:
Blame the woman syndrome
First there is the déjà vu of the “blame the woman” syndrome.
The idea is that, instead of denouncing the incumbent Prime Minister for his leadership and denouncing his government for its policies and its repressive laws, say, or better still, arguing the merits of one’s own political program, you just find a woman to blame. Then you blame her for everything. And you get rid of the incumbent that way. Easy. Just rely on the dregs of disdain, disrespect, and disregard for women left over from theocratic rule and feudal reign and use this to get rid of the Prime Minister’s party.
Recently, the Missie Moustass tapes provided audio “proof” of the long-spread-rumours against Kobita Jugnauth, otherwise known as playing the “blame Kobita” game, whereby cowards can, instead of standing up and criticizing Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth for his policies and programs, just criticize his wife. It became so laughable – although of course seriously misogynist, as well – that a LALIT wit quipped: “Alor, ki exakteman zot revandikasyon politik, sa bann ki fer kanpayn kont Mm Jugnauth? Ki Jugnauth sanz madam?” What kind of political program is that? All manner of people not in the least interested in the decline of the bourgeois state as an institution, were glued to their mobile phones, as if looking through the key-hole of the Lord of the Manner’s bedroom, for the next episode in what “Kobita” was to blame for. If you go on to our site www.lalitmauritius.org and search “Kobita” on the little google spot on our home page, you will see that LALIT was criticizing this particular manifestation of the “blame the woman” syndrome from at least three years ago 2021. When the state is abused – as indeed the bourgeois state often is – it is simply too easy to find a woman to blame.
Well, the déjà vu is that in 2014, exactly 10 years ago, there was the same script, basically. There was the same narrative, the same plot, the same “blame the woman” game. Only there were different actors, and the wife was a mistress. The aim of that game was the same. Then, in 2014, the aim was to get rid of not Jugnauth, but Ramgoolam. Instead of Missie Moustass bringing audio “proof” of all the ills of the MSM, it was an MSM agent, later nicknamed “Fotograf la” (and who then became a minister), Yogida Sawmynaden, who took a photo thus getting, instead of audio “proof” like Missie Moustass, video “proof” of the long-spread-rumours that constituted the “blame Nandanee Soornack” game. Then, in 2014, cowards on the MSM side could, instead of criticizing the then Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam, or his government, for their politics, criticize his mistress. There were videos of what seemed benign sega parties billed as scandalous, events around the words “tus sali” involving Ramgoolam and her. There was a campaign against her for being with Ramgoolam in a campement when his watch was stolen, and then someone died in police cells (another déjà vu). Once again, it was looking through the keyhole of the bedroom of the Lord of the Manor. We could ask if the people who enjoyed this campaign had a similar “revandikasyon politik”, that is to say that Dr. Ramgoolam should change his mistress. What kind of a political program is that. It was just mindless. LALIT, at the time, wrote about Alliance Lepep then, too, reduced to “campaigning on issues like ‘Mme Soornack’. We remember no-one but LALIT criticizing the “blame the woman” game, in either 2024 or 2014 elections. Again, you can just use the google spot on our web site’s home page and you will find our stands.
Syndrome of Real Concern on Surveillance Turned into Panic
Then there is the syndrome of genuine concern about surveillance turning into flat-out panic. Everyone of us can have the latent paranoia sleeping inside us aroused by silly campaigns – even if on serious subjects.
In the recent elections, the exposure of spying and surveillance in the Missie Moustass tele-novela, together with the long struggle against having to re-register every single SIM card with a biometric photograph linking us each to our cell phone, as well as all the spy cameras over roads on every street corner that, incidentally it was Sherry Singh who had installed, all played a big role in Jugnauth’s unpopularity in 2024. The issue became central to the election, Missie Moustass actually fixing the agenda for the elections, removing all other important issues from the agenda, as people waited for yet another spy tape in the “series”. The spying, incidentally, affects different social classes differently. While no-one likes the state prying into their personal conversations, the bourgeoisie, in addition, has other interests: it does not like the government knowing about its economic wheeling and dealing. The bourgeoisie has the interest and the means to pay for the accentuation of these campaigns. The safety of their private ownership of capital depends on secrecy – banking secrets, and secrets about contracts and non-disclosure agreements.
Even after the election, the story goes on. There is the deposition to the police by Sherry Singh, who may in fact, himself, be Missie Moustass, and the alleged billions spent on surveillance by Jugnauth.
Is this not all a déjà vu?
Remember in the 2014 elections how the biometric ID cards that Ramgoolam spent billions on was so central? And how he stored biometric data on everyone over 18 in a central data base? It, too, though in a more rational way, dominated the agenda. It, too, flamed the fires of paranoia. Some poor young people started using files to try to obliterate their fingerprints!
And after the elections, the story went on, then too. Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth went and physically destroyed the data-base!
The Imperialists’ Trickery Syndrome
And then the third type of déjà vu is the same old tricks from the British colonialists and their imperial allies.
Where should we start with this one?
If you use the internal google search on LALIT’s website www.lalitmauritius.org and search for “Rolls Royce”, you will find articles that refer to Britain’s fury at Navin Ramgoolam’s 2010-2014 Government for bravely taking Britain to the UNCLOS tribunal over the continued British colonization of Chagos. It was an oblique but effective legal strategy that Ramgoolam’s government put in place. LALIT believes that the photograph of Ramgoolam, given its quality, as he left his special-number-plated Rolls Royce in London headed supposedly for the bank, was likely leaked to the Press by the British secret services who likely took it, as part of Britain’s punishment for the Mauritian Labour Party putting in the fine Chagos court case before the UNCLOS, which would open the way for the later equally brave Anerood Jugnauth case before the ICJ, which would lead to the final completion of the decolonization of Mauritius as a whole, under Pravind Jugnauth.
We wrote about the attack on Ramgoolam at the time, exposing it for where it probably came from.
This series of UN cases would, in turn, then contribute to the Prime Minister Starmer’s agreement with Pravind Jugnauth on Chagos just before the 2024 general elections.
This agreement, in turn, so infuriated the Conservatives in Britain, in the Opposition now, and enraged the British extreme right around Nigel Farage, simply because it announces limpidly that “Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia”. The permanent state in Britain is presumably furious, and knows how to take action. (For the record, LALIT also disagrees with the agreement because, just after the words quoted, Britain is then given the right to “exercise Mauritian sovereignty” – try and get your head around that one – for one hundred years, renewable, on any issue that involves the base on Diego Garcia. We consider this a threat of continued colonization and military occupation by the USA of Mauritius for well-nigh eternity.)
But, what is the déjà vu we get in 2024 referring back to the 2014 Rolls Royce photo?
Well, the Missie Moustass leaks are most likely aided and abetted by secret services, including Britain’s, India’s or USA’s and maybe Israel-acting for any-of-the-above’s. When Jugnauth, during the campaign just when he shut down the social media, accused the USA of spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, it was not innocent. He was accusing the USA. And of course, the British-USA (in particular, the permanent part of their state apparatuses that are linked to their secret services) are furious about the Jugnauth ICJ cases, and the Joint Agreement with Labour’s Starmer and Democratic Biden.
After that it came not so much as a surprise, but certainly as a shock, when, bang in the middle of the preparation for a Treaty that may deprive Mauritius of the very sovereignty it has gained over all these UN battles – not to mention all the other battles – we witness Navin Ramgoolam doing something really strange, geo-politically speaking. He brought in, as his own personal “election observers”, four Conservative Party MP’s from the UK. Incredible but true.
There are many more similarities: how Rakesh Gooljaury, part of Navin Ramgoolam’s inner circle turned traitor, just as Sherry Singh, the chef of the Pravind Jugnauth “lakwizinn” turned traitor. Perhaps, as an exercise, our readers could remember other examples of déjà vu in 2024 conjuring up 2014.
Conclusion
We ought not to be too quick to “blame the woman” nor too blinded by panic about surveillance, nor too innocent to see the imperialist plots that actually exist – neither in 2014 or 2024. The first one, the “blame the woman” game, can be prevented by a constant fight against patriarchy and its hierarchies. The second one is part of the constant political struggle necessary against surveillance and other forms of repression. The third one, the “imperialist trickery” games, requires a constant battle against imperialism, against continued colonization of our country and against its military occupation by the USA. None of the parties in the general elections campaign on these issues. LALIT is, and always has, taken on these three battles – anti-patriarchy, anti-repression and anti-imperialist, meaning in favour of women’s emancipation, in favour of freedom, and in favour of total decolonization, as well as conducting what we call our “class struggle politics”, and not the politics of collaboration that are characterized by nationalism, patriotism, and mauricianism.
(Article prepared collectively.
Typo in spelling of "Farage", 17 Nov 2024.
