IS THERE A LABOUR PARTY REVIVAL ON THE WAY?

 By Dr Samuel Nicholas Duymun

The recent by-election in Constituency No 18 (Belle-Rose-Quatre Bornes) resulting in the victory of the labour candidate Arvin Boolell invites some comments. Only 54% voters have done their civic duty and 46% stayed at home. Boolell himself had scored just about 7900 votes over 42,500 voters who had not voted  and yet Navin Ramgoolam is  jubilated and over confident to win the next general elections. Some labourites are even talking about a labour party revival?

The Labour party has scratched the surface of fame and glory only a little bit in this by-election of Constituency No 18 (Belle-Rose/Quatre Bornes. But does that victory give them the right to assume that they will be victorious also over the MSM/ML government in a future general election? Well, this is what Harold Wilson, an ex-British PM once said that a week in politics is too long as anything could happen !

The Jugnauth government is declining ‘à la quatrieme vitesse” and could lose the next general elections because of the catalogue of scandals that have affected the MSM especially scandal about the indecent sex exhibition on the ITNET work by an ex-PPS which is considered as the mother of all scandals where 90% population, mostly women feel disgusted. One way why the MSM did not put a candidate to participate in this by-election of Constituency No 18 for fear of defeat and humiliation. The Jugnauths know that the ground is starting to collapse under their feet as long as people like Tarolah, Soodhun, Teeluckdharry, Gayan and Jaddoo are still forming part of the government.

Three years have gone, and yet the prognostics  on political parties look gloom and doom for the MSM/ML government. The die is cast, no matter what good actions this government intend to do or is doing , people have had enough on the many good for nothing politicians who are still kicking about within this government where no sanctions have been taken against them by the PM, who himself is subject to a court case before the Privy Council.

The PM has shown certain good qualities recently and is adamant to develop the economy, and other infrastructure across the country. But that is not the solution as whatever this government is doing , its actions are not answerable  to the need of the poor people. There has never been a good social program to improve the lot of the poor people that are living from hand to mouth. Whatever the little progress the government is doing, this is only  regarded as a capitalist development. So they have failed completely and consequently this could give way for a Labour revival.

The whole population is impatiently awaiting the recommendation of the President of the Commission of Inquiry, Paul Lam Shang Leen on those barristers who were involved with prisoners convicted on drug trafficking charges. This will be a test case for the PM as to whether or not to take actions upon such recommendations  or to bury the recommendation report in a drawer.

All these scandals pose a great disadvantage for this government. This disadvantage does not make Labour party better than the MSM. We all know under what circumstances, Boolell was chosen by Ramgoolam to be a candidate in constituency No 18. I agree with two comments made firstly by a political observer and secondly by another journalist on their analysis of the by-election in Quatre Bornes/ Belle-Rose. This is what the political observer,Daniel Assy had to say in L’Express dated 3rd January, 2018 “ Arvin BoolellL et le Parti Travailliste (PTR) jubilant devant la “victoire” du premier nommé ā la partielle au No 18 (Belle-Rose-Quatre Bornes). Y a-t-il de quoi pavoiser quand on sait que la victoire en question a été obtenue uniquement grâce aux votes de seulement 35,11% des votants

As for Ahmad Macky, a journalist and a prolific writer, this is what he wrote in Le Mauricien dated the 29th December, 2017 : “ The questions one needs to ask: why did Ramgoolam choose Boolell for this Constituency No 18 in the first place? Was there a hidden agenda on the part of Ramgoolam for this choice? Why did he not have the guts to be a candidate himself? Let us not forget that there has been a sort of cold war between Boolell and Ramgoolam over the leadership of the Labour party for quite sometime now.»

The government seems to be over confident to stay in power over the next general elections, whereas the Labour party reckons that things are getting better for them to achieve victory in the next general elections . Today  Labour party needs to sort out their problem over the leadership once for all and unite their members if they are contemplating  a labour revival