What would be the main purpose of introducing sum­mer time than to make better use of sunlight? That sounds simple and easy, but don’t be mistaken, its implementation has been burdened with controversy ever since Benjamin Franklin conceived the idea in the 1780s. While summetime benefits retailing, sports and other activities that take advantage of sunlight after working hours, difficulties have been noted inrelation to farming and entertainment among others. Moreover, summer time complicates time-keeping and computer programs that have to be readjusted and summertime may have disruptive effects on travels.

In Mauritius, during summer, the sun sets at around 6.30pm and by moving the clock one hour forward, the sun will be setting at 7.30pm thus providing an additional, hour of daylight in the afternoon. The reasons pushing the authorities to buy that extra hour of daylight are many and the main one remains energy saving and benefiting from additional daylight for sports, leisure, shopping and other activities.

According to Dr Abu Kasenally, Minister of Public Utilities who presented the Time Bill at the National Assembly, households will be busy in the kitchen as from 5.30pm till 7.30pm and will only switch on the lights after that time. Another reason behind the introduction of summer time is to decrease our heavy dependence on fuel. “Global warming is bound to jeopardise the sort of coming generations and we cannot remain insensitive to such an issue. We don’t have the choice and should muster courage to decrease our dependency on fossil fuel and that’s where the introduction of Summer Time comes in handy,” Dr Kasenally said. As far as the Central Electricity Board (CEB) is concerned, it is expected that its evening peak demand will be reduced by 15 megawatts, equivalent to the output of a small power station. In the same vein, some 10,000 tonnes of carbon emission will also be avoided and around 25,000 tonnes of fuel oil will not be burnt.

Even though the Time Bill has been passed by the National Assembly, there is still some resistance from various religious bodies claiming that their prayer time will be altered. And in order to dissipate the fears and apprehensions, whether misconceived or not, of reticent parties, Dr Kasenally explains that he has already undertaken widespread consultations with all stakeholders.

“We have to prepare the ground for the summer time. I agree that there have been apprehensions concerning the summer time in relation to other countries but Mauritius has got its own specificity and nobody owes us a living. If over the past week we have seen the price of oil tumbling, this is because all countries in the world, rich or poor, have realised that they must conserve energy and try to maintain their demand so that their supply can be controlled. This is a single factor which has caused the price of oil to fall. Let’s hope that just like other countries are making their own contributions, Mauritius also brings its helping hand through the introduction of summer time.” explains Dr Kasenally.

Religious practices
The summer time, he adds, will in no way hinder the various religious practices of Mauritian citizens. “All the representatives of these different religious groups will be taken into consideration. Nobody has been prevented from practising their religions in Mauritius. Nobody will prevent anyone from doing his prayers. But we live in a multiracial society where we have got our rights and responsibilities. If we want people to respect our rights we must also live to our responsibilities,” he says.

No emotion
Dr Kasenally says that he has been talking to the Muslim community over the introduction of summer time. “I had a meeting with all the Muslim organisations in view of the forthcoming Ramadan, and Meheraj and I am in contact with the chairman of the Jumma Mosque to find a ground of understanding.

According to Dr Kasenally, normally the call for early morning prayer, not necessarily in Mauritius, but in London and Saudi Arabia as well, is made at a particular time. After that you take a break of 30 minutes to perform the obligatory prayer. But there is a practice also in Madina and Makka to do it 15 minutes afterwards so that in Mauritius that critical time which is from mid-February till mid of March, approximately four weeks, the time of prayers as per summer time will be 6.45am. If we reduce the interval to 15 minutes, it will be 6.30am. “We are ready to explain the benefits of summer time to people and make them understand that it will in no way affect their prayer time,” he says. However, he adds that there are some people who have shut themselves up and they don’t want to listen to anything.

“I am not going to be emotional about it and as far as the Friday prayers are concerned, with a bit of comprehension, the first call for prayer can be given at 1.25 pm and the obligatory prayer can be done 10 minutes after the second call given at 2pm. Therefore the prayer can finish at 2.30pm. This is feasible and it is within the precepts of Islam,” says Dr Kasenally.

BPO, call centres apprehensions
The introduction of summer time in Mauritius has also created some apprehensions among the IT Enabled Services operators such as Business Process Outsour­cing and Call Centre activities with clients in Europe.

It follows that the introduction of summertime will mean that Mauritius will be at 5 hours time difference with the United Kingdom or at 4 hours difference with mainland Europe. A Cam­paign Manager from a Call Centre explains that with UK as an example there will be a shift from a 3 hour difference (during UK summer time) to a 5 hour difference. This immediate 2 hour-shift in the working hours of employees in the ITES sector will be difficult to manage.

“Many companies will need to finish work later to match the business hours of their customers in Europe or US. This will also lead to increased costs.The time difference advantage which operators in Mauritius have over India will be reduced to only 30 minutes, thus reducing our time difference ad­vantage over India, which is our biggest direct competitor in the BPO sector,” he says.