The movement of Priest Jocelyn Grégoire may have prompted other movements to make their voice heard through mobilisation which can easily lead to violence.

Since, supported by a section of the press, the Fédération des Créoles Mauriciens (FCM), led by Priest Jocelyn Grégoire, mobilised an alleged 70,000 people at Champs de Mars, and tried to hijack the Mayday celebrations through further mobilisation in a clear attempt to hold the government to ransom into giving in to their sectarian and racist demands, other movements are also trying their luck. Priest Grégoire said he did so in the interests of the Creole community, which is not a religious community, but which is understood to mean only the Catholic community of African origin. With his passionate evangelical charisma, he argued that his community is being discriminated against in the Civil Service, for which the holds the government responsible. He also made several other demands, such as the recognition of the Creole community at constitutional level. His interviews and other articles supporting his campaign were published throughout the media over months.

Voice of Hindu (VOH)

Unhappy with the fact that drug addicts are being mainly treated at Victoria Hospital, Candos where methadone, an important medication in the treatment of addiction, is being administered, and with the fact that the concentration of drug addicts at this location has been causing violence by drug addicts against residents in the vicinity, some members of the Voice of Hindu (VOH), through mobilisation on 27th June 2008, effectively took the law into their own hands in order to prevent the distribution of methadone at Victoria Hospital. Although Priest Grégoire himself did not take similar steps, the VOH undoubtedly felt that, like Grégoire, their mobilisation could force the government to give in to their demands. Surely, it is not up to VOH to decide which medication should be distributed to and by which hospital. According to some reports, violence was also used but VOH deny this and also deny taking the law into their own hands. Again the movement was unhappy with the government and they also mobilised in the 'interests' of the Hindu community, although not of the whole of the Hindu community.

Voice of Zamzam (VOZ)

As reported in the Star, 29th June 2008, AB Bahemia Ariff officially launched the Voice of Zamzam (VOZ) on Friday 20th of June 2008. According to Ariff, his movement has been created to « défane la communauté [musulmane] contre discriminations, passé-droits, boycotts, ostracisations, injustices, exploitations » allegedly perpetrated, again, by none other than the government. For its part, le Mauricien of 04th July 2008 decided to devote a whole editorial, not to the declaration of Bahemia Ariff at the official launch of his movement, but to an alleged circulated tract signed 'Voice of Zamzam' which contents somehow differ, for the benefit of the editorial, from that stated in the Star. It asks « Devions-nous en arriver là ? », and makes as if it is the government faultif VOZ has been created - because of the lack of « institutions intègres » which is the cause of « injustices » and « discriminations ». In the same vein, it also implies that the government is responsible for « la tentation des meneurs de Voice of Hindu de vouloir prendre la loi entre leurs mains » due to « la barbarie à l'endroit des toxicomanes » which the government could not control.

Anti-Ramgoolam propaganda

Although the spectre of Grégoire's mobilisation is looming in the background, no mention is made of the fact that the Grégoire phenomenon is perhaps at the root of those problems because Grégoire has set a precedent for other movements to make their voice heard through mobilisation with unpredictable consequences. For political reasons, it is all too easy to blame the government for the irresponsible actions of others. It is most foolish to argue that Paul Bérenger condemned the VOH on the very first day and that PM Ramgoolam only did so five days later. This is sheer anti-Ramgoolam propaganda. People would recall that the same Bérenger accused Cehl Meeah, on the very first day, of being responsible for the murders of three Labour Party activists at Rue Gorah Issac when he was completely innocent. The government cannot condemn the VOH, or elements therein, based on what is reported in the anti-government press. The government can only act on Police Reports, and the Police will decide, based on the evidence, what action to take. They cannot base their decision on what Harish Boodhoo is writing in le Mauricien. Too many people believe that they are governing the country through the press in which some inciters even go to the extent of giving anonymous 'advice' to the government.

PoTA

Under the constitution, Mauritians have the freedom of association for any lawful purpose. Mauritius is not a country under occupation where the laws of the occupiers cannot be truly regarded as laws because people under occupation have the right of self-defence. Mauritians are a free people and they must not take the law into their own hands, nor incite others to do the same. Nevertheless, the government is ill-advised to brandish the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PoTA) against alleged trouble-makers simply because anti-terrorism laws are the fabrication of imperialists and terrorists themselves designed to take away people's freedom and to subjugate resistance to their own terror. This piece of abject legislation should be repealed since the Mauritian legal arsenal is more than adequate to deal with the problems that occurred at Victoria Hospital.

However, holding the PM Navin Ramgoolam and his government responsible for the demands of Priest Grégoire of FCM, for the VOH intervention at Victoria Hospital and for the creation and demands of VOZ whose mobilisation is perhaps in the making, is just cheap demonising politics supported by an anti-government press with a clear strategy to incite the population against a lawful government.

M Rafic Soormally

London

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