The Human Rights Committee of the United Nations has brought to the attention of all Mauritians that having to declare one’s belonging to any specific community in order to be allowed to stand as a candidate for general elections flies in the face of the basic tenets of democracy. That the exercise of democracy should not be impeded by shackles for the implementation of the Best Loser System is self-evident. In essence what is being declared is that all Mauritians are equal and they need not have to say what they are as long as everyone knows who they are. Never mind if they themselves do not know who they are.

This equality is a fact of daily life in this “ plaisir” country where being high means being high in all sorts of ways. Take the developments in the unraveling of the dangerous drugs traffi cking case which, according to the media, has allegedly one Gro Derek as its boss. Forget about the international rami- fi cations of the movement of the drugs from the countries of Asia to the rest of the world via Africa and spare no thoughts about all the barons who comfortably sit in the major capitals of the world reaping the benefi ts of this deadly trade. Think rather of how Gro Derek has enlisted the assistance of Mauritians of all communities to promote his business. He is ahead of the times. We are told that his right hand man is Mr Ashish Dayal.

He allegedly enlisted the assistance of a steward on the ship that was used for the transport and release at sea of the parcel containing the drugs who is Mr Maudarbacus. For all his business deals necessitating godly intervention, the person anointed to intervene extraterrestrially was Maulana Beeharry. And there were others like the sailor Azie. There are other names which are bound to come out since Mr Ashish Dayal seems to be prepared to spit all the venom against his mentor and the maulana may decide that he infi ltrated the network in order to better dismantle it. But never lose sight of the fact that this is a major business which brings in millions – or billions – of rupees. It would be interesting for the MRA to follow the route of the Derek money not only prior to the arrest of Mr Dayal, but also since. Money talks in a way which is unequalled and presumably all those who have been involved after the arrest of Gro Derek must be careful in not being accused of handling tainted money. But money, tainted or not, also buys silence.

Gro Derek did not wait for the UN Human Rights Committee to do what politicians of the major parties find difficult to do. Gro Derek identifi ed all those who could be efficient, talented, competent and willing to work in his interest and he delegated his responsibility to them. There was no necessity for him to pick his collaborators according to the ethnic group or community to which they belonged. As long as they were Mauritians who were prepared to take the assignment and to do it well, that was fi ne with him. And his business prospered.

Until an accident happened and Mauritius became aware of the extent of the drugs trade and all the people in so many sectors who fuel that trade.

Bearing in mind how the MCIT collapsed the Harte murder case ( Legends Hotel now turned Lux), ADSU must already ensure that it also does not suffer the MCIT fate when the Gro Derek trial starts. There is too much at stake for everyone.