Here’s a lesson for Abu Kasenally; think before you speak. And here’s the prescription; turn tongue seven times in mouth before speaking.

The minister for Land and Housing said on that many of the squatters at Cité La Cure were from Rodrigues where they already have their own plots of land and yet they were squatting here. “I don’t know why they come here to squat but it’s not my problem”, he said. Really? It’s not his problem? Is he not a minister of the Republic? Is Rodrigues not part of the Republic of Mauritius? Is that not what it says in the Constitution? Or is he under the impression that Rodrigues was excised from our territory together with the Chagos Archipelago?

While Kasenally is expressing government’s scorn for the citizens of the Republic, Prime minister Navin Ramgoolam will probably make yet another plea tomorrow at the United Nations for the Chagos to be handed back to Mauritius. Why? Because it belongs to us. Damn right it does.

Except that if I extrapolate from the way the government of Mauritius treats Rodriguans and Chagossians, I gather that we want the land but we don’t want the people.

Abu Kasenally is the minister of the Republic, not just of mainland Mauritius. As a cabinet minister he should know that it is despair that drive people from Rodrigues to Mauritius. That they come and squat not because it pleases them but because they need some place to live. That the lease that they have on a piece of state land in Rodrigues means nothing if they cannot find work and if they cannot earn a living and put food on the table. He should know that not having a job means not having the means to feed one’s children, to educate them.

He should know that the reason there are no jobs in Rodrigues is because successive governments have given no particular thought to the development of the island, to the development of her people, to their advancement, to the development of their talents. And since there is no plan, no industry, no job and no future, those citizens of Mauritius choose as is their right, to come and settle and work in Mauritius.

In doing so, they are letting go very slowly but surely of their humanity, their kindness, their poetry and they are living in squalor in shantytowns. Poverty and the indifference of the authorities to their plight are turning some of them into criminals, others into prostitutes, yet others into drug users and peddlers. And many into squatters.

And when they go back to visit their island, they bring this horrid side of Mauritius with them to infect the island further.

So all this is not Abu Kasenally’s problem? To my mind, it makes the minister unfi t for duty. Wonderful! Kasenally has now joined the club of several of his colleagues – Jeetah, Martin, Bunwaree, Seetaram and what not –, all unfi t but who hang on doggedly to their VIPSU bodyguards.