SSR revisited

My dear Billy, I am in such a mental and cardiac state that the pictures that come to my eyes when I am asleep are a blend of frightful dreams and wonderful nightmares. Sometimes, I even hear voices. During one of my subconscious trips last week-end, I had a fascinating encounter of a different kind. In my sleep I was going up Desforges Street in Port Louis towards St Francois Xavier. Well, it was not a sleep-walking scene like that of Lady Macbeth, because I was not walking but cycling. You may call it a sleep-cycling scene if you want. As I reached the place where Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam used to live before being shunted to Reduit to spend his final days – many are elbowed away into homes, fortunately the great old man was spared this experience – whom did I see standing on the roadside in front of SSR museum? Well, who apart from the old man himself? I don’t know if it was a dream or a nightmare, my dear Billy. But by the look of it, it was more in nature of a dream. SSR was there, standing in all his majesty and smiling, quite different from the horror that they created on the harbour. He waved for me to halt, which indeed I did. He told me how happy he was to meet me, but gave no reason for this sentiment, nor for meeting me, of all the rowdy lot that he could have met and been in better company with. Pardon, my saying this, my dear Billy, but he was surrounded by a rowdy lot for the most part of his life. And like the illustrious father of the prince in your gruesome tragedy of “Hamlet”, SSR started talking of strange matters that he had been witnessing from up there. SSR told me that there was something rotten in the state of Mauritius, but it was not necessarily the class of politicians, “Not all of them are,” he assured me. “Some are quite conscientious and doing a good job.” He said that one of the greatest satisfactions he had as a statesman was to see that although 44% of the electors had voted against the independence of the country in the 1967 elections, they soon realized their mistake and accepted being independent wholeheartedly. He spoke about free education, the welfare state that he established, and his vision of a free, prosperous nation living in peace, harmony and mutual respect. He said that to him freedom meant the end of colonial subjugation and working towards equality for all. “It was also the beginning of a grand endeavour to reform and rebuild the Mauritian society on a more humane and just basis, free from religious prejudice, social inequality and economic exploitation.” But he also declared that he was disappointed with a number of adventurers who have no place at all in politics and who are using their positions to selfish ends. “Some of them possess a lot of wealth, and are using it to buy more power and acquire more wealth,” he said. He also castigated those who blackmailed their leaders on the basis of caste and religion. “These people should be booted out,” he said forcefully. But he was mostly disappointed and frustrated with the population at large. “There are very few real patriots these days. Even among those who fought for independence, many have become extremely selfish. They think not of what they can do for the country, but only grab all that the country can offer.” He was indeed very bitter, my dear Billy, while talking about the people of Mauritius. He quoted Wordsworth to “grieve at what man has made of man.” He was abashed at the prevailing state of corruption. “There was some corruption in my time too, I must admit. But these days it has achieved a proportion that is simply baffling,” be confessed. “Values have been thrown to the dogs. Worms of anger, greed and crime gnaw at society while fraud and deceit have become a way of life. Hatred, hypocrisy, selfishness, lust for wealth, vanity and double standards are guiding men’s actions, leading them to doom and destruction.” However, my dear Billy, SSR assured me that all was not lost yet and that society could be put back on the right track. “People will have to mend their ways if they want to see better days. The communalized and commercialized society needs to change its direction through the transformation of individuals and the inculcation of values that will usher a just social order, honest governance and value-based life.” Thus spoke SSR, the Father of the nation, my dear Billy.