Using government machinery against political opponents under criminal scrutiny

[blockquote]« There is thus absolutely nothing sinister in the Commissioner of Police consulting the Prime Minister on any issue that has, or that could have a bearing on the peace and stability of the country. » [/blockquote]

From 1968 onwards

  Since 1968, the government machinery and other institutional machinery have been used by every single government in power against political opponents, and such use will remain for a long time part and parcel of our political landscape. There is therefore nothing surprising that the duly mandated government of l’Alliance Lepep should, in certain specific cases, be using government and other institutional machinery in a fairly comprehensible attempt to “finish off” political foes, adversaries, and opponents under criminal investigation, but who climb to mountain tops to tax the government of practising a “politique de vengeance”. But they know that they are in turn being subjected to the same treatment to which, when they were in power, they subjected their political opponents. The wheels of such treatment keep turning, having turned full circle since December 2014, and will continue to turn full circle at least once in every five years.  “Batte rende pas faire mal,” people say, though the level of harshness of the treatment meted out to political opponents differs from government to government, depending on the nature and the extent of the political threat they pose. There is also nothing surprising in using the MBC platform to keep alive the tribulations of the former Prime Minister, and the cases against him, since the cleaning process has most assuredly lost its momentum, and reached saturation point, while the MBC also focuses on the cases against former Ministers to assure the people that they did the right thing in ejecting them from power. The lid must thus be kept on, and the MBC TV is the best and most effective medium to keep the lid on, and to bring out  an alleged  “association des malfaiteurs”  in the BAI/BRAMER BANK affair.

Use of the Police

Despite the fact that the Commissioner of Police is constitutionally independent, and that the Police Act also stipulates how the Police Department is managed and  administered, the Commissioner of Police is not and cannot be an island in himself, and operate in a vacuum. Raj Dayal knows this only too well. In fact, it is but normal that the Commissioner of Police, answerable to the Minister to whom is assigned the portfolio of internal affairs comprising internal security, that is the Prime Minister, should be in constant and close consultations with him on all aspects of law and order, and of all kinds and degrees of threats to the internal peace and security of the country. And all Commissioners of Police in the past had been in such consultations with the Prime Minister of the day. There is thus absolutely nothing sinister in the Commissioner of Police consulting the Prime Minister on any issue that has, or that could have a bearing on the peace and stability of the country. Lest it be ignored or forgotten, it is the Prime Minister who is answerable to Parliament, that is our National Assembly, on and for almost all matters falling under the direct responsibility of the Commissioner of Police in his day-to-day administration and management of the entire Police Force, comprising the SMF, the SSU, the ADSU, the VIPSU, the NCG, the Helicopter Squadron, the VIPSU, the Traffic Unit, the CCID, with the exception of the State Security Service that is only answerable to the Prime Minister.

Use of institutions like the FSC

In the fight against white collar crimes, it is but normal that the government, through its dynamic and performing Minister of Good Governance, should leave no stone unturned to trace, chase, and bring suspects to court, and one stone that cannot be left unturned is the FSC. A distinction must be made between a wrong and a judicious use of such an institution. In fact, the independence of such  an institution does not and cannot be made to mean that it can on its own, at its own pace, and in accordance with its own rightly or wrongly set targets, achieve results as expediently and successfully as it can and should, especially when victims are galore. It needs cues, and these can only come from government which, for all intents and purposes, has superiority of knowledge and the privilege of sensitive information and intelligence. A judicious use of such an institution is an added guarantee of success. Here again, the FSC is not an island in itself.

In defence of Roshi Bhadain

There is no doubt that Roshi Bhadain has been entrusted with a highly sensitive mission, and that he has to deliver all the goods expected from him. And this mission covers a whole host of areas of darkness and decay, of alleged fraud and corruption, of traffic of influence, of nepotism, of favouritism, of conflicts of interest, of collusion to commit white-collar crimes, with a view to establishing the very root of all these evils, and to entrenching across the board in our country good governance with all its ingredients. He cannot do otherwise, while acting on all fronts, than to be tough, direct, uncompromising if he feels he is proceeding in the right direction, and than being himself, that is a genuine “justicier”. The way he has set about to accomplish his mission may shock and be resented to, as it has continued to shock, and to attract resentment, but he is, and stays steadfastly results-oriented, and that is what really matters for him in the accomplishment of his mission . Generally, the sophisticated citizen concedes that he is a fiery but brilliant lawyer, a very forceful but deep-down considerate human being, a new but very strong and lasting broom that sweeps clean, pushy because he is impatient, arrogant for those who cannot stand up to him or face him, a bully for those who are lazy and time-wasters, for the dilettantes,  resourceful because he is adaptable to quickly changed circumstances, some  created by himself, especially during negotiations, and a no-nonsense Minister “à l’image même de SAJ”. Relatively young, he has prematurely become a very shrewd politician, with strongly felt leadership qualities, capable, for example, of using every means and every opportunity available to him at the MBC to  hit further at the former PM and the former PM’s government. He has become a man for all government-needed, and government-inspired political actions, and though he may be assessed by political opponents and some in the media as appearing to be and to act as  a “mad” person, there is, and there can be no disputing the fact that there is real method, that there is sound method in his apparent “madness”. Roshi Bhadain is the pioneer, the front-runner, the dam-buster of government, its firing arm, and he deserves respect for what he has achieved so far, though, in the process, he has at times “confondu vitesse et precipitation”. But his missionary zeal in cleaning up the dirt and the decay cannot be denied, and must be applauded.