Blog: Wealth and Success through Venality and Graft

The era of moral rectitude is beating its wings of imminent death. The success earned through tenacious honesty, obstinate moral uprightness without compromise, through sacrifice, hard work and perseverance are things of the past. You will be mocked at if you do not slip a cracking note of Rs 1000 in your booklet, if you do not jump queues by seeking connections with those in power. I enjoy wrestling matches of the World Wrestling Federation and am a weekly witness of those who win by tricks, deception and deliberate diversion as long as the referee is kept ignorant of these ploys.

What happened to Rupert and James Murdoch`s media empire? By hacking telephones they obtained for a prurient society news on sex lives of leading men and women for readers addicted to snigger at what they read on a Sunday morning. Editors were ready to purchase from corrupt policemen news from illegal phone hacks commissioned from criminals. Rupert Murdoch`s apologies for his actions were shallow and insincere and so were their claims that he wants transparency and truth.

Our society can easily dupe us by holding the language of the dispassionate philosopher wishing the welfare of all in the best of conditions. The tone and language of these confidence tricksters is meant to hoodwink a simple society that has the difficulty of suspecting, doubting and questioning. I can no longer teach my children to trust because they can easily become the lame ducks of a society that has the acumen of robbers. The corrupt will use a façade of words that appeal to the highest sense of morality in us. Terms like selflessness, devotion, love, sincerity are bandied to bounce upon the listener`s own head. We are now living in Chaucer`s Pardoner`s World where the ennuch leads the simple by the nose making them accept the bone of an animal as that of Christ`s disciple. Even when the thief`s identity is known, he will protest by the severe laws of truth and way threaten to give his life for truth`s sake. It is in this context that I interpret the term `solidarity’ used recently in the Medpoint crisis. The sacrifice of ministerial posts as though they were gifts distributed by a father among his children in favour of a colleague goes by the name of solidarity. Are these ministers not supposed to have a superior allegiance to the nation rather than to someone merely suspected of foul play? Is solidarity to the nation a figment of one`s imagination? Is solidarity to the fate of a country sailing through troubled waters of a crumbling dollar and a floundering euro not strong enough to demand that the minister should remain in post allowing justice to run its  course? The schizophrenic nature of MSM`s loyalty syndrome has been commented upon. In fact there is a fear that those who have not been rewarded by a minister`s seat and have had to be content with lesser duties may be tempted by the remuneration they are earning to become turncoats to their party and join the Labour Party. Many of the appointees would not have earned more than Rs 25000 per month on their own. The advantage of keeping the junior in their post is to brandish the solidarity card to underscore their loyalty to the PM. It is interesting to note that at the same time the sacrificial  lambs of the Labour Party are bleating their triumph over an imminent split so that they may obtain the crumbs that have gone into the MSM plate. They also use a language of fidelity to the Labour Party and vilify the MSM ministers for their treachery to the state.

We are not the naïve spectators of a lofty epic. We must tread softly at each step in a drama where everyone seems to set the stage to gull the other. The truth is being hidden at all costs. Lawyers are being hired in order to blanket one`s wrong doing so that the devil may look like an abused angel deserving our compassion. The law is an ass that it takes seven months to ask the basic questions.

Who are the persons who will benefit from the Medpoint scandal? Who took the decisions to commission a second evaluation?

Civil servants want to pass off as the victims playing in the Machiavellian hands of greedy orgres. Ministers want to pose as victims of venal civil servants who are stooges of some big shark hiding in the dark waters of anonymity. Everyone plays the game of innocence while hearts seem to be breaking like bones for clinics to fill their greasy till.

In the meantime other scandals are bursting like firecrackers. The gargantuan appetite of STC, the loss of millions seems to give the impression that this country knows nothing but graft and corruption. It is unfair that so much good work done in infrastructural development, the agro-industry, tertiary education is being trivialised by the primacy given to scandals.

Today the apparently most reliable person hides behind the persona of trustworthiness the face of a thief, a gull and a cheat. In a store at Mahebourg the owner could not believe his eyes when he realised his most trusted supervisor was herself the linchpin of the act of robbery. Morality is a mantra that is learnt by heart and the rogue can quote it with the deftness of an expert. The grandparent in whose care you entrust your child turns out to be the principal enemy of her welfare.

The moral values which sustained our action are now recited like quotations learnt by heart to impress listeners. Morality has been turned into a forged coin used by the shrewd to hoodwink the simple of mind. The mass is treated by the media as a one-dimensional hysteria loving mass of individuals who do not rise above the traits of a caricature. Both gull and gulled make sheer mockery of morality. It is worth wondering what heritage of moral values the elite, the rich, the powerful and the greedy will bequeath to the rest of society. In matters concerning human values, we learn from the top. At the bottom rungs of the social ladder morality is already a joke. The middle class and the worker`s class use it just as the shield.

Yet another example of gross immorality is the scandalous correction of the composition of the PSC to include a person to represent the Creole community. Could a certain YVES KAM LON not suffice to act as a symbol of the Christian voice? No he is a Chinese and therefore disqualifies for that claim. Someone reluctant for having been forcefully invested with the role of a Commissioner now becomes a hero against his will. The worse hypocrisy comes from the mouth of the casual beneficiary, who is a genuine Creole, but who now has the temerity to assert that he will be the privileged voice of the whole nation. This hypocrisy eloquently expressed hides a bitter truth about my country. In our concern for equality we are balkanising society and celebrating our selfishness as prime virtue. Who can trust to have fair treatment at the hands of an interviewer who blatantly has been appointed to represent the interests of a  specific ethnic group? We cannot claim to build our society on morality with the tools of immorality.