Blog: Ah-Fat Lan Hing Choy behaves like Harpagon in Molière’s L’Avare

« Au voleur! au voleur! à l'assassin! au meurtrier! Justice, juste Ciel! je suis perdu, je suis assassiné, on m'a coupé la gorge, on m'a dérobé mon argent. ... C’en est fait, je n’en puis plus ; je me meurs, je suis mort, je suis enterré. » (Molière, L’Avare, acte IV, scène 7).

Mr Ah-Fat Lan Hing Choy « avance que les déclarations de ce dernier [Showkutally Soodhun] font penser qu’il est responsable d’une perte de Rs 1,5 million quant à l’achat d’une empaqueteuse en Chine sous le précédent mandat du gouvernement de Navin Ramgoolam. » « Selon lui, ces deux articles [dans hebdomadaire du dimanche et le quotidien l’Express] le présentent comme une personne malhonnête, impliquée dans des transactions louches et ayant agi hors de ses prérogatives en tant que membre du conseil d’administration de la STC. Sans compter que l''ancien ministre du Commerce sous-entend qu’il a dilapidé les fonds publics et qu’il est, de surcroît, un corrompu. ».

Showkutally Soodhun is a politician in the MSM opposition. He made a political statement against Ah-Fat Lan Hing Choy, an adherent of the Labour Party presently in government and former Director of the STC, as the one responsible for the said loss of Rs1.5m at the State Trading Corporation (STC) under the previous Labour Party government. Soodhun also spoke of certain irregularities. From what is reported, Soodhun did not accuse him of any criminal offence, such as theft or unlawful corruption from which he derived an advantage. Also, there is no innuendo to that effect. As a matter of comparison, Pravind Jugnauth’s reference to Mireille Martin as a « deputée vente à l’encan » carries a direct innuendo as to the sort of woman she is, which is not a nice woman at all. However, in matters of defamation, the law does not like far-fetched extrapolations and/or inventions to what has really been said, even though libel may be actionable per se, that is, without proof of injury. It is most unlikely that the courts will agree with Ah-Fat Lan Hing Choy that, by saying that there were irregularities at the STC and that he was responsible for the loss incurred by the STC, Soodhun has defamed him, has accused him of dishonesty, has accused him of dilapidating public funds and has accused him of being corrupt.

Fat Lan Hing Choy is behaving like Harpagon in Molière’s « L’Avare » when, for having lost his money, Harpagon cried : « Au voleur! au voleur! à l'assassin! au meurtrier! Justice, juste Ciel! je suis perdu, je suis assassiné, on m'a coupé la gorge, on m'a dérobé mon argent. ... C’en est fait, je n’en puis plus ; je me meurs, je suis mort, je suis enterré. » (Molière, L’Avare, acte IV, scène 7). On the contrary, Fat Lan Hing Choy should be condemned for abusing the court process in what appears to be a ploy to stifle debate and/or revelations on the alleged STC’s loss of Rs1.5m when he was a member of the Administration of the State Trading Corporation (STC). Many high profile and rich people use this strategy to silence people and the press and then come to an amicable arrangement many years later when people, especially the younger generation, would not remember or even be aware of the details of the scandal. This is an area which the Legislature must address to prevent such abuse of the process of the court.