Le Matinal: Blog: PM's Call for Solidarity

Blog: PM`s Call for Solidarity
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S. K. Mahadeo (Guest Author) on Friday 23rd of September 2011 - 01:52:00
 
Liberty and equality are political operatives that need laws, constitutional
guarantees, institutionalised tools for their existence. Liberty has to be
defined within a legal framework. Equality needs checks and balances to become
concrete, otherwise it is sheer rhetoric. Both depend on what  society does to
make brotherhood a living reality. Without brotherhood liberty is the privilege
of a few. Without brotherhood equality is an empty desire. If liberty and
equality need the overriding presence of government, brotherhood is an oil that
lubricates relationships between different groups, ethnic, racial, national,
beyond the visible differences that apparently separate man from man.
Brotherhood is a civil society phenomenon that flourishes if the state gives its
assistance, but can exist even without state intervention.
The Arab spring revolution is first and foremost a society wide call for
brotherhood. The thirty years of democracy in countries like Tunisia, Egypt,
Libya disturbed the contents of freedom and perverted the very idea of equality
among disparate groups forming the Tunisian nation or the Egyptian nation. The
perversity of liberty and equality in these countries caused dysfunctional
structures in the economy. Today the distribution of wealth in these country
favours a few because liberty has been accaparated by a few. Equality has been
emptied of its real meaning and yet the word has been bandied to deceive
millions. Even in India the greed of those in power has deprived deserving
middle-class and deserving poor of basic rights. Corruption is the term used to
define a society that has a warped view of liberty and a falsified perspective
of equality. Governments become instruments of those in economic and political
power who oppress the weak in the name of equality and liberty. Corruption is an
economic evil created by the economic structure of our society. A hundred
policemen made to watch over wealth finally leaves the soul of the guardians of
safety themselves tainted. The eradication of corruption does not lie in the
hands of government or so-called independent institutions. In fact our society
must reinvent a sense of brotherhood to attenuate corruption. Anna Hazare’s
fight is that of a civil society’s attack against the institutional tyranny of
the state which itself produces corruption. Politicians have railed against
corruption and yet they have nowhere succeeded in eradicating it.
Brotherhood gives a soul to liberty. It makes liberty meaningful across society,
forcing one to respect the dignity of the other, urging one to provide space to
the other, to cherish diversity, to seek platforms for free expression and share
them. Brotherhood is also the prerequisite for equality. Otherwise laws need to
be enforced to punish all forms of imposed injustice. Civilization itself relies
on brotherhood to attenuate the inequalities created by nature.
Why the webcall for 15,000 patriots failed?
Mauritius has known a deep sense of brotherhood in the wake of its
democratisation policy. The country has cultivated by the very nature of its
history a strong sense of togetherness. Riots have not had lasting effect on
Mauritian life.
The call for 15,000 volunteers on Facebook was a call of genuine seekers of
future through civil action outside the framework of laws, institutions and
state interference. However genuine it lacks an intrinsic, self-justifying
rationale. It sounds like a superimposed practice transferred from one context
into Mauritian reality with little justification. Should what worked
successfully in Tunisia and Egypt be effective in Mauritius which knows a strong
commitment to brotherhood? What is the Facebook congregation concerned with?
Should corruption, the fact that some politicians make dirty business out of
politics, eradication of poverty becomes strong enough causes that can pull
thousands on a common platform? It is not to raise public awareness that the
Facebook supporters are brandishing these three causes as their warcry. In fact
these themes stand high on the agenda of government action already. What can the
Facebook protesters achieve without a political structure? The Facebook
brotherhood does not convince us because they lack an intrinsic selfcreated
origin. It sounds as if someone impressed by the social platform that motivated
the Arab uprising were to say - let us try it here. We’ll see what it gives?
It is not strange that two or three thousand out of an expected 15,000
responded.
My contention is that it is not the three themes that moved the protesters.
There is no doubt an unease in the population. The multiplying cases of
corruption in spite of government’s anti-corruption acting, the mounting
violence in our society in spite of the citing of figures that are meant to
placate an anxious nation, the mushrooming of cases of poverty despite
government’s philanthropic actions - all these create a confused state of
mind. It is a sense of collective frustration that is being expressed. It is not
another political party that will solve the problem. It is not by political
means that we can dissipate the frustration. We need, in fact, more solidarity
among one another. Solidarity with those who are failing CPE every year.
Solidarity with those thousands of drug addicts who are forced to steal in order
to buy their dose, solidarity with the poor who are being ill-treated in
schools, hospitals and all those platforms where they have a legitimate right to
dignified treatment.
Liberty without national solidarity is the tyranny of a few. Equality without
brotherhood is the supremacy of an arrogant elite. Solidarity alone makes the
freedom of one coterminous with the freedom of the other. Solidarity makes
equality bring rank and file together.
The Corporate Social Responsibility is a state-controlled instrument of
solidarity. Many examples of Mauritian generosity testify to the presence of
solidarity. However, solidarity is sadly absent at the level of politicians. In
spite of all the rhetoric in favour of liberty and equality, our political
masters have not understood the value of solidarity among parties. We are
constantly living sentiments of mutual hatred, wishing the elimination of our
political adversaries. Alliances are only preambles to deeper hatred once
coalitions dissolve. The population pays the price of this animosity by staying
in watertight camps slinging venom at each other. This forbodes ill for the
strength of our democracy.