Le Matinal: Blog: The Putrefaction of the Opposition

Blog: The Putrefaction of the Opposition
================================================================================
Murli Manohar (Guest Author) on Friday 7th of December 2012 - 03:14:00
 
Paul Berenger is aware of telephone calls made by one of the suspects in the
case known as Gros Derek to ministers and politicians of the majority. We may
ask him why he does not file a complaint with the police.
Cehl Meeah a former suspect in the gruesome murder at Gora Issac Street in 1995
makes a serious allegation against a minister alleging that he has transferred
an amount of  Rs25 million abroad. Paul Berenger who as deputy prime minister
was the first one to welcome Cehl Meeah to his office and cuddle him after the
murder charges were dropped against him immediately adds that there is huge
cover up in the Gros Derek investigation. But Cehl Meeah who was allegedly
involved in the abduction of a minor girl is too much of a coward to file a
written complaint with the police because if his complaint is false he may be
prosecuted for false and malicious denunciation in writing.
When Cehl Meeah was summoned by ICAC to give particulars of his allegation he
had no documentary evidence of any transfer of money. When pressed for details
his attitude was one pregnant with sheer cowardice and sordidness, a feature
well known to the members of the present opposition who are acting as despots
and desperadoes in their unquenchable thirst to grab political power
immediately. He stupidly stated that he would make statements under the cover of
parliamentary immunity.
That reminds us of the serious allegation of murder made by Paul Berenger
against Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam under parliamentary immunity in what is now
known as the Sheikh Hossen affair. Now Cehl Meeah and Paul Berenger are bosom
brothers and can well eat from the same dish of ignominy.
When ICAC issued the communiqué that Cehl Meeah had presented no evidence of
the alleged transfer of money the wrath of Paul Berenger reached a peak that
betrayed his despair that no evidence was forthcoming. As both he and Cehl Meeah
had been hoisted by their own petard Paul Berenger had to find a scapegoat and
that was ICAC. Paul Berenger has always indulged in cheap demagoguery, baseless
attacks, and utter contempt for his opponents because he has never been able to
campaign on a clean platform of ideas and policies. It was an armada of lies
that he, Sir Anerood Jugnauth and Harish Bhoodoo heaped on Sir Seewoosagur
Ramgoolam that led to the 1982 victory of the MMM. That victory was shortlived
and Sir Anerood Jugnauth was saved by that very Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam that
he had so mercilessly demeaned during the 1982 campaign.
The ignorance of the law that Paul Berenger displays is simply commensurate with
total inability to understand simple logic. He expressed surprise that Cehl
Meeah had been summoned by ICAC while a police investigation is going on. Either
out of sheer ignorance or out of deliberate design or in a fit of irrationality
he totally overlooked the fact that an allegation of transfer of huge sums of
money is capable of amounting to money laundering and ICAC is mandated to
investigate that. Under section 50 of the Prevention of Corruption Act the
Director General of ICAC has the power to summon a person for the purposes of
examination or to produce books, documents or records. Cehl Meeah lamentably
failed to produce anything much to the chagrin of Paul Berenger.
Paul Berenger also expressed the view that the ICAC communiqué was politically
motivated. Here too the ignorance of Paul Berenger on how ICAC operates is
staggering. Under section 81 of the Prevention of Corruption Act the
Director-General has the power to disclose, for the purposes of publication in
the press, such information as he considers necessary in the public interest.
A huge saga has been staged around that empty bomb shell of the alleged transfer
that came from the figment of some fetid imagination. A minister of the
government was targeted in the context of an electoral campaign at the Local
Government level. Most of the media, as is often the case, gulped down the story
as well as those bloggers who shield cowardly behind anonymity, even if they
risk a poisonous indigestion. Was it not in the public interest to inform the
public of what is going on? At least this is a far cry of the attempted cover up
of the Mauritius Commercial Bank scandal when Paul Berenger as Minister of
Finance allowed a long delay to elapse before calling in the police.
Instead of coming up with policies that would differentiate them from the Labour
group in the Local Government contest the MMM leader and his bosom brother Cehl
Meeah are campaigning on a platform of lies, baseless accusations, venom, that
clearly indicates the degree of putrefaction the opposition has reached.
Let that episode of false accusations in a series of many others be an
eye-opener to the public. No one will be safe under a regime of Paul Berenger
and Sir Anerood Jugnauth that would be marked by brutality, vendetta, lies,
false accusations and the ostracizing of large chunks of the population with the
exception of the stooges of Sir Anerood Jugnauth and his family as well as the
blind followers of Paul Berenger.