Dear Editor,
Your editorial of yesterday’s date describes as A travesty the decision by the Commission of Inquiry into the Mahdia School disaster not to call any more witnesses. It laments that the responsible Minister, the Hon. Priya Manickchand would not be called to give evidence before the Commission of Inquiry into the deaths of around twenty Amerindian children who died in the custody and care of the State.
Perhaps the editorial should have been headlined Great Escapes 3, following the headline of the previous day in which the Great Escape of Mr. Bobby Gossai Jnr. of the Ministry of Natural Resources is related. Mr. Gossai suffered the draconian penalty of loss of two weeks’ pay for improperly engaging in and clearing of more than four billion dollars of expenditure flagged by independent auditors, completely outside of his authority. The Government dug deep and found a sanction applicable to persons employed under the Public Service Rules, ignoring the fact that Mr. Gossai is employed as a contractor outside of those rules. Of course, Mr. Vickram Bharrat, the real person responsible and accountable for the saga, was appointed as the investigator.
Great Escape 2 should have been dedicated to Mr. Nigel Dharamlall, former Minister of Local Government who was alleged to have been involved in a horrendous sexual matter, also involving a female Amerindian youth. It would be very unsurprising if Mr. Dharamlall later returns as a beneficiary of the public purse.
The public is overburdened by the daily revelations of governance infractions by the State but when we can no longer rely on the courage and independence of highly respected persons like Major General (Ret’d) Joe Singh, Attorney-at-Law Joycelin Kim Kyte-Thomas and Mr. Derrick Rowan John, Chair and members, respectively of the Mahdia Commission, then the state of the country is worse than it appears.
As we exempt the political class from accountability, then as night follows day, the whole concept of the rule of law and democracy is eroded.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Ram
