Archive for February 12th, 2010
Football : Louis Saha espère retrouver sa place en équipe de France – L’express.mu
Friday, February 12th, 2010Etats-Unis : Bill Clinton quitte l’hôpital au lendemain d’une … – L’express.mu
Friday, February 12th, 2010Madagascar : Le vice-Premier ministre Ny Hasina Andriamanjato … – L’express.mu
Friday, February 12th, 2010Sept élèves mauriciens sur 10 ne terminent pas le cycle complet de … – L’express.mu
Friday, February 12th, 2010Bénéfice exceptionnel d’un milliard de roupies pour Ciel Investment – L’express.mu
Friday, February 12th, 2010Jooneed Jeerooburkhan ? former MMM member and deserter
Friday, February 12th, 2010Jooneed Jeerooburkhan ? former MMM member and deserter (I)
In the months preceding the general elections, « poussé par on ne sait quels intérêts », Jooneed Jeerooburkhan, a Mauritian journalist in Canada, presently on visit in Mauritius, capitalises on the fact that he was one of the co-founders of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) around 1968, which party he left in 1970 to ?return? to Canada, has been giving extensive anti-Bérenger interviews to major newspapers in Mauritius in a clear attempt to please the present strong Labour government, but nevertheless accuses others of being ?rodeurs boute?.
Although Jooneed does make some valid points, there are several inaccuracies in those interviews. He also uses his absence in his favour to argue that he predicted the numerous problems the MMM, under the faithful and loyal leadership of Paul Bérenger during the last 40 years, is facing. Some clarification is necessary.
Club des Étudiants Militants
In the 1960?s, it was a big thing to hold a degree from Europe (which includes Canada and the USA). Those degree holders were ?worshipped? by ordinary people, especially by students. Students? Clubs were proud to listen to intellectuals like Paul Bérenger, Dev Veerasawmy and Jooneed Jeerooburkhan who were bringing in new ideas from Europe. What became known as the « Club des Étudiants Militants » was used as a platform to provide an ?alternative? to what was regarded as a communalist system of government, especially in the aftermath of the ?baggarre raciales? triggered at Venus Cinema, Port Louis, where the life of a saree-wearing Hindu lady was saved from anti-independence elements in a newly independent Mauritius. The Club, from which the MMM led by Bérenger was created, was used to push a militant ideology based upon revolution as propounded in the Communist Manifesto of Marx & Engels, by Fidel Castro of Cuba and Mao Tse Tung of China, with the German anarchist-communist Daniel Cohn-Bendit somewhere in the background. Daniel was inspired by the mulatto revolutionary from Martinique, philosopher psychiatrist Franz Fanon.
As a new graduate in the late 1960?s, contrary to what he is now pretending, Jooneed did not have a crystal ball to know what would happen to the MMM in 40 years time. The trio?s main thrust was to vilify the bourgeoisie and to try and create one nation based not on inherited civilisation values but on newly created ?créoliste? values and language, originally born in slavery, at the expense of inherited languages of civilisation then spoken by over 60% of the population while English is the official language and French is widely used. They saw the creole language as a necessary militant tool to unify the proletariat. This probably explains Jooneed?s affinity for movements like « Lalit », and « Rezistans ek alternativ ». The linguist Veerasawmy came up with the most atrocious and deformed way of writing for a ?Kreol? language based on Haitian Creole which has very little to do with Mauritian patois, except that it has a popular press to carry it forward, the damaging effect of which we are witnessing 40 years down the line. This is how the MMM swiftly became popular among Mauritians of African and Malagasy origins and overtook the PMSD of Sir Gaëtan Duval.
Revolution
The trio was bent upon an imported revolution buttressed with an equally imported créolité. In « A New History of Mauritius» by J. Addison & K. Hazareesingh (1993), we read at page 111: « He (Bérenger) returned to Mauritius in 1968 imbued with revolutionary fervour after undergoing a dramatic political baptism at the barricades with the students and workers in Paris ». In « Letters from Mauritius, England and Lybia » (1991) at pp.293-4, Dr A. Cader Raman recounts the following from an acquaintance of his : « I spotted a Canadian lady psychologist on the plane flying from Nairobi to Mauritius. [..] I learned from her that she was in love with Jeeroobarkhan and when I asked her who Jeeroobarkhan was, she was surprised I did not know. She then told me that Bérenger and he came to Mauritius in 1969 and they had started the organisation of cells in the various parts of Mauritius [..] being done during week-ends in secret, but sooner or later the police would come to know about it and she was concerned that Jeeroobarkhan might be arrested. I told her that Mauritius is a democracy and that the police was not going to arrest anybody for political activities, but she assured me that their activities were of a revolutionary nature and it was dangerous for them if found out. » Although Dr Raman himself perceived Bérenger as a revolutionary, he shared Bérenger?s ideas for eradicating communalist attitudes similar to the ideas of Seeneevassen in the Labour Party, ideas which also formed part of Dr Raman?s Stella Clavisque Club and the Mouvement d?Entente Nationale (p.295).
In the early years, the militants polarised the bourgeoisie and the ?proletariat? in a class war, and staged paralysing strikes, particularly in the docks where créolité made the strongest inroads, in an attempt to overthrow the government.
?Dismissed? from New Eton College
I knew Jooneed in the late 1960?s at New Eton College, Rose Hill, where he was teaching, but this episode is hardly talked about. Why? To the best of my knowledge, the Principal Mr Venkatasamy ?dismissed? him. Mr Venkatasamy (who, years later, joined the MMM himself) explained to the students that Jooneed was brainwashing the students who started to rebel against the establishment. He was well-known for his vulgarity and the use of the most obnoxious creole slang often used in songs to demonise Labour politicians, including SSR. After this confrontation with Mr Venkatasamy, it was by no means certain that another College would employ him, let alone by a Labour-controlled government. So, he seemed to have been forced to leave for Canada and abandon the MMM not for ideological reasons, but for obvious professional and possibly personal reasons.
But the reason he is giving to the press is that he left the MMM because he did not agree with the confrontational strategy of Paul Bérenger who, according to him, had an insatiable appetite for power. If a political party does not want power, one wonders why Jooneed helped form such a party in the first place. The truth is that Bérenger fought for everybody else to achieve power except him until he reached the Medpoint deal! He accuses Bérenger of practising communalism, as if he is the only one. Perhaps Bérenger felt that communalism was indestructible, so he went along with it. At the same time, Jooneed admits staging a hunger strike in a Mandir (Hindu Temple) in Goodlands without explaining why he chose a Mandir and not a non-religious venue. He also quotes his brother Chafeekh as saying that MMM was a party « mort-né », when the MMM has transformed Mauritian politics and has lasted 40 years so far. This certainly does not sound like a party « mort-né ». Jooneed speaks as if he had a monopoly on MMM?s ideological agenda. However, it is true to say that Bérenger, like any other leader, should set the stage as to who would succeed the MMM leadership. The personification of the MMM in Bérenger may well carry the seeds of its own destruction. We saw that the MSM was personified by Sir Anerood Jugnauth for around 20 years and how, after his departure to Le Réduit, the party is finding it most difficult to take off even though it is now led by his son Pravind Jugnauth who was even elected with Labour votes in a by-election.
(to continue ...)
M Rafic Soormally
10 February 2010