Author: Dhandev Bahadoor
Publication: Organiser
Date: January 26, 2003
In a recent Supreme Court judgement
pronounced, by a two-member bench comprised of Chief Justice Arianga Pillay
and Judge Kestoe Matadeen, the 50% reserved seats for admission to Catholic
schools in Mauritius was declared anti-constitutional.
The judgement has triggered a series
of reaction from the "B.E.C" (Bureau d'Education Catholique), the spokesman
of which, one Michael Atchia had agreed before the Supreme Court that discrimination
had been practised by the Church for the admission of children of Mauritius
to the Catholic Secondary Schools, whereby 50% of the children admitted
were from the merit list of the government and 50% from their own choice.
Article 16(2) of the Mauritius Constitution
does not allow any kind of discrimination in admission to educational institutions
financed by the government.
The Church appealed for a stay of
the execution order. It claims that the schools run by the Church must
retain/maintain in specificity.
The language issue was one of the
reasons why Sir Anerood Jugnanth lost the general elections in 1995, in
which the current deputy PM and Minister of Finance Paul Berenger fought
and defeated Sir Anerood's M.S.M. by joining the Labour Party of Nuvinchandra
Ramgoolam.
Nuvinchandra Ramgoolam who became
Prime Minister did nothing to solve the language problem and was ousted
by the same Paul Berenger when he (Berenger) joined Sir Anerood Jugnanth
in the last general election.
The present situation, with the
Church on one side and the oriental language group (Hindi, Urdu, Tamil,
Telugu, Marathi, Mandarin and Arabic), on the other, Paul Berenger, the
PM in waiting is in a lose-lose situation. He does not want to lose the
Catholic (Creole) vote bank nor does he want to lose the support of the
Hindus, and is in a fix as to what stand to take.
The Hindu Common Front (HCF) composed
of all national Hindu organisations of Mauritius are on a nationwide information
campaign, exposing the double-standards of the media and authorities in
handling the issue, the communalisation and the politicisation of a purely
legal and pedagogic one, by the Church.
The Hindu Front claims that the
Church has been lying all throughout when they said that the Church had
spent massively in education. It is now proved clearly that the Church
received financial help from government even before secondary education
became free in 1977. In fact both the land and buildings for the Catholic
schools were mostly acquired with the help of public funds.
Representatives of the "Small Creoles"
claim and are proclaiming aloud that the so-called Catholic schools did
not provide any seats to the poorer Creole class, and rather gave away
the reserved seats to those who could give donations for the admission
as well as other contributions for the maintenance and development of the
institution.
During the public meetings and rally,
references are being made to various incidences outside Mauritius regarding
the dubious character of the Church. The reaction of the Church in Tamil
Nadu after the enactment of the anti-conversion Bill has also been quoted.
The Church's objective behind running schools, clinics, orphanages, etc.,
is proselytisation. Once this agenda of the Church is put to question,
the Church has no intention of "serving" and would rather close shop!
Whatever the Church is going to
do, Mauritius will continue to be a literate nation. The need for educating
their children was emphasised by the Mahatma Gandhi when he visited Mauritius
in 1901. Later Pt Basudeo Bissoondoyal and the father of the nation Sir
Seewoosagur Ramgoolam introduced ideas, ideal legislations and appropriate
policies for the education of the children of slaves and indentured labourers.
Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam was then criticised by the same Franco-controlled
media that money was being squandered in the construction of schools amidst
sugarcane fields. In fact the strong foundation of the Mauritius nation
was laid during those days of bringing schools to every village in Mauritius.
The Church, the erstwhile colonial power and the plantocracy had always
resisted the implementation of policies aimed at bettering the lot of the
sons and daughters of slaves and coolies (indentured labourers).
