ECONOMICS, CONFLICTS AND INTERCULTURALITY IN A SMALL ISLAND STATES :
par Sheil S. BUNWAREE
University of Mauritius
INTRODUCTION
Mauritius has often been presented to the rest of the
world as a success story not only because of its good economic performance but also
because of its interracial peace and harmony. However, early this year, Mauritius
experienced important forms of civil unrest which paralysed the country for a whole week.
What started as a class phenomenon quickly degenerated into a communal affair making
interpretations and readings of the February riots even more difficult and complex. The
riots have in fact stripped many Mauritians of their complacency and have emphasised the
fragility of the rainbow nation. The question that arises is whether
interculturality exists, what shape it takes and what are the challenges that
globalisation poses to interculturality in the Mauritian context.
Milton Esman, (1997:527) Professor of International studies, at Cornell University in his
paper Public Administration, Ethnic Conflict and Economic Development argues
that: The copious literature on economic development demonstrates little concern for
ethnic cleavages. The tendency is to treat such plural systems as India, Nigeria, Turkey
and so on as integrated societies with aggregate economic growth as the accepted policy
goal.
Mauritius too is a plural society which has for a long time focussed on aggregate economic
growth as the policy goal. In the process of channelling its energies towards the
consolidation of its economy, Mauritius has benefited from the emergence of some form of
economic nationalism and has perhaps ignored the need to develop a strong sense of
interculturality as well as a Mauritian identity. Interculturality in Mauritius limits
itself to people of different ethnic backgrounds working together on the same premises and
attending same schools. The development strategies adopted in the post independence period
provided windows of opportunity to various sections of society. The population experienced
an improvement in their standard of living and a middle class grew in the 80s. The economy
became more or less of a unifying principle. With globalization however, opportunities are
shrinking, winners are few and losers many. Increasing inequalisation brings about
frustration and alienation which manifest themselves in various forms as exemplified by
the riots of February 1999. Since Mauritius has not been able to develop a sense of
Mauritian-ness and there is only a semblance of interculturality, the island state remains
fragile and vulnerable. Mauritius has to find new ways and means to ensure the growth of
its economic pie, sustain its competitive edge and retain interethnic peace and harmony.
The first part of the paper explains briefly the economic strategies of the country and
looks at some of the factors which have contributed to the countrys successful
development. It also analyses the asymmetrical distribution of entitlements and questions
the implications of growing poverty in a small state like Mauritius. Smallness, the paper
argues, often contributes to making inequalities more readily and easily visible and thus
frustration builds up more quickly.
The second part deplores the fact that interculturality has not been given enough
attention and that instead there has been a collage or a pastiche of cultures which have
in many ways prevented the emergence of a Mauritian culture. Emphasis on unity in
diversity as part of the official policy has contributed to this collage, thus
producing and reproducing the coexistence of diverse groups with very little significant
interaction, understanding and appreciation of the Other. This section also
looks at a few examples of how diverse groups react under particular circumstances thus
highlighting the emphasis that some people place on their ethnic identity and the menace
it poses on social cohesion.
The third part discusses the challenges confronting the small island state in these
globalised times. It argues that Mauritius may not even be able to use its smallness as a
tool of economic diplomacy in this increasingly liberalised era. It also draws attention
to the difficulties associated with the Africa Growth and Opportunity Bill
which is increasingly regarded as a source of great hope for the country.
The paper concludes that unless Mauritius addresses the inherent inequity of the system,
promote a culture of sustainable human rights and ensures that otherness takes
a new significance, interculturality will only remain a myth and development itself will
be hampered. The paper also suggests that education and the schooling system has an
important role to play in promoting interculturality but so far it has not been able to do
so.
SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT
At independence in 1968, Mauritius had to grapple with a rapidly expanding population,
huge balance of payments deficit, soaring prices, massive unemployment and a stagnating
monocrop economy.
In less than a decade however, Mauritius diversified its economic structures, created an
export processing zone, developed a strong tourist industry and more recently a financial
and offshore centre. Parallel to these developments, Mauritius consolidated its welfare
state. Mauritius provides free health, free education and old age pensions to all its
citizens.
Mauritius has few natural resources, no home grown technology, no defence forces, little
capital and imports most of its food. In addition to these, Mauritius also experiences
various intrinsic problems of small countries such as proneness to natural disasters,
limited domestic markets, dependence on foreign capital, and disproportionate expenditure
on administration (Bray, 1992; Briguglio, 1998). Mauritius has also been classified as
highly vulnerable by the Commonwealth Secretariat, yet Mauritius has achieved high growth
rates in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Mauritius has developed so fast and so well that it became known as the tiger
of the Indian Ocean. This image impacted on peoples psyche leading to the emergence
of some form of economic nationalism. The economy has been for a long time the rallying
factor but the question that arises now is whether the economy will continue to unite or
will it rather divide in this era of jobless growth.
Mauritiuss success story can be attributed to various factors. The countrys
ability to control its rapidly expanding population is an important one. Today Mauritius
has a population of approximately 1.2 million. Annual population growth fell from 4.7% in
1963 to 1.2% in 1993, which Royle (1995:37) regards as one of the steepest fertility
declines ever recorded. This successful population control, perhaps largely due to
the smallness of the place, has enabled Mauritius avoid a Malthusian nightmare that people
such as Meade (1968), Titmuss and Abel Smith (1961) and Naipaul (1972) were so worried
about.
Another factor which has perhaps contributed to Mauritiuss stability and success
story is its electoral system. The latter has been analysed by various people. Opinions
and views remain very divided. Whilst the World Development Report (1997:113) writes:
The designers of the electoral system, anxious to avoid creating institutions that
might exacerbate the countrys divisions, structured the system to force the main
parties to seek support from all communities. Moreover, Mauritius governments have
generally chosen broad based growth and distributive policies over ethnic preferences.
Formal preference in employment and education has never been used. And all governments
since independence have had to form multiethnic coalitions in order to assume and maintain
power. Growth with redistribution has tended to blunt the appeal of communal
politics.
And Mukonoweshuro (1991) explains that the politicians have woven a political spoils
system which has ensured that each ethnic group has an established stake in the system,
thus ensuring its legitimacy by all the ethno religious communities on the island.
Whilst Mukonoweshuro (1991) and the International Herald Tribune (1993) highlight the
beneficial aspects of the Best Loser system, Mathur (1991: 69) argues:
We are
convinced that the best loser system and the present electoral delimitations promote and
encourage communalism and are therefore, detrimental to nation building.
Mathur (1991), Blood (1957) and Nave (1998) regard it as a major perpetrator of
communalism and as having the potential to divide. Although some people generally argue
that the best loser system breeds communalism, splits Mauritian society and hampers the
development of a Mauritian nation, others think it helps to tame communalism and is a
contributory factor to the political stability à la mauricienne and a
democratic system- a rather rare quality in the neighbouring African continent and other
parts of the Third world. The best loser system may well be contributing to the
maintenance of democracy in Mauritius but it is certainly not contributing to making
Mauritius a united nation. Blood (1957: 359), after his period of governorship in
Mauritius from 1949 to 1953, though recognising the need for special arrangements to
ensure the representation of all communities, writes: Heaven forbid that it should
become permanent: that would be a confession of failure, an acknowledgement of a racially
divided state which cannot find a national unifying principle.
The national unifying principles have been the economy and the Creole language. But now
that the economy begins to experience a painful downturn and different groups compete for
the scarce resources, conflicts are bound to rise. Creole, although spoken by one and all,
is not the official language, nor the medium of instruction in schools. It is the language
of everyday interaction but does not have an official status.
Another factor, which has perhaps contributed to Mauritiuss success story, is the
type of SAPS (Structural Adjustment Programmes) and the style in which they were
implemented. While the overall stance of SAPS is to restructure the economy through the
reduction in the share of the public sector, the stimulation of entrepreneurship and
export orientation, the pursuit of price liberalisation and the implementation of a user
pay policy with regard to public utility, the Mauritian state has tried to implement a
policy of adjustment with a human face. It combined growth with equity through mainly
employment creation, cushioning the impact of adjustment measures on particular groups and
giving incentives to small businesses.
Bheenick (1991:5) argued that the Government was committed to reform but maintained
an intensive policy dialogue with the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) which meant that the structural adjustment loan was bank supported
rather than bank dictated. The Government takes great pride in the fact that Mauritius
resisted the IMFs request to abolish free education and subsidies on food. This
decision has certainly enabled many people to benefit from education. The policies of
economic diversification adopted in the post independence period and SAPS with a human
face have contributed to making Mauritius a middle income country.
This does not mean that Mauritius did not experience any pains with SAPs. Gulhati and
Nalhari (1990:58) write: The macro economic stabilisation, mainly through
curtailment of aggregate demand, involved quite a painful adjustment, consisting of rising
unemployment, declining real wages and disciplined austerity. The government persevered
with reforms even though it meant a considerable loss in economic growth and a perceptible
setback in the welfare of low income groups. Very little was done to sweeten the
pill for underprivileged social groups.
Although mention is made of the underprivileged groups, no one knows exactly who they are
and whether their children have over the past two decades of successful development been
able to climb the social ladder. Statistics are not collected along ethnic lines in
Mauritius yet there seems to be clear indication that what Eriksen (1991) calls the
Ti kreol are disproportionately represented amongst the poorest stratum of
Mauritian society. Creoles, i.e people of African descent are not a homogeneous group in
Mauritius but there is increasing recognition that some sections of this group are the
most marginalised. When members of disadvantaged communities take stock of their plight
and begin to realise that the distribution of entitlements is too asymmetrical, tensions
begin to rise and interculturality takes new dimensions.
SOCIAL COHESION, POVERTY AND CONFLICTS
Mauritius has often been praised for an enduring record of democracy and harmonious
interracial relationships. The Governments vision 2020 report states: Some
people marvel that we have achieved so much economic success despite the burden of our
welfare state. It can well be argued that in reality it was the other way round: we
achieved economic success partly because of the strength of our welfare system. For it is
free education, social security and health and welfare services which have given the high
education levels, high health standards and above all the exceptional social cohesion
which have underpinned our past economic development.
Despite the positive picture of Mauritius presented above there is concern over emerging
social challenges facing the country. Vision 2020 mentions an array of societal breakdowns
e.g. drug addiction and drug trafficking, alcoholism, sexual assaults of females, muggings
and attacks on the aged, burglaries, prostitution, domestic violence, divorce, suicides,
child battering and sexual abuse. The Social Fabric Study phase two (1999) in fact
confirms Vision 2020s argument that many of these problems are associated with
poverty and deprivation. If poverty hits particular groups within a small multiethnic
society, the country runs the risk of having to face diverse forms of conflicts and
interculturality becomes threatened. Interculturality, this paper argues, can only be real
and genuine if social justice prevails, if every citizen is given an equal chance and he
or she perceives that this is the case.
In small states with different groups embodying religious, ethnic and linguistic
differences there is greater need to create higher levels of cultural convergences. The
avoidance of intergroup tensions by creating convergences through interfacing with
neighbouring cultures is not only possible but more necessary in small states.
Writing about the Creole islands in the Indian Ocean, Doumenge (1977: 87) states:
The creole islands subject to French or British cultural influence, however,
particularly if they have changed hands a number of times in the course of conflicts
between their metropolitan overlords, exhibit every degree of a cultural development
rendered all the more complex by the fact that it has involved confrontations between many
ethnic groups (European, African, Asian) each of which has contributed to a structure
generally still too heterogenous to be professionally stabilised.
What Doumenge implies by professional stabilisation is not very clear but what is certain
at least in Mauritius is that the country has in spite of its diverse populations and
cultures, experienced a period of stability. The economic development of the country has
contributed to that and it is the intellectually trained elite which engineered the
economic development. Bunwaree (1994: 28) writes: Unlike their counterparts in more
socially and politically troubled less developed countries, Mauritiuss
intellectually trained elite has been able to take a long range approach to macro economic
policy making and implementation.
Whether the intellectually trained elite (the bureaucracy and the politicians) in
Mauritius will be able to continue engage in relevant policy making in this increasingly
globalised era and maintain social cohesion is a question that surfaces.
Conflicts have raged in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia in the 1990s, often
involving the entire international community in costly relief operations and peacekeeping
missions, frequently under hostile conditions. These conflicts- mostly civil wars- have
been extraordinarily brutal, with most victims being children, women and the elderly.
Peace is becoming increasingly elusive. A recent report sponsored by Future harvest and
generated by the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo examines conflicts around
the world and finds that most of todays wars are fuelled by poverty, not by
ideology. (The International Herald Tribune, 17th June 1999).
The violence of February 1999 can perhaps be attributed to the growing poverty and
inequalisation, to borrow a term from Dahrendorf (1995:13). The gap between
the haves and have nots is increasing in Mauritius. The Malaise Creole - a term that has
been coined in recent years to explain the deplorable plight of some sections of the
Creole community is regarded as a major cause of the social explosion by some. Tensions
flared during a public meeting organised by the Mouvement Republicain, a small political
party which was asking for the depenalisation of gandia. Police had subsequently arrested
some participants for smoking banned substances. Among those detained was Kaya, one of the
countrys leading Creole seggae singers. His arrest and death in police custody
triggered a series of protest marches in major forms, amid allegations that he had been
beaten to death by police officers.
The demonstrations of February 1999 rapidly escalated out of control and the country was
brought to a standstill for almost a week. Protesters vandalised public and private
property in various parts of the island. Various symbols of capitalism and wealth were
targeted as well as symbols representing the state such as police stations, traffic lights
and government owned buses and other vehicles such as ambulances. Looting of shops and
stores took place and a few peoples houses were burnt.
Although the unrest of February 1999 degenerated into some form of communal attacks
between the creole community on the one side and the Muslims and the Hindus on the other,
some peoples interpretations and readings of the riots are that they are much more
an indication of the frustration of the working class and that Kayas death was
simply a detonator.
Writing about the Malaise Creole, Piat (1993:2) argued: if the suffering involved in
the Malaise Creole is not addressed, there might come a day when it will explode into
violence.
The violence of February 1999 is certainly an example of that explosion. The Malaise
Creole in Mauritius needs to be studied and addressed quickly, otherwise class and or
ethnic tensions may exacerbate. Schiff (1998:352) writes: Efficiency may depend on
the distribution of income because a more unequal distribution increases friction among
social groups, reduces their willingness to cooperate and may result in political
instability. This is particularly true of countries characterised by ethnic diversity
where each ethnic group is endowed with different factors of production.
The Creoles in Mauritius are perhaps the ones endowed with the least resources and in
these globalised times opportunities are getting scarcer.
In a period of growing inequalisation and wealth getting concentrated in the hands of a
few, interculturality is under great strain. Creole groups are emerging and increasingly
holding discourses around the idea that they are excluded from the system. There is
resentment over the fact that they are heavily underrepresented in the public sector and
that opportunities are not the same for everyone in a society which calls itself
democratic. During the course of history, Creole groups have often argued that there is
nothing being done for them. In recent years, the concept Malaise Creole has surfaced up.
Some people argue that the creole group is responsible for its own plight, that they do
not have a culture of savings and that they have developed a culture of dependency. Many
cultural stereotypes are attached to them. There is also the argument that they fled from
the sugar camps and did not want to work the land but there is enough historical evidence
now that they were made to leave the camps. Land which is a major asset was never
appropropriated by them. On the other hand as a consequence of the grand morcellement, the
Indians bought small plots of land. The possession of land by this group became an
important means to sustain their livelihoods and also contributed to the mobility of the
group. The landless poor are perhaps disproportionately present in the creole group.
Nowadays, there is increasing talk of an Equal Opportunity Act in Mauritius
but whether the mere passing of such an act will bring redress is a question that comes to
mind. This echoes Esmans (1997: 528) ideas: Even when laws, policies and
programs appear in a formal sense to be objective and impartial, they may be skewed in
implementation by public administration to favour one set of ethnic claimants over others.
This ethnic skewing can be applied to matters of substantial value, including government
contracts, access to land, credit, capital, business licenses and foreign exchange, and to
a variety of public services such as higher education, municipal amenities, housing, water
supply and recreational facilities.
The Malaise Creole that has so often been talked about in Mauritius in recent
years in fact refers to the non possession of many of these resources by the creole
community and the ensuing inequality. The passing of such laws such as the ones mentioned
above only will only reinforce the idea that everybody is given an equal chance but the
playing field will remain very unleveled.
The United Nations Human Development Report (1999) ranks Mauritius 59th on the record of
Human Development Index. However, pockets of poverty continue to persist in Mauritius.
This is being increasingly recognised by government. The HDI is just an average which
hides regional, gender and ethnic disparities. Such disparities if unaddressed can take an
added significance in a small interethnic state like Mauritius, whose education/training
system fails to develop a sense of Mauritianness and emphasises competitive rather
rather than cooperative learning. The education system allows a large section of the
countrys human capital to go waste at the age of 10+ as a consequence of a very
fierce competitive selection examination, known as the Certificate of Primary Examination
(CPE). Moreover, education in Mauritius, contrary to many other parts of the world fails
to develop cohesiveness and a truly multicultural society. The rainbow nation that
Mauritius speaks of so often is simply a collage of diverse people who have been for a
long time united by a sense of economic nationalism
Not only does the educational system fail to develop a strong Mauritian identity but it
contributes to the exclusion of many. Those who are excluded are also often excluded from
the labour market which increasingly demands sophisticated skills possessed by the
privileged few only.
The Gini coefficient (a statistic measuring the degree of inequality in the distribution
of income) has started deteriorating in Mauritius. It has moved from 0.379 in 1992 to
0.387 in 1997. Wealth remains heavily concentrated in the hands of a few.
This asymmetry of entitlements may have serious implications for a small multiethnic
society when unemployment is on the rise and some groups increasingly perceive themselves
as the most marginalised.
Although efforts are being made to address poverty in Mauritius, there is no coherent
holistic policy which has been developed. A number of programmes have been introduced such
as the Marshall Plan, the Trust Fund for the social integration of vulnerable groups and a
poverty alleviation programme. But there is no official poverty line in Mauritius although
there is increasing recognition of the existence of pockets of poverty in the different
regions of the country. Devising programmes such as these are laudable and indicate
Governments willingness to address the problems of the marginalised and the
vulnerable. But poverty is multifaceted and very complex. Moving towards a more just
society in a multiethnic setting such as Mauritius requires a deeper understanding of the
cultural, structural and individual factors that may be causing people to live in poverty.
Poverty and exclusion is often linked to a lack of good quality and relevant education.
Smallness of the economy and capacity of the labour market to generate employment are
variables that should not be ignored in all planning exercises.
THE LABOUR MARKET AND AN ETHNICISED DIVISION OF LABOUR
The labour market, a major provider of livelihoods is often regarded as segmented in
Mauritius. There is some sort of a cultural division of labour correlated with ethnic
membership. The public sector is said to be dominated by the Hindu group whilst the
private sector is mostly filled by Whites, Mulattoes and very few Creoles. The Franco
Mauritians, commonly known as the sugar barons (grand Blancs) remain the countrys
wealthiest group and have invested in the manufacturing sector and tourism. They are
followed by the Chinese dominating this sector, though there are wealthy Muslim textile
and grain traders. At the bottom of the socio-economic scale are the Hindu plantation
workers, Muslims working in petty jobs within the informal sector and Black Creole factory
workers, dockers and fishermen.
In addition to its being ethnicised, the Mauritian labour market is small and in this
information age, it may thin down even further. Its limited capacity to generate
employment may cause friction amongst the various groups. Various minority groups e.g.
Creoles and Muslims already express their resentment at the fact that they are
underrepresented in certain sectors e.g the police and the public sector.
SMALLNESS AND ETHNIC REVIVALISM
Smallness as a variable is also important in analysing social cohesion. Bray (1992:26)
writes: The small size of the social field, together with ingrained awareness of
ecological and social fragility, fosters what another sociologist calls managed
intimacy. Small state inhabitants learn to get along, like it or not, with people
they will know in many contexts over their whole lives. To enable the social mechanism to
function without undue stress, they minimise open conflicts. They become expert at muting
hostility, deferring their own views, and avoiding dispute in the interests of stability
and compromise. In large societies it is easy to take issue with antagonists you need
seldom or never meet again, but to differ with someone in a small society in which you
share a long mutual history and expect to go on being involved in countless ways is
another matter.
It may well be that Mauritians have for a while been deferring their views etc but more
recently different groups have made themselves more vocal. A complex form of ethnic
revivalism makes itself felt in the country. Ethnic revivalism in fact highlights the
fragility of the official policy of unity in diversity. Major religious
festivals such as EID ul Fitr, Divali, Christmas and Chinese spring festival have been
declared natioanl and public holidays are granted for such occasion. Some Creole groups
believe that the 1st of February should be declared a public holiday since abolition of
slavery is commemorated on that day. This request for a holiday has not been granted and
may be a major source of resentment by certain groups. This may cause other forms of
division and be a real threat to interculturality. The country has already witnessed other
complex cleavages. The examples that follow highlight these cleavages.
ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, BANK NOTE ISSUE, SPORTS AND FOOTBALL
Mauritius has for a long time tried to encourage the promotion of the ancestral languages.
In 1986, the government went as far as deciding to include these languages for
certification purposes at CPE. In 1993, a select committee of Parliament recommended that
the oriental languages should be considered for purposes of ranking at the end of the
primary school cycle. This led to a lot of controversy since it was felt that some
children of other communal groups not studying these languages would not be getting an
equal chance.
Oriental languages for purposes of ranking has in fact become a major issue in the general
elections, which took place in December 1995. Ex Prime Minister Jugnauths government
made this an important issue in the elections hoping that the vast majority of Mauritians
of Indian descent would support this cause. It is rather comforting to find that the issue
was not of relevance to the vast majority of people including the Hindu majority group.
The question of oriental languages may not have been an important decisive factor in the
elections of 1995 but nevertheless remains an issue which poses some threat to
interculturality in Mauritius.
One does not really know to what extent it will be important since it is closely linked to
the question of ranking at CPE and efforts are being made to abolish ranking itself.
Another example of the fragility of Mauritian social cohesion are the events surrounding
the new bank note issue in October 1998. Mauritians of Tamil ancestry were furious about
the positions of the Tamil and Hindi script being reversed on the newly released bank
notes. The amount of resentment raised by the Tamil community led to the forced
resignation of the Governor of the Central Bank and the removal of these bank notes from
circulation. The issue of these bank notes had cost some Rs 58 million to the country but
had to be removed from circulation since it was feared that this issue may cause more
complex problems which might become hard to handle.
Sports and football in Mauritius have often been regarded as a terrain of potential ethnic
tensions. Although the government has made various efforts to de-ethnicise sports,
particularly football, outbursts of violence triggered by rivalries between supporters of
different ethnic teams still exist. The policy of democratising and holding regional
competitions at all levels has reduced the ethnic dimension of sports but sometimes the
ethnic consciousness predominates as exemplified by the events associated with
Zamalek an Egyptian team playing in Mauritius some time back. Riots broke out
when a group of Muslim Mauritians demostrated their support vociferously to the Egyptian
team against the national team.
Although the above examples are not directly linked to the economy, they highlight the
fact that each group wants to claim a certain ethnic identity. As Mauritius moves into
more uncertain times, ethnic revivalism of this sort can be a real threat to
interculturality.
A NATION DIVIDED AND A POOR SENSE OF MAURITIAN-NESS
Mauritius was divided as it moved to independence; there was no national unity in the
move. The minorities under the fear of the hindu peril voted against
independence. The political campaign leading to the August 1967 general elections and the
independence issue, had been so dominated by the ethnic question that racial riots
followed in early 1968 in different regions of the island, mainly in Port Louis and its
suburbs. Instead, tensions, fears and a widespread reluctance towards independence made
themselves felt. 44% of the population voted against independence. In order to reduce
tensions and dampen fears of the different communal parties, the British brought forward a
plan to establish a new electoral commission to deal with issues of representation. The
Best Loser System which was discussed before was introduced. Nowadays, there is increasing
talk of proportional representation.
Mauritius is not a society with universalistic values where the individual is first and
foremost a patriotic citizen. Royle (1995) notes that There is no violence between
these groups, but neither is there much mixing nor intermarriages.
An overarching sense of national identity is missing. We cannot but agree with Bowman
(1991) who argues that Mauritius is a place Where historically a high degree of
saliency has been put on ethnic identity. Speaking about the obstacles to the
development of a Mauritian nationalism, Bowman (1991:64) writes: The idea of escape
or return to a homeland is deeply rooted in historical experience and has hindered the
development of a Mauritian nationalism.
Although Bowmans reference to the return to a homeland is not translated in
practical terms, it is very telling in the sense that many Mauritians imagined
community to borrow a term from Anderson (1983) tends to lie elsewhere. Dinan (1985)
too remarks that being immigrants, Mauritians have cultivated to a high degree the feeling
of belonging somewhere else. The soul of a nation expresses itself by language, beliefs,
values, customs art and craft, music, landscapes, flora and fauna and literature but in
the case of Mauritius most of this was brought from abroad except for the geography and
ecology of the island. Mauritians of diverse origin also try to retain their mother
tongues. Religion appears to be more significant than language in maintaining and
reinforcing ethnic identity in Mauritius. Mauritius, home to over a million inhabitants is
still after more than 30 years of independence a place where one is according to Lehembre
(1984 : 223) Indien ou catholique, hindou ou musulman, franco mauricien ou creole,
ou chinois ou tamoul. Rarement a Maurice on se sent Mauricien.
Oommen (1997) defines the nation as a: territorial entity to which the people have
an emotional attachment and in which they have invented a moral meaning: it is a homeland-
ancestral or adopted. It is the fusion of territory and language which makes a nation: a
nation is a community in communication in its homeland.
A community in communication is an interesting concept but the question that we need to
pose in the interpretation of the Mauritian situation is whether there is a Mauritian
community and if not whether the diverse communities are in communication - are we moving
toward the intercultural?
One would have thought that the Mauritian schooling system could contribute towards
strengthening social cohesion and interculturality by inculcating people with a certain
degree of nationalism/nation hood as well as understanding and appreciation of the other,
but as Bissoondoyal notes, the system does not have much to offer on this score.
Bissoondoyal (1991:2) argues: No student who goes through the system has a
satisfactory notion of the country, its geography and history, the making of a society and
its problems, the development process.
The education system therefore is producing alienated human beings- Mauritians who are
foreigners within their own borders.
Mauritius has for a long time placed a lot of emphasis on the idea of unity in
diversity. Such a policy has contributed to a collage or patchwork of cultures where
each citizen only knows only very little about the other. Schooling has not
contributed to making otherness take a new shape and value in post-colonial
Mauritius.
GLOBALIZATION, THE ECONOMY AND THE UNIFYING PRINCIPLE
The question that this section seeks to address is whether a small, isolated, dependent,
resource poor economy which is caught in the throes of globalization will be able to
survive and continue to keep its people united.
Mauritius has in recent years started facing a painful downturn. The Economist of 28th Feb
(1998:47) devotes a section to Mauritius and entitles it Miracle in Trouble.
The Economist writes :
Surprises dont go well with the Mauritian private
sector and the crisis in South East Asia came as a particularly nasty one. In the past
decade Asian style policies in Mauritius produced an export led boom which transformed
this previously sugar dependent economy into a mini miracle, an African tiger cub. Now
Mauritian textile prices are being undercut by cheaper Asian garments.
Cheaper Asian garments and the emergence of cheap labour countries such as Madagascar, Sri
Lanka and Vietnam are certainly important difficulties for Mauritius, but the country has
to face other significant challenges in the post General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) era. The globalization and liberalisation of trade under the aegis of WTO will
adversely affect many of the semi-protectionist advantages enjoyed by Mauritius under the
outgoing GATT regime. There are doubts as to whether the LOME convention will be renewed
and if it does get renewed, there are fears that the terms of the renewal will not be as
favourable as they used to be to the developing countries. Politicians and policy makers
develop a wide array of negotiating skills but there is no certainty that the painful
downturn that Mauritius is experiencing can be reversed. Industries are relocating and
moving to cheaper countries. Unemployment is on the rise, and the currency is depreciating
rapidly. The introduction of VAT (Value Added Tax) in 1998 and the inflationary trends
make it difficult for the poor to sustain their livelihoods.
Another major challenge is the dismantling of the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA). The MFA
which has enabled Mauritian firms to receive higher prices for its clothing exports to the
European Union and the US runs out in 2005. The protected markets enjoyed so far will
disappear. Mauritian textiles and clothing will then be subject to the same rules of the
ruthless market. The emergence of regional blocks such as NAFTA, ASEAN, the European Union
has implications for Mauritius. Mauritius may find it very difficult to access any one of
them.
The initial spurt of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows that fuelled the boom is
tapering off. Lack of investment in the country impact on employment creation
possibilities. The Labour Force survey (1995) mentions an unemployment level of 10% but
there is no consensus on the actual level of unemployment in the country.
What is certain however is that more people are losing their jobs and new entrants on the
labour market experience a lot of difficulty before obtaining a job. The policy of the
government is to shift to an information based economy. This implies more use of mental
than physical powers and it also implies a thinning down of the labour market.
Another major challenge confronting Mauritius is the lack of skilled and qualified human
power. Mauritius needs to upgrade its human resource base as well as minimise waste of its
human capital. The International Herald Tribune of 20th Sept 1993 in a special report on
Mauritius says that the economy needs to retool to ward off stagnation. In
that same article, the Herald Tribune quoting the World Bank says: Mauritius will
need to foster increased labour productivity by improving technology and reallocating
labour to higher productivity sectors. This will require an upgrading of skills and thus a
greater emphasis on education and manpower training.
The question of upgrading its human resource base has also been taken up by Wignaraja and
Lall (1998:75) but Mauritius has still not been able to address the inefficiencies of its
education/training system. Many documents and policy papers have been produced. There was
a Master Plan of Education in 1991 and an Action Plan in 1996 but none of them have been
implemented. One of the major concerns of both plans is to reduce the inefficiencies and
to provide a compulsory nine year schooling system but this is still at the level of
rhetoric.
For quite some time, many countires including Mauritius have used their
smallness as a tool of economic diplomacy. Baldacchino (1993:38) explains how
small states use the power of being powerless and the importance of
being unimportant to negotiate in their interests. But in this increasingly
liberalised and globalised era, one is not so sure whether such economic diplomacy will
continue to hold good.
Trapped in dependent development and having to confront the exigencies of the
global economy, Mauritius has to juggle with various policies to try and maintain its
competitive edge as well as its social cohesion. Smallness poses various dilemmas to
Mauritius as it attempts to minimise waste along the educational continuum and upgrade its
human resource base. Expanded schooling opportunities and extended years of schooling
raises aspirations and expectations which are often unmet since a small countrys
capacity to generate employment is even more limited than bigger countries.
The shrinking labour market and the parallel revolution of rising expectations exacerbate
the potential for conflict in small pluriethnic states. The Commonwealth Advisory group
(1997:133) argues: Community and political security are particularly important for
small states, given that dispute and discord can quickly spread throughout society and
become magnified into major challenges to social and political order.
As Mauritiuss economic difficulties abound and windows of opportunity become
scarcer, it becomes imperative for Mauritius to establish a new educational order, one
which equalises opportunities in the true sense, focussed on outcomes and not merely
access. Whilst retaining the need to make education/training more relevant to the needs of
the economy, the Mauritian education system should also beef up its social and cultural
responsibilities, instill such values in citizens so that otherness takes a
new significance, becomes a factor that unite rather than divide.
As the economy starts experiencing various difficulties, some opinion leaders and policy
makers try to convince people that the Africa Growth and Opportunity Bill brings hope to
Mauritius but Mauritians have to be flexible, productive and competitive. Flexibility,
productivity and competitiveness are the order of the day but what Mauritian leaders fail
to emphasise are the various conditionalities imposed by the Africa Growth and Opportunity
Bill (AGOB).
Labour unions in Mauritius have divergent views about the bill. Whilst some of them
support the government and Mauritius Export Processing Zones Association (MEPZA)s
initiative of lobbying for the passage of the bill, others led by AWC- All Workers
Conference argue that the bill come with too many conditionalities which can have adverse
effects on people. The AWC opposes the strong private sector orientation of the bill and
have joined the coalition of anti free trade NGOs, American Unions and US garments
manufacturers who oppose it (Le Mauricien. 11 February, 1999). More recently, WILDAF
(Women in Law and Development in Africa) at their second general assembly held in Accra in
July 1999 drew attention to the various implications that the Africa Bill may have on
peoples livelihoods and argued that with the Africa Bill, many African countries
will have to abide by the exigencies of the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. WILDAF also argued that there should be a strong campaign asking for the removal of
the conditionalities imposed by the Africa Bill (Le Mauricien, 14 August 1999).
Since our EPZ (Export Processing Zone) is heavily concentrated in textiles and
conditionalities are most severe on textiles, capitalists are having to find ways and
means to retain productivity and competitiveness. The two methods that they mostly adopt
is either to relocate or to import foreign labour. The impact of foreign labour on local
employment has not been studied but the presence of foreign workers especially if it goes
on magnifying, will certainly pose a new challenge to interculturality in a small place
like Mauritius.
CONCLUSION
Certain growth development models with a trickle down approach frequently centre only some
and marginalises many. The marginalised often remain jobless, voiceless, rootless and
futureless. If this category isdisproportionately present in minority communities or there
is the perception that this is the case, interculturality and peace are threatened. Nobel
Laureate Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze in their book Economic Development and Social
Opportunity, quote Dryden as saying: Beware the fury of the patient man.
Sen and Dreze seem to argue that when peoples patience wear out, they can explode in
fury. Symptoms of such fury has perhaps made itself felt in February 1999 in Mauritius.
When the marginalised and excluded cannot be patient anymore, Mauritius, the dead volcano
runs the risk of becoming alive again.
Mauritius has scope to promote interculturality but to do this it requires a new
educational order - one which promotes and develops a culture of sustainable human rights.
The education system should also work towards ensuring that otherness takes a
new significance. The Mauritian educational system is intercultural but only in the sense
that it accepts people from diverse backgrounds on the same premises it gives them
a chance to rub shoulders but it has a long way to go in teacher training, devising new
curricula and syllabi and most important of all in bridging the gap between intent and
reality in order to make interculturality become real.
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