Mansoor Statements That Don't Survive A Fact-Check

1. The real threat is AI. And we don't know how fast it's coming, because we have five fingers I say in about 5 years, it can be a bit less, a bit more (2025). So I guess horses think AI will be here in 12 months.

2. Unfortunately neo-liberalism has gone everywhere in the world (2026). No, there are several countries that follow other policies. Examples include the Nordic countries and many other European ones which have a strong welfare state. And he seems to forget that neo-liberalism was brought to Mauritius by him and his university buddy who gave him the post of Financial Secretary when an extreme version of trickle down economics was implemented with a 15% flat tax as from 2006.

3. There were no billionaires in the 1980s (2026). There have been billionaires since at least 1919.

4. We found Mao's cat that's good at catching mice (2013). Destroying our savings culture and generating growth rates that were much lower than the promised 8% hardly makes the case for Chairman Mao's feline being active during his stint as FS for almost eight years. 

5. Tax cuts have worked as government received more revenue and jobs were created thanks to a higher level of investments (2011). This contradicts his own circular where he said that revenues would fall till 2013. And it was obvious that the tens of billions of rupees of FDI we had received since 2006 did not prevent the creation of a massive amount of poverty. Plus if the reforms had worked why did Sithanen not get a ticket and not even run as an independent candidate? Besides other components of the infamous reforms killed our savings culture. Mansoor should also tell us how the average GDP growth from 2006 to 2011 compared with the 8% target. There was also calls for his contract not to be renewed and even be terminated.

6. Our water problem is one of management, not of lack of finances (2011). The water network has expanded significantly after the CWA was established in 1973 including watershed events like the coming into operation of the Midlands Dam in 2003. If everything was going on swimmingly why was the payment of the rice/flour subsidy shifted from the budget to the STC? And there was also the cancellation of the school-feeding program which cost peanuts.

7. Rama Sithanen is one of the most intelligent economists I have met (2010). You should meet more and different economists. Befriending a Rs5 coin might also not be a bad move.

Dis Plas Kot Bizin Komisyon Danket

Byin bizin komisyon danket dan sa ban plas swivan la parski sa fin kut nu estra ser kom pei ek ena ladan fin mem fer nu koste ek fayit. Bizin komisyon danket pu nu sosyete konpran kin arive ek ki nu met ban zafer an plas pu ki zame sa pa arive ankor. Dayer Ptr ti propoz en Economic Offenders Act dan so manifest electoral pu eleksyon zeneral 2019.

1. Linpak flat tax 15% Sithanen lor sitiasyon mari katastrofik dan ki Moris retruv li. Dapre se ki ti pe dir dan kanpayn elektoral 2005 ek apre (li pu zener en krwasans 8%) GDP Moris pu 2020 ti bizin 914 milyar rupi. Tiena COVID-19 an 2020 non? Pena problem anu pran prozeksyon GDP pu 2019, 837 milyar rupi, pu kav tir COVID dan diskisyon. GDP aktyel pu 2019 ti 498 milyar rupi. Donk zis pu 2019 mank 339 milyar prodiksyon domestik (pu gayn en lide, pandemi fin kut nu 100 milyar rupi GDP an 2020). Ant 2006 ek 2019 ti mank 1,780 milyar rupi GDP u 312 fwa sa 5.7 milyar ki fek pey Betamax la. U preske 18 fwa seki pandemi fin kut nu an 2020. Ava bon osi kone kisana in profit plis sa striktir taksasyon insutenab la ek ban lezot desizyon insanse.

PM Sounds Death Knell for URA

By announcing that the price of water will not go up. See the Utility Regulatory Authority was set up on the basis of a rather sloppy justification to fix the price of stuff like water and electricity. Now if the PM decides that there won't be any increases it immediately makes that institution redundant. Why spend so much money on a new institution when the work can be done elsewhere like at the Ministry of Finance? It also cuts the energy minister who heads the tiniest of political parties to size and is another splendid reason for him to tender his resignation.

Why You Forgot 2018 is The Year of The 'Second Economic Miracle'

... je pense que vers 2008 nous pouvons réaliser un taux de croissance de 7/8%.

Rama Sithanen, 2005

54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. 

Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation 2013 

No Miracle in Sight

Half of the fourth year of the Lepep government is almost gone and still no trace of the exceptional economic performance SAJ had promised for 2018. Only growth rates of less than 4% so far and the next two years are not likely to be any different. These are the lowest in decades. 

32% of World Bank Policy Reports Never Downloaded

"... I am not an engineer, I am not a technician and everything that I have done in my life is only law. So, I need expert advice and I am going to put experts and not politicians at the Head of the CEB and the CWA. I am not going to do appel international and all that."

Ivan Collendavelloo, in Parliament, March 2015

"... Nun fini konpran ki nu bizin lasistans de la bank mondyal pu ki nu kapav fer bann bon developman dan sekter delo."

Ivan Collendavelloo, Feb 2016

The World Has No Time
For This Kind Of Nonsense

So reported The Economist at the end of last May. It referred to a study by the World Bank on the popularity of its policy reports. As almost half of them are supposed to at least improve public debate the two authors of the report – Doerte Doemeland and James Trevino – looked at how many times 1,611 of these policy documents were downloaded. Turns out that almost a third was never downloaded. I am not surprised. I got to read a few them over the years and I must say there's a lot of rubbish in there. So I perfectly understand that no one is bothering about so many of these reports. Who has time for crap in this fast-moving, intelligent and hyper-connected world?

Recall Elections Are Key To Better Political Outcomes

A recall election is a constitutional tool to eject an MP from Parliament anytime between general elections if enough of the voters in her constituency sign a petition to that effect. A by-election is then organised. Given the performance and the behaviour of some of the MPs that we've been sending to Parliament over the past 15-20 years we voters clearly need a way to make them work in our national interest throughout a whole term and not just a little bit at the start and another little bit at the end. Recall elections do precisely that.

Had we had this system in place since 2005 we would have been an entirely different country by keeping elected politicians on their toes. In at least four situations. The first one is in February 2007 when Sithanen took the country hostage because he wanted to second-guess the prerogative of the PM with respect to the appointment of the Governor of the Bank of Mauritius. He then went on to cause extensive damage to our economy for three whole years. With a recall election he might have been out in a few months. A by-election in those days would have cost around Rs20-25 million. A trifle really compared to what he has set in motion: a trillion-rupee Toohrooh. 

Lepep Should Shift From TINA to TAMBO

TAMBO stands for There Are Much Better Options. It's an acronym I coined back in 2007 when Dr. TINAnen was busy breaking the economy with his flat tax. It essentially demonstrated that there were more useful things to do than to turn back the clock of social progress between never-ending stories of gato-pima and savat leponz. Like considering several good options and picking the best. Feasible if you're not endowed with a reverse Midas touch.

Spreadsheet Nirvana

The decision of going ahead with the Lepep tram is afflicted with the same There Is No Alternative disease and doesn't address the No. 1 problem of our transportation policy: the growth of private cars has been left unchecked for way too long. On April 1, Georges Chung was heard saying that there were no alternatives to the tram. Isn't that a jurassic comment? And a couple of days ago he seemed to be in a state of total bliss while standing in front of a spreadsheet of the project – we were also told that half-a-dozen accountants did not take up his challenge of finding faults in it – that has been presented literally as having no risk. But he doesn't want to share it with the media.

Lepep Not Mandated To Sell Any Part of the CWA

It’s Not in Their Manifesto

Page 19 has five points under the heading of “Fourniture d’eau”. One such point is “Remplacement à court et moyen termes les tuyaux désuets afin d’assurer une fourniture régulière 24 heures sur 24…” Basic common sense when we know that 1,600km of our pipes – some of which are over 50 years old – need to be replaced, right? Another one is “Aménager des barrages dans nos rivières pour récupérer autant d’eau que possible pour être canalisés vers les stations de traitement”. Who will disagree with this when we know we don’t capture enough of all the rainfall that we’re blessed to receive every year? The three other points deal with the Bagatelle dam, emergency water trucks and reforestation. No mention of privatisation of any part of the CWA or subterfuges like affermage. Didn’t see any plan for the CEB to create private companies to avoid the Central Procurement Board either.

Did Lepep Change Its Mind?

If it has it will have to ask voters for their permission on such a fundamental issue because there is no way it would have won 47-13 in December 2014 if one of its electoral pledges was to mess up our public utilities one way or another. It can do that in two ways. One is to call for fresh general elections and the other is to organise a referendum on the issue. A referendum is a lot better as it would enlarge our democratic space and enable Government to get the clearest of signals.

Lepep Budget May Miss Boat, Again

Budget Doesn't Address Dominant Issue

Namely the extensive damage caused by the flat tax: 1. a massive GDP gap; 2. a serious impairment of our domestic savings; 3. making Mauritius less competitive and dynamic by keeping local pump prices at unreal levels and 4. generating the smallest increase in real disposable income for the poorest 20% of households of the last twenty-five years. Besides the flat tax was implemented on the basis of spurious claims.

Why Mauritius Need Not Worry About Brexit

Because we got far more important issues here to worry about. Here are a few.

1. A Minister wants to sell the CWA because he's not happy with its hotline. Now, if this is not a cause for worry and a reason for ministerial resignation, an urgent Cabinet reshuffle, a referendum or all three I wonder what is. Another Minister wants to sell the CHCL. That's totally inappropriate. Talks with DP World have to be immediately called off. We can keep on nicely developing our port by ourselves -- CHCL has invested nearly Rs2 billion over the last ten years. We've got the people and tons of unemployed graduates who should be given many opportunities to push Mauritius forward. For sure we could have done a lot better had Sithanen not messed up our savings rate and economy so badly with the impressive string of failed policies which have accompanied the worst form of trickle-down economics: a flat tax. See, he promised robust growth rates of 8% back in 2005 if we lowered top taxes. As the chart illustrates we not only never got anything higher than 6% during the past 10 years but 60% of those rates were under 4%. This has, as expected, caused our government to run out of money for capital projects -- which Badhain keeps repeating -- and pile up a lot of debt. Making us a lot more vulnerable at the same time.

Why Our Youth Don't Have A Skills Mismatch

Simply because technology has flattened every single learning curve. So anybody who has recently graduated should be able to help push Mauritius forward provided a reasonable number of opportunities are available. This will happen only if certain conditions are met. Like energy prices -- a major building block of GDP -- shouldn't stay disconnected from their world prices. Something which unfortunately happened for way too long.

We want our youth to transform the skills they've acquired -- and will keep on acquiring -- into meaningful outcomes fast because otherwise they will lose confidence in themselves and their gifts will go to waste. And then it will be everybody's loss. This will also depend on the quality of policy-making at Government House. The latter just like the private sector -- large and small -- must make good bets. Because that's the way they will create wealth or value. Which is about getting out more than what is put in. For example the CEB can float a bond, invest into a power project and then make a reasonable profit. Or sell clean electricity at competitive prices which will help Mauritius Inc. make one. The Passport Office can get us our travel documents fast making us save time which is another name for money. Similarly private sector companies can create value by moving upmarket or into new industries which are compatible with the standards of living that Mauritians reasonably aspire to. Not with those of the cheapest foreign worker available.

The other side of the coin is that Government and private sector companies routinely destroy value. And they do that -- to be sure there are fans of Marx too in there --  in many ways. We've seen how the STC can mysteriously lose billions and then lose a couple of billions more. Bosses of private companies may also put the enjoyment of super cars before the survival of their firm. Or allow themselves to be infected with hubris and start believing that this time it's different and that crises like those that happened in South East Asia in 1997 and elsewhere can never happen in Mauritius. Because we're the land of the lazy Dodo. Of course.