Showing posts with label Xavier-Luc Duval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xavier-Luc Duval. Show all posts

Thursday, February 08, 2024

Analiz Sis Angazman Lalians Ptr/MMM/PMSD

1. Pu redon parlman so let dor. Phokeer se pa Vaghjee me lor sa 35 ekspilsion an 2023 la ena plizir ladan kot lopozision fin rod sikan (e komie ladan inplik en tekewe?). Anu pa bliye usi ki Navin ti ferm parlman pandan 9 mwa pu prodir en dokiman lor reform elektoral kot li ti fer ban rekomandasion konpletman debil. Bon sa pa eton nu ler nu kon nivo Ramgoolam.

2. Abolision FCC. Ranplase par ki zafer? Manier sitiasion pu kontinie deteriore akoz politik fiskal e ekonomik pagla ki Ramgoolam ti kumanse an 2006 e fin kontinie ziska ler si kontinie kumsa mem ban guvernman ki pu vini pu kontinie met tu kalite lalwa libertisid ziska sa eklat dan zot figir evantielman.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

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. 

Monday, April 17, 2017

Wong Had Little to Do With Massive Amount of Poverty Created

Because he was not Finance Minister (FM) during any of the past eleven years when by far the most backward policies -- top tax rates were set too low and this broke the economy -- our country has known were implemented. For sure he has been a member of Cabinet during the last two and half years and as such has to accept part of the responsibility of the mess we're in because he could have vehemently asked for the end of the worship of the golden calf. Or at least distanced himself from it. Besides he was until recently a member of a party which has two interesting words in its name: Social Democrate.

XLD, Less So
Of course Xavier-Luc Duval (XLD) has a lot more to do with all the poverty created over the last decade because he was in the driver's seat for quite some time -- close to three years. But before we look into this let us not forget that poverty and the fight against it is heavily dependent on two quantities: the size of the economic cake (GDP) and how it is shared. From the 2012 household budget survey (HBS) -- which tells us about the sharing -- we know for a fact that the poorest two-tenths of Mauritian households saw their shares shrink by 10% to 15%. That's their smallest shares in at least two decades if you care to know. So we don't exactly get bonus points here. And what about GDP?

Friday, February 10, 2017

Von-Mally's Choice Reveals Why Party Lists Shrink Democracies

Lists to Party
Check the party lists for the ongoing Rodrigues Regional Assembly (RRA) elections and you will find the Leader of the Mouvement Rodriguais (MR) sitting at the top of his. That could be a lot safer for him than contesting one of the 12 FPTP seats especially if the MR doesn't grab too many of them. Which makes it more difficult for voters to dump Mr. Von-Mally. See you needed at least 48.19% of the local region votes in the riding of Port-Mathurin to get into the Regional Assembly back in 2012. A tad more than in 2006. Whereas all you need to qualify for a PR seat is that your party gets at least 10% of the island region votes and it doesn't get enough FPTP candidates elected. There's also another way Von-Mally could get in: his party grabs a majority of the FPTP seats but that majority gets neutralised by the PR seats. He would then go in on the first of the 3 extra seats that guarantee that the winner of the FPTP competitions forms the regional government.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Thoughts on Electoral Reform (5)

Elections in Mauritius Are Seldom Referendums
Vote share doesn’t matter that much in Mauritius. We instead have competitions in 21 unequal ridings and the party which grabs anything more than half of the contested seats earns the right to form government. Our first-past-the-post (FPTP) setup is a system which works and has served us really well. And that too for decades. Making it an important part of who we are. Just like progressive taxation and a high savings rates have until 2006. Important matters of the state need to be given the appropriate consideration. It’s definitely not a bad idea that we let ourselves be inspired by examples of profound thinking. Like what Feynman told us about hardware reliability of the Space Shuttle: the necessary redundancy was provided by several independent identical computer systems.

Monday, June 27, 2016

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.