|
Mauritius Independent Mauritius
On August 22, 1967, Prime Minister Ramgoolam moved that
the
assembly request independence according to arrangements
made
previously with Britain. The new nation came into being on
March
12, 1968, as an independent member of the Commonwealth.
Over the years, some elections have been marked by
ethnic
discord; voting in 1948, 1953, 1959, and 1967, for
example, was
split roughly along ethnic lines. The Indo-Mauritian
majority
gained progressively at the expense of other groups as
suffrage
was extended. More significant was the ethnic rioting in
1964 and
1968. In May 1964, Hindu and Creole communities clashed in
the
village of Trois Boutiques, outside Souillac. One police
officer
and one Franco-Mauritian were killed. In early 1968, just
six
weeks before independence, violence between Creoles and
Muslims
in the nation's capital left at least twenty-five people
dead and
hundreds injured before British troops quelled the
fighting.
Most Mauritians deplored these outbreaks of violence,
and the
government responded to both by declaring a state of
emergency.
One consequence of the unrest was an amendment to the
constitution in 1969 extending the first parliament to
1976.
Another effect was the entry of the PMSD into the ruling
coalition, and the departure of the IFB to form a small
opposition party.
Social and economic conditions after World War II
contributed
to the political conflicts. As the provision of health,
education, pension, and other public welfare services
expanded,
expectations began to rise. The eradication of malaria and
parasitic diseases in the 1940s and 1950s improved the
life
expectancy of the poor and helped fuel a population
increase of 3
percent per year. Family planning measures reduced the
population
growth rate in the 1960s and 1970s, but the labor force
continued
to increase rapidly. Registered unemployment stood at more
than
12 percent of the work force on the eve of independence.
The unemployed, especially the youth, rallied behind a
new
political party, the MMM, formed in 1969. Its organizers
were
Paul Bérenger (a Franco-Mauritian), Dev Virahsawmy (a
Telegu
speaker), and Jooneed Jeerooburkhan (a Muslim). They
appealed to
poor and working-class Mauritians of all backgrounds with
their
radical program of socialist change. An early show of
strength
for the party was a by-election victory in the prime
minister's
district in 1970. With widespread union support, the MMM
called a
number of debilitating strikes in 1971, demanding better
benefits
for workers and elections by 1972, the year previously
mandated.
Four PMSD members made attempts on the lives of Virahsawmy
and
Bérenger in November 1971. The authorities placed many of
the
party's leadership and rank and file in jail under the
Public
Order Act of 1971. The government also banned political
meetings,
suspended twelve unions, and closed Le Militant,
the MMM
newspaper. The government extended the state of emergency
until
1976, proscribing most political opposition.
The MMM succeeded in placing the issue of job creation
high
on the list of priorities for the country's first economic
development plan, covering 1971-75. The plan called for
additional jobs in manufacturing and in agriculture
outside sugar
production. It also initiated a program called Work for
All
(Travail pour Tous), which created the Development Works
Corporation (DWC) to hire laborers for public construction
and
relief projects. These policies, high sugar prices, growth
in
tourism, and the success of the newly created export
processing
zones (EPZs) helped reduce the unemployment rate to 7
percent by
1976.
The lack of economic progress enabled the MMM to make
significant gains in the closely fought 1976 general
elections;
the party won 40 percent of the vote and thirty-four of
the
seventy assembly seats. Part of the MMM's success came
from the
lowering of the voting age to eighteen in 1975, which
allowed the
party to garner the youth vote across ethnic lines. In
addition,
the ruling coalition hurt itself by putting up incompetent
and
corrupt candidates, failing to win the support of trade
unions,
and maintaining unpopular positions regarding the Chagos
Archipelago and the United States military presence on
Diego
Garcia. (The MMM favored returning to Mauritian
sovereignty the
Chagos Archipelago, of which Diego Garcia was a part.)
The MLP and the PMSD, both of which had declined in
popularity since the previous election, formed a coalition
government to lock the MMM out of power. This government
was
plagued by internal division: MLP chief whip Harish
Boodhoo broke
off to form the Mauritian Socialist Party (Parti
Socialiste
Mauricien--PSM). In addition, the government suffered from
political corruption scandals, poor economic performance,
and the
destructive effects of cyclones each year from 1979 to
1981.
These and other factors were instrumental in the 1982
electoral
victory of a new MMM-PSM coalition. In a concession to
Hindu
political sensibilities, Anerood Jugnauth was named prime
minister. Paul Bérenger served as minister of finance.
Faced with
the realities of governing the country, including heavy
obligations to the International Monetary Fund
(IMF--see Glossary)
and the
World Bank (see Glossary), the
government
backed away from the radical policies the MMM espoused
when it
was in opposition. It succeeded in expanding regional
cooperation
abroad and worked at modest nationalization and job
creation at
home. The ruling coalition broke up in less than a year,
however,
and new elections were held in August 1983.
Prime Minister Jugnauth founded a new party, the
Militant
Socialist Movement (Mouvement Socialiste Militant),
subsequently
renamed the Mauritian Socialist Movement (Mouvement
Socialiste
Mauricien--MSM) after combining with PSM. The MSM joined
during
the 1983 election with the MLP and the PMSD to win
comfortably.
In 1984 some MLP members fell out with the government
after
several MLP ministers were dismissed. Those MLP members
who
stayed in the ruling coalition, called the Alliance,
formed the
Assembly of Mauritian Workers (Rassemblement des
Travaillistes
Mauricien--RTM). In December 1985, however, the government
suffered several setbacks that would trouble it for many
months
to come: MMM municipal election victories; the death of
Ramgoolam, a close adviser to Jugnauth and a respected
figure in
national politics; and a drug scandal involving four
Alliance
deputies caught with twenty-one kilograms of heroin at the
Amsterdam airport. In a surprising electoral victory in
1987, the
Alliance retained power, thanks in large part to
Jugnauth's
handling of the economy. The MMM, under the leadership of
Dr.
Prem Nababsing, won twenty-one seats and was allotted
three bestloser seats.
Beginning with the PMSD's defection in August 1988, the
Alliance began to unravel. The MSM thwarted the growing
political
threat posed by a resurgent MLP by forging an alliance
with the
MMM, built in part on the promise of making Mauritius a
republic.
The MSM/MMM coalition won a convincing victory in
September 1991
and quickly passed changes in the constitution that led to
the
declaration of Mauritius as a republic in March 1992.
Data as of August 1994
|
