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65th Year -- No. 3583 Tuesday, June 9, 2020 www.mauritiustimes.com facebook.com/mauritius.times 16 Pages - ePaper MAURITIUS TIMES The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or by cutting spending. It's by encouraging the growth of the economy. -- Mitt Romney Interview : Eric Ng Ping Cheun, économiste et directeur de PluriConseil Budget 2020-21 Réforme fiscale: mythes et réalités Le Gouvernement aurait pu faire une réforme fiscale fondée sur une rationalité économique visant à accroître la capacité fiscale du pays tout en permettant une redistribution “Notre économie prendra deux des richesses. Il ne l'a pas fait Par Aditya Narayan + Voir Page 4 ans et demi avant de revenir à Tit-bits son niveau de 2019” + Voir pages 7-8-9 When coyness is not a virtue! Covid-19 will continue to haunt us We have to continue with all the sanitary measures in place… How long will we go on like this is the query and worry on all lips. The only plausible answer is - when we discover a vaccine By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee + See Page 3 By S. Callikan + See Page 5 Mauritius Times Tuesday, June 9, 2020 www.mauritiustimes.com Edit Page facebook.com/mauritius.times 2 The Conversation Maintaining Law How pandemics past and present fuel and Order the rise of mega-corporations he power of the state is some- he appointment of K. upon the Police Force which was thing that we largely assume Servansingh in replacement of tasked to make sure that the sanitary Tin the 21st century. Across the Tthe outgoing Commissioner M. measures recommended were fol- world, the idea of the sovereign Nobin puts an end to speculations that lowed to the letter by the population. nation has been central to the impe- had been doing the rounds about the This was a critical component of the rial politics and economy of the last successor to the former Commis- control strategy, and required deploy- few centuries. sioner, with the name of other Deputy ment of policemen to oversee social But from the 1970s onwards, it Commissioners surfacing repeatedly. distancing at the supermarkets in par- became common among intellec- High responsibilities are not unfamiliar ticular, something that the population tuals to suggest that the state was to the new Commissioner of Police, as was unfamiliar with, and about which less important, its monopoly of con- he has been Commander of the there was apprehension of a break- trol within a given territory contested by multina- restaurants are closed by fiat, parks have been Special Mobile Force prior to being down of law and order. But the Police tional corporations. In 2016, of the largest 100 locked, and sitting on benches can get you a assigned this present post. Both carry Force met this challenge and there economic entities, 31 were countries and 69 fine. Running too close to someone will get you equally weighty responsibilities. were no major untoward incidents of were companies. Walmart was larger than the shouted at by someone in a high vis vest. A medieval king would have been impressed with The Police Force forms part of the note. economy of Spain, Toyota larger than India. The this level of authoritarianism. Civil Service, and it would be amiss on As we go back towards how things capacity of these large companies to influence politicians and regulators has been clear our part if we do not underline how the were before the lockdown, the old The pandemic seems to have allowed the enough: consider the effects of oil companies on Civil Service in its entirety has risen to problems and unresolved issues per- fiscal and administrative powers of big govern- climate change denial. the challenge posed by the pandemic taining to policing will come to the fore ment to bulldozer arguments about prudence and liberty. The state’s power is now being exer- crisis. From the administrative cadres again. Over the years, and unfortu- And since Margaret Thatcher, prime minister cised in ways that haven’t been seen since the to those who perform all types of tasks, nately so, there have been too many of the UK from 1979 to 1990, pronounced that Second World War, and there has been wide- there was an efficient and coordinated allegations of police brutality, high- she intended to “roll back the state”, more and spread public support. mobilization of the staff of the essential handedness in dealing with the public more parts of previously state-owned assets services who did their duties with a whether it is at the police stations or on now operate as companies, or as players in After coronavirus state engineered quasi-markets. Roughly 25% sense of understanding of what was at the road, impolite behaviour and rough The long-term result of the Black Death was of the UK’s National Health Service, for example, stake, namely the health of the country talking, sexual harassment of police- the strengthening of the power of big business is delivered through contracts with the private which, by definition, meant it had to women by their peers or superiors, and the state. The same processes are hap- sector. start with theirs. For, if the workforce of policemen being implicated in shady pening much more rapidly during the coron- the essential services itself is disabled, deals amongst other things. Across the globe, transport, utilities, telecom- avirus lockdown. munications, dentists, opticians, the post office then who is there to look after the rest But we should be cautious of easy historical The new Commissioner of Police and many other services used to be state of the population? lessons. History never really repeats itself. The therefore assumes responsibilities at a monopolies and are now run by profit-making circumstances of each time are unique, and it And so it is that all the so-called time when there is much expectation companies. Nationalised, or state owned, indus- simply isn’t wise to treat the “lesson” of history as frontliners involved in first of all, saving on the part of the public about ‘sani- tries are often described as slow, and in need of if it were a series of experiments that prove cer- lives – nurses, doctors, laboratory tising’ the process of maintaining law market discipline in order to become more mo- tain general laws. And Covid-19 will not kill a staff, ambulance drivers – and next, and order, and a restoration of the dern and efficient. third of any population, so though its effects are giving the vital support needed in image of the Police. For this, he will But thanks to coronavirus, the state has profound, they will not result in the same shor- ensuring the safe and clean environ- need the support of the political esta- come rolling back in again like a tsunami. tage of working people. If anything, it has actual- blishment at the highest level, but cru- ment to allow this to happen: the other Spending on a level which was mocked as ly strengthened the power of employers. hospital personnel, the cleaners and cially of course that of the Police Force “magic money tree” economics only a few The most profound difference is that the virus those responsible for waste collection itself, forging a relationship of trust and months ago has been aimed at national health comes in the middle of another crisis, that of cli- and disposal, attendants at various confidence, and pride in the profession systems, addressed the problem of homeless- mate change. There is a real danger that the po- service points are among those whose as it fulfils its duties vis-à-vis the ness, provided universal basic income for mil- licy of bouncing back to a growth economy will hard work and dedication helped to nation. Having been a soldier, he lions of people, and offered loan guarantees or simply overwhelm the necessity of reducing car- see the country through the confine- knows the meaning of discipline and direct payments to a host of businesses. bon emissions. This is the nightmare scenario, ment period. Helping and supplement- honour, and will no doubt place a high This is Keynesian economics on a grand one in which Covid-19 is just a prequel to some- premium on inculcating them and other ing the guided efforts of the Civil scale, in which national bonds are used to bor- thing much worse. Service were those who ensured food values that are relevant to the mainte- row money backed by future income from tax- But the huge mobilisations of people and supplies and provisions, as well as the nance of the safety and security of the payers. Ideas about balancing the budget money which governments and corporations business sectors which repurposed to country and will also be crucial to the appear to, for now, be history, with entire indus- have deployed also shows that big organisations manufacture masks and sanitisers that success of his new mission. All this to tries now being reliant on treasury bailouts. can reshape themselves and the world extraor- conformed to the specified standards. be done while abiding by the principles Politicians the world over have suddenly dinarily rapidly if they wish. This gives real of human rights and in the respect and become interventionist, with wartime metaphors grounds for optimism concerning our collective In parallel, a heavy onus was laid dignity of the individual. being used to justify gigantic spending. capacity to re-engineer energy production, trans- Less often remarked is the astonishing port, food systems and much else – the green restriction on personal freedoms.