A big crowd demonstration was organised in town, throughout the streets of Port Mathurin on Saturday 29th of May. It was a great success! The people have decided to manifest in town to express their discontentment and grievances against the way they are treated by the regional government. The people wanted to claim their rights. Politicians of almost all the political parties of the island were present and participated in the event. Their presence was most welcomed, even though this demonstration was not a political one. It was organized by a group of people comprising of trade unions, socially aware citizens, NGOs, farmers, planters, and fishermen, among others. They are fully satisfied with the people’s participation in the event, as they had set as objective to create a collective consciousness so that the leaders are made aware of the problems the ordinary citizen is facing every day, even if they refuse to hear about these problems. The leaders refuse to hear what the people are voicing out. This collective awareness should, in the long run, lead to create a feel-good factor in the island of Rodrigues, where each and every citizen would be happy to live.
Starting from the bus terminal at Baie Lascars, the mood was set, and the cortege started to move with all demonstrators shouting and carrying road signs and flags on which their grievances were written. One could read ‘We don’t want political domination’, ‘We don’t want political discrimination towards our own people’, ‘Bring back home the members of our family’ (referring to the hundreds of Rodriguans who are still in Mauritius due to the lockdown), ‘We refuse racist government and colonial domination with the blessings of local colonist government’, ‘We don’t want fascist government who favors only a selected few’, ‘We don’t want the government to take out a loan policy of Rs 1 billion in our name’, ‘We refuse corruption’, ‘We sacrifice ourselves to send our kids to school and to become degree holder just to get unemployed afterwards’, ‘We refuse to go back to a government who sentence his people to drink sea water’, and so many other words of protests. Namely, the ones regarding the awfully bad health sector, the regulation regarding the import of vehicles from Mauritius, the lack of support towards the farmers and the planters, the lack of consideration towards the public officers as the regional government refuses to fill the vacant posts in the public sector, the list is quite long. Which may mean that there are many problems in the island of Rodrigues, even if it is only a group of persons who have the guts to voice out.
While they were walking throughout the streets, the people voiced out that they want a good health system, they want to have access to drinking water and not to continue cooking food using raw sea water, among other grievances. « They (the government) told us five years back, that we will have tap water once a week. But today, it is sad to say that we still have to collect water from the sea to cook food for our children, even if over the past five years, more than half a billion has been invested in the water sector. We do not want any false promises again. Enough is enough! When you see them in their beautiful and luxurious cars, they do as if they do not see us. They only come to our houses to ask for a vote of confidence when the elections are near », said someone. The cortege stopped a few minutes in front of ‘The Residence’, the seat of the Executive Council where the decisions concerning the destiny for the present and future generations are being taken. The manifesting crowd also stopped for some more minutes in front of the Central Administration and the seat of the Rodrigues Regional Assembly. It was important that the local leaders are made aware that the people have had enough of them and their way of doing things. The demonstrators wanted this for the Rodrigues people: human dignity and some consideration from the leaders towards all those who are suffering silently. « If you do not want to listen to your people, we are here to make you listen. If you still do not want to hear, then we will come back for you ».
