| | A serious plan | | | | Modifier la taille du texte: | A | | | A | | |
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| | Par:- by Nicholas Rainer
On 19/02/2010 |
Those who tuned into MBC1 on Saturday night would’ve been more than a little surprised to see the Chinese ambassador’s intervention in the context of the Chinese New Year. Heaven knows what government and its lapdogs at the MBC had in mind when they invited the representative of a foreign country to use the Spring Festival as an excuse to extol the virtues of her country.
And even though we’re rather used to religious and cultural events being used towards political ends (Navin Ramgoolam’s turn at Grand Bassin this year was a case point), Bian Yanhua’s speech raises its fair share of questions.
It seems that the Chinese are fi nally beginning to exert the sort of infl uence they expect in return for the billions of rupees they’re pouring into the country. Fair enough. After all, soft power is the new hard power. This becomes problematic however when we can’t even count on our own government to uphold the most basic tenets of transparency and good governance.
The fact that the terms and conditions of the Jin Fei contract have yet to be made public, despite the project’s myriad social, economic and environmental implications is a monumental scandal in itself. Even other African countries where similar projects have gone up and which are not exactly models of good governance, such as Zambia, have made the contracts public. No wonder we score so well in the ease-to-do-business stakes; we’re so stunningly supine that businessmen can’t help loving us.
And, as we gradually start fi nding out more about the economic zone’s true vocation (heavy rather than service industries), the Mauritian population will increasingly become worried about the ramifications of this Faustian pact. It emerged last week that the planters who own some of the land where the Jin Fei mega-factory complex will go up are refusing to sell unless the authorities up their price.
Whatever their intentions are, these planters are contributing to raising awareness on an issue that will infl uence our lives for decades to come. It’s about time there was a concerted push to call for the contract to be made public. Civil society has rightly raised a stink about the incinerator and the hotel project on l’Ile aux Benitiers. Yet these two pale in comparison to what’s happening in Riche-Terre.
Government, of course, has the perfect riposte to any criticisms, however justifi ed they may be. Indeed, these super salesmen of the nation will simply accuse the project’s detractors of indulging in “China bashing”. If that’s the way they choose to govern, so be it. Yet the elections are coming and they may feel a little more inclined to listen to our preoccupations in the coming months.
What’s truly frightening though is that we’ve created a world where career politicians occupy so many positions of power. And it’s these people - who will do anything to obtain or retain power – we now depend on to solve some of the biggest problems the human race has ever faced, such as climate change, corruption, law and order, disease and poverty.
They’re simply not up to the task. The sooner we realise that the better. In the meantime though, we have a right to know about the Jin Fei contract. And now’s the time to demand it.
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| Geraldin | | | It is time to stop all this anti-Chinese hysteria. Nearly all of us wherever we live in the World buy commodities from China and we benefit from their enormous manufacturing potential. Imagine if everything we had to buy was made in Germany and we paid those costs? We would not be able to afford to live and we would be a very poor Mauritius country.
Instead of bellyaching think positively: China needs fuel and they are looking at all sorts. Consider revitalizing the Ethanol plants in Mauritius and adding to it the Waste to Ethanol plant discussed here and you would be able to export over 1000 million litres of Ethanol a year to China (over and above that needed for your own needs) and make a huge benefit for the country.
Go for it and work with China, not against. | | | Carol | | | It is all very well saying on the one hand that you are prepared to buy cheap manufactured goods from China and then to deny that China has the right to offer banking support for Mauritius. It sounds a little like calling coal black.
Rather than criticise the facts of the day considers the option of inviting the Chinese to support more environmentally acceptable projects. If the issue is here that China might be the banker for the proposed incineration project then rather than have that awful project banked by China suggest that the project should be one of converting the waste to the fuel ethanol - for which the budget estimated cost would be around US $ 90 million (rather than the $230 million for incineration) and use the sale of ethanol as the bargaining point to pay back the debt.
Alternatively let the company offering an ethanol solution negotiate with China directly.
In both cases Mauritius wins. | | | Em | | | Only four comments on this blog, mauriciens banne poltrons, quoi? Continier ferme lizier, bann compatriotes, zot pou faire beaucoup progrès coumsa. Diego in fini vander, astere maurice meme inn vander. | | | J.L Wong | | | Obama has just welcomed warmly the Dalai Lama in the white house and the world is again shocked by the reactions of the Chinese. What can Mauritians expect from the partnership of a nation which does not respect human rights. Our leaders are urging for more transparencies in financial transactions. What secrets are hiding behind the Jin Fei contract ? Riche Terre, the name tells us, one of the most fertile region, is falling under Chinese industrial invasion. How can we stop it or is it too late ? | | | Yul | | | Pretty soon Mauritius will become a client state of China. Prisoner in our INDEPENDENT (sic) Island. How far low will the politicians bend backwards to sell the independent island to foreigners - agricultural land to grow produce being sold to build monstruous concrete unesthetic buildings for the service and tourism industries? A puny island expecting increase in its population w/o proper infrastructure? | | | Garam Masala | | | If anyone should have any doubts about the sinister neo-colonialistic motives of the Chinese with these so-called economic zones, ask anyone who has travelled Africa. The biggest export of China is not manufactured goods, it’s people, Chinese. China has too many people. It’s agenda is clearly to swarm the unsuspecting world, Africa being a willing rape victim, with hordes of Chinese. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence will deduce what the consequence of this machination of a carefully planned Chinese mass diaspora will mean for Chinese geo-political and economic interests & influence, and the depredations on the territories so ‘occupied’. Are we so dumb that we cow down to a brutal totalitarian regime and sell our morals and principles to the Chinese Mammon? What about the savage repression of peasant and ethnic uprisings in China the rape of Tibetan dignity and sovereignty permanent sabre-rattling with, and intimidation of, Taiwan, etc, etc? Shame on our politicians for welcoming the invading hordes with open arms! | | | Em | | | Our politicians are greedy hounds, wherever they smell big money, all hell breaks loose. I would urge all mauritians to write to their local MPs and exhort them to make public this stinking contract. China is a dangerous bed partner, I do hope everybody realises that. | | | From : SCANNER. | | | From : SCANNER.
Only through dialogue, can Africa benefit from any partnership with China.
« We have a right to know about the Jin Fei contract. And now is the time to demand it». Echoing the thoughts of many in Mauritius, Mr. Nicholas Rainer must be expressing the uneasiness that is prevailing upon the terms and conditions of the Jin Fei contract.
In Mauritius, the political circle keeps throwing big promises about their overseas missions and their special relationships with foreign heads of states. Lately, the British project for Giant marine park plan for Chagos. We were told that the protests made to the British Prime Minister have been heard and noted. Quiet Diplomacy, we were told, help to smooth all hurdles and that success comes inevitably. Disappointedly, the British chose to have their own way, and we are back to square one trying to salvage a compromise that looks ever so distant.
Africa's engagement with China can be both beneficial and unfavorable. The private sector is a major player in this direction. And to do that, we would like China to open up so that the private sector can go to China and invest in China and stay in China, grow from China and learn transformed technology, just like the way Chinese companies are doing in Africa. This is partnership on equal basis. For now, it is not. Let us not pretend that it is. I will like to see a prosperous marriage between China and Africa.
Take for example the big low-interest loan granted to Namibia by China recently. This issue seems to illustrate the aura of “boosterism”, secrecy and back-room deals that have clouded China’s use of billions of dollars in foreign aid to court the developing world. Increasingly, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from Chinese companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves. Competitive bidding by the borrowing nation is discouraged, and China pulls a veil over vital data like project costs, loan terms and repayment conditions. Even the dollar amount of loans offered as foreign aid is treated as a state secret. Anticorruption crusaders complain that secrecy invites corruption, and that corruption debases foreign assistance.
“China is using this financing to buy the loyalty of the political elite,” said Harry Roque, a University of the Philippines law professor who is challenging the legality of Chinese-financed projects in the Philippines. “It is a very effective tool of soft diplomacy. But it is bad for the citizens who have to repay these loans for graft-ridden contracts.” In fact, such secrecy runs counter to international norms for foreign assistance. In a part of the world prone to corruption and poor governance, it also raises questions about who actually benefits from China’s projects. The answers, international development specialists say, are hidden from public view. “We know more about China’s military expenditures than we do about its foreign aid,” said David Shambaugh, an author and China scholar at George Washington University.
“Foreign aid really is a glaring contradiction to the broader trend of China’s adherence to international norms. It is so strikingly opaque it really makes one wonder what they are trying to hide.” China, which is not a member of the O.E.C.D., is operating under rules that the West has largely abandoned. It mixes aid and business in secret government-to-government agreements.
Some developing nations insist on independently comparing prices before accepting China’s largesse. Others do not bother. “Very often they are getting something they wouldn’t be able to get without China’s financing,” said Chris Alden, a specialist on China-African relations with the London School of Economics and Political Science. “They presume that the Chinese are going to give value for money.” Development experts say they have tried to convince the Chinese government that better safeguards and a more open process will enhance its efforts to gain influence and business. If its projects collapse because of kickbacks or inflated costs, they argue, China will end up exporting not only goods and services, but a reputation for corruption that it is already battling at home.
But Deborah Brautigam, the author of a coming book on China’s economic ties with Africa titled “The Dragon’s Gift,” says Beijing is hesitant to hobble its companies with Western-style restraints before they have become world-class competitors. As for Mauritius, it is already an uneasy engagement as Riche Terre vegetable growers go hunger strike – and the National Broadcasting Corporation lenses and reporters get busiest with chaperon of political electioneering gimmicks.
| | | Burn-it | | | And this area, from Riche-Terre to Pamplemousses, was always recognized to be one of the best part of our agricutural land... | |
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