GENERAL ELECTIONS RESULTS, 11 JUNE 1982 : ‘60-Zero’: Song of Victory, New Insights & Ratchet Effect

On 11 June 1982, three hundred and sixty candidates representing 22 parties contested the General Elections. The results were proclaimed on 12^th June 1982. It was a landslide victory for the Mouvement Militant Mauricien (MMM) and Parti Socialiste Mauricien Alliance, which won all 60 seats of the then Legislative Assembly against the Parti Alliance Nationale (PAN) comprising mainly the Labour Party (PTR) and the Parti Mauricien Social Democrate (PMSD). The 60-zero led to the overthrow of the Labour regime represented by late Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the dominant political figure of pre-and post- independence period.  In the context of this paper, I contacted some key informants (political figures and cultural militants of those days). For ethical purposes, their identity is kept anonymous. I must acknowledge their valuable insights into our understanding of certain unexplored areas of this period.

Song of Victory

 ‘Santé Sanzman’ (Song of change) was the electoral campaign song of MMM-PSM Alliance Party. The lyrics and melody are by Rama Poonoosamy, a young left wing intellectual and cultural militant of the MMM at that time and who became Minister of Culture after the electoral victory. He wrote other popular militant songs like Zanfan Soweto (Children of Soweto) and the national anthem in Mauritian Kreol.

‘Santé Sanzman’ points out the harsh conditions of life of those days and the atmosphere of political decay, convincing people that there was need for a change of regime. The song was accompanied by a video broadcast on TV during pre-election airtime allocated to political parties. The video (unfortunately potentially untraceable today in any archive) was quite original as it was the first time used by a political party. It shows images of bank notes being thrown out from a window, people toiling at work and other images which provoked revolt and indignation and the need for change.  Although the video clip was attractive it is the song which went ‘viral’ amongst the population.

In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins introduced the term « meme » as a transmittable piece of cultural information. Just as genes pass through parents to their children, when a people share bits of cultural information, they are replicated and further distributed until ultimately becoming a cultural phenomenon. The expression « Going viral » comes from the idea of ‘meme’ which denotes that cultural information can become a virus of the mind and a thought contagion amongst people. Examples of ‘memes’ are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases or clothes fashions. The study of campaign songs or political parties’ songs fall within the purview of memetics (the study of memes). For this study, I kept the original Kreol orthography of the song (see Table).

The song is analysed in terms of its content for each stanza (a total of 3 stanza with 8 lines each), lyrics (category of words), the mood (overall feeling that the song causes), the ‘meme’ (viral words, sentences) and the catchwords (words which encapsulate a particular concept). We can identify three ‘memes’ : first, ‘lavi fini dan laké’ (life ends up queuing) in stanza 1 ( Line 6) which has a double meaning in Mauritian Kreol. It means literally people have to queue for anything and figuratively people’s life is stuck. This double meaning inevitably has a ‘meme’ effect. Second, ‘tou sa pou bizin sanze’ (all that must change) in stanza 1 (Line 8) and stanza 2 (line 16). Both stanza end with ‘sanzé’ reinforcing the idea of need for ‘change’ Third, ‘Nouvo simé…nouvo lavi’ (New Road…New life) of stanza 3 (Lines 23 & 24). This song generates such strong catchwords like ‘lavi’ (life), miser (poverty) or zwiser (nepotism, nepotism, cronyism). The song played indisputably a key role in the victory of the MMM-PSM Alliance Party. It rallied people of all classes, ethnicities and it was especially an alliance of the urban and rural areas leading to the overthrow of the Labour regime.

Song Analysis of ‘SANTÉ SANZMAN’, Rama Poonoosamy, song composer (Lyrics & Melody), 1982.

New Insights from Tsang Mang Kin

Joseph Tsang Mang Kin is a Mauritian poet, political analyst, philosopher and biographer. He was Secretary General of the Mauritius Labour Party, Member of the Parliament and Minister of Arts and Culture. In 2013, he was appointed member of the panel of Eminent Personalities of the African Peer Review Mechanism, African Union. In 2022, he published a booklet with the title ‘Les malheurs des 60-0’ (The woes of the 60-0, my translation). This publication brings new insights into contemporary local politics.

The author points out that Amendment N0.2/1982 made by the MMM-PSM Alliance Party as the root cause of all governance issues. He argues that this amendment destroyed the “entrenched clauses” and led to a concentration of powers in the hands of the Prime Minister. On 25th June 1982 Anerood Jugnauth, Prime Minister of the MMM-PSM government, bolstered by the 60-0 results, presented to the Legislative Assembly the amendment (N0.2/1982) to the Constitution of 1968. According to Tsang Mang Kin, the amendment targeted two Articles namely Article 47 which concerns the Alteration of the constitution and Article 113 which purports to appointment to certain offices.

Tsang Mang Kin states that amendment to Article 47 has always been presented by the MMM as the historical achievement of the MMM-PSM party to make it constitutionally impossible for any party in power to postpone General Elections. Yet Tsang Mang Kin observes no mention is made by the MMM of the alteration to Article 113. In fact, the author explains that Article 113 of 1968 aimed at protecting those holding constitutional posts as they were called to protect the constitutional rights and fundamental rights of Mauritians since independence. The amendments brought in 1982 removed immunity to the holders of these posts and deprived them of their privileges and make them subservient to the government of the day. Such posts are the Electoral Commissioner, Director of Public Prosecutions, Chief Justice, Senior Puisne Judge, Puisne Judge, Commissioner of Police or Director of Audit. Key informants to this paper explained to me that the MMM-PSM party had to face some administrative blockages from some top civil servants who were definitely in favour of the Labour Party. It is in this context that these amendments were made. Also, they argue that even when the Labour Party and other parties came to power later, no one tried to change this situation. They even reinforced the concentration of powers of political nomination by the government of the day.

 The Ratchet Effect

The ratchet is the mechanical part of a clock which holds the spring tight as the clock is wounded up. The term ‘ratchet effect’ is used in academia to describe a situation which cannot be reversed. Robert Higgs, American economic historian, has used this term in his publication Crisis and Leviathan (1996) to describe how government has difficulties of rolling back some institutions which were set up initially in period of emergencies for temporary needs but end up into big bureaucracies, resistant to reform or dismantling. They become an instrument of Leviathan (literally a very large aquatic creature like the whale) by those in positions of power (politicians or holders of important posts appointed by the regime) to state capture all. Are we not facing today in Mauritius a ratchet effect which has its roots in the 1982 legacy? Is this situation new or has it not been there but being amplified today? Who will take the cudgel to change such a situation?

 CONCLUSION

Whilst we often refer to post-independence period as the period after 1968, we might venture to say there is a post-1982 period which has since then extensively shaped current politics. This post-independence 1982 leaves us with some important unfinished tasks: nation building and good governance. A deeper analysis of this post-1982 can provide us some ‘clefs de lecture’ to steer our way out of a certain political quagmire prevailing in Mauritius nowadays.

Dr Jimmy Harmon

References

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene (revised ed.), pg. 192. Oxford: OUP, 1989.

Garhe Osiebe, Global mobility, election songs, place-making albums and tems, The Conversation, 25 Jan, 2023.

Lynch, Aaron. Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads through Society. New York: Basic Books, 1996.

Robert Riggs, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government, 1987.

Tsang Mang Kin, Les malheurs des 60-0 et le projet ‘Fair-Play’, Collection Radical, 2022.