Mauritius
Mauritius also known as the Republic de
Maurice is an Indian Ocean island nation.
Its largest city which also happens to be its capital is the Port Louis
and its location is on Mauritius Main Island. Notably, the main island is
located at almost 1,200 mi that is 2,000 kilometers from the southern coast of
the continent Africa (Seetah, et
al., 2017). The islands of St Brandon, Rodrigues and Agalega are also
part of the island. The surroundings of the island are white sandy beaches and
the world’s third biggest coral reef that is protecting the lagoons against the
open sea. Most of the islands that are uninhabited lying off the coast of
Mauritius are used as a reserve for species that are endangered. The Mauritius
Island formed as a result of volcanic activities that took place over 8 million
years ago. The country is now surrounded by mountain ranges that form a broken
ring. Through the varied fauna and flora, and the many endemic species to the
island Mauritius is well known too.
The island of Mauritius was discovered
by the Arabs and the Europeans later followed in the early 16th
century as per its appearance on the maps. It was colonized by the, Dutch whose
colonization began in 1638 ending in 1710 with some little interruptions in the
years 1658 and 1666 (Allen &
Allen1999). Notably, after the many appointments of different governors,
the cyclones that led to hardships, pest infestations drought leading to the
lack of food and illnesses, the Dutch surrendered and abandoned the island in
1710. The French invaded the island in the year 1715 led by Guilaume Dufresne
on his way to India. The French rule ended in 1810 after a successful attack by
the British took place capturing the island (Meade,2012). The British rule over the island before
it gained its independence in 1968. However even after independence, it
remained under the British Monarchy until March 12th of 1992 where
it became a republic on its own.
The British colonial rule led to a
number of changes in the political structure till date. Its model of government
is the British west minister. The islands economy is based on agriculture that
is a low income to an upper middle-income economy that concentrates on tourism,
sugar, textiles and financial services (Durbarry, 2004). Majority of the Mauritian population are of the
Hindu religion, followed closely by Christianity. There is freedom of religion
as per its constitutional rights. The Mauritanian people’s culture is witnessed
through the various festivities that are religious celebrated throughout the
year and some marked as public holidays. There is free education from
pre-primary to tertiary level provided by the government. There is no known
official Language of the island. However, the official language in the national
assembly is English and it is also okay for the members of parliament to
address the chair in the French language. Notably the island is multilingual
with a majority of people speaking in fluent English and French.
The last general elections in Mauritius,
were held on 10 December 2014 with the Alliance Lepep coalition emerging
victorious. The PTR-MMM under the leadership of Navin Ramgoolam seceded power,
he did this after the people rejected the proposals, he made about boosting the
presidential powers. Barlen Vyapoory is
the current acting president of Mauritius with Pravind Jugnauth as the prime
minister. There is currently no vice president. The president is the head of
the state while the prime minister is the head of the government. The country’s
National assembly was known as the legislative assembly up until 1992 when it
became a republic. Notably, the next general election is set to take place
December 2019.
The country’s politics changed over the
last twenty years from a monarchial system to a democratic one with elections being
held after every five years. Notably the country has 20 constituencies
returning three members each. However, the island of Rodrigues is a
constituency on its own returning two members. The system where the electoral
Supervisory commission nominates up to about eight additional members with an
aim of correcting any representation of ethnic minority’s imbalance is known as
the best loser system. The party alliance that emerges the winner with many
seats in parliament is the one that forms the government(Allen & Allen1999). Their
leader is appointed the prime minister who will choose the cabinet from the
members elected. However, he does that with the exception of the attorney
General who is not necessarily supposed to be an elected member of the assembly.
The political alliance with the second largest majority of members becomes the
official opposition and it is the president who nominates their leader.
The Mauritius media has been limited due
to its small size in population. However, there are quite a number of the major
outlets of media that included radio, television stations and the print
newspapers. The Mauritius constitution has allowed freedom of speech but allows
ban of the newspaper for sedition by a court. The Mauritius Broadcasting
Corporation is the country’s national public radio and TV broadcaster. It
broadcasts it programs in English, French, Hindi, Chinese and Creole(Seetah, et al., 2017). Evidently,
there are only nine FM radio stations and two on the Am band. There is a bilateral relationship between
Mauritius and the United States. The relations are basically about trade.
The US is deemed as Mauritius third
largest market. the main imports of the island from the US includes machines
for automatic data processing, apparatus for radio/TV transmission, machinery
and equipment for construction and agriculture, books and industrial chemicals.
Mauritius on the other hand exports sugar, live animals, cut flowers and
apparel to the US. There are more than 200 companies of the states represented
in the islands of Mauritius. Notably, the US also funds a military program of
assistance while its embassy manages the nongovernmental organizations for
community groups’ fund.
References
Durbarry, R. (2004). Tourism and economic
growth: the case of Mauritius. Tourism
Economics, 10(4),
389-401.
Meade, J. E.
(2012). The economic and social
structure of Mauritius. Routledge.
Allen, R. B., &
Allen, R. B. (1999). Slaves,
freedmen and indentured laborers in colonial Mauritius (Vol. 99).
Cambridge University Press.
Seetah,
K., Birch, T., Calaon, D., & Čaval, S. (2017). Colonial iron in context:
the Trianon slave shackle from Mauritius. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 9(3), 419-430
