Democracy and Political Governance Chapter 3 Language 106. 107. More than 65 per cent of its population of about 1.3 million are of Asian origin (Indian and Chinese). Mauritians speak Creole most often, followed by French and English. Most Mauritians therefore speak Creole, although it is not as developed, in terms of literature, as English and French are. The CSAR even points out that Mauritian Creole “is now considered the native tongue of the country and is spoken by the majority of Mauritians”. The government is now developing a policy about using Creole. 108. The medium of instruction in Mauritius is English. Officials use either English or French in offices. The languages used in Rodrigues are English, French and Creole. 109. The CRM learnt that government policy promotes the use of different languages. The government encourages using the languages of the environment (the languages, like Bhojpuri or Creole, which people in a given area or location understand) as facilitative and support languages. Schools in the country teach about 15 languages. Consequently, students are taught in oriental languages (according to their preferences or cultural/religious backgrounds) from the primary level. They choose from Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, and others. Teachers at the lower primary level use Creole. A Mauritian sign language is being developed. In the meantime, news on TV is being ‘signed’ to help deaf citizens. 110. 86 The CSAR does not address language in its discussion of cultural interaction in Mauritius. It is, nevertheless, important and could cause conflict. The CRM discovered the following about the language and related issues. Laws are published by the government in English, although the civil code is in French. While the government is silent on official languages, section 49 of the country’s constitution states that the “official language of the Assembly shall be in English but any member may address the chair in French”. Section 33(d) states that one of the four qualifications for membership of the National Assembly is that one “is able to speak and, unless incapacitated by blindness or other physical cause, to read the English language with a degree of proficiency sufficient to enable him to take an active part in the proceedings of the Assembly”. Chapter 3 111. Democracy and Political Governance The CRM concluded that English is the de facto official language of the country although it is not the official or de jure language of the country. Interstate conflicts 112. The CSAR is largely silent on interstate conflicts. The heading and contents of objective 1, which is to “reduce intrastate and interstate conflicts”, reflects this silence. Only the introduction covers interstate conflicts and, even then, gives them only three lines. The silence is surprising. The CSAR should have reviewed interstate conflicts as thoroughly as it reviews the intrastate ones. 113. Conflict can have happened in the past, be actual (active) or latent (potential). Mauritius might not have had conflict with other states in the past. She might not be experiencing any conflict now. Indeed, there might be little chance of conflict arising. However, the potential is always there and Mauritius needs to identify and analyse it in the context of national security. There tends to be interaction between internal and external forces. International tensions, however minimal or latent, could explode into external conflict at a time and in a manner that were not imagined in the past. The political stability that Mauritius enjoyed for a long time, even decades before, does not always guarantee future stability. This report says more about this issue in objective 2. iii. Recommendations 114. The APR Panel recommends that: • • • • The government considers abolishing the ‘general population’ category so that Mauritians can state freely which ethnic group they belong to. [Government] The government expands its free education policy by giving lunch to all children below 16, giving school materials to primary school children and extending tutoring to all children. [Government] The MECHR develops and coordinates effective civic education programmes to establish national identity. [Government] The government urgently considers amending the country’s constitution so that it clarifies the ambiguities about the official languages of the country and indicates where they must be used – in Parliament, in courts of law and in official correspondence. [Government] 87