Arshaad

Arshaad · Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:04 am The Aston of a leader

The Aston of a Leader...

First off, it is very unusual for a PM of all people to actually share his expenditure details with the public. However, he had no qualms letting out that the car actually cost 7 million rupees, of which little under a million went to public funds. Now, if we just paid a little attention to the facts here, one would quickly realise that:

1. Navin Ramgoolam is a rich man. And his father before him. Yet, he didn't splash out 7 million rupees on a new car. Instead he chose to sell off his visibly more expensive Mercedes CL-600 to fund his new purchase. Anyone who's a sports car fanatic can fully empathise here, but that's beside the point. The PM actually sold off a more expensive car to buy himself a cheaper one (not cheap, but cheaper). List prices are not indicative here, just in case some dimwit starts producing dealership sale prices. Anyhow, to me, by his standards, that is actually "serre ceinture". Whether that "ceinture" is encrusted with diamonds matters little. That's a metaphor by the way. Just covering the bases here.

2. An Aston Martin isn't a Toyota or a Nissan or a Hyundai or a Renault for that matter. You just don't walk into a dealership and order one and expect it to be ready in a matter of weeks. It has to be ordered and personalised several months (if you're lucky), even years in advance. Navin Ramgoolam ordered his MORE than a year ago - which would put us around the time of the elections. And obviously the decision to purchase was made even longer ago. Well BEFORE the first line of the last budget had been drafted. Again, this isn't exactly relevant here seeing how he committed no extravagance. But for the thick heads of this world, news columnists included, re-read Point 1.

3. People have just got to stop comparing themselves to a PM. He's given more than enough examples of the willingness of his government to curb spending. The cars of the members of his Cabinet were not renewed recently. And if you're still on about the Aston Martin, get over it. It was a plain and simple swap. Surely I'm repeating myself here, but people just do NOT seem to get it :)

The irony in this whole farce is that the Rawat brothers also purchased the very same model of car, and yet no one had a lot to say about that, except gape in awe and envy. Perhaps then that's because had "le peuple admirable" really curbed their own expenditure and not splashed out on new Nokia phones (to name but one of the business ventures of the Rawat family) every year, then maybe, just maybe, some tycoons would have thought twice about splashing out close to 10 millions on a single car. And that was an outright buy too. Not a mere trade-off. Admittedly, it's a twisted way of formulating an argument, but certainly no more flawed than the one used by most to target Navin Ramgoolam.

I wish Mauritians would open up their minds and see the broader picture here. Besides. with all this nonsensical publicity, I doubt he'll ever be able to enjoy his car. Not unless he loses the elections and retires from politics. So either way, he's losing out here. But hey, even when he's long gone, some mouths probably won't stop.

Aniisah · Tue Nov 14, 2006 10:25 pm

Yeah i do believe that our Prime minister will not be enjoying his new car as he should be...lol....he can play around with it in his backyard...;-)

And i think that it is quite difficult for mauritians to really open their minds...i mean for the youth population, that is fine. They try think outside the box, as we say... But for the old ones... and to say the educated ones too ( i mean it generally here ), that is a different story...huh! but well, we should keep on trying...:P

mikC · Tue Nov 21, 2006 7:48 pm

One thing for sure is that it was a wise political move from our PM, in acquiring the latest Aston Martin. Causing the oppositoin parties to 'walk out', only to have a glimpse of the bond car. Ramgoolam, Navin Ramgoolam :)

ud · Tue Nov 21, 2006 10:24 pm

He might have got it off auctions from the producers of the bond movie coz they were shooting the movie and had like 5 aston martins crashing for a single sequence....I guess that's where he went after the conference with the mauritian lads here in da uk where he begged "please return to mauritius"