Editorial – Rajen Valayden
By any honest measure, George Orwell was bloody right ! Indeed, we are engulfed in the quicksands of “doublethinking”. A word coined in 1949 by the British author in his book Nineteen Eighty four which describes the ability to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one’s mind at the same time accepting both of them as true. Far from the dystopian novel, our wounds do bleed for real. The new fad adopted by the government stands naked for all to see. While simultaneously pushing the rationale for reforms and practicing the exact opposite, tolerating arrangements that corrode trust, government is asking the public to accept two contradictory realities.
One of such arrangements pertains to the services of the Prime Minister’s mentor and friend, Sir Geoffrey Cox. Records reveal Cox had been paid roughly over MUR 21 million ( £317,465) in professional fees and MUR 4 million representing travel & accommodation expenses for the period July 2005 to December 2014. The Tory MP turned observer for Ramgoolam’s Labour Party during the November 2024 elections has been paid £87,203 by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for short assignment in 2025 and an average of £ 11 050 (MUR 702,995.70) per month by the Prime Minister’s Office for just 13 hours work . Between August 2025 and August 2026, Cox received twenty-three such payments, which amounts to roughly MUR 54,000 per hour and prompts us to wonder whether poverty in our country is a figment of our imagination. The very same country where rice, flour, gas have to be subsidised, pensioners ration medication, and families survive on wages that would not cover a single hour of Cox’s fees. Yet MPs of the government throwing their weight around during talk shows would brashly explain how this is money is well spent, all while the propaganda machinery would rush to rewrite truth as to shape public memory, enforcing obedience. Far from some sort of cognitive dissonance, the art of “Double-thinking” entails no mental distress nor shame by protagonists excelling in these opposing practices.
The fact that, debt ridden tax payers of Mauritius, are forking out millions to maintain the smile on the face of Cox who proudly claims to have voted against the interest of our country in the Chagos deal, is quite, bitter a pill to swallow. To make things worse, the hypnotic influence of Cox’s conservative fallacies over Ramgoolam, his recurring presence in the machinery of the state and looming shadow over the institutions meant to protect the public is a matter of great concern.
It is hushed that Cox has been entrusted with drafting of our National Crime Agency Bill, a legislation supposedly intended to render the fight against organised crime more efficient. Interestingly, Cox played no role in drafting the United Kingdom’s own National Crime Agency Act, which was driven by the Home Office under Theresa May, scrutinised by a committee of MPs. What knowledge does Cox possess that eluded the British Home Office and yet spotted by Navin Ramgoolam? Adding insult to injury, in a twist so brazen putting to shame Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, Cox heads the legal team defending Mamy Ravatomanga, the Malagasy billionaire held on charges of money laundering and criminal conspiracy.
The same Cox who advises the Prime Minister on crime policy is also leading the defence of a man the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) describes as its “toughest case ever.” He stands against the FCC in London while helping shape the institutional environment in which the FCC must operate at home. This is not merely a conflict of interest, but moral absurdity at its peak.
May be the verity that the word “ Tory” finds its roots in the Irish vocabulary, meaning “outlaw” has something to do with such pathological behaviour. Let’s neither follow the cheeky path of British media portraying Cox as the “First to a Second job”. But when a nation’s anti-crime architecture is drafted by the lawyer of an alleged criminal, simultaneously guiding both government and the accused, something is indeed rotten. With the stench creeping through the landscape where rules are rewritten at night and people fattened with lies, this offers the perfect background for an Orwellian masterpiece. Surely good old George would have further enriched the British lexicon with another word “Coxjob”.
