Mauritius — an Indian Ocean island-nation of 1.3 million — has had a real problem lately finding someone willing to stay on as its figurehead president.
Mauritius is a parliamentary democracy that, like a number of such political systems, has a president whose job is largely ceremonial. The president of Mauritius has only two options when legislation reaches is desk — either sign the bill that Parliament has passed or resign from office.
The problem Mauritius is having is that two successive presidents chose to leave office in a space of three days rather than sign an anti-terrorism bill they believe took away too many of the rights of criminal suspects. Among other things, the proposed law extend the length of time that police can hold suspects without formally charging them.
Former Mauritius president Cassam Uteem resigned a few days ago rather than sign the bill. That elevated vice-president Angidi Chettiar to president, but Chettiar also resigned rather than sign the bill into law.
The line of presidential succession then fell on Supreme Court Chief Justice Arianga Pillay — who became the third president of Mauritius in five days (you have to wonder if these people were following New Jersey’s governor soap opera) — who promptly signed the bill.
Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth, who supported the bill, offered up a delicious Orwellian statement,
People have nothing to fear from the prevention of terrorism [act] which will only be applied against real terrorists.
But the Catch-22 is that the law also denies legal representation to suspected terrorists. So if the state accuses someone of being a terrorist, they have no legal recourse to challenge that classification! Prosecutors the world over would love that sort of authority.
Source:
President resigns over terror bill. The BBC, February 18, 2002.
Terror law ‘signed’ in Mauritius. The BBC, February 19, 2002.