Navinchandra Ramgoolam (born July 13, 1947) is
the current Prime Minister of the Republic of
Mauritius. He first held this office from 1995
to 2000, and was reappointed on 5 July 2005,
after his Alliance Sociale (a coalition
including his own Labour Party, the Mauritian
Party of Xavier-Luc Duval, and several smaller
groups) defeated the MMM-MSM coalition of the
then-Prime Minister Paul Bérenger in the general
elections held on 3 July.
He is the son of Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, the
'father' of the nation. He trained as a doctor
in Dublin, Ireland and achieved full
registration with the General Medical Council of
the United Kingdom in 1977. He later converted
into Law by achieving a Master of Laws
qualification at the London School of Economics
before starting a political career, but he never
practised as a lawyer.
As a contemporary politician, he is perceived to
be cunning, but slow in taking decisions. His
first prime ministership (1995-2000) was plagued
by inertia, waste and 'having a good time at the
expense of the taxpayer', such as the infamous
'Macarena story' in the popular press. During
his tenure, fraud, corruption, crime rates and
social unrest went up and culminated in riots in
1999. Hence his government was ousted in 2000 by
a coalition led by two experienced politicians,
Sir Aneerood Jugnauth and Paul Berenger.
Between 2000 and 2005, Navin Ramgoolam was
leader of the Opposition and learnt from his
mistakes. Thus in 2005, he won the elections
with a populist agenda and many short term
electoral promises to the population and with a
slick communication strategy. In particular he
specified deadlines for achieving his short-term
populist measures, which might have seduced the
population. In contrast the other side did not
communicate their successes effectively and were
beaten by the a multi-party alliance led by
Navin Ramgoolam.







