We have been through very special weeks which will be forever embedded in my psyche, weeks shared with friends and a couple of colleagues. Never, have I followed an election campaign so closely.

In the same corridor as my office, at the University of Mauritius, I had four MPs and two of them crossed the floor a couple of times. Holding the post of lecturer did not preclude them from contesting elections, both local and national, and so they did. It did not prevent them either from holding meetings on the premises and receiving constituents who sat outside their office waiting, usually for some favour. These lecturers were shameless and no one stopped them. Omertà is not only to be found in the Mediterranean. A quite common question, in the staff coffee room was: ‘To which party do you belong today Raj?’. Crossing the floor was not even headline news, because it was such a common occurance. A former colleague who now lives in England emailed the other day and informed me that one of these lecturers is now minister of education. He wore his hair long and his shoes had substantial heels and was anything but impressive at faculty board. He usually spoke utter twaddle and hadn’t a clue what the agenda was. But there you are. If you are ambitious enough, you will go to places and to hell with the education system and the victims thereof.

The one who wears those braces had the bad taste to call me, one lunchtime. Someone must have given this odious git my direct number so he took me by surprise. He told me that he had a celebratory dinner that evening and was running out of champagne and would I have a couple of spare bottles or was I drowning my sorrows in it? He then hung up and did not give me the chance to reply. If he had, I would have told him that I had no bottles to spare as I had drunk my champagne, and I’ll tell you why.

I cried my eyes out when I saw that Labour had been defeated and when I watched my old friend Alfred Sant resign with great dignity. He had led an excellent campaign.

A ‘foreign’ friend e-mailed me, a person who has had a formidable life as an international journalist: ‘Could you tell him from just one of his admirers that he is even bigger in resignation than in his many roles; that he redirected the country and steered it gently, holding back much violent passions at the expense to himself…Another unbelievable fact of life is that Dr Sant did not alter his stand or character and become a chameleon in all these years. In other words through all this he remained himself unbent by pressure, steadily standing by his principles. In politics one often does not have principles, I wish him and his dear ones all the very, very best, he is a colossus”. Those obsessed with wigs and who have been stalking him for years may laugh but there are many more who cried when Sant resigned, although they had never met him.

Those of us who have known him for near a lifetime know all this and continue to admire him. He will do fruitful things in his quieter years.

This was a campaign which indulged in a great deal of deceit and spin. Dr Sant said it at one point in a debate on television: just because we are in the middle of a political campaign does it mean that we forget about our values and our morality? There are those who knew that he was right.

He stood steadfast through all the barrage of ill manners and insults dished out by people like Georg Sapiano, who in the end only got 58 votes. Dr Sant survived the rubbish and meanness on the blogs and in several columns from those who had much to lose if Labour had won the election. They forgot their breeding which they continually talk about and their ballet lessons, and stopped at nothing. They must find it hell to live with themselves. I know that I would if I wrote some of the terrible things which appear in those blogs.

Then there was Dr Sant’s threat to some to have ‘zero corruption’ on Labour’s agenda. There are many who must have trembled at the very thought of that and a whistleblower’s act to boot. I would certainly not go as far as saying that we are a corrupt nation. We all know so many people who will not be bought at any price and such a sweeping statement would be very unfair to them. But money is the great god in this country. It has become a disease and Sant simply doesn’t find money very sexy, like so many of us, especially if it is ill-gotten and the price of the money we earn is being paid for by others. These ideas must have cost Labour quite a few votes.

So, yes, I had no champagne to spare for the loo man. I drank it to two honorable men, to Alfred Sant and to Harry Vassallo and sipped it with great pleasure.

I received so many messages to say: ‘The Nationalists have a dishonest win, and they know it. We had an honourable loss. We know, only too well, that what is legal is not necessarily morally correct.’

Another reader told me: ‘People who had been abroad for years were brought out. As the saying goes: ‘No taxation without representation’. Taxation should not be paid by those not present in a country. But instead here they were bringing people out on cheap flights who have lived abroad for years and so we are getting ‘representation without taxation.’

Several fundraisers called to say that they will stop their fundraising. Why didn’t NGOs question Tonio Fenech when he was giving away sums of money to football clubs and other causes which are not as deserving as others? “After this I am giving up fundraising, let Mr Fenech take care of these NGOs. Why should I?”

Another sent me statistics: ‘Look Labour got 141,888; AD, 3810 and AN, 1461 which gives you a total of 147,159. The Nationalists got 143, 468. So, there are more people who want them out than in, inspite of everything. Those figures speak for themselves. But that’s democracy for you.’

But this weekend I am going to open my last bottle of bubbly and drink it to honorable men once more: Here’s to Alfred and Harry. And, thank you all those who contacted me and told me that we should hold a demonstration if PBS are going the same way as before, and we should also refuse to pay up their yearly subscription since we cannot say that it is a national station anymore.

I tell them: Please don’t start the revolution without me. I’ll be right there by your side protesting because enough is enough and certain things need to be sorted out once and for all.