This government boasts of having a vision. It boasts of getting Malta into the EU. It’s the usual arrogant attitude I am used to by now. Just going to the counting hall during vote counting for elections I have experienced the hate and contempt PN activists hold for the rest of us. Their superiority complex is incredible.
Back to the EU issue – of course the PN was one of the main movers but in their extreme arrogance they forget that there were scores of others who worked hard towards this aim. The hours of work for free (while other PN activists were being paid due to their political appointments to government posts e.g. Simon Busuttil, or through consultancy fees paid out through public funds) put in by AD activists of course is never mentioned. Official photos were even doctored to remove some people from government publications. How low can they stoop? Stalin’s strategies pale to insignificance next to their tactics. Reminicent of the 80s all over again. With one difference, moral violence does not make the headlines like physical violence does. As regards mentality however there is not much difference between Lorry Sant and Lorry Gonzi and their entourage.
The amusing thing about all this is that the PN’s EU target was just economic and tied to a long term dream – that of affirming Malta’s ‘latinita’ (‘Ta’ Kattolici, ta’ Latini …). The thing is that this view is long past its sell date. Others, AD at the forefront, looks to the EU as a means of moving with the times, of high standards both social and environmental and of a social market economy – where people come before profit. The PN’s economic policy is anything but this – it is based only on real estate and dishing out public land for a pittance. Its mission is staying in government and so doing favours to a limited group of people (speculators mostly) who prop it up financially. Lawrence Gonzi is really a bad real estate salesman, not Prime Minister.
The way out of this mess lies squarely in the hands of the electorate. Unfortunately most still see politics as a way to move forward and land a ‘prestigious’ job. Recently in an interview on Maltatoday, Cyrus Engerer, a PN local councillor and activist who does not agree with the PN on very basic and core principles went as far as to say that for him it is either PL or PN because by supporting them he can go places. Some suggestions: landing a job or a consultancy with some minister, becoming an MP and being called ‘onorevoli’, being close to those who hold power. What else?
At least that is the way I interpreted his words. So much for principles and change. A further confirmation that there is no real difference between them and that power-at-all-costs is the overriding ‘principle’ which guides even the supposedly more ‘enlightened’ ones.
There is no alternative to democracy and unless more and more people engage in principled political action there is simply no way out. Most people will not admit it, but it is the suffocating dominance by the PN and PL which is keeping this country in the middle ages culturally, socially and politically, where it is not what you know but who you know that counts. At the end of the day it is up to people to free themselves and use the ballot box wisely. The real wasted vote is that one which perpetuates the current system of clientalism, mediocre debate and arrogance. Wasting your vote means chosing between nothing and nothing – believe me nothing bothers and angers those hangers-on and leeches more than seeing votes going into the green boxes at the counting hall… with each extra vote the more they despair. Neither the PL nor the PN surpassed the magic number of 50% + 1 votes last election. Let’s keep it that way!
… and remember ‘Vote Gonzi, Get Lorry’
Ralph Cassar 