|
The crisis in the Maltese political system is that the two parties have hijacked the electoral system so that no third party can invade their domain
There is a crisis: believe it or not we are in a big crisis where leaders have no party and parties have no leaders. It is a shame that both Dr Gonzi and Dr Sant have fallen into the trappings of power and they tend to concentrate more on conserving their position within the party than on conserving the party.
Where it not so, what other explanation can there be? They are more focused on keeping the people around them happy and they tend to ignore what the people outside their inner circle are telling them. The extension of the development zone to one million square metres was uncalled for. Nobody bought the idea that Dr Gonzi tried to sell that this was for a social purpose and we have now come to a stage where our politicians have become so full of themselves that they shun anybody who does not agree with them. The mistake is that they treat any person who disagrees as their enemy and their weapon is to either embark on a witch-hunt on the past, present and future of these people so as to silence them or to try to win their support. Regardless of what the Prime Minister may think, the extension of the development zones will cost him and Malta dearly.
At times Dr Gonzi gives me the impression that he does not want to be re-elected because how can we otherwise justify his recent auto-goals. First the extension of the development zones notwithstanding the opposition from the environmentalists. Now we have the case of Richard Muscat which reminds me of the old days when the accused becomes the prosecutor and the prosecutor becomes the accused after the motion passed by the Nationalist members in the Public Accounts Committee to check the Auditor General. Dr Gonzi’s clan did their utmost to justify Richard Muscat, hardly considering the political harm they are doing to their party in conveying the message to the floating voters that there is no harm in breaking the rules, and that if you are one of us we will make sure that you get away with murder.
Not only that, but the Public Accounts Committee is a waste of public money and time because the government of Dr Gonzi has blatantly shown us that his circle of friends are untouchable. I sincerely do not know what the members of the Opposition are doing there and after the arrogance of Minister Gatt as seen on television, and his delaying tactics, the Opposition ought to question seriously as to whether it is time to hold a press conference and resign from this farcical set up.
If Dr Sant really means business, he should not hide behind the pretext that the government ought to take criminal action against Richard Muscat – the law gives him the right to do it himself and I am sure that his legal consultants can tell him that. Now that he said that Richard Muscat ought to be prosecuted, he must file a complaint with the Commissioner of Police to take criminal action and if the Commissioner fails to do that, the law gives him the right to take further action by means of what is known in the legal circle as ‘challenge’.
There is no doubt that from what we have heard and read about Richard Muscat’s administration of public money, we have learnt that public officials have to be in the ministers’ good books to make it up the ladder and those who do their duty without fear or favour have no place in the civil service. It was so irresponsible of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ask the Public Accounts Committee when the Ambassador Richard Muscat could fly back to Ireland.
Rather than ask that question, the Permanent Secretary ought to have reassured the Public Accounts Committee that Richard Muscat has learnt how to handle public funds and the public funds that he is being entrusted with in Ireland, are being handled well. And so is his colleague, the Ambassador Gaetan Naudi. It is the responsibility of the Public Accounts Committee to ensure the public that these people who continued to be trusted with the taxpayers’ money are in fact spending them according to the financial regulations. I am sure that the Irish President will be briefed about what the Maltese ambassador to Ireland, Richard Muscat, is going through in Malta and when she visits us in October, it will not be appropriate for Malta to allow Muscat to continue to represent us in Ireland!
If the general elections are a stone’s throw away, the least that Dr Gonzi can do is to listen: not to his ministers anymore but to the people. Trivial things like the Maltasong board: how is it possible for anybody who is running a business to allow the same people who made a mess of his business to carry on running the business? After the disaster in the organisation and results in Athens, Gonzi confirms the same people on the board.
We have a disaster in tourism, and Gonzi confirms Zammit Dimech as the Minister of Tourism. He knows we have environmental problems, that tourists need not choose Malta to see houses and apartments and yet, he still proposes new areas for development. Nowadays, we take people who come and visit us to the Three Cities, Valletta and the Temples and no longer to Sliema, St Julians or Bugibba and unfortunately the number of places where we can take the tourists is shrinking year after year. Not only is tourism shrinking in the number of tourists but also in the number of tourist attractions. Zammit Dimech knows that this Ministry may cost him his seat in Parliament in the next elections if he does not do something quick to save the 40,000 people whose livelihood depend on this industry.
There is something wrong somewhere and the man in the street remains baffled and open-mouthed at how people who have disgraced their party continue to be blessed by their party and have their appointments re-confirmed. Both leaders seem to have this feeling of insecurity around them dominating them so much that they tend to spend most of their energies in making sure that they are in control.
Because let us face it: what is the party nowadays? The party is those people who are in the leader’s circle and those outside the circle are out. Keeping the circle happy is what the political leaders care about, even at the political party’s expense. The leaders may be leading the circle but they are not leading the party. Both of them know that they have capable elements but are afraid to use them for fear that they will take the carpet off their feet. They both seem to think that only the diehards make the party and little do they concentrate on the floating voters and at the same time forgetting that the general elections in Malta are always determined by the floating voters.
This is the crisis that Maltese politics is facing nowadays. The two main political parties have hijacked the electoral system so that no third party can invade their domain and any tentative made by us to break this monopoly is suffocated by means of threats, insults, and criminal persecution.
And as Sinatra happily sang, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere!
|
