How strange. It’s been a very long time since the government, the bulk of the independent press and the majority of the constituted bodies last harped upon the much-promised “new spring” that should have already brought about eternal bliss to this fair land. Most of them had posed for that famous photo at Castille, all four square behind the former Prime Minister, the harbingers of the “new spring”, grinning seductively in a coordinated attempt to reinforce the perception in the minds of us mortals that there can be no alternative to a Nationalist-led government.

Well, that turned out to be the greatest con ever practised by a government and its acolytes in civil society on an entire nation. It’s been hell for four long years. And these same people who have been accomplices in fooling and duping electors in the past have, make no mistake, been reinstalled in the same crippling network of deceit, scribbling, in other sections of the print media, the most ridiculous and incredible pro-government editorials while managing a system of gatekeeping well-planned Labour-speared initiatives away from the headlines.

But people have now got used to these antics. It is not what they are told to feel by government-leaning propagandists that matters any more. It is what people really feel and see that will determine the mood of the electorate at the next general elections. Anyway, some unfortunate facts happening nowadays are rekindling memories of promises made in the not-so-distant past that have now been exposed to the public’s perception as akin to electoral fraud.

It is, for instance, pointless trying to convince Air Malta employees, who are having their salaries frozen for the second consecutive year, that they would be far better off with this same old government that had promised that their conditions at work would improve. It would also be a sheer waste of time to try to persuade former Denim factory employees to vote for the Nationalist Party again when they lost their job shortly after the former Prime Minister, you will remember, gave them a personalised letter telling them their job was secure. It would also be futile to try to convince those 700 ex-VF and Bortex employees, who have just been unceremoniously shown the way out of their factories forever, that Labour is no real alternative to a Nationalist government that had promised them “a new spring” for their tenure in occupation.

This government has become a sick joke because it has ended up being a victim of its own flawed promises. It cannot deliver not only because it has lied in the past, but also because it has now been caught out lying. Investments Minister Austin Gatt was nowhere in 2003 to counter his own government’s promised “new spring” with his self-proclaimed belief, today, that there is no future for the textile industry in Malta. He should have rebuked Margaret Mercieca, a former VF employee, and told her to stand down from the Granaries when she triumphantly announced to her former colleagues in the textile industries that “I am in favour of Nationalist Party policies because they bring more investment, more work, more credibility and more stability.”

She rushed out of VF when the first wave of dismissals hit the factory barely months after the last general elections but was salvaged by the Nationalist Party itself which landed her a quick, cushy job at headquarters. From there she can explain to her former colleagues – who have just been hit by the second and final tsunami of redundancies – that Nationalist Party policies have brought more investment, more work, more credibility and more stability for her and her own family. For the rest of her colleagues she has the same words of solidarity as those of Austin Gatt’s, while they toil with the thought that they have bank loans and bills to pay thanks to Nationalist Party policies!

The cat is now out of the bag. The government has pushed the button on its electoral campaign with glossy propaganda and solemn vows about better things to come, an economy that is kickstarting, the hype about Mater Dei, new roads and a long list of other “new springs”. We’ve been here before but we won’t be duped again. People are just waiting with bated breath for Lawrence Gonzi to blow the whistle. The earlier he does the better.

Dr Gavin Gulia is the opposition’s main spokesman on home affairs