Recent happenings involving members of government are really putting the taghna lkoll slogan in serious jeopardy.

These antics remind us more of people in power in some obscure puppet republic than a country that is a Member of the European Union. These actions are not acceptable, especially after the mudslinging on members of the previous administration, in a wellorchestrated exercise to discredit them and put their integrity in doubt.

We all remember the painstakingly well-prepared campaigns that were part and parcel of the Labour strategy let by the then Opposition Leader in a ruthless effort to gain power. It worked well at that time, so well that Labour won with a landslide majority, but just like in Orwell's Animal Farm, the members of the new government found the previous masters' shoes very comfortable, with the only difference that the new lot is nowhere as competent as the previous administration.

We are being spoon-fed lies to cover up lies on a daily basis to the point that this has become one whole farce. We have arrived at a point when one really starts to wonder and think whether this is a government that is panicking or whether they all know too well what they are doing and don't give a damn about the consequences. It is very clear that the number one item on their agenda is to safeguard their own interest and amass as much as possible in the shortest time possible. What is really worrying is that they laugh off the criticism and blame the Opposition for being negative and for obstructing the government's work.

The excuses they come up with are nothing more than an insult to the peoples' intelligence but they don't care because their nine seat majority gives them a sense of comfort and a buffer zone between the chosen few and us mere mortals. While never excusable, their actions would have probably been overlooked had we been in a situation where the citizens were living in an ideal world, but being the country with the highest fuel cost and the lowest energy reliability barely gives cause for comfort.

Without wanting to sound too negative, it is undeniable that the country has lost its positive momentum, the feel good factor that Nationalist Governments had generated throughout the years is slowly but surely fading away, optimism is dissipating from our midst and we are reverting to living day by day, unsure of what this government will come up with the next day. The road map that our Prime Minister flaunted so much is too transparent to see. So much so that one now doubts if it ever existed. We don't know where we are heading and where the road is leading us; more worrying is the fact that the government does not know either. The hype created before the 2013 elections gave an impression that under labour, we would have our streets paved with gold. A year and a half on we are lost in a dead-end alley.

The lack of vision, of competence and of a clear goal is costing this country. Our credibility is suffering and unfortunately, our credit too. Rash decisions are costing us millions and ultimately, it is the taxpayer, i.e. you and I that get the worse deal. One by one , all the government's bubbles are bursting, all the promises are turning out to be the result of wishful thinking and an overfertile imagination.

This is not why the people chose Labour. The electorate opted for change, maybe because excessive bureaucracy was hindering growth, and yes, there were issues that the Nationalist government had hurt people with. In the electorate's eyes, Labour gave them an alternative but the alternative is rapidly turning into a nightmare, where instead of bureaucracy we now have policies that can be twisted at a whim to accommodate certain individuals.

Sadly we are going back to a time where secret deals were the order of the day, to the days when the government chose what to divulge and what to hide, to the era were journalists are berated for speaking their minds and exposing flaws in the running of the country. So much for the glory of the transparency war cry that Labour sang in the run up to the elections.

Malta deserves better, much better than this. People have already started looking back fondly at the times of Nationalist governments where albeit with a pep too much bureaucracy every citizen had his mind at rest that he got what he deserved if it was his right. The PN government was far from perfect but it offered a sense of security and more importantly had vision to take the country to higher grounds for the benefit of everyone.

These years in Opposition will certainly do the PN well as it will grow stronger and help it learn from past mistakes. It will also do our people well and help them realise how important it is not to make the same mistake twice.