During the coming festive season many would be relieved from their daily activities, responsibilities and duties. People would be in the mood to party, engage in light conversation but well prepared with the odd politically motivated thwack. This coming festive season people have loads of issues to talk about. However, the recent events may force "switchers"to stay home to "save face". Those who publicly made politically motivated pledges to favour the PL in the last electoral campaign have quite a heavy burden to shoulder.
During the coming festive season some of the "switchers" may pick up a nail-biting habit to ease their frustration. Others may become fidgety and restless and pick on family members unnecessarily. Others may become couch-potatoes. Others would be doing a soul searching exercise to find a plausible excuse for dumping the previous administration. Though not much of an effort is required to find fault with the previous administration the current one has in a short-span of time managed to show a higher degree of incompetence. This is becoming wide-spread and a hurriedly earned characteristic of this administration.
The self-centred "switchers"may feel justified for shifting their political allegiance because of the wide range of the PL promises.The selected few may have pocketed anextra buck,others earned apolitical appointment, a senior post, a promotion or two,maybe obtained a building permit, a chairmanship post andGod knows what else. But most"switchers" even if they do not have the moral fibre to express privately or publicly in their heart of hearts they must be bewildered with the long string of incongruous actions by the current administration.
The festive season for the PN clan would be different and trust they would celebrate their achievements with fine wine. Though, this is not the end but the beginning of a long-winded road during the past monthsthe PN ably led by Dr Simon Busuttil managed to push the PL into tight corners. The cherry on the cake was the Gzira police officer shooting incident. This incident has uncovered the amateurish and weak Government leadership. The Prime Minister, after waiting unnecessarily for weeks, was forced to relieve Dr Manuel Mallia from his ministerial duties.
Dr Mallia, a former PN activist found, comfort in the PL folds. He was received with open arms and served with red carpet treatment. Shortly after, Dr Mallia, a successful criminal lawyer, was regarded as having the necessary qualities to lead and fulfil the duties of the Home Affairs Ministry. The Gzira shooting incident showed otherwise.
The PN exercised pressure and became effective. But unknowingly the PN has lost a partner perceived by many to be a liability on the Government side. Most of Dr Mallia's actions and remarks were not coming across well with the general public and was fast become an asset to the PN side. The axing of Dr Mallia from his ministerial duties might prove to be a blessing in disguise to the PL.
Successive governments were saddled with ministers perceived to be arrogant, disloyal and corrupt, acting beyond their terms of remit. In all legislatures the labelled ministers have contributed to a large extent to the downfall of their own party. Whether Dr Mallia was a liability to his party is not clear, however, the fact that the PM did not have the courage to axe Dr Mallia from his Cabinet says more than meets the eye.
Rightly so, the media including this publishing house, have been focusing almost exclusively on the Gzira shooting incident. Indeed the incident is serious and of great concern to all law abiding citizens and the media attention should not to be underestimated. But there are other important issues which must be looked into.
Issues which should be addressed with some urgency are the €320 million investment deal with the Chinese energy company Shanghai Electric Power. The agreement provides for Shanghai Electric to take 33% shareholding in Enemalta for which it will pay €100 million and the purchase of 90% shareholding in the BWSC plant for €150 million. This agreement is expected to give industry and consumers the best power generation prices. Since there are no free meals the PN should look for the small print in the signed agreement once tabled in the House.
Similarly the PN should take Government to task on precarious employment. It is clear that the promise made by the PL to thousands of workers engaged with service provides cannot be entertained. The short reference to precarious employment in the Budget Speech for 2015 and the ensuing qualifier will result that none of the workers engaged with service providers will receive a wage increase equal to other workers in the same grade in the public sector during 2015.
So much for road shows and road maps.
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