This year’s Silly Season is to be dominated by Marco Gaffarena’s friendship with Beppe Fenech Adami and Simon Busuttil’s libel cases. Dr Busuttil has asked for his five libel cases against the GWU and the Labour media to be heard urgently. I do not know whether the Maltese public will appreciate such a political stance or not.

I am sure that Dr Busuttil thinks that these libel cases are important for the truth to come out. According to him, he, the Leader of Opposition, is being accused of bribery and blackmail. Yet, I am not so sure just how much the Maltese people would appreciate these antics. First, there is a segment of the population whose faith in our courts has been totally destroyed. Secondly, Busuttil’s request for his cases to be heard with urgency causes more harm than good. No doubt most of those who have court cases consider that their case is just as urgent and there are many cases bl-urgenza still to be heard and/or appointed in our Qrati. The question is what makes Dr Simon Busuttil’s libel cases so special that he should be given preferential treatment before John the citizen?

Yet, the concerns and preoccupations of the Maltese during these hot summer days are far removed from legal quibbles. The power cuts and transport problems are more important but, ironically, the Opposition is putting less emphasis on these problems, with the result that it is portraying an image of being detached from the needs and priorities of the people.

Parking frustration was and is still with us. Despairing drivers cannot find parking space and yet Transport Malta is restricting parking spaces indiscriminately all the more without using any common sense.

Entrance into Valletta alone is not just a nightmare but has become down-right dangerous because of the lack of basic safety awareness of drivers, both young and old. We need to get our traffic police back on the roads and not use them just to accompany VIP limousines when in circulation.  Wardens, at best, are only good at shooting off parking tickets and guarding heavy vehicles parked near building sites but more importantly they lower the figures of unemployment statistics.  A classic example is carsand delivery trucks parked by Custom House, often double on both sides at the narrow entrance to the tunnel under Lascaris despite yellow lines and signs. Pedestrians too are quite careless when crossing the pedestrian crossing and very often even ignore it and appear from nowhere or run out from behind parked vehicles.

Whether it is unmanaged heavy traffic at key junctions, ill-equipped wardens and an inept Malta Transport that is making Maltese drivers more arrogant and undisciplined,the fact remains that we are happiest when defying law and order. Hence a comeback of good old-fashioned traffic police officers is now imperative. We need to re-instill discipline and civic conscience in our people even if this means increasing the workload of the courts.

And what about our Public Transport? We heard much about Arriva. Now a new Foreign Service provider has arrived. Fares have increased threefold and no protests are to be heard. The service is shoddy; shoddier than when the old ones were in service. Onmany routes, air conditioning is switched off,does not function at all oris set at sub zero temperature to give a heart attack to anyone alighting in the roadin this high heat. Operating a bus with temperatures running up to 40 degrees Celsius seems normal these days. Yet, this situation was not acceptable during the days of the PN Government. Under Labour, the expected gauge by which to judge standards appears to have changed. But what is truly tragic is that we seem to be incapable of running our own basic bus company. If we cannot manage our own bus company - or perhaps prefer not to for political reasons- just how capable arewe of running ourcountry?

The same holds for Electricity Supply. Power cuts are becoming once again the norm in Malta. It is true that we had power cuts during the PN Government but they were not as frequent. Moreover, this Government promised improved service regarding electricity. The truth is that the current electricity situation is totally the opposite of what Muscat promised before the last election.

I still remember that when we had power cuts during the previous administration, residents of the south-east used to go out of their homes, and complain with loud voices blaming Government’s incompetence. On Sunday 2 August, there wasan electricity cut in Marsaxlokk, at peak time, when the village was organizing its festa. Worse still the power cut occurred, in the afternoon, when the heat was unbearable. This time, nobody went out on the street to complain and make a scene.

Another cut took place during the feast of San Gejtanu in Ħamrun. The situation took a different turn. The power cut occurred when the San Gejtanu Band Club, – known in Ħamrun as tat-Tamal - was holding its Friday evening feast march. All those conversant with village festas know that this Band Club is pro-Labour. Ħamrunhas two band clubs, (the other being the pro-Nationalist one)and the Friday parade alternates between these two band clubs. Now, the Tamlin will have to wait two years until it is their turn to perform again. Normally, in pro-Labour circles it is expected that there should be no criticism of Labour when at the helm. But as the Latins used to say, temporamutantur, nosetmutamur in illis or the times change and we change with them. I fully support the calls that are being made in social media, mostly by the Tamlin supporters,for Government or Enemaltatocompensate the club and the owners of establishments at Ħamrun who suffered financial losses after the power cut last Friday.

 

I don’t think that the Government cannow lay the blame for the Friday power cut on the inter-connector with Sicily.The power-cuts are too frequent. The truth is that this Government has no road map for either our electricity or traffic systems.  Unfortunately, the Opposition Party instead of harping where it should, in other words in those areasthat are of great concern to the citizen,it is wasting time on court cases andrequests to be heard bl-urgenza. I will be expressing the sentiment of the nation if I state that the Maltese want our power cuts and the transport mess to be solved bl-urgenza.