We have often remarked that grumbling about the Government is a national pastime in Malta.  Many cliques gather at their Sunday morning café to run through the week’s gossip and latest scandal, whilst others now, will choose the lido pool or weekend break to the sister island to speak their minds over a cold beer or glass of wine but still, the commentary is generally the same.

Women may be less inclined to spend their time on things that they cannot really do anything about, having already plenty of things to do that make a difference in their life.  But, when something affects them directly, and pretty much does these days, they wake up and let rip.

This last couple of years, however, something else is lurking beneath the usual banter and gripes.  It is more sinister, darker and certainly more menacing than anything experienced before.  A sense of discouragement, of fear and of anger too has started to accompany what used to be casual and relaxed conversations amongst friends, transforming into a frustration which will then be kept hidden creating untold pressure on health or mood, or vented in other ways more violent than the regular expletive.  Unfortunately, it seems to be building up towards a very stressful mood around the country.

The reason is that whilst in the past, people grumbled but knew they were ultimately doing well and had reasons to be optimistic and thankful, nowadays, they realise that basically there is very little silver lining and that what looks bad is indeed rather more than that.  Naturally, a quick comparison to what other people are suffering in other countries like Venezuela, Tunisia, and the Middle East, bring us back to a more rational view but the presentiment of danger is still present in the back of our mind.

This could be due to the threat on our freedom, due to political discrimination, on freedom of the press as amply having come under attack in recent months and on our moral values as with constant new proposals on gender, sexuality, contraception and even euthanasia.  Most people, although of open mind and good heart, have not had time to process all this strategy of distraction or deliberate attack, having already been told for several years, at least the last 5 leading up to the 2013 election that everything that GonziPN did was utterly wrong and corrupt and that a whole new era was dawning with Joseph Muscat.

Unfortunately for them, so many Labour pundits had invested so much in their criticism of the Nationalist administration, let us say from the Gonzi years of 2004 – 2013, that they never stopped to think of what achievement really is or of what simple tasks can mean and how to deliver on meaningful long-term government programmes.  They believed, because that is what they were being trained and conditioned to believe, that they had the key and the winning formula to a successful government, the likes of which our battered island had not seen or heard before.  That key was Joseph Muscat and his neo-liberal policies, the tight team of ex super one beneficiaries and hot newcomers to fill the benches and the billboards.  Behind that, was yet another band of special ones and it is only now that both labour supporters and even labour’s own cabinet and back bench are beginning to realise the power these protected ones hold and wield.

For the voters too, the realisation is slowly dawning, that all the hype was fake and unjustified.  What had actually transpired in the GonziPN administrations was the very foundation of what we are benefiting from today economically, socially, personally and in individual households.   The new generations of youth that qualified in various trades or University degrees, tourism growth that surpassed previous years by huge numbers, investments in our tourism product, industry and manufacturing, the financial services and IT infrastructure, transport, aviation servicing, the restructuring of Airmalta, health and care for the elderly, facilities for the disabled, pensions and the opportunity to continue working without losing your pension, new social housing schemes and benefits, the urban and touristic landscape around us, Valletta and the new Parliament, Valletta, European Capital of Culture 2018, small businesses, yachting and maritime industry, pluralism in the media, the EU, the massive injection of funds from the EU, the Euro with a successful transition from the Lira, the single market worth €13,920,541 million, opportunities in travel for education and scholarship, mature students at University, local councils, regulation of the financial and gaming industry, the service industry in Malta, consumer protection, new export markets for agriculture, the new BWSC power station, the grid and the interconnector,  less pollution, clean seas, drainage systems in the bays, water supply, good relations with the EU, good organisations that chose to work in Malta, a good name and reputation – with a well- known exception, the Libya war and the handling of all the ex-personnel and refugees from there, protecting the interests of Maltese business men there in Libya, saving of factories that were on the verge of leaving or closing in the wake of the 2008 global recession, a fine Mrs Kate Gonzi, an elegant Auberge de Castille, a serious Police Force, a normal judiciary, a record number of jobs, freedom, choice and a green with envy labour opposition who was losing hope of ever seeing their party in power again and who were willing to go to the devil and back to see it happen.

Sure, GonziPN had a homemade clock tal-lira and some of its appointees, amongst others, besmirched with the oil affair, the honoraria that tried to take a rational position on what today has become a rampant abuse of remuneration for parliamentarians, the fishing industry seemed to have been left with problems that needed solutions, the refugee crises that was blown out of proportion and served as an ideal fear point for Labour to exploit, some nasty back benchers, a rising cost of living, the divorce saga, the out of stock medicines and a growing need for more hospital beds and a new look at the overall direction of health care, an increasing traffic and parking problem, the love it-hate it MEPA reform, a could-have-been-better-handled public transport reform and Franco Debono. 

Then there was Gozo.  The one that got away.  The tunnel or the bridge. Eco Gozo or the rise of new buildings.  A road that took years away from the prosperity of the island whilst it was being constructed but which today is enjoyed by many, along with the Cirkewwa terminal, Giovanna Debono’s good-will favours and the Hondoq project. 

All of which fell victim to the portrayal of the Gonzi Government as an incompetent, corrupt and anti-worker institution, under the influence of the Church, stuck in medieval mentality, and getting on everyone’s nerves because it had succeeded too well and was about to dismantle the traditional two-party system, both in terms of voter influence and in terms of removing the lobby power system.  As a result, the PN became financially poor leading to some serious repercussions on their staff employment, a badly managed election campaign, hunters and Monti hawkers deciding our fate and the rise of Malta Taghna Lkoll.

Today, that Malta Taghna Lkoll is the biggest, fattest, most abusive, ugly, rotten project ever to be believed.

Which of the government programmes has worked, been doable, can be seen or has contributed to the well-being and improvement of the country?  We are hard pressed to mention even one.  The Power Station?  Today Government is paying out thousands to Shanghai electric to use the same power station they sold to it.  The LGBT changes which are peddled around for ulterior motives?  Child care, when parents are torn between sending their sick children to the nursery or having to pay in?  People living in poverty?  Single mothers?  The elderly?  Healthcare?  The financial services and IT industry now struggling to ride the storm of corruption around the government’s cosy politicians?  The Environment with high rise buildings planned to sit on public ground sold for a song and clogged up drains?  Traffic and public transport?  The pitkali?  The fishing industry which will so enjoy passing by a gas tanker on its way in and out of Marsaxlokk harbour on those days that the weather permits or the re-filling schedule isn’t due? 

Parties and events at Villa Francia and around the Grand Harbour we have had plenty of and Strait Street is a noisy high class Paceville with jazz instead of techno beats.  Going to the gym is a must and travel to exotic destinations tops the I’m In chart.  We had an expensive knot monument and the re-design of Castille place which has left us going round in a maze or not at all, no trees in sight, a shameful Police Force due to political interference, an army of amateurs, and a 2017 Presidency of the European Union

Bien venue a Maltè.