Almost 50 months ago, the majority of the electorate ignored warnings not to trust Joseph Muscat and voted for him and Labour. Before the election, Muscat, through his honeyed words, promised everything to everyone even at the expense of contradicting himself with certain promises made. Allegedly, some promises were even made on the fourth storey of Labour’s headquarters.
Muscat achieved his aim. He became Prime Minister with the battle cry that Malta will belong to all of us (Malta tagħna lkoll) and, according to him, not to a clique. According to his pre-election promise, Malta would not belong to someone or the other, or to a politician or to a political party. “The time of red and blue will be over.” Muscat deceived those who believed him. He gained power through deception. Deception is a fraud.
Unrecognisable Muscat
An honest politician’s mettle is not his capability to manipulate the minds of the electorate prior to an election but his competence in keeping promises. An honest politician is loyal to the electorate prior and after an election. It is his duty and his obligation to listen, to respect and to serve the people. Muscat promised a change in the right direction. Apparently, he lost his vaunted roadmap in the euphoria when going up the steps of Castille to take over the seat of power. He is on the wrong track.
Honesty is one of the top qualities of a good political leader. It develops character and builds credibility and trust which are the foundations to evoke confidence and respect from the population. A political leader needs to have integrity which is a vital characteristic as it shows honesty and uprightness. He should aspire to respect different views, analyse problems and identify the best solutions which should not be based on his party’s chances in the next election but based on what is necessary and in the best interest of the Nation. A good political leader shows his true worth when he is in power.
After the election, Joseph Muscat changed for the worse. He has become unrecognisable from what he was before. His arrogance replaced the humility he deceitfully transmitted. Instead of a Government that listens as was promised, there is Muscat who ignores, dictates and thinks that he is always right. Muscat’s objectives are election and power and not the truth. People who want clean politics, especially the younger generation, are disillusioned with Muscat’s attitude. Our country deserves better. Malta needs a serious and honest leader who keeps his word.
Labour’s clique
In May 2010 Muscat announced measures to fight corruption which he promised to implement if Labour was elected. Also, Muscat made two declarations which will keep haunting him. “For corruption the people pay, you pay” and “Who does not fight corruption when in power, will be corrupt.” Prior to the election, Muscat used to refer to the then Nationalist administration as “friends of friends,” “circles within circles” and accused them of “institutionalised corruption.” After the 2013 election, these phrases apply to the Government led by him. The Sunday newspaper ‘It-Torċa’ said that “Labour was conceived, born and exists so that everyone benefits from a just society.” So very untrue! Only the privileged few are benefitting under Labour.
After the Labour victory in 2013, the daily so-called ‘independent’ GWU newspaper l-orizzont editorially declared that “the 9 March (2013) will remain carved in local political history as the day when we kicked out the arrogance and the abuse of power of a clique that knew nothing more than looking after its interests”. It went on to say that the preceding years were “the most degrading in the standard of living of the majority of the population of Malta and Gozo”.
After that editorial, one can declare, hand on heart, that we were much better off during the period that l-orizzont falsely claims to have been so degrading. When Labour was in Opposition they were experts in pointing fingers at the Nationalist Administration. Now in Government, the tables have been turned against them. According to Margaret Thatcher “The acid test of politics is not what is said during political activities and speeches which are intended to win votes before an election but what is actually carried out by the politician when in Government.”
When after March 2013 l-orizzont forecasted that “we are now living in a period that should open the windows and doors for so much prosperity for all, instead of for the chosen few,” l-orizzont was a false prophet. With Muscat’s Labour government, only the friends of friends are benefitting. The others are only receiving titbits, if and when. Under Muscat’s Labour, those in the risk of poverty are in fact on the increase.
Muscat’s populism
With the passage of time, the Maltese are becoming more convinced that Muscat is a populist. A populist politician, like Muscat, is only interested in power and in keeping it. That is one of the reasons why Muscat, prior and after the election, uses attractive and eye-catching slogans. Through lies, half-truths and the manipulation of the minds and the feelings of the people, Muscat deceived the majority of the electorate in order to achieve power. For him, it is irrelevant what is happening after. His populism will soon be again on the forefront as the next election approaches. His ambition of holding on to power comes before the national interest.
A recent very eye-catching slogan “Four years of firsts” has been used for “dialogue” meetings with the various Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries. The slogan shows that Muscat’s populist machinery is being geared up. The messages delivered during the meetings were full of narcissistic boasting. No mention was made of a number of Labour Government’s firsts such as bad governance and, like no other administration before this one, the number of scandals (even within the walls of power) some with a stink of corruption.
Whilst mentioning scandals, one recalls another of Muscat’s pre-election battle cries “We shall fight corruption” which also proves Muscat’s populism. Malta’s political history will remember the last 50 months dominated by the number of scandals cropping up on a regular basis. The list, which is always on the increase, is endless. It is rotting the foundations of our country.
Muscat was correct when, before the election, he declared that “For corruption, the taxpayer pays.” The taxpayer is definitely paying in no small way such as, for example, through the excessively high prices of petrol and diesel. “The Government that listens” should listen to the housewives and the pensioners, amongst others, to realise how difficult it is to make both ends meet due to the ever-increasing cost of living.
A disgusted Nation deserves better
The people are fed up and disgusted at the way Muscat treats alleged cases of scandals and corruption. No wonder that survey after survey carried out by the local media indicate that concern about corruption has reached an all-time high. One particular survey showed that 47% of the interviewees considered Government as corrupt. That figure includes 22% of those who voted for Muscat’s Labour in the last election.
Before Malta assumed the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Transparency International tweeted that “Malta needs to clean up its corruption mess before it heads the Council of the EU next year.” If this tweet was not enough, earlier this year and only about a fortnight after Muscat declared on his Party’s radio station that his Government was keeping all its promises, Malta was again in the news for the wrong reasons. Transparency International published its Corruption Index for 2016 which showed that between 2015 and 2016 Malta lost 10 places, finishing in 47 place – the worst placing ever since this Index has been kept.
Malta deserves better. Fortunately for Malta, time is running out for Muscat and Labour. Soon, the people of Malta and Gozo will have the opportunity to act decisively and elect a Nationalist administration under the Premiership of Simon Busuttil. This will restore full democracy and justice which are the key elements of good governance which is so much lacking under Muscat’s Labour Government.
It is then that, once again, the Maltese people will have the government they really and truly deserve.