Today is the first anniversary of the general election, a general election that was called particularly early despite the fact that the incumbent government had been put in power with an unprecedented, hugely secure parliamentary majority, having been carried into power on a tidal wave of popularity. 

Out of a 10-year tenure, the Prime Minister felt the need to sacrifice a year and he did it, as he said, to secure another five years. 

This means, by his reasoning, that this particular year ending today could have compromised his chances of securing the next five years, had it been the last year in a legislature prior to a general election, rather than the first year in a new legislature that has the full five years to go!

Now why did the Prime Minister take such a drastic decision?

A glimpse at last year’s events answers this question easily, so we will not dwell any longer on it. 

Instead, let us for a moment forget that in the last year the most obscene deals concerning our land, our hospitals and goodness knows what else were signed on our behalf. 

Let us for a moment forget that our institutions, from our planning down to our security machines have broken down, hypnotised into robotic obedience. 

Let us for a moment forget that an investigative journalist delving deep into government corruption was brutally murdered in broad daylight, right outside her family home, by executioners that had been allegedly under police surveillance for months before the murder.

Let us instead try hard to imagine that none of this had happened and that Muscat had the cleanest most reputable government in all of Europe.

With that lovely thought in mind, let us now ask ourselves the question:

What did Muscat actually deliver in his five-year tenure? 

And we mean actually deliver, in reality, on the ground, not in the hyperspace bubble created by his relentless propaganda machine and his endless army of parasitic trolls hammering down blows on dissident souls while sucking the public purse dry. 

How are things on the ground?

Let us start with spending power.

Barring the select few enjoying lucrative pay packages in positions of trust, has the spending power of the average salaried family increased?

Does the cost of living, particularly prices of utilities and fuels we are paying now, reflect the massive investment and sacrifice we as taxpayers made along the years and are making as we speak?

Or are we being made to pay much more than we should so that intermediaries get their cut across the board and we keep financing the heavy bureaucracy that has increased despite the government’s promises and ludicrously paid successive bureaucracy simplification commissioners?

Has ARMS Ltd become more efficient?

Has the state of physical and mental health of our fellow citizens improved?

Is our air cleaner by utilising our interconnector rather than the privately owned CO2 producing plants in Malta? 

What did we own as a country in 2013 and what do we own now?

If you can just imagine the value of what has been traded in our name (including our citizenship, land, hospitals, energy and so on). Yes, with that value liquidated and divided per head, or invested in improving our country without depriving it of its soul, you would have a better idea of what you should be enjoying by way of infrastructure, education and research, health and environment.

Now, Europe is also bouncing back from two financial crises and that most countries like Portugal, Ireland, Germany, France, the UK and our own Malta are riding high on an economic boom creating more wealth for these countries. Then, you can also imagine what this newly found bonanza could have done to either slashing our National debt or simply catapulting the general standard of living and appearance of our country!

You can imagine of course that in these circumstances, nicely iced by rock bottom oil/gas prices and a weak dollar over the last four years, as well as a billion euro of EU funds in circulation, what Joseph Muscat’s government could have accomplished if his government really had the will to establish and exercise clean accountable governance, meritocracy and a level playing field for investors while pushing for a sustainable economy that guarantees our people’s health, dignity, identity and socio-cultural survival. 

Joseph Muscat was given the power by the people to accomplish all this. 

People trusted him to deliver on the promises he made in 2013, and renewed their trust in 2017. 

But instead, all this trust was repaid by the systematic dismantling of the structures put in place over the years to protect the citizens.

All this trust was repaid by inflicting untold damage on our historical heritage, commoditizing our natural heritage, and letting the building industry go berserk. We have not been given an appropriate infrastructure and solutions to our choking, cancerous traffic dilemma, or our dire social housing problem, because greedy developers had to be appeased. They lined their pockets while destroying people’s quality of lives, and the value of their lifetime investments indiscriminately.

All this trust was repaid by trading the public hospitals, not to improve the standard of health care given, or to spice up health tourism as promised but, yet again, to syphon off public money to unidentified private beneficiaries.

All this trust was repaid by creating the political climate for the most prominent Maltese investigative journalist to be murdered, savaging dissident voices using government and party machinery, all this, while boasting of best records in upholding civil rights.

All this trust was repaid by fuelling misogyny to an unprecedented level in our country with the obvious consequences becoming more evident every day. 

All this trust was repaid by letting a culture of impunity and total disregard for the rule of law rear its head ever more ominously in our beautiful, previously safe islands. 

All this trust was repaid by destroying Malta’s hard-earned reputation as a financial centre of distinction. 

Joseph Muscat had a golden opportunity to unite our nation and change Malta and Gozo for the better. 

Yes, he had a wonderful opportunity which he missed simply because he surrounded himself by greedy, short-sighted people who think success lay in hoodwinking a nation by positively manufactured statistics while robbing them in broad daylight. 

It is unfortunate that every missed opportunity does not stop at just being a ‘missed’ opportunity, but comes at a cost, sometimes a terrible cost. 

Our generation is paying heavily, and not just with its finances, for Joseph Muscat’s failure. 

It is heart-breaking, and at times unbearably sad, to witness the systematic disintegration of the inheritance bequeathed to us by our forefathers, while simultaneously acknowledging the even more painful reality that it is our children and grandchildren who will bear the full brunt of the terrible cost of Joseph Muscat’s tragic lost opportunity.

So, what is the way forward? 

Shall we just watch and grieve over this series of unfortunate events, or shall we make the Proustian choice and strive to search for the lost time, by embarking on rebuilding our Malta in parallel with those who are dead set on dismantling it? 

And the answer comes naturally.

We group up, join up, converge our individual energies, and, with proper credible leadership, pledge to strive tirelessly to pass on to our children and grandchildren , a country that is overall much better than we inherited. 

It takes much more than Joseph Muscat’s lost opportunity to stop a determined Maltese and Gozitan people from taking their country to the next positive level. 

 

Marlene Farrugia and Godfrey Farrugia are Partit Demokratiku Members of Parliament