Even though our national economy has gone to the dogs and the size our financial problems are unprecedented, with strong and effective measures Malta may start its course to a recovery. It will be fool-hardy to imagine that it will be an enjoyable experience as the road ahead is going to be a bumpy ride but it will get even harder if we delay further the economic measures we need to take today. In spite of its proportion, our ailment is not terminal and medicine to cure it can still be found. But what have we been doing since the day that it was admitted that our hofra is not really a hrafa?
Our current administrators, on whose doorsteps lies the fault as they were unable to manage and control our treasury effectively as from 1987, to-date managed to put us Lm1.4 billion in debt. Instead of starting to put their act together, they had embarked on a smear campaign to discredit their alternatives, more so Dr Alfred Sant. Their unpronounced statement for us is a simple one, “You have no choice, it’s PN or bust”. This, putting it clinically, is our position so far.
Typical are the views of Mr George Farrugia who, in his letter (TMID 24 February) applauded Ms Marisa Micallef and reiterated her contention that, “The ordinary PN voter, hurt and disillusioned, will not vote Labour because of its past and its leader”.
In all sincerity, statements the like of Mr Farrugia’s and other Nationalist dissidents do not surprise me. It just goes on to show how effective the PN propaganda machine had been to lead some people to believe that they have a heavenly mandate to govern our islands and are indispensable. The fear of these voters could have also come about as a result of the aftermath emanating from their disillusions about a party they had trusted so zealously in the past. Now they cannot trust anybody. And who am I to blame them? Once bitten twice shy, is an obvious reaction.
Dr Alfred Sant and his party have a difficult task to convince some of the former Nationalist voters to trust the Malta Labour Party for reasons already expressed. Nevertheless, the time will come when the brainwashing effect will take its toll and even the ex-diehards will come to realise that Malta needs a change and the salvage operation will then be a successful one.
Without the trust of the succumbed ex-Nationalist voters, Labour is still winning as it has already proved that it enjoys the support of the majority – however it would be heart warming to welcome them on board with the rest.
Time will tell.
Charles J Buttigieg
Mellieha