That Malta is passing through difficult times is a fact of life on which there is general agreement.

That Malta has been administered by the same PN administration for the past 17 years, but for a brief 22-month interregnum, is equally undeniable. And it is also uncontested that, this same PN administration chose to ride the money no problem chariot and spent consistently and deliberately beyond its means. The final outcome is a structural deficit, a mountain of debt and an administration adrift, with many unattended problems on its plate.

The problems are legion, ranging from the pollution of the environment to the state of the road system and from investment fatigue to the poor quality of the public service.

Instead of focusing positively and single-mindedly on these problems, the PN and its spokesmen, in and out of government, chose to distract public attention from these problems and demonise the MLP and its leadership. From the moment Alfred Sant appeared on the Maltese political scene as party leader, the PN battle-cry has been “Alfred Sant is not to be trusted” and “Alfred Sant never learns”

I recalled this stubborn fact in my piece which appeared on this page on 5 March and was taken to task in a column by Salvu Felice Pace, (TMID March 9), who argued the shadow and set aside the substance.

Volcanic eruption

The substance is reflected by the prevailing electoral disenchantment which, as it happens, is fast approximating the status of a volcanic eruption.

On the very morning when Salvu Felice Pace was bolstering the image of the PN, a member of the PN executive committee, no less, Mr Frank Zammit was lamenting in another local daily paper that “the PN is out of touch” and that “those who are running the party today” are “taking sacrilegious decisions against democracy”. More pragmatically than Mr Felice Pace, Mr Zammit said “We must ask ourselves why two consecutive electoral tests led to a massive decline in support for the PN”.

Mr Zammit was not writing out of turn. Only three days earlier, a local Sunday paper had a front-page, five column, spread story arising from the findings of an independent public opinion survey which revealed that 75 per cent of the electorate is “unsatisfied with the way the government is running the country”.

In the light of all this, is it not idle on the part of Mr Felice Pace to suggest that I “would like readers to believe” that I “know what is going on within the Nationalist Party”? The essential facts are available to all from unimpeachable sources.

Facts of the matter

In summary, the facts confronting the electorate at the present time are the following:

1. Malta’s finances are in a mess and the economy is in decline, largely because of the mismanagement and incompetence of an administration which has been in office for a decade and a half.

2. The PN administration deliberately distracted public attention from its weakness and from the ensuing consequences, by demonising the opposition and its leadership in particular.

3. The time came when the PN could not sustain its capricious rate of public spending particularly when it was not showing adequate results. While unattended festering sores became more painful, the government had to step up taxation and to introduce austerity measures.

4. The electorate, which had earlier been promised security and peace of mind (serhan il-mohh), began to express its dismay until it took to the streets to make itself heard in protest.

5. The disenchantment intensifies as the government begins to manifest undemocratic symptoms, such as the surprise decision that denied the electors at Marsa and Zejtun the right to have their say and to exercise their choice, at the last round of local government elections as well as the unwarranted criticism of the Auditor-General. The situation is made worse by the eruption of controversial issues such as the ugly episode relating to the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools and the Mellieha “petrol station” scandal.

Although the emerging situation commands the attention of spin-doctors and media commentators alike, public opinion navigates by the star of its own experience.

Overtaxed electors who are driven close to or below the poverty line, consumers struggling with the skyrocketing cost of living, and citizens scandalised by ministerial arrogance, do not need editorial opinion or commentaries from Salvu Felice Pace and myself to make their own assessment. They will do so when opportunities present themselves.

Meanwhile, thoughtful electors know how to recognise and assess, the big drum which beats fast but does not realise its hollowness.

Ministers and party apparatchiks are beginning to realise that when you are down and out, someone will always turn up – and it is usually the noses of the friends you have let down. Nothing that the likes of Salvu Felice Pace say will cut any ice with the disenchanted electorate.

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