As Malta approaches the run-up to the next general election, it begins to look as if Government and PN apparatchiks are betraying their anxiety – the moment of truth concentrates the mind.

Seventeen years of practically unbroken rule do not permit them to blame the opposition for the screaming inadequacies of the present day.

An unbearable tax burden and rising living costs, an economy in distress, an inefficient bureaucracy, the rape of the environment, the high-handed contempt of the rule of law – not to mention the unprecedented state indebtedness, accumulated in pursuit of a money no problem philosophy – have left their indelible mark. The PN is short of credible slogans and has nowhere to go.

The prevailing state of

tension and disquiet is giving PN frontrunners the jitters.

The New Class

It is scaring the daylight out of the new class of Maltese citizens who have gone places on the PN gravy train. This breed of political courtiers belongs to an undeclared nomenklatura, and includes certain directors of state and parastatal enterprises, others appointed – without public competition – as managers of state enterprises without managerial qualifications, but with the necessary credentials that come from the PN family tree.

It includes those who have second jobs, without competition, in addition to their paid parliamentary duties, those who have been given appointments and promotion in various categories, often superseding in a miraculous manner, hundreds of their seniors, and others who have been awarded plum government contracts, or who have benefited from the capricious favours of the Almighty State and were selected to form part of construction and other consortia that thrive on government projects.

This new, parasitic class has grown fat at the expense of the underprivileged, who have gone through the PN mincing machine and are now much wiser.

During the past few years, there have been too many instances of blatant abuse of power, incompetence and gross mismanagement. Punishment has been rare and mild. There has been a growing public perception that the indulgent attitude toward corruption – real or perceived – is attributed to solidarity within the nomenklatura.

Predicament

The PN strategists at Pieta, who keep an eye on the nomenklatura, are seized of their predicament and are haunted by the spectre of their own past shortcomings.

Their vain attempt to inspire confidence in the new leadership by claiming that the economy is now on a steady, forward course, has misfired, as the tourist sector struggles for survival and the rest of the economy gasps for fresh air.

The Government is therefore left with the budget for next year, and the aura of unbudgeted second and third thoughts, that will tend to crowd in as electoral fever tightens its grip.

This time, the PN’s credibility will be questioned, tested and reassessed. It will be evaluated on the merits of actual performance and, even more so, on the impact of past government policy on the life-style of the nation.

The final decision will be in the hands of the electorate, and not of the politicians who wish to retain power.

The restless electorate has the upper hand and wants deliverance.

The one and only redeeming answer is change. Hence the PN jitters.

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