The cats and dogs syndrome that is ever-present in Maltese politics has reached new heights – or should we say new lows? – in the past few weeks.

That the Nationalist Party and the Malta Labour Party are always at loggerheads is no big news, but lately it seems that the two parties and their respective media are doing their utmost to bring out the worst of the other side, while ignoring what is going on in their corner.

It is clear that the election is approaching, but if this bickering from either end is to continue over the next 18 months or so, what are we to expect when the national polls draw closer?

The Nationalist Party is all out to put Labour in bad light over what it is calling “the Dubai scandal”. For its part, the MLP has called for the resignation of the Justice Minister and the parliamentary secretary for justice over the awarding of a contract for cleaning services at the law courts.

The respective media has obviously taken the cue and leaves no stone unturned to bring out new elements and find new angles to the stories, only to rehash what had been said or printed previously.

The icing on the cake came with the story of the “resignation” of Zurrieq mayor Ignatius Farrugia, published in In-Nazzjon, which led to a war of words between the PN and the MLP late last week.

The Labour Party was quick to deny the story, accusing the PN media of yet another invention, only for the PN to issue what it described as proof that Mr Farrugia had actually resigned. Later, Mr Farrugia himself confirmed that he had

not handed in his resignation, but the PN media continues to insist that he had – but then retracted it.

We are nowhere nearer to the truth, as both sides will maintain the position that they have taken so far. In their statements, both sides used a kind of language that unfortunately shows that we are far from reaching a mature way of doing politics, and the problem is that it is likely that matters will get worse from now onwards.

But questions have been raised over the issue, and the people, in particular the residents of Zurrieq, have a right to know what really took place. After all, this incident will have its effect on how the Zurrieq residents will look upon their mayor and, in a broader sense, will also have an impact on national politics.

Did Mr Farrugia resign and later go back on his decision, as the PN media is saying? If yes, what led him to the first decision to resign and the second one to withdraw it? Or was it, as the MLP are saying, an invented story from start to finish? Who is saying the truth? Or is everyone saying only part of it?

Following the publication of the report on In-Nazzjon, Mr Farrugia would only give comments to Labour media, refusing to speak to, for example, this newspaper when he was called to give his views on the incident.

On One TV, he said that he did not resign and is loyal to both party leader Alfred Sant and secretary-general Jason Micallef, and that he is prepared to lead the council until his term of office runs out in March 2008.

In the middle of all this, the public, and in particular the neutral people, finds itself at a loss and feels more disgruntled than ever with what goes on in local politics.

It is yet another example of how the political parties, in their efforts to throw mud at each other, ignore the fact that there is a growing group of people that is dissatisfied with this kind of politics. But it seems that both of them are finding it hard to change.