I believe that my friend Alfred Mifsud (TMID, 16 March) has made the most plausible assessment or post-mortem of the latest round of local council elections. I agree with him that local elections do not give a clear idea of any prevailing political sentiment.
Like many others, I chose not to vote for the PN or any other party through sheer apathy; I also wanted to send a message of protest over a series of issues, which, I believe, deserve attention that they are not receiving. However, making a protest is one thing, throwing the baby out with the bath water is quite another.
A local election is virtually of no consequence to me. All councils, be they red or blue, depend on central government for the funding and approval of their plans, so in my opinion nothing essentially changes, except who is to wear the mayor’s chain of office – something about which I just fail to get excited.
I see the percentages awarded by Labour leader Alfred Sant as just a pathetic little game aimed at conning the not so brilliant electorate.
General elections cannot be dismissed so lightly. Great issues of national import will be at stake. In the past, the MLP, on the international front. sought alliances with Libya, North Korea, Communist China, Communist Russia and Rumania. I preferred the European Union as a safer port in which to anchor.
Other great issues are the realisation that we have to base our future on high tech industries. It is futile to even try to hold on to jeans factories and other low-tech industries that have migrated to third world countries.
When it comes to vision and forward planning, the PN remains streaks ahead of the opposition, which still believe in protectionism, rather than an open economy.
The MLP is a party of beg or borrow and making-do with cast offs. They never understood the wisdom of investing at the opportune time. The PN solved the water shortage problems which bedeviled our tourism industry in the 1970s and 1980s. They had the good sense to expand the university intake from a mere 600 to over10,000 students. They opened the doors wide open for the importation of computers. Technical education has also been streamlined to meet the exigencies of today.
Shortly we are going to witness the opening of a truly magnificent hospital. Once open, people will stare in awe, and understand better where their money has been invested. Labour first vowed to flatten the whole structure than changed their mind and doubled its size. It is hardly difficult to understand how this threw everything in disarray. Without this meddling, a hospital of this calibre is a complex enough undertaking; Labour’s irrationality caused all the problems with which this administration had to contend.
So while I declare myself not sorry about the outcome of the latest elections, I remain steadfastly suspicious of a MLP administration.
Victor Spiteri
Attard