It was the year 1949. George Orwell wrote his masterpiece “1984” where he specifically and with precise detail described life, with the future explicitly explained in the Oceanic State. With a very fertile imagination added to his list of accomplishments, Orwell painted a clear picture of a Socialist regime in Utopia where under the influence of Big Brother, the country was governed in a dictatorial fashion where the truth was eliminated completely and there existed only dictatorial propaganda minus democracy and privacy. The title of George Orwell’s book “1984” became a symbol of a government that in spite of everything, wanted to control the country without considering what the consequences might be. He was determined that he would be the ruler of everything, even people’s thoughts if necessary.

On our island, which is now a member of EU, we have in power a Nationalist government, not a Socialist one. Therefore with all due respect to George Orwell, I doubt how much the latter knew what he was writing about when he declared that under a Socialist government, democracy does a vanishing act.

No doubt George Orwell never “tasted” the Nationalists otherwise he would have realised that in actual fact, life under a Sant run government would be heaven on earth compared to our present state of a Gonzi government.

Orwell never heard of a new hospital being built and paid for by taxes imposed on people, supposedly at a cost of over Lm100 million but ending up costing Lm300 million.

Orwell probably never heard of a government and his clan spending thousands of liri on parties, mobile phones, trips abroad, etc, while 60,000 Maltese people live in poverty.

Last but not least George Orwell would indeed do a U-turn about who was really a dictator – Socialist regime or a Nationalist one - if he had lived to see the local council elections of two years ago, when no elections were held in Marsa and Zejtun because of course the result was so very obvious.

It would probably take me years to describe with a 100% accuracy how George Orwell got it wrong when he attributed dictatorship to a Socialist regime but of course Orwell could not see the future of Malta.

Had George Orwell lived in our times he would have had a new heading in his book “1987”. The year the Nationalist regime came to power.

Valerie Borg

MLP Councillor

Valletta