From Mr P. Aquilina

Twenty-three localities will soon be asked to vote and choose between serious local councils and MLP club committees. During the break for the festive season, the Labour councils did not stop trying to promote partisan politics in their local councils.

It is customary that during December a good number of local councils publish a magazine which serves to send best wishes for the Christmas festive season and at the same time inform residents about the council’s activities social and otherwise taking place or even planned for the future.

Unfortunately, some Labour councils turn this occasion into a partisan political occasion. At Marsascala, the Labour mayor’s proposal to include an interview with Labour leader Alfred Sant in the council’s magazine was turned down by the council’s majority, with only the mayor and the ex–mayor voting in favour.

At Marsa, the local council published an eight-page colour leaflet with the Labour leader and an ex Labour minister in a photo on the front page and a similar photo repeated on the second page in which was otherwise an informative leaflet. The Marsa mayor continues to act as if he is a Labour club president rather than the town’s mayor. These publications are paid for from public funds and not by the Malta Labour Party.

Local councils and the MLP

Since the Labour Party started taking part in local council elections, councils have little by little turned into political clubs where Labour has a majority. Labour councils meet at the local party club together with Labour party officials to discuss and decide on issues in the local council’s meetings agenda.

They do not care about the interest of the localities but only their party’s interest. If we go back some years and analyse how and why Labour started to take part in local elections, the people will be able to judge Labour’s sincerity for themselves.

In 1996, independent councillors who had the full backing of the Labour Party managed to obtain 48.89 per cent of the local elections votes; after the change in government in late 1996 the percentage of independent councillors votes went down to 44.1 per cent; after another full year of Labour government (1997) the independent councillors percentage slid down to a mere 34.3 per cent.

This is when the Labour Party decided to start taking part in local elections. It is very obvious that it was not because they were interested in the localities, but simply because their independent councillors were losing votes. Labour took part in local elections for the first time in 1999, and the vast majority of the so-called independent councillors disappeared. The Labour Party only cares about the interest of the party, so even at local level people would do well to think profoundly on these points.

Local councils and the PN

The Nationalist Party created the local councils and by the time the Labour Party accepted them (after more than six years) the Nationalist-led government had already allocated the sum of Lm39,154,264 to them and as time passed more responsibilities were given to local councils.

Essentially, local councils are made up of people who are elected locally and perform their duties on voluntary basis, and members of staff they employ to administer the day to day running of the council’s offices and the locality.

In this regard, as far back as 1996, Nationalist governments showed interest and appreciated the hard work performed by these staff members. In a particular case in 1996, Executive Secretaries (when Labour were still against local councils) were awarded an increase in their salary amounting to nearly Lm1,000 per annum. This was topped by the recent introduction of the indefinite employment of these council executives with the cooperation of the UHM and the ASKLM Executive Committee.

This is the basic difference between the two Maltese main political parties as far as local councils are concerned.

I wish to emphasise that I do not criticise for the sake of criticising. The arguments frequently mentioned in your newspaper by Labour councillors and other Labour supporters in reply to my articles that I try to find the mote in other people’s eyes and ignore the beam in mine is unreasonable.

I always state that facts are facts, and I challenge anyone to mention one single local council with a PN majority that has not held a council meeting for a period of five months like the Labour council at Mtarfa, employs six or seven employees more than permitted by law like the Labour council at Paola, receives thousands of liri/euros from warden tickets from areas not within their boundary like the Labour council at Luqa, did not pay the rent for the council’s offices for about 10 years like the Sta Lucija Labour council, take away all responsibilities from local councillors like the Labour council at Mosta, instigate police investigations on alleged fraud on council’s tenders like the Labour council at Pembroke, pay from council funds personal libel suits like the Labour council at Cospicua,

These are the facts that prove without a shadow of doubt Labour’s arrogance and incompetence in local councils. This is where people have to choose between serious PN councils and inefficient Labour Party club committees.

Paul Aquilina

PN Local Councils Co-coordinator