I am only going to do this once. I have no time to waste answering stupid articles and letters written by those who cannot understand that people do not trust them anymore. Over the past six years, the Maltese people have democratically chosen their representatives on each respective local council. Nonetheless, not every person in Malta had this unique opportunity to decide who had to lead his or her locality.
Three years ago, the Nationalist Party chickened out from important local elections that had to be held in Zejtun and in Marsa. The Nationalist Party, which describes itself as the saviour of democracy in Malta, denied the people of Zejtun and Marsa their right to vote in a local election.
Today we have Paul Aquilina, the Nationalist councillors’ watchdog, hoping that the people will choose serious local councils. We pray and hope that at least that shameful event which happened three years ago, will not happen again. The Nationalist Party killed local democracy on that day!
Today Mr Aquilina has the gall to question and doubt whether the Maltese people were right in always choosing a Labour majority in two-thirds of the local councils in Malta and Gozo. The Nationalist Party is so self-absorbed in its arrogance that now we are also told that we do not know how to choose between good and bad.
Every blessed week your paper devotes half a page to his continuous criticism about the choice of the people. In his last contribution, Mr Aquilina mentioned how Labour councillors turn their leaflet into partisan manifestos.
I suggest he takes a look at the leaflet the Hamrun local council issued. Even though some of the contributions of Nationalist councillors were full of untruths, none were censored. Not to mention the fact that their contributions were also printed in colour! If he is so scandalised by certain Labour-led councils for turning a leaflet into a political manifesto, I suggest he comments on how the national transmission of New Year’s Eve was turned into a political show as the only presenters were those we normally see and hear on the Nationalist media!
Mr Aquilina surprises me when he asserts that Labour councillors are in some way or another tied to a leash led by the local committees. He surprises me even more when he says that Labour councillors care only about the interest of the MLP and not about their locality. I have been attending the mayors’ conference since the beginning of my venture in local councils. Countless are the time that Nationalist mayors and vice mayors refused to support motions that were in favour of the people and against the government.
Labour Party started to participate in local councils because the Nationalist Party refused to give up its grip on local power. Ever since the Labour Party started participating in local councils, people have been trusting Labour candidates more and more than Nationalist candidates. Now, out of 68 localities, 40 are Labour led, 27 Nationalist led and one with an independent mayor although the majority of votes wanted a Labour-led council. Today, the Local Councils Association is also meeting its obligations. This happened only after it started being administer by a Labour majority – a majority that should have been obtained years before but which was denied by the Nationalist Party in government!
The Nationalist Party created the local councils. The Nationalist Party is now trying to eliminate them. Since it lost the majority of local councils, the government has lost all interest in them. Mr Aquilina must remember that his leader and Prime Minister did not even mention local councils in the budget speech. I wonder if Mr Aquilina would have tied himself to the Castile railings had a Labour Minister of Finance omitted to do the same thing! Mr Aquilina seems quite happy with the fact that local councils receive a meagre Lm10 million each year. So he should be ecstatic that a new Labour led government will increase this amount with another Lm10 million to be devoted to two projects in each and every locality!
I even wonder what Mr Aquilina’s views are on what happened in the Mosta PN-led council when it was found that the executive secretary allegedly misappropriated or mishandled some funds. Being an ex executive secretary, he knows very well what the responsibilities and duties of an executive secretary are and who is politically responsible for such things. What if what happened in PN-led Mosta happened in MLP-led Hamrun? I am sure that as mayor the Nationalist media would have torpedoed me for being politically responsible!
Mr Aquilina likes to mention episodes that occur in Labour led councils. He likes to mention how many tickets are given in Labour led councils. He forgets to mention that the three top councils where motorists are mostly fined are all Nationalist led, that is St Julian’s, Sliema and St Paul’s Bay. He forgets to mention how many Nationalist councillors were under police investigation. He forgets to mention the Mosta episode, as well as that of Pieta, where the police was investigating a PN led council for alleged electricity theft.
He forgets to mention that his deputy leader, Minister Tonio Borg, in one of his speeches at last September’s mayors’ conference alleged that “Kull kunsill lokali ghandu xi jxomm taht idejh”.
Mr Aquilina forgets to mention that to such a statement made by the minister himself, no Nationalist councillor, including himself as a party observer to the conference, reacted to such an accusation. Maybe it was a Freudian slip on the minister’s part, who was concentrating too much on Nationalist councils.
I apologise to the editor for taking so much space to put down some comments of mine regarding the situation in our local councils. I would have preferred to write about something more substantial than answering lies and unfounded partisan comments. I am sure your readers and the whole Maltese population would be much more intrigued if instead of this farce, we would comment and express our views on how we could make our local councils closer to the people.
This is what a Labour led government has in mind for our local councils. This is the reason why more people are choosing Labour. It is because Labour candidates are humble enough not to detach themselves from the people who have elected them!
Luciano Busuttil
Hamrun Mayor
Vice-President MLP Local Councillors Section