From Mr M. Azzopardi
This week I had the pleasure, for the second time in my life, of receiving a personalised letter from Dr Alfred Sant, leader of the MLP. When I read this letter it was deja vu for me. I had received a similar letter before the election held in 1996. At that time I had no vote, and I was going to start university. In that letter Dr Sant had promised me that my stipend would be secure once he was elected Prime Minister. But what he did with my stipend was exactly the opposite, and if he had stayed in power I would have ended up paying back my stipend together with the interests.
The letter I received this week was similar. It was inviting me to start a new beginning in order to live a better life. No thanks Dr Sant. My new beginning started when Malta joined the European Union after the majority of the Maltese people, including me, voted YES in the Referendum and confirmed that result in the 2003 election since you did not accept the result and believed that the partnership had won. From that day onwards I’ve been living a better life, and I hope to continue living it unless someone decides to renegotiate the EU treaty for which I voted.
Dr Sant also told me that his new government wanted to bring changes in different sectors such as the environment, education, training, industry, Information Technology, and tourism. No thanks again Dr Sant. This government has already brought a lot of changes. This government closed Mount Maghtab, introduced waste separation, built new schools and invested in teachers and resources, trained people (also with the help of the European Union), made huge steps in IT and brought Smart City to Malta, and achieved a new record in tourism.
“Our ambition is your ambition” was said in this letter. Again, no thanks. My ambition is not to make our students repeat a year. My ambition is not to make my fellow workers get paid less for their overtime. My ambition is not to reduce social services to those in need in case there should be a deficit. My ambition is to have a government that creates as much as jobs as possible, not just 6000 in five years.
But the funniest part of this letter is where Dr Sant tells me that he believes in me and that we can be among the best inside the European Union. Dr Sant we are already one of the best countries in the European Union. We proved ourselves to be on the same level, or better, than other countries and not makku like you used to tell us we would have been. That is why this government managed to introduce the euro and obtain 850 million euros for our country, and not one million a year like you had told us. That is why our young people are being offered loads of opportunities to study or work in the country they choose. That is why if I should ever be unsatisfied with something or think I’ve been discriminated against, I can always go and complain to other authorities in the European Union. That is why Malta now is more secure, both geographically and economically, and we have never seen bombs passing on our heads like we had been told.
The letter ends with Dr Sant telling me that he is proud that together we can bring change and ensure a nice future. I tend to agree with this last part. Yes together we can continue to change our country. We can do it together with all the different sectors in Malta, together with the other countries in the European Union and obviously together with Dr Lawrence Gonzi again as our Prime Minister.
The last line of the letter is an invitation for me to choose Labour on 8 March. No thanks Dr Sant. I cannot risk having other undesired surprises like I had after your first letter in 1996. I hope this time people won’t be fooled like they were in 1996 so I will choose PN.
Mark Azzopardi
GHARGHUR