The government has chosen to privatise the Malta Shipyards without consulting with the opposition and the General Workers Union. Or so the MLP and the GWU are saying.

But, while understanding the position taken by the union because it wants to protect the rights and conditions of the workers it represents, I cannot understand why the MLP expects to be involved.

The government is responsible for taking decisions in the best interest of the country. It has the mandate to take decisions on our behalf. Is the opposition thinking that, just because it lost the election by 1,500 votes, it has some divine right of taking part in such decisions?

We all remember what took place in the 1970s and particularly in the 1980s. Did the Labour government consult with the people, with the unions, with the opposition? Between 1981 and 1987, the MLP was in government without a majority of people supporting it, and yet it went on to govern for five and a half years. The people had told the MLP to move out, and yet it stayed on, clinging to power.

What does the MLP expect now? That the government does what the MLP wants?

The people have spoken, and they have given the Nationalist Party a third term in office. The PN is in government, not the MLP.

Mario Cassar

Mosta