Recently we had among us the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, and again the sixth seat was mentioned. Other dignitaries also spoke in favour. But until now we are left with five seats in the European Parliament.
It was already an injustice that we were the only country to have this amount of representation in this Parliament, when reason and sense had it that at least we should be on a par with Luxemburg. Now the injustice goes on, since, in principle, it was agreed that we should be allowed another seat; but its implementation is still far away. For us Maltese, the addition of another seat has much weight and importance. For me, the fact that other countries have not decided on how to choose their MEPs is purely an excuse and the EU should find ways and means for those countries that have already decided.
If this is not done without any further delay, then we have every right to look at the current situation as a form of deceit from the European institutions. Around Europe, these institutions are not positively looked upon. Let us hope that the same does not happen here because the issue of the sixth seat has been dragging too much.
The GonziPN team is an expert in alienating the people. Until a few weeks ago it was divorce and when this issue got out of hand they tried to change the issue. For some days they managed to divert attention to the proposed tunnel between Malta and Gozo, and we saw discussions being organised and people writing on that issue. No journalist asked or challenged the government on what plans they have at hand and what is the cost to construct this permanent link or what will happen to Gozo Channel and its workers. Of course, from time to time numerous projects do crop up. However, they never materialise. Just before the last general election these were spelled out one by one during the election campaign, but the government does not even remember them anymore.
But this alienation is leading the people to forget about the issue of corruption, which is rife, the lack of good-quality jobs, the cost of living and other problems, especially those related to the family. Of course, it was only the Prime Minister, his Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries who are being paid twice for practically the same job. All other human beings strive to make ends meet. And that is why GonziPN is fond of these distractions, since the problems that most people are encountering do not make it on to the national agenda. However, it is our job to put these and other issues back on top of the agenda. Whatever concerns the people concerns us as well.
In the last few weeks we saw people in other countries fighting and dying for democracy. Of course, our hope is that they will manage to achieve what they are fighting for without any further casualties and hardships. Locally we pride ourselves in being a democratic country and we cannot say that we are not. However, if we delve deeper into how the institutions are run and how the real decisions are taken, then I start to doubt the level of democracy that we have.
Of course, we have come a long way, and this is thanks to politicians from different political parties. However, our democracy can be improved when it comes to certain decisions. What happened in Parliament last week during the extended Wednesday sitting is one example. The Prime Minister was evidently very uncomfortable with a situation where at least one of his backbenchers had declared that he will vote with the Opposition on the motion which proposed a referendum on divorce. As such, he wanted to avoid a vote at all costs. In this he found an ally: Mr Speaker himself. I am referring specifically to the second ruling of the day, where the Speaker mentioned a situation which was nonexistent when one considers what happened before. I am not going into detail since space in lacking, but the outcome of his ruling was that he opted to save his Prime Minister rather than give a fair and impartial ruling.
It may appear that we have a democracy, but I believe this is also a form of dictatorship. This can be expected from a party which has been in power for too many years.
Carmelo Abela is the Opposition’s Main Spokesman for Social Policy
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