One of the biggest challenges for the international community at large, including Malta itself, is that during this new year we need to think outside the box. There should be no room left for complacency or
self-congratulation
This might be hard for government to do given that it has long shifted the country into an election mode, ever since the shrill Prime Minister address at the closure of the Independence Celebrations last September.
Regardless of what might have triggered such a knee-jerk reaction from his end, the net result is that his injudicious words have merely served to fuel more speculation and uncertainty in the political and economic sphere. Even if he may decide to try and do his best to get his creaky political engine going till the virtual end of this legislature.
This was an annus horribilis for this government and the PN on many counts.
In the majority of cases they went beyond the realm of the international crisis itself.
Most shortcomings being the net result of political insensitivity, political misjudgement, a misreading of present day realities, a set of wrong priorities and a dismal lack of leadership.
No matter how the Franco Debono saga might end up, and without going into the merits as to whether he was right or wrong in the stance he adopted as well as regarding the timing he chose, his head-on confrontation with government served one sole purpose: That of exposing Lawrence Gonzi as a poor and indecisive leader, held hostage by his own eagerness to cling to power as long as possible, even if this meant continuing to lead a badly dented government at such a delicate and sensitive juncture.
On his part, in spite of his relatively young age, Joseph Muscat has continued to show far more political maturity and gravitas than the 60-year-old Prime Minister.
This was most recently evident when Muscat made it clear in San Ġwann on the 34th anniversary of Karen Grech’s brutal murder, that in the coming years, the remembrance of Karen’s and Raymond Caruana’s killings should be commemorated by the State rather than by the political parties.
He also appealed to all and sundry that one should stop giving such murders a political tag while ensuring that we will not continue with the slanging match of trying to classify and or categorise one murder in a different manner from the other.
In plain terms, both parties should rise to the occasion, and stop politicising such occasions for partisan ends.
Joseph Muscat had also made similarly forward-looking suggestions when he had raised the issue of an agreed upon national day that would win national consensus rather than having the country continuing to drag on with the present cocktail of five different national days.
Rather than engaging in a healthy debate or else by coming up with a well-calibrated response, government propagandists had shot down the PL leader’s proposal almost instantly, by making it clear, without any prior discussion, that if there had to be a single national day then there was not much choice.
It simply had to be Independence Day!
The recent turn of events in the Arab world and even the former Soviet Union, is making it very evident that 2012 seems predestined to mark the age of the citizen.
If this will prove to be the case in Malta or not only time will tell.
Although this was seen most dramatically in the Arab world where they experienced the first birth pangs of the so-called Arab Spring, this does in no way imply that political democracies should be excluded from such a process.
We do not need a Mohamed Bouazizi to set himself on fire as the Tunisian guy did in December 2010 to spark off such a project.
Lest I be misquoted, I am in no way implying that mass protests should be used as a pretext to overthrow legitimate governments, even if they might have won the elections by stealth.
All that I am implying is that the same way that citizens were instrumental in shaping the events that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa as well as the downfall of Communism in the 80s, they should be the pivotal and grassroots movement that can serve as catalysts for change even in our country.
One might argue that elections in themselves are undoubtedly an expression of popular will, but I personally think that the time is now ripe for civil society to play a more active role rather than to make the odd and occasional whimper in fits and starts on single issues.
This can only come about if we manage to elect a government that truly believes in a full transparency process; in accountability; in a graft free political environment; as well as in getting its priorities right – particularly when the world at large (our country included) is experiencing more than its fair share of austerity measures. More of the same is definitely not an option and will merely increase cynicism and political apathy.
One thing that we must definitely put aside is political hypocrisy.
This was evidenced until recently when a number of governments that suddenly supported openly the Arab Spring that unfolded in a number of countries nearby, had been living quite comfortably with the dictators and regimes they were now so eager to condemn and disown.
A number of countries last year saw massive popular protests take place in established democracies ranging from Chile to Israel and the USA.
That such events did not occur in Malta is no reflection on the sense of well being or lack of it that the Maltese have experienced in recent months.
Not only has the middle class seen its base erode rapidly in the past years, the same way that the overall quality of life has dipped, but as recently pointed out by various columnists and editorialists, government has had more than its fair share of strategic miscalculations.
Foremost of which were the utility rates issue which anyone from industry to private consumers consider to have been pegged far too high at the expense of eroding our competitiveness while exacerbating our state of fuel poverty; the way the Prime Minister and his Cabinet covertly raised their salaries without letting the people know; as well as the botched manner in which the so-called transport reform merely served to fuel traffic congestion further while increasing the number of vehicles on the road. The handling of the divorce issue was in flagrant disrespect of public sentiment and opinion. On the other hand, the sham manner in which the Mepa hearing on the Delimara power station was conducted, also exposed the fact how our regulators seem to be there merely to rubber stamp key government decisions – regardless of their environmental health fall-out.
The only way government critics try to console themselves is by claiming that the PL is nevertheless ill-suited to run the country, in spite of all these lapses by government.
But then one should not expect any better from ‘well fed’ and ‘well nourished’ untouchable government apologists.
After all these are the same people who first claim that we over-indulge in negativity, then go on to add that we try to bend backwards to please one and all by making over-optimistic and bland proposals, only to end up concluding that we simply do not have what it takes to run the country.
I am quite sure that had the PL elected anybody else instead of Joseph Muscat as party leader they would be saying the same thing.
The bottom line runs as follows: Certain elements simply do not want to see a PL Prime Minister in power… at all costs. Their personal vested interests in most cases undoubtedly have a direct bearing on their reaching such summary conclusions.
I am meanwhile confident that from the forthcoming PL AGM onwards that falls due within weeks, the PL will reassert itself further as THE party that deserves to win the people’s confidence and trust in the coming elections.
Simply because the country urgently needs to move out of its rot. And also because the electorate at large simply deserves better.
The credibility test will no doubt be the decisive factor.
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www.leobrincat.com
Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister
for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change