Ramon Borg Bartolo’s letter entitled “WiserChoice.PL” (TMIS, 9 September) seems to be a perfect example of pathetic reasoning sadly obsessed on passing onto your readers a myopic dimension of reality.
Mr Borg Bartolo refers to the “cuckoo world inhabited by the PN”. This PN just happened to steer this country in one of the most difficult periods in recent history to being the country that has the fifth lowest unemployment rate in the EU. It has managed to bring to this country a record amount of foreign investment, a record number of tourists year after year and it has managed to do this in a peaceful manner.
Do I need to remind Mr. Borg Bartolo that during the illegitimate legislature of the Mintoff administration (1981–87), this country was brought to the brink of civil war, thanks to the then socialist government? Do I need to remind Mr Borg Bartolo that during the same legislature of the Socialist government, Malta was being ruled and oppressed by a clique of self-interested people to the detriment of us poor mortals? The use of meaningless colourful expressions intended to impress the gullible only help to show the puerility of Mr Borg Bartolo’s arguments.
Under the heading ‘Analysis’, Mr Borg Bartolo embarks on an exercise in superficial reasoning which can only to be equalled to the superficiality of the arguments made by his hero (Dr Muscat) in one of the latter’s prepared speeches. Is it so difficult to understand that if redundant people find new jobs that means new jobs have been created to replace the old ones? Is this too difficult for Mr Borg Bartolo to figure this out or is it simply an exercise of the latter trying to distort reality in such a way so as to present a picture that is different and totally alien to the obtaining one for reasons best known to him?
Mr Borg Bartolo claimed that there was the impression that the majority of the aid received by farmers from the EU structural funds came out of Malta’s coffers. Are we to take his word for this? He should note that while it is only an impression that they came out of Malta’s coffers, it is a definite certainty that they went into Malta’s coffers and this despite having a party in Opposition (Dr Muscat) that was bent on keeping Malta out of the EU.
Are we to take all the ramblings made by Mr Borg Bartolo in respect of the farming industry as gospel truth just because he says so? His statements are not backed by one iota of proof. Perhaps he should ask the farmers themselves what they think of their situation. I am sure that it would be an eye-opening experience for him.
Does Mr Borg Bartolo really consider himself a ‘independent observer’ or is he merely trying (and not succeeding) to impress readers that his comments are actually the fruits of the intellectual activities of an ‘independent observer’? The programme that Mr Borg Bartolo refers to is a programme meant to commemorate an event (Independence) that his party always tried to downgrade. It is a programme that is meant to commemorate an event that was not even included in the official annual celebrations during the Socialist reign. It is an event during which the Nationalist Party supporters were regularly beaten during its celebration in the Mintoff reign. In respect of the ‘Cancan Girls’, I am sure that that does not even come near that perfidious exercise of child indoctrination that was the ‘Brigata Laburista’ during the Socialist heyday.
Mr Borg Bartolo writes about job creation. Is he aware that Malta enjoys the fifth lowest unemployment rate in the EU or has this statistic conveniently eluded him? Has he forgotten the type of jobs that the Socialist regime managed to come up with? Does he remember Korp tal-Pjunieri, Bahhar u Sewwi and the Dejma corps? Need I remind him that the poor souls who opted to join one of the above corps were shorn not only of their right to join a union but also of their dignity, begging for handouts (perhaps leftovers would be a better word here) from a group of people close to the Socialist regime that never had it so good than during that infamous regime?
Regarding the Emergency Department, is he aware that the Ministry concerned is tackling that problem? How does his party intend ‘to impose longer working hours in proportion to demand’? Is it by making the country go through the experience we went through when private hospitals were closed in the death of night by the Socialist government and when the Socialist party in government (modern day Labour) embarked on the longest running industrial dispute ever with the Medical Association of Malta?
If there ever was a sector that his party managed to destroy and distort beyond recognition, it is quite definitely the education sector. Perhaps Mr Borg Bartolo can enlighten us poor mortals as to the number of students currently attending and graduating from university, MCAST and other institutions on an annual basis. Is it possible that he forgot how difficult it was to gain admittance to university during his party’s sojourn in government, unless you had some kind of parrinu (godfather)? Perhaps Mr Borg Bartolo can tell us how many schools were actually built for future generations during the Socialist heyday.
Can Mr Borg Bartolo inform us as to how he arrived at the conclusion that there is a diffusion of a strong sense of work to rule attitude? Are we to take his word for it? I feel that he should credit readers with a little more intelligence than that.
Mr Borg Bartolo’s argument about the ‘challenger’ really is the cherry on the cake. He speaks about personal attacks on Dr Joseph Muscat. What about the personal attacks on Dr Lawrence Gonzi especially on anonymous websites such as ‘tasteyourmedicine.com’? Let me be clear, I do not condone one or the other but to have Mr Borg Bartolo bemoaning, wailing and metaphorically crying his eyes out because of what may be happening to Dr Muscat and omit any reference to what is continually going on in respect of Dr. Gonzi is something which, to say the least, gives a new blind, myopic and half-sighted meaning to the term ‘analysis’.
Mr Borg Bartolo writes that Dr Muscat needs to watch over his ‘competent aides and deal rapidly and strictly with any clumsy rocking of the boat’. Is that what happened recently in the case of Jason Micallef? If Dr Muscat was not even capable of keeping Mr Micallef in check, how on earth does Mr Borg Bartolo expect Dr Muscat to control his party, if, God forbid, it actually manages to clinch victory in the next election?
Mr. Borg Bartolo’s reference to ‘compelling alternative solutions’ would be hilarious if it did not have such potential tragic consequences for the country. What ‘alternative solutions’ is he referring to? To date, the PL has not come up with one doable proposal (lowering the utilities prices and the creation of islands in the sea with no explanation as to how this is to be brought about??). The joke going around is that Dr Muscat does not explain his proposals for fear of their being plagiarized. Perhaps the ‘repeater class’ proposal would fall under that category.
Mr Borg Bartolo continues by saying that Dr Muscat’s speeches contain well-developed propositions. This argument seems to be taken directly from an episode of ‘Allo Allo’ as its hilarity really is of the highest standard. I do not intend to offend the intelligence of your readers by commenting further about this, suffice it to ask Mr. Borg Bartolo why is it that the ‘formidable threat to the incumbent regime’, Dr Joseph Muscat, finds it so difficult to organise sessions where he would be required to answer direct impromptu questions that he had not been previously asked, especially when these questions refer to his ‘proposals’?
Mr Borg Bartolo mentions the fact that Dr. Muscat and his party enjoy a larger national consensus. Perhaps he should also comment on the fact that survey after survey has consistently shown an unusually high percentage of ‘undecided’ voters. I can assure Mr Borg Bartolo that those voters will not remain ‘undecided’ come election time.
Mr Borg Bartolo advises us to vote Labour this time around when its line up consists primarily of people who willingly or not gave their consent for the country to go to the dogs as it did during the seventies and eighties. Perhaps he should follow his own advice and allow us to follow our own sounder judgment and vote for an administration that has transformed Malta into the fully fledged European democracy it is today rather than leaving it to lick the boots of the likes of Gaddafi, Mugabe and the rest of the motley crowd that the MLP would have had us spend the last decades with. Wiser choice – indeed!
Joseph Bonello
NAXXAR