The election campaign has run into the murky shallows. No one is discussing the electoral manifestos of the parties. Nor even the most salient points in them such as PL’s proposals for a new power station or PN’s main proposals.
All we have come to hear is about the ‘scandal’ in oil procurement and about alleged drug taking in a PL club.
The campaign has thus been brought to allegations and more allegations by either side, sometimes supported by email correspondence dating back to 2004 and conversations of some time ago recorded without permission by the person speaking. And that’s about it.
A sovereign people, a Member State of the EU, heir to a tradition of thousands of years of civilization, we are brought down to this level by a political system that says it enhances stability while in fact it promotes instability – the polarized two party system.
We are a people which glories itself of its human and Christian values which once every five years surrenders to this paroxysm of hatred with a language that would not disgrace any of those peoples who every so often surrender to internecine warfare.
A people split into two tribes which can never reach any agreement on anything. An electoral system in which winner takes all and the loser loses all.
Politicians who after a lifetime of serving the people leave under a cloud instead of being revered and possibly being placed in positions where they can continue to give advice as happens in so many other countries.
Television stations that not only mirror the divided nation but actually reinforce it. We live in a country where if you tune in to one station you will hear a completely different version of events from the other stations and if you manage to tune in to all three you can go crazy.
This is a country which changes its government usually by a very small packet of votes and where the losing half is left to rue its loss by just a few votes for the next five years. And where allegations of corrupt practices are thus encouraged to flourish.
Soon enough, in just a fortnight’s time, this will rise to a paroxysm and cacophony of noise and anxiety levels shoot skywards until then, as DOI helpfully told us yesterday, at around 1pm on Sunday 10 March we will be told who is the ultimate winner of all this and celebrations will begin while the losing side hides itself in shame and fear if not anger.
It is true: We have had an enormously long election campaign and it has not helped things in the least. But we are now coming to the crucial last weeks and people, the peace-loving, law-abiding, citizens of Malta, who probably stand to gain nothing with whoever gets elected are now alarmed and concerned. Families where members come from different political sides are arguing, people avoid meeting other people socially for that could lead to disputes and even talking quietly to friends at a bar or a restaurant or in the street can lead to serious problems if overheard by someone from ‘the other side’.
Do we have to be like this? Does it behove this country for its citizens to slide into this five-year itch?
The events of the elections of the past two decades may not have witnessed the scenes of mayhem we saw in the 1970s and 1980s but, judging from the virulence of words posted on blogs or social media, violence might not be far from the surface.
As we wait to see who will be the ultimate winner, we know one thing for sure: the ultimate loser is Malta itself.