When the PN lost the last election I, like many other Maltese people and especially like most of us who believed in the PN, reflected on the election result. I pondered all the reasons we had lost and tried hard to be fair and think of all the things that made Labour not only electable but able to win by such a majority.
Trying to be as objective as possible, I kept in mind that we, the PN, did not lose by a whisker but by a few miles. We were thrashed. So, to my mind, the people did not just speak – they screamed – and the people know best. I thought that maybe Malta needed a change, maybe we will see a new era of Labour take over and it will all be for the good of the country. Yes! I tried believing that we were not in for a few years of old Labour and old ways. I tried, as they tell us to do in most self-improvement courses, to think positively. At the end of the day, by nature I am positive and try hard to see the good in everything.
Just three months have passed since the election and, unfortunately, my positive thoughts – my hopes – are not just dented but completely dashed. Since the movement has taken over, all I can see and say is that the Labour of old is back. All the good and pleasant words were just a horrendous cover to get the wolf back in. So far the wolf still smiles but even that smile sometimes turns into a growl.
Malta has experimented with Joseph Muscat’s new Labour but I doubt if many of the 36,000 extra voters who put their trust in him are still convinced of their choice. I am hardly saying they have already changed – but can any of the switchers, apart from those who have been given one of the lucrative posts, truly say this is what they voted for? If so, then what we have in Malta is a strange way of looking at our politics and our future—we prefer suffering and we prefer tribal politics which we had not seen since the bad old days of Labour.
My life as a doctor obviously makes me most interested in what is happening in the world of medicine. I will not get into controversies about how the ministry is being run or how the waiting lists were meant to disappear by magic. Yes, magic was promised by Labour before the elections, but the only magic that Labour has managed is to win people over. The rest is a load of excuses and terrible decisions.
In the medical field, the worst thing that has happened is a real throwback to the Mintoff days: the word ‘transfer’, long forgotten as a political weapon, has come back not just to haunt or taunt us but to terrify us.
The use of the word ‘transfer’ in such huge numbers on the grounds of political allegiance is worrying – and not just for the ones who are being vindictively transferred. That is bad enough and a true morale breaker. By these measures the Labour government is draining our workforce in places where they are most needed to be vigilant and dedicated. Like Labour of old, the ones in authority do everything to make the employees feel less equal and less important – and that they can be transferred from their position to an inferior or unfamiliar one at the whim of the powers-that-be. This is where these Labour ministers and their top brass are committing the worst of sins: they exert this power to instil fear in all employees, not just the PN-leaning ones. By these inexplicable transfers, all government employees know that if they turn against the party, the minister or the heads, they will get moved like pawns in a game of chess. On the other hand, all Labourites get the jobs they desire.
Gone is true competence which is given its due reward – and in comes political allegiance and being subservient in order to move on and climb up. The non-PN followers are also put into a mindset that helps the work morale to be diluted: by this method those who think they are safe are themselves turned into hard party people who care more about their party allegiance than the way they go about their daily duties. So, with a quick swing of the baton, the minister and his minnows have managed to change the workforce into one based on manipulation, fear and politics. Joseph Muscat promised a new way of politics: and this scary way of politics is it!
This is the slow but steady way Labour is taking over by subterfuge. To start with, I was ready to give Labour some time before passing judgement on them and their policies. The transfer policy, amongst much else, is what damns this Labour government to the same level of incompetence and mind-control we thought we would never see again on these islands.
How wrong those 36,000 people were in blindly trusting a man and his team whose only scope was to take over and, slowly but surely, stall our country’s progress.