Every single one of the eleven candidates running on the Nationalist party ticket deserves to be elected to the European Parliament – people of integrity and professionalism who will be taken seriously. Most importantly, they are convinced about Europe being Malta’s natural home and European values and standards. They represent a party that worked relentlessly to get us into Europe, notwithstanding the most negative and destructive anti-Europe campaign launched so forcefully by our current Prime Minister and Labour’s star candidate.
The people of these islands had the good sense to vote yes to membership and, as a result, this country has flourished, its youth empowered, its standards elevated, the entire face of the country transformed and never have our people – particularly our youth – enjoyed such tremendous opportunities. And all of this thanks to the Nationalist party and certainly no thanks to Joseph Muscat and Alfred Sant. If it had been up to them, we would not be there at all!
So, frankly, none of the Labour party candidates actually deserve to be elected because they are contesting in the name of a party that is essentially Eurosceptic and how can MEPs elected on behalf of a Eurosceptic party get the best results for our nation? In addition, they support a party that has spent the last 14 months riding roughshod over those very same promises that convinced thousands to vote for it.
What do the sensible amongst the 36,000 think of the way in which the slogan “mhux lil min taf imma x’taf” evaporated when those whose qualification for important posts was not apparent were given them on a silver plate, including the wife of the Energy Minister who was sent to the Far East costing the tax payer a staggering €800,000 over one legislature – €13,000 per month – without a public call to ensure that the best was in fact chosen?
What do they think of how the slogan on “meritokrazija” was thrown out of the window as we got to know of highly competent and professional people being replaced by totally inappropriate Labour diehards as was the case of Mrs Dolores Gauci, CEO at Mount Carmel Hospital and a recognised expert in mental health, who was replaced by a young Labour lawyer with zero experience in the subject or a Major becoming the Commander in Chief of our armed forces?
What do they think of the “tista ma taqbilx maghna izda tista tahdem maghna” slogan being reduced to shreds as news of hundreds of vindictive transfers were announced and are still happening as I write? What do they think about the slogan “zero tolerance to corruption”, as the government failed its very first test over the electricity meter scandal, with the most disconcerting thing about this case being the manner in which the Prime Minister – at a political gathering – grandly announced that he had instructed the Commissioner of Police not to proceed against these people! In what democratic country does the Prime Minister give such instructions to the Commissioner of Police?
What about the battle cries of “Transparency” and “Good governance”? Without any mention of it in Labour’s election manifesto, we saw this government attempt to sell our very identity and nationality, turning us into a laughing stock in the international financial world. We saw the government sneaking in a law about civil unions – over which there had been unanimous agreement by both sides of the house – a clause granting gay couples the right to adopt without the necessary grounding and preparation.
We have a government who refuses to publish two of the most important contracts it has entered into, one with the Electrogas consortium from whom we are now obliged to purchase our electricity for the next 18 years and the other with Henley and Partners, the organisation associated with the financing of parties in the Caribbean!
We have seen this government take the most cavalier attitude towards safety that I have ever witnessed. This has led Mepa to grant a permit for a 136,000-tonnes liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) in the middle of Marsaxlokk harbour without carrying a maritime impact assessment and without saying in black and white what the result would be if a gas leak came into contact with an ignition source. A maritime impact assessment is crucial because only that would show how the movement of thousands of vessel in the harbour is likely to impact on it and what the effect would be of the vicious and destructive south-easterly winds and seas to which it will be so dangerously exposed.
The government has repeatedly been requested to eliminate these risks by having the FSRU outside the harbour. Our Prime Minister dismissed these requests completely and said that the government had chosen the safest option. Rubbish! It would certainly be safer for the residents of Marsaxlokk and for the entire power supply if the vessel was sited outside the harbour, rather than inside, quite apart from the fact that, out at sea, this huge structure would be marked on each and every nautical chart, would be surrounded by buoys with an extensive no navigation zone around it, would show up on radar and would be lit up like the proverbial Christmas tree, as are other similar structures such as oil rigs. This would not be some fish farm lying low in the water that is hard to spot or identify!
However, just as we found out that the contract with the consortium had been signed last week – away from the media or public scrutiny – presumably for the LNG carrier to be in the harbour, we also found out that there seem to be plans for an FSRU out at sea after all. What hypocrisy and what bad governance! The idea of the LNG carrier inside the very busy and unprotected Marsaxlokk Bay should be scrapped now and the Prime Minister should not take any risks at all!
This week we also saw our PM hugging and kissing a person who had just been handed a suspended two-year jail term by the Criminal Court of Appeal for having spitefully and maliciously sent compromising photographs of his ex-boyfriend with other men to his ex boyfriend’s female boss and work colleagues. Our PM told us quite hysterically that this person’s values were his values and that he considered him as his ‘soldier of steel’. Can you imagine Angela Merkel behaving in this manner? When is he going to learn and understand that we expect our Prime Minister to behave like a Prime Minister? Perhaps he will start to learn this if people send out the right signals in this MEP election.
We need to start taking steps to put a stop to this unacceptable mode of governance and get this country back on track. One way of doing this is by voting for the real star candidates in this election, the candidates on the Nationalist Party ticket.
Dr Fenech is the President of the Executive Committee of the Nationalist Party