Over the past weeks the PN has been very clear about its position on the issue of the Valletta ‘monti’.  Simon Busuttil reiterated his position as party leader and future PM very eloquently last Saturday during the press conference he gave in the vicinity of the new parliament building.  The PN has had, and will continue to have, culture at the centre of its policy.  After all, it is culture that identifies us as a nation, it defines our very existence as people living in Malta and Gozo.  Joseph Muscat is wrong if he believes that our people will accept his mediocrity as their standard.

Indeed, the past weeks have reaffirmed that the PL stands for mediocrity and opportunism and its raison d'être is to keep Joseph Muscat in power.  Joseph Muscat, a fully credentialed populist, is perpetuating old Labour methods and recycling the tactics of other leftist leaders in Europe who he admires so much.  What is even more worrying is that, with very few notable exceptions, PL blindly follows its leader.  This is becoming more and more apparent from the group of PL acolytes who comment on social media.  For anyone who can analyse the way people write, it is blatantly obvious that either these persons have unity of thought or they are acting on the party's behalf to convey one simple message.  The Joseph Muscat dictum is “hit them out with the past” and “make sure that people do not realise that there is a new PN and a new PN leadership”.

Recently, when talking about "The Culture of Balance" that the PN wishes to restore after Joseph Muscat's continuous populist blunders of pleasing all and sundry, rather than legitimately arguing for or against the PL acolytes immediately set in motion a rant about my past as minister of health.  Their instructions were to direct me to my “blunders” of the past.  Some went over their call of duty and one had the nerve to mingle my profession with the discussion at hand and in so doing humiliated people with mental health problems.  Joseph Muscat and his propaganda machine are responsible for the manner in which standards are degenerating.  The PL was the most negative and destructive opposition that this country has seen, and is perpetuating its strategies in Government.  Our society will pay the consequences for this amoral and self-centred way of governing.

Whether he likes it or not, Joseph Muscat has realised that his “living the past” tactic is now outdated.  People have been clearly seeing signs of an emerging PN led by a true statesman.  Looking at the past is not getting PL brownie points anymore.  True, many people wish that the PN had a Machiavellian tough speaking and confrontational leader who could match Joseph Muscat at his antics.  It is my profession to understand how the human mind reasons and reacts, and it is natural that decent people may be frustrated to see that the PN has been “landed” with a decent leader, an honest and trustworthy person that is led by principles and acts in the common good.  Instinct dictates that it takes a bully to oust a bully, but history has shown that it is statesmen that emerge as true leaders when societies realise what bullies have got them into. 

Who genuinely believes today that Joseph Muscat stuck to any of his populist promises? No more patients staying in corridors; a clean non carcinogenic energy generating plants within two years; five new schools in five years; meritocracy; transparency; no privatisation of EneMalta and AirMalta; etc.  It is obvious that Joseph Muscat has lost control and his inner circle, who are devouring public resources behind his back.  But he can’t stop them.  He has presented Malta as an open box of chocolates and in March 2013 has declared their exclusive party open.

Coming back to the monti issue, it is time to start exposing Joseph Muscat and his strategists’ ethos.  Their release of a purported last minute PN pre-electoral promise on having the monti on Ordnance Street is the latest of examples of how amoral these people are.  Do you remember Konrad Mizzi’s accusations to George Pullicino in parliament? Was there any follow up to that?  Do you remember Joseph Muscat’s report release directed at tarnishing Karm Mifsud Bonnici?  The clinical release of information to deflect attention and hit opponents.  This goes hand in hand with the use of people and interest groups for its advantage.  I wrote that about this subject and contended that we are “all pawns on Joseph Muscat’s chess board” and will use and discard anyone as long as it gives him an advantage and preserve his status.  Do the ‘monti’ hawkers really believe that Joseph Muscat is championing their cause? Does anyone really believe that this issue came to the fore coincidentally? Now, while people were starting to focus on how Joseph Muscat used the hunters’ lobby group and struck a secretive deal with them behind everybody’s back? Now, just a few weeks before the referendum on spring hunting that he never wanted because it was never meant to happen, and before the elections that he did not manage to remove?  The monti hawkers are but one of the dispensable groups, he chose them as his disposable pawn.  I ask them, if there was such an agreement with them, why action it now and not immediately after the last election? Why throw them into the spotlight now and not after the referendum and after the local council elections?  Expect many more pawns to be disposed of ruthlessly and many more e-mails and reports to strategically surface at the opportune time.  You or your interest group may be the next in line.

Meanwhile, fuel prices continue to be exorbitantly high and out of synch with what is happening in the rest of the world; people are starting to realize that during the last budget the Minister for Finance forgot to tell us that a lot of the administrative charges and fees that have to be paid in relation to services given to the public by government agencies and departments have shot up savagely; the public sector continues to hide unemployment by taking on more and more employees irrespective of whether they are needed or whether they have the aptitude and skills to fill those posts; manufacturing exports are tumbling; retail sales are plummeting; and as a consequence, the public debt is growing at an alarming rate.  After a party is over, the person throwing the party pays for it.  We are footing the bill for Joseph’s grand bash.

Post Scriptum, the date when our Prime Minister solemnly undertook to resign if a new gas-fired power station would not be up and running is looming near.  Will anyone bet his 4 cent fuel savings that our Prime Minister will keep his promise?