Do you remember Joseph Muscat in Opposition? It is only two and a half years ago and I am sure that like me, you will remember he did or said very little which anybody can define as remotely positive or concrete. Yes, he was downright negative.
When asked about his position about any particular issue, he would laugh it off and say he is not in Government. When asked what he would do if he were Prime Minister, he would once again laugh it off and say, “You’ll see.”
Well, we are seeing, aren’t we?
The sales pitch is definitely Muscat’s forte. Everything and everyone has a price for Muscat, which means that everything and everyone can be bought or sold. And by anything, I do mean anything. Visas, passports, residence permits, ODZ, health, education… you name it, he sells it.
Thanks to his sales, we now have people living on this island who we know nothing about. And yet, they have a vote and with it they could make choices about our own future.
Worse still, we are being told that we shouldn't even be asking about these people because these are people of talent who have invested in our country and by asking questions we would be putting them off.
We all know that the people wanted a change from the previous PN government. I wonder if Muscat’s is the Government they really wanted. I don't blame the voters. This is not what Muscat promised. Voters got the wrong deal.
Unfortunately we cannot go to the consumer rights office and say that the misleading advertising dished out by Muscat’s propaganda machine made voters "buy" something they didn't bargain for. Of course the question is: Will voters trust Muscat again next time round?
On the other hand, what about PN in Opposition? Is this the kind of Opposition people want?
Simon Busuttil is proving to be a tougher cookie than many expected. For some, this energetic approach of doing things differently doesn’t necessarily go down well. Changes create discomfort, particularly for people who strongly believe in the status quo. Simon Busuttil has restructured the party, moved the Independence festivities from Floriana to Valletta and now he has presented a pre-budget document from the Opposition – unheard of!
Wouldn't it have been easier for Simon Busuttil and the PN in Opposition to simply sit back and shut up? We could have easily done what Joseph Muscat did in Opposition – which is to say, absolutely nothing. Probably yes, it would have been easier but Simon Busuttil doesn't want things the easy way.
The idea of a pre-budget document half-way through a legislature is precisely to send the message that this Opposition is an alternative government. Muscat may well say that we have misread numbers or have no economic knowledge (well, he would, wouldn’t he?) but I assure you that he wants people to believe we are wrong. It is part of his strategy of political illusion.
The truth is Muscat is feeling the pinch and his surveys are probably showing a change. After just two and a half years Muscat knows that his huge majority in Parliament is the only thing keeping him from doing an Alfred Sant.
No Show
When, on Wednesday afternoon, I turned up at University and was told by KSU representatives that Forum Nisa Laburisti would not be debating with me, as planned, I was more than surprised.
The topic chosen, surrogacy, was one of Muscat’s political kites, only recently flown this summer, and he used his groupies to spread the word for him. They issued statements and gave their story to the press to give the impression that corruption, security and traffic were not the most important issues in our country.
Perhaps, who knows, someone bothered to look up the issue to be debated and realized that most women’s movements around the world are against surrogacy because it commercializes the woman’s body; so they simply pulled out.