The Malta Independent 16 March 2025, Sunday
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Where is the PN?

Victor Calleja Sunday, 9 March 2025, 07:34 Last update: about 7 days ago

Look hard enough and you might find out where PN is and where it is headed.

Simon Busuttil, one of the former leaders of the PN had emphatically stated that, under Labour, the country would go "gass down għal gol-ħajt (crash into a wall at top speed)." He sure was prophetic, as Malta truly has hit the lowest of lows under Labour. But his party, the PN, instead of rising like a phoenix and transforming itself into a party which can, or could, be an alternative government, leaves much to be desired.

Despite all this, a protest has been organised by the PN today, 9 March, and I believe that all of us - of whatever colour and political leaning - should join in the protest march. Even Labourites should be there, especially if any Labourites with a love for liberty still exist.

The protest, and your presence, might but most probably won't make much of a difference. Labour isn't bothered by criticism. Even if the crowd protesting is ginormous - somewhat similar to protests in the 1980s - this Labour government would just pay no heed to it.

Labour seems totally cut off from reality and openly flicks off any criticism. Yet deep down, deep down in some chambers unknown and unseen, the Labour Party, like all bullies, hates being criticised. And it will be - especially if the protests are sustained and huge - scared. As always, they will do what bullies do and shout louder, call anyone who is against Labour traitors, anti- progressive, puppets in the PN's (or more likely Jason Azzopardi's and Repubblika's) hands.

At the end of the day, people power, and the Labour bigwigs would do well to remember this, got rid of Joseph Muscat and his desperate lot. These mighty ones might - deep down - fear a resurgence of people power.

Everyone should attend the protest march organised by the PN. You have to be there. Show your anger. Send a message to Robert Abela and his team: demand a stop to his dictatorial ways, his sapping of the rule of law, the glorifying of impunity for people who blatantly broke, and break, the law.

Does this mean that I am a man with blue-tinted eyesight? A diehard PN man enamoured of all it does and represents?

Definitely NOT.

However, now is the time to put aside petty feelings of perfection. I will be there - and so should you - because I am against any abuse of power. And the Labour Party right now is not just imperfect but a threat to our well-being, to our democratic foundations, to our freedom.

The people in power are not just incompetent but also ready to forgive, close both eyes to, and even reward, the errant, the corrupt, the criminals.

When, from the Prime Minister downwards, nobody accepts responsibility for their actions, we all need to stand up and be counted and show our disapproval. When Robert Abela and his cronies are doing all in their power to retain power, to evade the hand of the law, we need to be united. Even those of us who are not of the same political persuasion but who share a longing for justice, for a better way of conducting politics.

The PN is in one of its worst moments in its history. Malta deserves better. It deserves - especially at this time of an assault on our democracy - a better-organised opposition, a party with a better ideology, a party with better leaders, even with a better brand. Partit Nazzjonalista: that name, that anthem, that flag, that slogan, all are so wrong, so outdated, so from an era that is gone and thankfully buried.

The party, it is said, was glorious in times of old: maybe, but even glorious organisations need to renew themselves, reinvent themselves, need to find new routes, new visions, new energies.

The PN is, admittedly, a neolithic party, a dinosaur which somehow survived the meteors that hit the earth. But it remains the main force of opposition, the party that has, besides the Labour Party, the biggest number of votes and the only members of Parliament who are not affiliated to the ruling party.

Let's put aside all our misgivings about the PN. Let's put aside all their omissions, their leadership vacuum, their soulless existence. Let's all try to do our little bit to join with whoever is potentially in a position to stop the further haemorrhage of our lifeblood, our liberty, our democracy.

The forces that oppose Labour, or fear the path chosen by Labour, must somehow act in cohesion: otherwise the only winner will be the Labour Party. And the loser will be Malta's democracy.

 

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