I love Malta

The irony is lost on them

Last Sunday, during his sermon to the followers, Joseph Muscat explained how his candidates for the forthcoming election are exceptional (and by inference different to the PN candidates) because they are accomplished people who ‘ma ghandhom bzonn xejn’.

The irony, of course, is that most of these new candidates are in their 20’s, 30’s & 40’s and have been brought up under successive Nationalist Governments - which explains why they were given all the opportunities to capitalise on their talents to become accomplished.

Professional accomplishment is the fruit of a system that allows you to build on what you have and encourage you to develop your skills further by training, coaching, a work environment that is conducive to further learning and then using those skills to achieve professionally.

Those who like me are in their 50’s will understand that this is precisely the area where a Labour Government did its utmost to destroy any ambition any of us may have had to become professionals by going to University.

Subsequent PN Governments, realising that education was the key to our future prosperity, reversed the policies and helped all those willing - regardless of political leaning - to develop to their full potential. 

Many of those that benefited from these policies are now in their 20’s - 40’s and ironically make up a significant portion of Labour’s new candidates. They then stand on a podium at a general conference and proclaim, as Chris Fearne did, that the PN Governments have done nothing for the nation. The same applies to one Joanne Vella Cuschieri in a recent email of hers.

You are all living proof of the fruits of successive PN Governments - at least have the decency not to state blatant untruths. Your lifestyle and success (your accomplishments) give the lie to your pronouncements.

If ever you doubted the sincerity of the PL

I have been forwarded one of the first missives of the electoral campaign before an election has been announced. It is clear from this email that the PL will continue to defy ‘is-sewwa maghruf’ to cast their own version of facts simply beause they have no alternative answers.

It is easier for them to re-invent history than it is for them to use their intellect to come up with appropriate policies that make sense for the times. Just read the following text from an email sent by one Joanne Vella Cuschieri, who hails from Mellieha:

Jekk kif jidher li ser jigri fil-gimghat li gejjin ser ikollna Elezzjoni Generali nistieden lil dawk kollha li huma lkoll prodott tas-sistema tal-istipendji kif hekk iddikjara l-Mexxej tal-Partit Laburista Dr. Joseph Muscat nhar il-Hadd li ghadda (liema sistema ddikjara li huwa jaqbel maghha u mhux ser immissa) sabiex jahsbu kemm baghtew wara li gradwaw sabiex isibu xoghol u jaqlighu il-hobza ta’ kuljum ghaliex f’dawn l-ahhar hamsa u ghoxrin sena kienet biss il-klikka u t-tfal tal-klikka li kienu qed igawdu mill-prosperita tal-pajjiz filwaqt li l-ohrajn baqghu isaffru. Mela vvutaw b’mohhkom u vvutaw PL.

One of Malta’s lawyers who entered University - without favour - under a PN Government states that in the past 25 years ‘kienet biss il-klikka u t-tfal tal-likka li kienu qed igawdu mill-prosperita tal pajjiz filwaqt li l-ohrajn baqghu isaffru.’

Unlike Joanne, I was denied education at our university and offered work in the ‘pijunieri’. I had to seek prospects away from home because of a Labour Government. Joanne was too young to remember what it really was like to be denied education or work pre-1987. She’s a lucky one - she came of age when the Universtory’s doors were thrown wide open and jobs were created in the private sector for all to be able to flourish. 

What a cheek!

In the past 25 years the Nationalist Governments have created prosperity, jobs and education opportunities without favour for all the country and its citizens. .

This is the deceit that we will be showered with. The re-writing of the PL’s shameful history and the blatant lies that scrape the bottom of the barrel. Everyone knows the truth - vote PL at your peril!

It’s no longer about Franco frankuni

Yesterday’s Bondi+ was well timed as it probably signals the end of Franco Debono and the start of the election campaign. It seems highly likely that by week’s end we will have a dissolved parliament and the campaign by the main parties will be in full swing.

Franco let down his constituents, his party, his fellow Nationalist parliamentarians and ultimately himself. It was never about democracy and strengthening it with his proposals. It was all about Franco wanting to get one up on Joseph. There was little wrong with the content - it was context and method that were sorely lacking.

Most of us do not give two hoots about reforms within the judicial system. The vast majority of us are law abiding citizens that hope to never walk up the steps of the law courts. If the reforms resulted in a better system then bring them on. Are they earth shattering and top priority? I doubt it - and so do most of the rest of the country.

The PL couldn’t give a stuff about his proposals and the PN listened but failed to enact. Did it make a difference to Joe Borg down the street? Not unless he was charged with a criminal offence, No.

What matters to us is job creation, money in our pockets, a better quality of life and general peace and happiness. It is a simple formula that can be complicated by loads of rhetoric that our political class appear to indulge in ad nauseum. But when push comes to shove what matters is that next year we will be better off than this year, the following year better than the next and so on.

Herein lies the crux of the matter. What Franco has done is bring forward the date of the next election prematurely and given the advantage his lifelong foe Joseph Muscat. His own personal agenda has played second fiddle to his pronounced values and principles. He calls himself a Nationalist but in truth he is an egocentric narcissist.

In a few weeks time we may well watch Franco at pleased with himself for having pulled one over Joseph (in his own mind) as he watches and listens to the Labour party supporters celebrate. He will feel that he was instrumental in disposing of the PN Government and that perhaps Joseph could not have done it without his help.

If he was true to the party’s values, as he tells us he is, then he would have fought tooth and nail to keep Labour out because we all know what the result will be for our quality of life. It will be trying to keep impossible promises at the expense of getting the fundamentals right - and creating a right old mess in the process.

Been there and done that!

Thank you Franco.