I expect that a party in opposition for nearly twenty years would have a detailed programme of how it would implement its alternative policies to the ones adopted by a twenty-year old government. On the other hand, I was really surprised that instead of having a government defend its policies, described by its own exponents as a success story, the PN campaign has clinched on to a sole actor inviting the electorate to judge him more on electoral promises than on his achievements.
The PN campaign machine is trying to make the electorate forget that the PN has been governing the country for 20 years. The new promises of overhauling MEPA, of reshuffling the Cabinet and reforms across the board, convinces the intelligent voter that these promises are nothing more than a condemnation by the PN of its own government. The hiding of its ministers as if they never existed is a further declaration of failure. How can a party condemning its own government expect to be voted in for a further five years?
If the government was a success as Gonzi wants to convince us, why have the prime actors thrown out of sight? Strategists have advised Gonzi to appear solely in front of the electorate. PN strategists have also done away with the PN deputy leader.
The PN’s electoral campaign is a ferocious attack on voters to elect the same government for perpetuity. Another PN victory would mean that Malta would become a one-party state. That would be an affront to a lively democracy.
The incumbent government has been arrogant with those who do not profess the Nationalist creed. All the institutions established by law have been attacked and vilified. Attacks on the Electoral Commission, the Jury system, attacks on certain members of the Judiciary, on the Ombudsman. I cannot imagine government’s arrogance if the PN had to be voted in for another five years. That would send the message that the same ministers are there forever and no one could stop them. Lawrence Gonzi had every opportunity to change his Cabinet. He was incessantly urged by the Opposition, by civil society and by none other than The Times of Malta to reshuffle his Cabinet and throw away the dead wood. But Gonzi declared that all his ministers were delivering and there was no valid reason for introducing new blood. Now, on the eve of election, Gonzi is promising everything, including a deal to reshuffle his Cabinet.
Promises may delude a certain section of the electorate but those who had been so adversely affected by the PN policies (or lack of them) would not return to the PN fold. I met former PN sympathisers whose business has been ruined due to the electricity surcharge and heavy taxation, who were not awarded any government contracts despite the fact that they offered the cheapest tenders, and who will not give in to promises.
The promise to reform MEPA is not convincing at all. When building permits were granted to mega contractors to build high-rise apartments, and ruined the properties of persons who had their views ruined, the Prime Minister was there and instead of taking the appropriate action, defended his minister. No promise of a change in MEPA would restore the loss in property enjoyment and value. Suffering from MEPA’s injustices and irregularities were those persons who were refused a building permit and sold their properties for peanuts only to discover that building permits were later granted to their purchasers.
Those who have suffered at the hands of MEPA will find no consolation in Gonzi’s electoral promise to reform MEPA. And if the minister responsible for MEPA did not deliver, why did the PM retain him in his Cabinet? The PM is responsible for the deeds of his ministers. George Pullicino has been reported as saying that it was he who advised the Prime Minister to assume MEPA’s promised reform. If the minister failed, how can he advise his Prime Minister what to do? How can a minister admit his own failure and expects to be re-elected? How credible is it for a minister to advise his own PM and not the other way round? If Gonzi was incapable of reforming MEPA for such a long time, how can he do it now?
Another election promise is to cut taxation.A few weeks ago the Prime Minister launched his budget. We were invited ad nauseam on all broadcasting providers to visit the budget site. But nowhere were we told that taxation is to be drastically cut from 35% to 25%. To the contrary, over the last few years we were the most heavily taxed population in the European Union. Is Gonzi prepared to refund us taxpayers the excessive tax we have paid? When confronted over taxation in the past he would respond that we needed to make sacrifices. Now that election day is looming, gone are the sacrifices needed in the past and everything has become possible. Yes, when you promise, everything is possible in the realm of Promise Land. An old Maltese proverb (and one would find its equivalent in other languages) says that between promising and doing there is a gap as wide as the sea.
The electorate is wise enough to discern promises from the real world of politics and economics. It is immoral to make promises that would never materialise. It is a deceptive art to make people believe that one person alone could revolutionise what he failed to deliver when he was assisted by his ‘experienced’ ministers in whom he had faith. If he failed to take simple decisions (like that of reforming his Cabinet) when he had the power to procure them, how can we believe promises which are too good to be true? Past performance is a mirror for the future. Change brings fresh ideas, a new momentum and a confirmation that democracy in Malta is still alive.