I am an MLP supporter. Nobody listens to me because I am old and I live at the old peoples’ hospital counting my last days. Most people refer to me as “that old senile man” (dak ix-xih zmagat), but I found an angel who listened and promised to write this for me because I cannot write anymore. That angel writes the hidden stories of people like me before we take them with us under the earth.
I always voted for the MLP except on the EU issue. The EU is mostly socialist in a real sense, like the way Jesus Christ presented it. I am not a Churchgoer because I do not believe that confession should be voluntary so that it can allow the freedom for that person to choose and so that it can have more meaning. The following is a free confession.
The EU does not have to tell us what to do because we already know, but we do not have the guts to do it so we can hide behind the EU and allow them to force us to do what we should have done a long time ago by ourselves.
We are afraid that the illegal immigrants will take over our land and we make a big fuss to the EU to stop it. What a sick joke and how stupid it makes us look, when the truth is that we have already allowed the hunters to take over our land, and the MLP says that we will have to start negotiations with them to allow us what is called hunting. Nobody wishes to reach the stage to live the secluded way I now live in my old age but we have to grow up at least in the way we think.
The hunters said that they will give their message during the elections. I did not understand their message and did not see it. The truth is that the hunters have been hiding behind the MLP for a long time and they have been using the party. The truth is that the MLP lost the election again by a very narrow margin. Of course we lose it. How can we win if we allow a few thousand people to hold us at ransom? Of course we lose if we keep presenting ourselves as the bully party and if we do not allow anybody to disagree.
I live here in a community of people with different political opinions and we still respect and look after each other a lot so we cannot understand why you people living more comfortably outside these confines have to wait so long to understand. The MLP lost again because it waited a long time to put on the frontline a person with the charisma that the leader of the PN has. We did have those people ourselves but the MLP discarded them. Now we have Michael Falzon who responded to the same attitude of the PN and he accepted the responsibility to show it openly even after conceding defeat. We always had those people but we always discarded them.
Michael Falzon made it clear that all politicians are in the same boat and they all want to obtain what is good for this country and that this can be done in a gentlemanly way. If he is really the person he showed himself to be (not a double character) then he will work with the leader of the PN not against him and the wish of the majority in five years’ time will be the MLP. I doubt very much that I will be still here to see it but I will try. The following is something I read and I believe in it whoever wrote it.
The hunters and trappers are not the same kind of people. The hunters kill the birds that the trappers want alive. The hunters still believe in the death sentence but that is outdated because it was abolished in most of the free countries in the world. Hunting should only be allowed when the people have nothing to eat except the birds they kill. The MLP primarily and the PN secondarily made sure many years ago that nobody should have to beg for food on the table.
Unfortunately for them the hunters keep shooting themselves in the foot. To start with, hunters are a long time ‘out of date’. The word hunters implies ‘people who had (in the past times) to hunt for food to sustain themselves’. Today it is only a blood sport and a destruction of sometimes even rare birds; so the word hunter is already extinct in these terms.
It is also now useless using politics to obtain strength. All the political parties have declared that they will follow EU rulings. If some individuals from some parties are secretly ‘whispering’ some promises – like withdrawing from the EU, or making the taxpayers pay for the fines imposed on the entire country then even they are being used.
Unfortunately the trappers are trapping themselves by associating themselves with the hunters. A trapper wishes to trap birds alive; a hunter shoots them down before a trapper can catch them. It seems so illogical that they are together in one organisation.
Hunters and trappers put together are officially estimated to represent about 15,000. That represents less than 4% of the population – so how can they expect to occupy, by questionable means, RTOs, or squatting on 50% of the entire natural countryside? Do not the other 96% of the population deserve to enjoy the little remaining natural countryside too? Why cannot they stop referring to themselves as hunters, and say the truth – for example: ‘blood-sporters’ or a more suitable word or phrase?
Hiding behind bushes, or words, by a few, is no longer acceptable to the large majority of people. A minority has rights too; but in this case particularly their rights must be in relation to their size, at least in such a small country. If this country is not big enough, they have the right to go abroad on hunting holidays in larger countries.
We are only hiding behind very thin bushes even when we accuse the EU of causing this. The truth is that we have known and lived with this problem for far too long; we did not need the EU to tell us what we already knew many years before we joined. We just hid our heads in the hypocrisy of our partisan politics, and suffered the cowardice and greed of those who bartered the rights of 96% of the population against the 4% whose arrogance knows no boundaries.

Giuseppi Borg
St Vincent Hospital
Luqa

It was not a surprise to see Prof. Dominic Fenech turn up at this juncture to give unsolicited advice on the printed media.
What was surprising was his utter lack of consideration for his audience. Where was Prof. Fenech during these past ten years?
It may very well be that he disagreed with the administration of the Labour Party. He was not the only one. There were others who disagreed with the administration of the Labour Party. But they publicly aired their views on alternatives to how this country was being run by the party in government. Lino Spiteri, Alfred Mifsud, and Anna Mallia come to mind.
Where was Prof. Fenech? What was he doing? Why did he wait for so long to show up and offer his help to the Labour Party?
Before proffering his advice, Prof. Fenech should tell us something about the choices he made during these last ten years. Only then will he be credible.

Dr Mark A. Sammut
Valletta

The Maltese are in dire need of another Nationalist government as much as the rest of the world craves a devastating earthquake or a terrible tsunami.
If one were to contemplate a better fare for these vulnerable little islands and its inhabitants, in an ideal world the Nationalist party should never ever have been elected to govern the place during the past decades. But since ideal situations are extremely scarce to come by, the inevitable has happened over and over again and unfortunately the Nationalists were elected and re-elected umpteen times. By and large, the Maltese are not inherently moronic but unfortunately a considerable proportion of the population in all the various social levels, appear to be ignorant of the facts and worse still oblivious of the consequences.
Over the years because of this serious social deficiency inherent in the Maltese social structure, a great number of people, especially those in the lower strata, have suffered tremendously without ever discovering what or who was the real cause of their plight. Ironically by default, the MLP is not completely blameless vis-à-vis this sordid situation which, were it addressed properly in by-gone years the situation today could have become acceptably favourable and closer to a happier scenario concerning the ordinary decent Maltese citizen.Of course one must also appreciate the fact that the Nationalists have had throughout their existence innumerable ploys at their disposal and two major assets that continually aided and abetted their unscrupulous strategies – money and religion.
In the world of entertainment acting is considered to be an art, however in the Nationalist camp, acting is one of the major ploys employed to deceive, misinform, confuse and discredit issues and personalities alike whenever and wherever it is needed to the detriment of the whole populace in general.
To most local observers, it is incredible that the incorrigible PN in the year 2008 is still managing to hoodwink a substantial percentage of the electorate when all they have to do is wake up from their long sleep and acquire some practical historical knowledge about the last say five decades and learn which political entity originally enacted through Parliament the laws and great social advancements that today we take fore-granted and which through their deceitful agenda, the PN usurps very often to their credit.
To some people, especially the younger generation, what I’m suggesting might at first sound a bit laborious, however, what makes it relatively easy is the fact that in Malta we have only had two major parties in power for many decades.
Whoever endeavors to penetrate this grey area of our country’s history, that thanks to the hidden PN agenda has become over the years darker and hazier, will be surprised to learn that the entire social welfare structure, that practically eradicated former poverty and illiteracy, was planned and introduced by the Malta Labour Party. Probably they will be astonished to learn too that the end of plural voting, voting for women and voting eligibility at age 18 are other great Malta Labour Party attributes without which there could never be true democracy in Malta. Perhaps, once the veil of history is lifted high enough the younger generation would be astounded to learn that while the social welfare structure was being put through its paces by the Malta Labour Party, the PN relentlessly did its best to hinder its implementation throughout its entire programme.
Finally a word of advice to those young poor university students whom I find hard to forget after their recent disgusting behaviour.
The modern history of Malta is not about yummy English chocolate, the Curia’s smashed statue or the Tal-Barrani blunder.
More likely, it is about the true Maltese, those who spoke or speak the language without any complex problems and who genuinely strove to make Malta a better place, especially for those who had the misfortune to be born at the lower social level.

Vladimir Cini
Marsaxlokk

A person made a will leaving a considerable sum of money to be distributed for charity. He also indicated which Church institutions were to benefit.
However, after the death of the testator, this money was withdrawn by the notary, who transferred the whole amount to his own bank account.
The notary said that he had distributed them to several Church institutions and religious orders.
But none of these Church institutions or religious orders was indicated by the testator.
Although this money was at once in the personal account of the notary, he said that he distributed it in seven instalments over a period of four months.
The institutions mentioned by the notary were asked whether they had in fact received this money. After verifying with their records, most of them replied that they had not received anything and that they knew nothing about them.
However, later, after consulting with the notary concerned, these same persons changed their version completely.
Among these there were some, who even began to swear in order to substantiate their contradictory version.
Some of the comments uttered by members of these institutions included: that they did not care less who donated the money.
For them, what mattered was that they receive the money.
They also insisted that once they received the money, they should be the ones to decide how to use them.
One doubts whether money donated to charity is in fact used according to the wishes of the donor.
The Church authorities in Malta have long been informed about these abuses, but up to now there is no indication that any action is being taken about the matter.
Is it not true that one who permits a wrongdoing becomes an accomplice in that same wrongdoing, and is culpable as the one who performs it?
The actions of these institutions are surely a black spot on the Church.

Paul Galea
Qormi

It is simply not good enough for Dr Lawrence Gonzi to have decided not to offer a Cabinet post to Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. This man does not deserve to sit in the House of Representatives where members are addressed as “Honourable”. There is nothing “Honourable” in all the barefaced lies repeatedly said to the whole population, about the project on his land at Mistra Bay.
After all, there are another 19 or so PN deputies who have not been offered a Cabinet post. So Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando (I will never refer to him as “Honourable”) is on equal terms with them.
As Saviour Balzan – if I remember correctly – has suggested, Dr Gonzi should ask Pullicino Orlando to resign from the House. If he refuses, then I would suggest that the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition should have a motion to remove Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando from the House, if this is possible to the standing rules of the House of Representatives.
May I end by referring also to the fact that Dr Gonzi did not have the guts to face his ex-ministers and ex-parliamentary secretaries, and inform them of his decision not t o offer them a post in his Cabinet. And instead sent them an SMS! “Idejn Sodi”? Or trembling hands?! Shame!

Eddy Privitera
Mosta

Your article on the Naxxar explosion last Sunday read like a nightmare. Persons storing so much explosive material in a garage that can flatten three buildings and damage others, begs the question of just how many more garages are storing highly flammable material up and down the streets of Malta that the people living above the garage do not know anything about.
And I bet “no insurance” to be found anywhere. Under EU law the fire services are entitled to check any and all garages in Malta under health and safety rules and regulations, not only for flammable items, but also access to and egress from the garage in the event of a fire.
My recommendation to the government/police would be to offer people amnesty to come forward and tell, so that the explosive items can be removed with safety.
To this end some lives could be saved.

F. A. Cornelius
St Paul’s Bay

The PN has not only lost its overall majority; its relative majority of 0.5% is a numerical accident that is almost insignificant in statistical terms.
As the post election euphoria/depression (depending on your point of view) wears off and the true facts start to sink in, a lot of people are going to have to reappraise their position.
The MLP, once it has set its house in order and chosen its new leader, will realise its own strength. It represents fully half the Maltese population and in parliament it will be in a minority of only one seat – in a scenario where several disgruntled ex-ministers are already making their displeasure felt. It will have the right and the strength to be heard and to demand fair treatment for all sectors of Maltese society. And it will have the tools to do it, not least being the pairing agreement which is so vital to a Government with a majority as slim as the one the PN has.
The PN too will, or should, realise that, as our American friends would say, “It’s a whole new ball game”. Gone are the days when Minister Austin Gatt could boast that the government did not really need to go through parliament as, with the majority the PN had then, it was just a formality (or words to that effect). The government will need the opposition’s cooperation in order to function, and this cooperation will have to be earned.
Dr Gonzi has said that he intends to be a Prime Minister of all the people. He will have an immediate opportunity to show that he means what he says.
On a change of administration it is the custom for all government appointees on boards, committees, etc. to tender their resignation. If Dr Gonzi really has the interest of Maltese society at heart, he should accept these resignations and only fill the vacancies on merit and after consulting the opposition.
If, on the other he chooses to go the old way and keep the same faces in place or appoint new ones without consultation, we will know that it is “business as usual” and the Opposition should use its new-found strength accordingly.

Victor Laiviera
Naxxar

Some Labour-leaning columnists have made reference to the fact that Georg Sapiano got “only 58 votes” but conveniently omitted to give the whole picture.
Georg canvassed Lawrence Gonzi as the first preference of voters on the ninth district, urging them to give him a second preference vote.
694 voters gave Georg their second preference after Lawrence Gonzi which, added to the 58 first count votes, provides an encouraging base of 754 voters in the 9th district who endorsed Georg Sapiano.
Like his other supporters, I found it difficult to accept Georg’s insistence that his campaign should cost no more than Lm600, as the law requires. Thus, we could not organise a normal campaign.
Georg adhered to the law not because he agrees with the Lm600 limit, but because the law obliges candidates to take an oath confirming their campaign expense.
Georg refused to put himself in a position to take false oath and that, among other reasons, is why we support him.

Adrian Camilleri
St Julian’s

Beautiful words, Evarist! But what about the greatest concerns of the people who did not vote for MLP?
What is the ‘real’ stand of MLP vs the EU? What is the ‘real’ stand of MLP vs the liberal economy? How is the MLP going to tackle educational failures without an upheaval of the entire sector and causing great concern to parents?
How is the MLP going to settle the dockyard crisis without demanding more taxes to solve the deficit of the company? What are the new empowering ideas offered to young people without hinting that again, stipends are going to be turned to loans? And much more...
These are bread and butter issues for the people who did not vote but did not want to have MLP in government.

Anthony Cauchi
Via email

For accuracy’s sake, with regards to MaltaToday’s 16 March issue, ex-minister Louis Galea did contest the Qormi constituency together with Zebbug and part of St Venera, which at that period of time formed the sixth district in 1987.
Dr Louis Galea, then secretary-general of the PN, who mobilised the crowds that had never been seen before during the Nationalist Party activities and during a crucial turmoil time in our recent political history unfortunately was not elected from this district.

Michael Bonnici
Zebbug