Encyclopaedia Wikipedia is the latest in the universal acclaimed internet revolution.
Wikipedia allows surfers from every corner of the globe to edit, remove, delete, add and change the contents about a personality or a subject without worrying about screaming editors, censors and gatekeepers.
It is the most revolutionary and probably the most effective way of inventing and churning up false images about people, things and events.
It would lead countless Maltese to refer the matter to the Maltese courts for libel.
Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick, and Wikipedia allows for information to change rapidly, and for fact to mix freely with fiction and vice-versa.
So for example, if anyone wants to start a biography or a commentary about anyone or anything, they could do so freely. The endless editing and counter-editing is in itself unbelievable and impressive.
What has happened in the internet has now happened in local politics. But whereas Wikipedia is not taken too seriously by everyone and accepted for what it is, the freedom given to the endless list of groaners has made the Office of the Prime Minister a fine example of how not lead.
Wikipolitics à la maltaise has allowed hundreds to turn our politicians into virtual slaves of their constituency. This is being made possible by the use of email or the phone.
The end product has been a Wikibudget.

In the last nine months, the office of the Prime Minister has been secretively sounding out the groans and concerns of people. In doing they have managed to map out a strategy that would redress the imbalance in the polls and ensure a victory.
When it finally came, Budget 2008 was a political statement, or rather a political work of art. It was the prototype budget that one expects before an election. It managed to address all the target audiences in one way or another and it left the Opposition gasping for breath.
It is one of the uglier sides of democracy: the party in government has an automatic edge over a party in opposition.
It is undeniably one way of playing around with the rules of democracy to create a great electoral advantage over the adversaries: the ones pictured as being incapable of even frying an egg.
But there is little we can do about that.

Some economists, and one of them is Edward Scicluna, state that the government is far too optimistic about its economic growth expectations. He says that to generate the money to compensate for the reduced revenue from changes in the tax bands, the government is expecting an economic growth rate that is far, far higher than expected. Higher even than the rate stipulated by international agencies and organisations, which is 2.8 per cent.
Now, one would hope that Scicluna is very wrong. Not he could very well be right, and if he is right one has to recall that we are now no longer a solitary rock in the Med in a position to do what we like.

The budget has dished out goodies to such a wide-ranging selection of niche groups that really and truly the Labour opposition must be seething with anger. That is, of course, an understatement.
Indeed Labour are furious about the timing, rather than the contents, of the budget. There is little they can do, other than pray that the people are not gullible and will realise that this a pre-electoral budget. But that I am afraid this may not be the case.
Even the return to the Mintoffian scheme of incrementing children’s allowance has done nothing to spoil the backtracking policies taken up by the Gonzi administration.
Giving more money to everyone is a welcome gesture few would criticise. And a closer look at the statistics will show that the laudatory statements by this administration that Malta is benefiting from millions in EU funds is simply an exaggeration. We are not receiving as much in the way of funds as we are supposed to.
Indeed, bureaucratic problems have led many of the funds to remain locked and not utilised.

The fact is that beyond the stats, there are many who will not question the real figures and more importantly the significance of many of the trends.
There is one redeeming factor which should not be underestimated. Malta’s EU membership, and more importantly its active presence in the Eurozone, does not give Malta the liberty to act as it pleases. This is one good reason why it does make a difference if we have a kangaroo or an orang-utan in Castille.
This is a big plus which allows EU countries to act within the norms of good economic behaviour, and it stops rogue or mad finance ministers from wreaking havoc in their own economies.

Alfred Sant has only a set of simple arguments to counter the feel-good factor generated by the over generous Gonzi budget. He can remind everyone of the timing.
He can talk of the arrogance and the need for change, even for the sake of change. He can remind his potential voters to imagine another five years of Nationalist government. He can do all this.
But for every mortar he shoots from his 14 year-old trench, he will be shaken with a volley of cluster bombs carrying very much the same message.
It is a sad situation and it is left to us, the ones who do not fall in any of the categories listed in the Wikibudget drawn up by Gonzi’s lieutenants, to weigh whether the 2008 Wikibudget is a good enough reason to make us gallant soldiers of Gonzi or janissaries of some other political formation.

sbalzan@mediatoday.com.mt