I am so worried that I agree with you regarding the fact that our country is made up of spoiled brats. It’s a pity that the country eventually gets the government it deserves.

The event, unremarkable as it may be, took me back to 1996, the year I had decided to  actively do something more than just vote to demonstrate my support to the Nationalist Party, and especially to Dr.Fenech Adami. In January of that year I had left my job to start my own business. Life was pretty tough without the comfort of a monthly salary.  However, I had an absolute conviction in my vision, and a determination to succeed that comes with youth and relative inexperience. The last thing on my mind that year was the possibility of a macro-economic tsunami rocking my business plan. Alas, one did indeed strike later in the year, in the form of an Alfred Sant led MLP victory at the polls. 

Dr.Sant had managed quite a feat. In the five or so years since becoming ‘Leader’, he led a ‘revolutionary’ change within his party (a change which had been somewhat undone by his successor). I read somewhere that he made his Party hip enough for some very untraditional MLP voters to think that publicly claiming a switch of allegiance, from the NP to the MLP, actually made them look cool. 

Back to Dr.Sant. By signing a pact with a good number of ‘devils’, he managed to lead the MLP to victory in the 96 elections. Dr.Sant was swept to Castille on the back of a pretty vacuous electoral manifesto. However, it did include two promises that appealed to the majority of the electorate. The inherent fear of anything outside the confines of our little rock (freeze EU application), and selfishness (removal of VAT, aka throw your cash-register away), traits that are so evident amongst our population, prevailed on the day. The incredible transformation that the NP had overseen in the nine years since relieving us from seventeen years of failed Socialist economic policies, had been quickly forgotten. I truly felt for Dr.Fenech Adami. I was instinctively compelled to pick up the phone and make the call that led me to my lifetime NP membership. 

Dr.Sant had a dogged determination to honour his pre-election promises. He immediately froze our EU membership application and the country embarked on a ‘journey’ towards becoming “the Switzerland of the Mediterranean”. His next move was a roadshow in search of a viable alternative to VAT. In the process, he created CET, a ‘Frankenstein’ taxation system that managed the impossible feat of hiking the cost of living and reducing government’s tax income at the same time. Oh, and the brightest light in an otherwise dull MLP house, resigned as a result of his reluctance to oversee the introduction of the monstrous CET. It soon became apparent that Dr.Sant had been too busy with his Party’s cosmetic changes, whilst in opposition, to find the time to draw up a plan for managing the country in the event that he were elected.  The country went from Eddie’s visionary leadership, a clear long-term plan of where we want to go and how we will be getting there, to Dr.Sant’s day-to-day policy making. The stability that we had all taken for granted in the previous years, the same stability that created a suitable environment for the likes of myself to dream about starting their own business, was gone. Watching news programmes on the local stations was never big on my agenda. However, for two years, I had to put myself through a full hour of verbal diarrhoea just to come to grips with what will be hitting my little business the next day. Luckily “Is-Salvatur” finally lived up to his monicker and actually did some saving on our behalf. Ironic, that the same people who came up with the ‘Salvatur’ title viewed the man’s greatest feat as an act of treason. Anyway, the rest is history. Common sense prevailed and Dr.Sant’s MLP was relegated back to the opposition benches. Saying that, he did hang on to his Party’s leadership for ten more years, and with the MLP’s current leader as his side-kick, he even managed to dispense further misery and keep the country on tenterhooks before and after the  EU referendum. 

Fast-forward to 2012. There is a feeling that the country intends to revisit 1996. If the polls are to be believed, the majority of the electorate does not care that our current Prime Minister has navigated the country through the worst global economic crises in modern history.  We truly are a nation of spoiled brats. Countries on the verge of bankruptcy to our north, revolutions to our south, and  a Government that ensures that our country has emerged unscathed in the process is trailing at the polls. And pray, what is the majority’s preferred alternative? A party that has so far kept its cards close to its chest and declines to let the country know how it intends to govern. They say that they do have a “road-map”, yet it is too good to disclose, for fears that Dr.Gonzi, bereft of ideas as he is, would hijack it for his own benefit. Their one and only battle-cry is that of reducing the cost of utilities – in a “sustainable” manner (remember CET). As if our country has the power, scale, or resources to be able to manage this. I for one, will not be fooled. They are not disclosing their plans because they have none. Simple. 

Remember my little business? It is not so little anymore. It employs close to 90 people. I do not have the luxury of those who are willing to irresponsibly consider change, for change’s sake. Too many livelihoods depend on me. Unfortunately, come March, it is likely that I will find myself in a minority. Given our largely insular and conservative outlook to life, it is highly surprising that boredom can make so many plunge into the unknown. There is something in the air and it smacks of 1996. 

His style is so different from that of Joseph Muscat. The PM knows how to fight for the job in which he can deliver benefits to the country. He plans ahead in a convincing manner.

Muscat thinks that he now deserves to be PM as of right, because the PN has been in government for so many years. And he thinks that all he has to do is to propose “linji gwida” and ask the audience to raise its hands in approval.

“Do you agree with Labour that government should create jobs? If yes, raise your hands.”

OK, so a Labour government should create jobs.

Malta is very lucky to have a prime minister like Gonzi, who kept us away from these problems these countries are facing.
All the Maltese should be grateful to our dearly prime minister.

Muscat &Co, have nothing new to present our electoral, just copying the pn. They have two feasts, republic day and freedom day, they did ‘nt do anything to celebrate these feasts.

What did they do, this week we were celebrating independence day, and they invented this summit, so their people will keep them off from hearing Gonzi explaining the bad currents he had to face to keep our heads above the water.

People with brains know all this, and when the election is called
We will support Gonzi for what he did to our beloved nation.