“The risk is just too high”
This comment was posted by Raphael, who is Maltese but doesn’t live in Malta anymore. It was banked up in the queue and I think I should highlight it in case you miss it on the board:
I have been following the politics of Malta for the last several years and in this process have been highly critical of Gonzi and his cronies.
Well, now that it’s game on and we are in the final round, my criticism of the PN is still rock solid.
However (in larger font and in bold) the performance of the PL to date is still found wanting.
They have no clue. Their shambles over the deputies debate, their failed attempt to use Franco Debono as a proxy for their deputy, their rather rubbery figures over energy policy, the refusal of an ex PL or was it MLP prime minister to comment on an election, the total silence about anything of political substance from anyone other than the wannabe PM…
This must surely be enough to signal a very strong message to any switching voter that the risk is just too high.
They are just playing it way too safe for comfort.
Any political party anywhere which has been in opposition for so long would be much more confident and assured with all of their members spruiking their strong message loud and clear.
This is clearly not the case. Be warned that mitigation strategies can only come into play after a very long five years.
By then all the progress and achievements to date would have been forgotten. All that would be left would be a feeling of total dissapointment.
If I was in Malta now, with absolutely no allegiance, socially or otherwise, to any political party, I would vote,albeit reluctantly, for the PN.
And I say it again, they do not deserve it. But the alternative is madness and a jump into the abyss without a parachute.
Any political party which is banking only on the fact that the incumbent has been there too long is just not good enough.
It should be so much fresher, and it certainly is not that.
Signing autographs for supporters: but this is not the stuff that government is made of.
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Why would anyone ask a politician for an autograph?
And why would a politician stoop so low as to give one?
This is a truly Maltese phenomenon.
Another onlyinmalta.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/article6514013.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/Tony+Blair
Don’t get me started on that c*cksucker.
Thank you Raphael for illuminating us. Perhaps you should have at least told us that so far the PN haven’t come up with one proposal. They were highly critical of Labour’s proposal but but did not mention any new ones themselves. They have b
Cripes and custard man, politics isn’t about “proposals”.
You’ve fallen into the Maltese trap of “proposti”.
As if you always need to come up with some new idea to show you’re still there. Then it all turns into a plebiscite.
We’re not running a business here, but managing a country.
It’s also a fat lie. Last week in Gozo, he gave a list of new incentives to create jobs on that island. That was just the beginning. We’ll get more, and creditable ones as the days unfold. At least, none of the PN’s proposti so far, risk sending us on a bail-out course.
Eh speci bhal battalja ta’ min ghandu l-izjed proposti fil-programm elettorali: 239 proposta, which could become 598 depending on how you subdivide them.
Se naghmlu bankini godda fis-South. Ahna se naghmlu bankini f’Marsaxlokk u x-Xaghjra.
Ahna se naghmlu bankini f’Marsaxlokk u x-Xaghjra, bix-xifer tal-blokki taz-zonqor.
Ahna ahjar, ghax se naghmlu mitejn metru ta’ bankini f’Marsaxlokk u x-Xaghjra, bix-xifer tal-blokki taz-zonqor.
And so on and so forth.
Since the risk is too high, Joseph Muscat is at his best in transparency. He met employees behind closed doors.
“Upon his arrival Dr Muscat was rushed through to the meeting and refused to give any comments.”
http://www.independent.com.mt/…/labour-leader-meeting-enemalta-emplo...
I totally agree with Raphael. Having been away from Malta for the past 29 years and returning in December, I have found little has changed in the mentality.
Everything is still based on absolute emotional allegiance which is not going to be beneficial for the country.
Malta has amazing possibilities, if only Maltese could see this and focus on positives instead of constant apathy and misguided political and egotistical ways.
I am in Malta now and I, too, have no allegiance to any political party as I do not feel either is actually concerned with the future. They all truly have the Napoleonic syndrome.
I’m like you.
I’m also in the sad position of voting for someone I find morally repugnant just to stop the lunatics taking over the asylum. Grim indeed.
To hide its total lack of substance the PL is selling the God awful collectivism.
Luigi, take off the ONE-tuned headphones and Google-glasses and all around, you can see what the PN, with all its shortcomings is all about.
Then to put all in perspective, put them back on and surf around Europe.
As an expat and keen follower of Maltese politics myself, I cannot but agree 100% with Raphael.
So this Raphael must be one of those fellow Maltese who think it is their right to Pontificate and tell us what we should do even though he does not live here.
Where does he get his updates and news from? Does he read it in newspapers? Since when do persons who don’t live here know how we locals feel and see things? Could he be one of those Experts paid by the P.N. to tell us what we should do?
I think his first loyalty shoud be to his adopted country and leave us decide what is good and not so good for us.
One last point, what logic is it to vote someone who according to him DO NOT DESERVE IT.
What he should have said is, if none of the parties are any good,JUST DON’T VOTE.
Is one expected to make a choice between Arsenic.and Cyanide?
[Daphne – Yes, Silvio, if you are going to be poisoned regardless. But then logic was never your strong point.]
I’d choose arsenic, because it is only fatal in massive doses, and acts slower than cyanide, so it leaves me with an escape route. But then, I know my chemistry. I use knowledge and logic to take my decisions. Isn’t that right, Silvio?
If the goons gain power, I’d choose cyanide.
You might be right,(as nearly always ) but this time I don’t agree.
I would rather go for fillet steak( medium to rare) and a bottle of Barolo, while watching you wait for the effect of the arsenic
What’s the logic with choosing one and not the other if the end is the same.?
I won’t vote so I will have no regrets when the bad days are sure to come,irrespective of our choice.
The logic is choosing PN to vote AGAINST MLP. It is not a plebiscite in favour of PN, but a veto on MLP, as it were.
As someone who voted PN holding my nose, in order to keep MLP out, I cannot but agree with Raphael.
What is this nonsense of changing a party in government for the simple reason that it has been in power for far too long?
If I remember correctly, no one single member of the original 1987 cabinet is still a minister – again I stand to be corrected.
But kicking out of office a party that dragged Malta from a situation of rationed water and electricity, computers, cars, TV’s, third world food and clothing, strowger exchanges, inexistent roads, financial mess, canvassers shooting on bus loads of tourists to scare them away from the island (don’t believe it – check archives!) to one where even first time European visitors are pleasantly surprised ( in my work I travel frequently and host foreigners on a weekly basis) simply does not make sense.
The only way it can make sense if people use their hearts and not their brains. It must be a measure of the success enjoyed by the NP in government that it allows people to treat it like people treat their plumbers – they should be there only when needed, otherwise we don’t need them in our lives.
The last time Labour was in power, I used to listen to the news in the morning in my car with trepidation.
The general attitude was “What now?” In 22 months we had the famous hofra – where the PM used to harp each and every day that we are in dire straits, instead of instilling confidence in a nation.
We had ministers boasting that they saved 2,000 lira from a 300,000 lira project. Of course they were saving – except that they lost the woods for the trees. In their saving orgy, they froze Malta’s economy. Their beloved workers soon ended up being ex workers.
So now what? To save Euro 100 per year we ring up a pro capita debt of Euro 1,428 (600 Million divided by 420,000).
If the payback time, in this case defined as savings, ex financial cost takes 14 years, then the project is not doable. If I ran my business along these lines, I would have gone bust by the second year.
But in Malta it only needs a powerpoint presentation (incidentally in the same colour scheme of the ARMS stationery) to convince 210,000 + 1 to shoot themselves in the foot. Pied Piper of Hamelin anyone???