The Maltese voter’s priorities: Eurozone crisis bottom of the list, below roads
Malta Today carried a survey last Sunday.
Which are the main problems facing Malta?
43.6% cost of living
31% electricity tariffs
15% state of the economy
11.3% employment
10.6% price of petrol and gas
8.6% low income
5.6% roads
4.8% instability in parliament
4.4% immigration
4.2% environment
4.2% Eurozone crisis
2.6% corruption
2.2% health
When the same question was asked back in February, the Eurozone crisis didn’t even register. Then in March it showed up as 8%. Now that the Eurozone crisis is a lot worse, Maltese people are LESS concerned about it.
No wonder we’re going to end up with a Labour government. No wonder a Labour government is a huge risk at every election. We’re talking about the thinking skills and attitudes of trailer trash here, even if they’re not trailer trash at all.
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Same old selfishness. “What do I care about what happens to others? So long as my life is all right, to hell with the rest of Europe, or the world for that matter.”
That is exactly why Joseph Muscat said ‘x’nigi nitmellah minn x’jaghmlu l-gnus barranin’.
If we invert that and the ‘gnus barranin’ were to tell us ‘ahna x’nigu nitmellhu minn Malta’. That would be a completely different story.
Hold on a minute. According to the Malta Today survey, only 5.4% of PN voters mentioned the Eurozone crisis as a top priority; the equivalent number for the PL was 3.1%. I don’t see why these numbers explain why we are going to “end up with a Labour government” given the PN / PL difference in attitude to this issue is hardly massive.
Furthermore, in a UK YouGov survey held earlier this year, only 4% listed ‘Europe’ as a main concern (http://cdn.yougov.com/today_uk_import/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-results-010211.pdf).
Although I concede that the Eurozone crisis and Europe are not the same thing and the UK does not use the euro, this would hardly justify describing the British in general as ‘ trailer trash’ just because they listed the economy and immigration as the top two concerns.
Labour’s position over the years has always been opportunistic.
During the golden days of the labour government, you had to beg even for what was yours by right provided you were ready to kneel in front of a minster and bow your head. If what you expected was yours by right and you were ‘arrogant’ enough to insist, then you would have risked being labelled as being anti-government.
But this ploy worked like magic among those who owned nothing and never dreamt of working towards achieving anything.
Wasn’t it wonderful to ask for a dwelling and be given one at no expense? You even had the opportunity to identify some house, privately owned, and have it requisitioned for you.
Who was so idiotic as to spend money to buy a flat when you could get a house for a pittance of a rent? This surely appealed to the uneducated.
It also conveniently nurtured an underlying class-hatred which flourished till we have a crop of elite of the proletariat break into the law courts and the Archbishop’s Curia leaving behind a demonstration of their handywork.
The motivation? Those who do not share the same belief as the leader should be annihilated or coerced into submission.
Unfortunately, this arrogant attitude is resurfacing. Let us not forget that what we experienced during the ‘golden’ days of the seventies and eighties was the result of the arrogance that was sown in the fifties and sixties where the end justified the means.
The same arrogant ploy was applied in the case of the negotiations with Britain re the military base. There a good number supported Mintoff on the pretext that it was justified as it was against a foreign ‘oppressor’.
Then the guns were turned against the banks in a similar arrogant way, against the Blue Sisters, against striking doctors, against the church schools, against the teachers, against the private residence of the then leader of the opposition, against Nationalist Party Clubs, and so on.
This without including the innumerable cases of vindictiveness against inert private citizens The list of violence instigated by this arrogant attitude is never ending. No one was allowed to have the cheek to query the government of the day.
And today the very same people now sitting on the opposition benches want us to believe they are the impeccable knights in shining armour defenders of transparency
Who are these; the potential minister responsible for customs, Karmenu Vella who knows how smugglers work? The potential minister responsible police, Anglu Farrugia who knows very well to what extent brutal force can be made use of? Who are they?
All this was justified under the battle cry, ‘Malta l-ewwel u qabel kollox’!
The same ploy of ego-centric arrogance is resurfacing under the false disguise of patriotic sentiments. ‘X’nitmellaħ’.. If this is the attitude, it should send shivers down our spines as it risks being the prelude to a replica of what we experiences during the ‘golden days’.
A politician who declares such attitude is nothing but a loose cannon because ‘x’jitmellaħ’ of who pays the price as long he achieves what springs to his mind. This is nothing else but a macchiavellian kind of political strategy.
If anybody has any doubt, just look at what happened over the last few months in parliament.
And worse of all the electorate is being fed the same mentality; who cares whats happening around us till I benefit from subsidized electricity and water bills, subsidized fuel, etc, till I keep my money to spend on trivia and government provides me with subsidized essential commodities?
On the positive side, the statistics presented here give an extremely positive rating to the Gonzi government. Why is it that health is the least worry of our people when it is such a hot issue elsewhere (e.g. USA). Why is it that cost of education does not feature as a worry when it is a highly contested issue throughout the western world?
We need a strong wakeup call because as a society we risk having become self-centred egoistic spoilt brats increasing the danger that we become the victims of whoever promises the fulfilment of all our whims. It would turn out to be a trip to the Pinocchio’s Terra dei Balocchi in Collodi’s story.
The fact that we can be so nonchalant (oblivious, in some cases) about the euro crisis and the world economy is the biggest feather in this government’s cap.
The minute pretty boy and his stooges are in office, it will hit us like a sledgehammer – and then we’ll have some more crocodile tears from the home-stayers and the ‘let’s give him a chance’ voters.
It seems we have a lot of schooling going on but very little education gained.
Gholi tal-hajja…kontijiet tax-dawl u l-ilma…looks like a typical One News bulletin.
Joseph Muscat “jigi jitmellah minn x’jaghmlu l-barranin” ghax ghandu bizzejjed genji skartati fl-iskip tieghu.
It’s the classic ‘Bike Shed Effect’
This government has done such a good job in this regard that many of us think the Eurozone crisis is what happens to other people in other countries.
Honestly, most people haven’t got a clue.
And how many people do you think watch CNN, Euronews and so on? And how many of those have the background to really understand the implications of what is being reported?
The man in the street cannot equate the state of the Maltese economy to the Eurozone crisis until something drastic and tangible happens in Malta, such as a sudden increase in unemployment due to losses in export revenue and tourism.
The Eurozone crisis is not tangible insofar as people only hear about it in the news.
They have to see it in action, such as through the family’s bread-winner(s) suddenly losing his/her/their job due to their employer going bankrupt. As the eurozone crisis is taking a slow toll on the Maltese economy the effects are not obvious.
Well Joseph Muscat said ‘nigi nitmellah milli jigri f’gnus barranin’… hence the sudden change.
Adding all the percentages up gives 148.1%. So in terms of the problems presented in the survey, the Eurozone crisis constitutes 2.84% of the vote.
I am surprised that although the Spanish, Portuguese, Irish and Greek bailout requests made top news in Malta, the Cypriot request passed under the radar.
Obviously Cyprus is a small country. But it seems all the Maltese journalists have forgotten that no more than a few months ago, Joseph Muscat was drawing comparisons with it, and suggested Malta should emulate the Cypriot model.
How’s that for sound economic advice?
“Which are the main problems facing Malta?”
There is one main problem facing Malta. It’s a new Labour government.
They say every cloud has a siver lining.
Let us assume (God forbid) LP are elected to power. It is said that people get the leaders they deserve.
But let us not forget that even after the long-lasting bitter after-taste left by the 1971 – 1987 MLP administration, only nine years after they were elected to power. The electorate appears to have a very short memory.
It took only a few months, if not weeks, for the electorate to realise that it was taken for a ride with the vague pre-election promises of doing away with VAT and all the rest.
The less than a two-year stint under Labour was enogh to give us 15 years of respite under a Nationalist government.
Now the elctorate for the last 15 years has seen new heights of well-being. It has been pampered and shielded so much that it is starting to ignore the realities around it.
It is apparentoly again suffering from a collective political dementia.
Let us remember that the Labour Party, by claiming it will divulge its alternative polices when it feels appropriate, is only a reflection of how ill-prepared it is. A short Labour stint in government will surely awake the electorate and result in another 15 year stint of PN led government.
Let me tie it up nicely for Gahan Today:
A. Economic concerns
43.6% cost of living
31% electricity tariffs
15% state of the economy
11.3% employment
10.6% price of petrol and gas
8.6% low income
4.4% immigration
4.2% Eurozone crisis
2.6% corruption
B. Other
5.6% roads
4.8% instability in parliament
4.2% environment
2.2% health
(The figures add up to over 100%, but Gahan wouldn’t mind)
Eurozone crisis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1qoq9jIjpNM
While there’s bread and circuses…