Saturday 23 May 2009

Times: PN's rainbow of clashing colours

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090523/letters/pns-rainbow-of-clashing-colours
Saturday, 23rd May 2009 by Albert Gauci Cunningham, Buġibba

Lawrence Gonzi calls it a rainbow of colours but I'd rather think of it as another political strategy in the PN's frantic run to win the June 6 MEP elections by hook or by crook, so that they could pat themselves on their backs afterwards for how well they think they're governing this country.

For those who are not blinded by their own naïvety it is very clear that far from the team spirit the first PN billboard seemed to imply, most of the PN candidates are saying different things, in different places, to different people promising things that are diametrically opposed to what the PN here in Malta and the EPP in Strasbourg and Brussels have always propagated.

We have Frank Portelli (who sounds more like an AN candidate to me) saying that Libya should be reprimanded and promising to "stop" illegal immigration to Malta (how he plans to do so is still a bit of a mystery). Meanwhile, Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici says that we shouldn't blame Libya!

We have Roberta Tedeso Triccas "four square" behind Joseph Muscat's arguments about the VAT issue on cars while the government tries its level best not to give these refunds and accuses those clamouring for it of being "irresponsible".

We have the PN which has traditionally always been very reticent on issues like divorce, and even worse on gay issues, fielding a candidate who speaks of gay civil rights and the introduction of divorce.

We have a government which throughout this last year taxed the self-employed, did absolutely nothing to give the much vaunted "red-carpet treatment" to people who want to invest, and to boot sent armies of civil servants with rulers and inch tapes who performed public theatrics forcing these self-employed to look like heartless criminals. So what does the PN do? They take Vince Farriuga, a man I had thought was above petty politics, and use him to win the votes of the many incensed business people who feel so cheated by the PN.

Then we have Alan Deidun, a respected environmentalist, who says that we need the EIA of the Ghadira road assessed by experts and those opposed to it and that the development at Wied il-Ghasel in Mosta should be stopped while on the other hand the Minister in charge pours cold water on the first issue saying that Dr Deidun "should know better" and the Prime Minister says that he cannot act on the latter "because the government respects Mepa's autonomy".

This is not what I call a rainbow of colours complementing each other but a "cacophony" of colours all intent on one singular purpose so eloquently "revealed" by Mr Farrugia - that the PN "gets its biggest electoral victory ever"! It's just plain unbelievable that after taking everyone and his brother for a ride this party expects to obtain a "huge victory". Unbelievable how these people are convinced that throughout this year they governed the way they promised, so much so that they still deserve not only our vote but also our loyalty. Unbelievable how instead of eating humble pie and admitting that they have made a mess of the country and of the PN these people persist in thinking that we're all fools who will happily vote PN come what may because we're afraid of big, bad Joseph.

Be not mistaken and foolish to think that the election in June is just about electing five or six MEPs; politically it is far more than that. Every vote to the PN candidates, as well meaning and reliable and friendly as some of these may be, is nothing more than a carte blanche for this government to keep bulldozing over everyone and to make a mockery of its own promises before the last election. As hard as it may sound for those who still believe in the PN, this is the truth and nothing but the truth.

[Click on the hyperlink above to read the comments on the Times' website.]

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