He Knows it All

The Malta Independent on Sunday



Watching the Prime Minister on Bondi + this week I could not help feeling that 1996itis has now turned chronic and can only be cured by another battering at the polls.

Otherwise he must be thinking that we are all stupid and ignorant and that we should not use our brains, as he is the only one around that knows it all.

It does not matter if the Ombudsman, appointed by Parliament, exposes errors of judgement and arrogance of the executive. It does not matter if the Prime Minister makes it a personal mission to vilify the Ombudsman, who commands the respect of a very large percentage of the population for building from scratch an institution that defends the voiceless from the misuse and/or abuse of power of the government. It does not matter if the Prime Minister stimulates disrespect for one of the few institutions that commands broad popular support and confidence (the judiciary crisis having scratched the courts from such credentials). What matters is that the Prime Minister should not be criticised for directly voting Lm30,000 from our tax-money to his personal assistant right before the election of 1996,` when it is still not clear even today whether or not` the violence on RCC had anything to do with his public role. And if he says so, we should all say aye, and so be it. `What matters is that the daily pain is perceived as unreal, taking instead the Prime Minister`s word that we are living better today than we used to do four years ago.`

It should not matter if pensioners and fixed wage earners, especially those in command of a single salary income supporting dependent children, go through a daily passion in stretching the family purse to make ends meet, as price inflation and new demands (uniforms, books, transport) make it well neigh impossible to live decently on a single salary, even if the family uses state subsidised or free services for education, health and housing.

What matters is that the daily pain is perceived as unreal, taking instead the Prime Minister`s word that we are living better today than we used to do four years ago.

And we should not rely on official statistics showing that the government has lost control of its finances, that the deficit is growing and not reducing, and that our tax money and one-off revenues from privatisation, are going to finance yet more recurring expenditure especially as we continue to bury millions upon millions shaping ourselves to fit an EU model which has nothing to do with our size and characteristics. Instead we should take the Prime Minister`s word that his Finance Minister has assured him that all is according to plan. `The notion of holding a referendum before the next election is an obscene mis-use of power for party politics rather than for seeking national consensus.`

Basically our Prime Minister is telling us in plain and simple language to leave our brain at home, put it in the freezer as we won`t need it as long as he is in charge.

On Bondi+ he said that I am totally wrong in arguing that the referendum should be held after the election. Why` What arguments Absolutely none. Only because he says so; because he knows it all.

The notion of holding a referendum before the next election is an obscene mis-use of power for party politics rather than for seeking national consensus. No serious government would hold a divisive referendum on a matter on which there are strongly contrasting political views without giving commensurate exposure to both views; particularly if the government does not command a tenure of mandate long enough to execute the people`s decision. `In Malta we have a Prime Minister that knows it all and he uses his brains for all of us.`

I ask the Prime Minister to do his research and try to find a single case in the democratic world where the government held a referendum on a politically divisive issue, so divisive that the alternate government would have diametrically opposed views on it, when not in command of a mandate long enough to implement such a decision.` The very holding of the referendum must pre-suppose that the government has a mandate term long enough to execute the people`s choice.` But in Malta we are special. In Malta we have a Prime Minister that knows it all and he uses his brains for all of us. And we should deny any notion, no matter how clear and evident, that the Prime Minister is squeezing the EU project to fit the calendar of his personal political agenda rather than lead the country forward in unity, seeking national agreement on the EU issue.

`Must we have things forced upon us or is the government using its own incompetence to strengthen the argument of inevitability of EU membership And talking of the EU issue this week I almost fell off my chair. When reading what has been agreed on the Environment chapter with the EU it was stated in no uncertain terms that the Government dropped all demands for transitory provisions regarding adherence of the Marsa Power station to EU standards. If the Marsa power generating plant is not EU compliant on accession date it will have to be closed down.

Now this country has been suffering pollution from the Marsa Power Station for endless years. Delimara was built with the intention to replace Marsa.` Yet just a few months back Enemalta chairman declared that whilst there is a now an evident shift of focus from Marsa to Delimara, Marsa capacity remains indispensable to assure adequacy and continuity of supply.

So there is no way that Marsa can be closed by accession date. It appears that the pollution problem could be resolved by burning low sulphur oil which costs appreciably more than the medium sulphur oil currently used.

But if this solves the problem and we can adopt it from 2004 even though we expect no subsidies from the EU, why on earth have the residents of the harbour area and Cottonera been allowed to suffer all these years Must we have things forced upon us or is the government using its own incompetence to strengthen the argument of inevitability of EU membership`