Whatta Week!

Maltastar



Rarely a week comes like last week where one is spoilt for choice of events of news value `happening in quick sequence all packaged in a such a short space of time. I comment briefly on the most relevant

Labour accepts VAT

This not only shows maturity and national interest considerations, but it shows pragmatism in adopting policies to suit current realities rather than yesterday`s conditions. As usual the PN media never see anything positive in Labour. They say it`s a U-turn forgetting the maxim that it is a sign of consistency to change one`s mind in the face of changing circumstances.

`the maxim that it is a sign of consistency to change one`s mind in the face of changing circumstances.` Labour`s decision on VAT brings out strikingly the flexibility superiority of the partnership model over the membership model. Rather than having VAT imposed on us in all its details, including its application on basic essentials of food and medicine, Labour can use VAT as a truly flexible tool of fiscal and social policy.

As a prime mover behind this development it gives me satisfaction seeing the PN worried ` VAT could be their downfall again in the next elections.



Caught naked

That Fenech Adami is under severe stress more intense than that we had noticed `in the 1996 electoral campaign (you remember his gaffe of housewives going out to work to put air conditioners in the kitchen!) was evident again this week.

He made a dumbfounding statement. Unless we join the EU in membership all serious industries will close down, he said.

`He was caught naked having to pay homage to those he had just labelled not serious` Companies like ST Thomson, Brandstatter, Methode, Dowty, Pharmamed, Denim and Baxter ` all top brass highly competitive exporters ` made huge investments over the last four years to extend and enhance their operations in Malta.

Unless these companies have some super-human 6th psyche sense, or unless they are so irresponsible as to invest huge millions knowing that they might have to close down if Malta aborts its EU membership bid, then the only residual logical conclusion is that these companies are not serious.

But as it so happened the PM this very same week inaugurated the Lm2 million extension at Methode and very dutifully sang praises to `their competences. He was caught naked having to pay homage to those he had just labelled not serious.

If anyone is not serious it is the PM trying to involve foreign investors in local political games.

Sick minds

Nine hundred or so veterans of Labour sympathies` have received a court intimation that they have to undergo medical tests to prove their mental sanity because the PN is claiming that they should lose their constitutional right to vote because of their sick minds.

One of these is none other than Gigi Gauci the 91 year old who enters Valletta most mornings and whose mind is still sharper than a razor blade. Others like him abound. ` What basically the PN are telling us is that their arrogance and prepotence has reached such chronic and dangerous proportions that they consider all Labour sympathisers as being sick in the mind.`

What basically the PN are telling us is that their arrogance and prepotence has reached such chronic and dangerous proportions that they consider all Labour sympathisers as being sick in the mind. They only do it to the veterans as the rest of us miss the old age attribute to use as a smokescreen.

Arrogance and prepotence could in acute doses lead to mind sickness. The electoral commission could just as well test the state of mind of the perpetrators of such vile act. As to the local media, trying to equate such despicable act to Labour`s application to dis-enfranchise Dr Arnold Cassola of his vote because of deficiency in the residency requirements according to law, is another proof that most of them would justify anything provided it helps the PN. Whether Dr Arnold Cassola has the right residency ingredients to vote can be proven as a matter of fact and bears no bad connotations to his sanity or other personal attributes. It is not different from the PN`s disenfranchisement of Doreen Attard Monataldo from contesting the last Zebbug local elections.

The letter riddle

Following a weeklong parliamentary debate where the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition must have faced each other to boredom level, the Prime Minister felt the need to write a letter to the Leader of the Opposition and to read it out on Xarabank rather than in parliament. For the PN,` Xarabank has become `the official medium replacing `the House of Representatives where TV cameras are only allowed to transmit foreign dignitaries` speeches advising us that EU membership makes sense. `The only thing that could make sense in this context would be to proceed to early elections and seek consensus to hold a truly national referendum soon thereafter where people would choose if they want to proceed with the negotiated deal for membership or open up fresh negotiations for partnership.`

Rarely have so many contradictions been contained in such a brief document. The Prime Minister acknowledges that Labour wants the issue to be decided by an election and acknowledges that in the country there is a damaging state of indecision. The only thing that could make sense in this context would be to proceed to early elections and seek consensus to hold a truly national referendum soon thereafter where people would choose if they want to proceed with the negotiated deal for membership or open up fresh negotiations for partnership.

Instead the Prime Minister`s letter `offers` Labour that if they accept his insistence on pre-election yes/no referendum without any boycott and then he is prepared to agree on the latest date for an election.` This is just like offering consensual agreement provided Labour agrees to what the PN wants!` If the matter was not related to such a serious matter requiring appropriate language, `the short answer could possibly be something it like this : `Tell it to the marines!`

The latest date for holding the general election is well-known.` It is 24th January 2004 which incidentally happens to be three months and one week before 1st May 2004.` For Labour the longer the Prime Minister takes to call an election the better as it brings out the falsity of government 2003 budget and gives Labour time to explain the riddles in the negotiated EU membership package and explain the advantage of flexibility and differentiation in the Partnership policy.

Early elections are needed for the national interest not for Labour`s sake. The PN on the other hand wants a Labour condoned pre-election referendum as the only effective stepping stool to overcome the high barrier they built themselves for next election from their `disinterest in the local problems which afflict people`s daily lives.

Alfred Mifsud