Time to Pause

The Malta Independent on Sunday



The way government is going about the referendum is typical of its now well established way of not solving a problem.` Rather than devise proper structured solutions and organise the resources to carry them out effectively, the PN for the last 16 years has worked differently. They have consistently tried to address problems by blindly throwing money at them, engaging the media to promote the idea that problems are being solved, conduct expensive surveys with questions skewed to produce the desired result, and then just continue paddling aimlessly while the underlying problems remain unaddressed.

Why is a referendum being held` What is the problem` Is the referendum the right solution I try to answer these questions in this contribution.

Malta has to decide. It has invested too much money and effort in this EU issue and now it is time to decide once the negotiations have been crystallised and the enlargement date has been fixed for 1st May 2004.

Whether the government likes it or not, there exist two political schools on the matter. The people should choose between one of these two schools of thought.` Yet we are being asked to say yes or no to one of them.

`Whether the government likes it or not, there exist two political schools on the matter. The people should choose between one of these two schools of thought.` Yet we are being asked to say yes or no to one of them.` Whether government likes it or not, democracy demands that both schools of thought are given commensurate if not equal exposure with fair allocation of resources. Yet we are being brainwashed with a bombardment of promotion for the government`s proposal financed by our tax funds and aided by offensive interference from Brussels, while the opposition has been left to fund itself from its own frugal resources.

Whether government likes it or not, where democracy is practised seriously, no referendum is conducted by a government which does not have a constitutional term permitting its execution.` Yet government whose term expires on 24th October 2003 is trying to impose on its successors a decision that can only be implemented more than 6 months later.

So why on earth is Malta placing itself as the first country to go for the referendum giving nobody reasonable time to read let alone study the Accession Treaty which is still being drafted Why are we being expected to give our irreversible consent to joining the EU on a given set of conditions when we are well aware that these conditions are being overhauled completely by the Giscard Convention and when Giscard is on record stating that he envisages even some existing members might have to opt out of membership finding it hard to live under the federal modelled Constitution.

The answer to these is simply that the government is not seriously seeking fair consultation from the electorate about such an important matter.` It is simply trying to make for itself a step-stool to be able to reach over the high, otherwise unreachable, objective of winning the next election when its record on the whole spectrum of domestic management, from the economy to the environment, from education to health and social services, is plainly dismal.

Each time Labour gives solid specific arguments about why membership on the basis negotiated does not make sense to our circumstances, the Prime Minister, in near pontifical style, assures us that membership is good for us and we should consider it as dogma.. And every time the case for membership gets hollower than it ought to be. `The electorate is realising that its anything but `nationalist` government, is attempting to rush us off our feet rather than seek the best solution to suit our circumstances.`

It is clearly back-firing on the PN. And they well deserve it. Rather than seeing EU membership as a practical means to a superior objective of procuring for the country a sustainable improved standard of living in harmony with the environment and sound financial practices, the PN have made EU membership as an objective in its own right. Something that according to them we must believe in as a matter of faith, doctrinally rather than analytically.

It just does not work that way.` The more brainwashing is thrown at voters the higher suspicions rise that lavish wrapping is trying to make up for lack of substance in the content.` As people look beneath the surface, more and more get convinced that EU membership as negotiated is a straight jacket, which gradually, as the transitory periods wear off, will stifle our natural advantages of flexibility and ability to differentiate ourselves as permitted by our small size. People realise that we are being short changed as we are forced to follow other people`s foreign and security policy without getting fair value for our natural strategic position as our harbours have become a regular port of call for foreign warships.

People are realising that personal ambitions have been allowed to gain priority over national interest; that such decision can only be taken when and if our political school of thoughts converge so that we move forward as one nation for the tough challenges ahead where we have to compete with bigger countries on terms set out to favour them and disadvantage us.

The electorate is realising that its anything but `nationalist` government, is attempting to rush us off our feet rather than seek the best solution to suit our circumstances. Even among those who are not yet convinced that Labour`s Partnership is the best option, many are however persuaded that membership as proposed as an insult to all that Borg Olivier and Mintoff worked for. They mean to pause. This is no religious dogma.` This is our future.` If we leave it hostage to destiny we will slip back to neo-colonialism.

Personally, I feel that this is a decision being forced on us prematurely and a no decision is better than a bad decision.` I mean to stay at home.