The march of the unbelievers

The huge crowds that flocked to Valletta on Sunday can be described as a march of the unbelievers. They do not believe in whatever Joseph Muscat has to say at this point.

They do not believe in anything that key figures of the Muscat government say either. They do not believe anything can be done except to defeat the current administration at the polls. The situation is now too far gone to be redressed.

In fact, we can say that the 2018 election campaign started on Sunday. This is also clear from the speech by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.

To those who lived through the terrible years of the 1980s, this all seems very déjà vu – opposing sides refusing to discuss or to negotiate. There is no leeway between them. We are in for a year of mass meetings and, worse, a year of intransigence. We do not want to blame both sides equally, however: we are in this tense situation because of the government’s ineptitude and its permissive attitude

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towards the corruption in its midst.

We are in the present situation because Konrad Mizzi acquired a company in Panama as soon as he was elected to government.

We are in the present situation because Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has steadfastly refused to make Dr Mizzi face the consequences of his actions and resign.

We are in the present situation because a minister, faced with allegations that he visited a brothel in Germany while on government duty, sued the journalist who made the allegations and asked the court to issue a garnishee order on her assets.

We are in the present situation because the government, rather than calm things down and seek dialogue, characteristically exacerbated the issue by issuing a draft bill which aims to regulate news portals on the internet. On Sunday, the government got its reply. The masses who flooded Valletta’s streets and squares were the answer of an angry section of the population to the present administration.

It was also the reaction to so many other instances where the government has ridden roughshod over people’s sensibilities – from the deal whereby the Prime Minister hired out his own private car to the government, to the seemingly endless stream of party loyalists and activists put on the state payroll in what have been referred to as – the misnomer of misnomers – ‘positions of trust’. Simply put, people have had enough and on Sunday they expressed their anger.

Now if what people really cared about was the price of water and electricity, then considering the government claims to have reduced both, all should be right – the people in Valletta on Sunday couldn’t possibly represent the population of Malta. Or could they?

Just a year before the election, time is fast running out for the government, and people are getting angrier. The Muscat administration now has a very limited timeframe to turn its act around. If instead it continues to go on the offensive and exacerbate tensions, it will only have itself to blame when it is met by an equal and opposite reaction.