When a vote means so much more
The forthcoming election has been called under strange, to say the least, circumstances. From the assertion, earlier this year in January, that the election would be held in March 2018, to the closest possible date for an early election.
It’s important to note that the the Prime Minister rushed to call the election before midnight of the 1st May, as otherwise, had the 2nd of May dawned, he would have had to go for the 10th June. He seems not to have afforded not even that extra week. He needed the election and he desperately needed the election to happen fast.
What could have caused such a change of heart and mind? What has happened since January that justifies this panic-driven decision to hold such an early election? It is surely not normal for a Government who coasted to power on the biggest majority ever in Maltese history not to survive its full term.
The parliamentary majority is also seemingly comfortable, but that has changed since January, very recently too, with the second defection of none other than the party whip.
Was the Prime Minister maybe aware of more defections to follow the two he has already had, fostering a lack of certainty of survival in the event of a vote of no confidence being called?
Another thing that has changed was the surfacing of the Egrant ownership accusations, linking him directly to the established Panama papers scandal.
The magisterial enquiry is well under way, and an outcome proving what most of us are convinced of already would have had him going to an election with that as very heavy baggage. Holding the election in such a frenzy, making sure to avoid even the possibility of the extra week till the 10th June, indicates that he wants us to vote before the result of the enquiry comes out. In this scenario, our vote has all of a sudden adopted a significance, which is way beyond simply choosing the government of this country.
He is taking a foolhardy gamble in trying to get the Maltese people to confirm him as Prime Minister, thus endorsing his and his cronies’ behaviour while in power.
Should he succeed in this scheme, even if by a very narrow majority, he will have made everything go away, and not just the as yet to be confirmed Egrant allegations. He will have also managed to sweep under the carpet a whole list of other matters.
This includes the confirmed ownership of the Panama companies by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi; the confirmed payments to Keith Schembri on the passport sales (the settlement of a debt!?); the confirmed MTA subsidy (to the tune of 1 million euros) of a non-touristic airline which he also uses to fly on official duties; and the confirmed myriad scandals we have gotten used to waking up to every day.
It is for that reason that I have earlier stated that each and every vote means much more than simply an expression of a choice of party.
Voting for Joseph Muscat means approval and endorsement of all that has been done wrongly these past four years.
A vote for Joseph Muscat is a stamp of approval of the ownership of secret Panama companies, shady deals, undermining of institutions, widespread partisan appointments and so much more.
In a nutshell, a vote for Joseph Muscat is an acceptance and an approval of him doing the exact opposite of what he promised to do in his slick and dishonest campaign, just 4 years ago.
A vote for the Nationalist Party and its allies on the other hand is a vote to end all this, and to bring back the country to stability and peace of mind. It is a vote to establish once and for all the rule of law, by the strengthening of institutions in a way that will remove the possibility of them being controlled by the very people which they are supposed to monitor. It will be a vote for the entrenchment of check and balances in our systems. But overall, it will be a vote for Malta.
A vote for Joseph Muscat is a stamp of approval of the ownership of secret Panama companies, shady deals, undermining of institutions, widespread partisan appointments and so much more.