The wise electorate chose continuity

Now that the election and its ramifications are mainly over, we can take a long view of things. On one level there was the conflict between the parties, his year particularly embattled. Yet the result was yet another huge victory by the Labour Party, a huge surprise for those in the Nationalist Opposition that hoped for a different result. So while the parties in the preelectoral times were vociferous in their wars of words, the people, at grass roots level thought otherwise and when the day came they voted Labour in their mass. We can now see how the people voted. They voted for continuity. For a seamless transition from one legislature to another. Consider for a moment the possible alternative: given the way that the Maltese society is structured, ie with a heavy dependence on the government, a change of government would be traumatic for the country. This is not to say that such a change cannot ever take place as this would mean the absence of a functioning democracy. But in the climate engendered in May and June this year, with allegations of corruption which have not been disproved, with a huge mountain of libel cases hanging in mid-air, a reversal of fortunes would have been a shock. And the country, in its main, shied away from this shock, trauma, and reversal. It chose continuity, a seamless transition. Strange though it may seem, the people shut their ears to all talk about corruption and chose the quiet life against a national upheaval. Of course, there are now persistent reports that people were ‘bought’ with promises of houses, jobs, opportunities. That may also be true. The size of the Labour victory ensured that the celebrations, raucous though they were, were soon over and people reverted to the ordinary daily living. So now it is as if the election never was. The same policies run the country, and what was left unfinished at the prema- ture end of the preceding legislation can now be completed. There are, of course, changes elsewhere: the Nationalist Opposition is still in the early stages of choosing its new leader and there have also been changes in the composition of the Cabinet. But seen from the ground level, these are minor changes. Summer has set in with all the fierceness of heat, the festa season is back with a bang and maybe people who grew estranged from each other in the hot controversies of the election debate will now cool enough to reconcile with each other. There are still problems that the election has not solved and issues that we must tackle. People’s lives run on, with all the problems involved in daily living. The economy is doing well but we must beware of any possible reversal and its impact on our small and open economy. And the dialectic between the parties continues: the country needs a strong Opposition to keep the government from slackening.