May the electorate choose decency...

PN government chose to extend the development zones in 2006, I swore that I would never ever vote PN. My resolve not to do this was reinforced in 2011 when the PN took a stand against the introduction of divorce, and in 2015, when Simon Busuttil declared that he was going to vote in favour of the unsustainable practice of spring hunting.

However, the election on 3rd June is not a normal election. Joseph Muscat called a snap election a little less than a year before the expiry of his current mandate (and when Labour was enjoying a comfortable parliamentary majority) in the wake of further allegations related to the “Panamagate” scandal. These have transformed this election into a referendum on whether the electorate approves or disapproves Joseph Muscat’s behaviour throughout the past four years. In this context I have to mention Felix Busuttil’s speech during the PL’s meeting last Sunday, where he declared that “I am Gozitan, gay, and in a civil union. I support Joseph Muscat, because Joseph żamm kellmtu (kept his promise)”. One cannot but empathise with Felix Busuttil’s hurt, borne out of being deprived of the basic right of formalising the union with his partner, for such a long time. However, once I have touched on gay issues, I cannot fail to highlight that the communications consultant to Joseph Muscat, who owes his salary to the taxpayer, passed homophobic comments, during the controversy, following Anne Fenech’s maladroit pastizzi jibe, aimed at ridiculing the Leader of the Opposition on grounds of his alleged sexual orientation. Promoting LGBT issues and then allowing your communications aide to pass cheap, homophobic comments is a contradiction. That said, I believe that Joseph Muscat did the right thing when he pushed for the introduction of civil unions for all: however this alone cannot be the litmus test of Joseph Muscat’s term. Such a stance trivialises the gay community’s legitimate struggle for equality because it equates gays with one single issue: marriage, at the expense of everything else. Gays, like heterosexuals, should be equally concerned about good governance, living in a modern, European state (as opposed to living in a banana republic), upholding the rule of law and ecological justice. All these principles are at stake in this election.

Electing Muscat means letting him go on with the sale of Maltese citizenship, while Maltese families have to bear the brunt of inflated property prices. Electing Muscat means wreaking havoc on Żonqor Point through the construction of the “American University” of Malta. Electing Muscat means dismantling the fines for infringement of hunting laws (to be construed as giving the hunters a carte blanche to flout the law). Electing Muscat means approving his plans for high-rise buildings, which will uglify Malta’s skyline forever. Electing Muscat means condoning the secret agreements with the Azerbaijani and Chinese dictatorships. Electing Muscat means finding nothing wrong with the Australia Hall giveaway to the PL, the Cafe Premier and the Gaffarena scandals, and Manwel Mallia’s behaviour in the Sheehan shooting case. Electing Muscat means exculpating him for his defence of both Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, when both the offshore financial structures set up were described by the PANA Committee Member, Sven Giegold as seemingly “... a textbook case of money laundering”. This among other things prompted the Portuguese Socialist MEP, Ana Gomes to declare that Muscat’s “government embarrasses all Socialists” and it should embarrass us Maltese even more, because we let this happen.

I cannot bear to live in a country whose reputation has plummeted exponentially (see for example Commerzbank’s refusal to accept declarations by Maltese auditing firms), Not to mention the additional allegations which have been made regarding kickbacks from the sale of passports. This is irrespective of any civil rights, which might have advanced under the current administration and irrespective of any giveaways included in the Labour Party’s manifesto. May I remind readers that with civil rights, one cannot pick and choose which civil rights to uphold and which to ignore, so championing gay issues but limiting freedom of press makes absolutely no sense. I am saying this because the ICIJ journalist (and co-winner of the Pulitzer prize) Matthew Caruana Galizia, has been locked out of his Facebook account and all his “corruption facts”, which included extracts from Panama leaks were removed, needless to say, following complaints from Malta. The complainants have obviously taken a leaf out of the Azerbaijani Government’s book and yet they claim that they champion civil rights! I do not want to live in a country in which the press is restrained.

If the only way to get rid of this opprobrium is by voting PN, then I will have to close my nose (and with a very heavy heart) renege my oath, and give the No. 1 to a PN candidate (giving the second and third preference to a Green candidate). This is what it has come to with Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister. The election on 3rd June must be used in order to reclaim Malta back from the Panama clique and as much as I hate to admit it, voting PN is the only way to do so. I will find comfort in the advice given by Leftist economist Yannis Varoufakis (ex Greek Finance Minister) to the French Leftists ahead of the final round of the French presidential elections which pitted Macron (a centrist, exbanker) against the neo-Fascist Le Pen:

“Vote for Emmanuel Macron… Not because we… (agree) with his right wing… position. Not because we… (think)... that his policies... (are)... fantastic. But because when progressives are faced with a fascist, racist party that wants to get its hands on the levers of the deep state, the levers of the police and of the army, and use them against brown people, against gays, against the working class, we should all rally against that candidate and in favour of even a neoliberal that opposes them. Vote for Macron, with the same energy and enthusiasm with which we are going to oppose him from day 1”.

Transposing this to the Maltese situation:

I will vote for the PN and elect Simon Busuttil as Prime Minister, not because I agree with his stance on spring hunting, or with his proposal for a fixed link between Malta and Gozo, and so on. But because Joseph Muscat wants to use this election to tighten his grip on the levers of State and use this to ablut himself and his administration of the disgust and moral reprehensibility associated with the Panamagate scandal, and to wage a total war on the environment by reducing fines for illegal hunting, promoting the uglification of Żonqor Point, high rises and so on… Then progressives and environmentalists should all rally against Muscat and in favour of even the Nationalist Party, opposing him.

I will vote PN with the same energy and enthusiasm with which I will actively participate in any activity against their unsustainable proposals from day 1.