Aggressiveness and Politics

The last two weeks in review:


ONE news cameraman physically restrained from filming Dr. Gonzi.


PN billboard torched.


A window pane of Harry Vassallo's house broken. (Pardon the stock photo but not a single photographer bothered to snap a picture. Had the window belonged to Sant or Gonzi they'd have brought Brian De Palma in to shoot a feature length movie.)



Rambunctious University students during political debate.

Still a massive improvement over 20 years ago...


...but let me remind you it's only been five years since people brainwashed into hating the EU almost rioted in the streets. I remember listening to Manuel Cuschieri's radio programme for a week after PN won the elections that led Malta into the European Union. Cuschieri was at a loss. He didn't know how to control his followers, after years and years of propaganda, of telling them joining the EU is the worst thing that could ever happen. Supporters called to show their exasperation towards him for not organising violent protests; a few suggested a coup d'etat. I won't forget those days. Mind you, hotheads from the other side would probably behave in the same manner if Dr. Sant were to get Malta out of the EU.

Will we ever learn to take it easy?

L-iljuni tal-bidla

A cross between Renato Pozzetto and Mufasa.

The look of satisfaction on his face at 0:22 is priceless.

Black Wednesday for PN

Part 1: Cabinet Memo Leaked

MLP finally scores a point against PN. Some Nationalist MP must be pretty pissed off to leak something like this to the other side. Read on...

[A longer version of the following article appeared on the Times of Malta]

In a press conference Labour leader Alfred Sant said that a Cabinet memo dated December 2004 showed that the Cabinet agreed in principle on the introduction of payment for health services but felt that such payments “should not be introduced for the moment because of political underpinnings.” (Keith's note: the party always comes first)

Dr. Sant said the Prime Minister had so far repeatedly denied that the PN government had discussed or planned to introduce payment for health service. Dr Sant showed a number of video clips showing Dr Gonzi denying that the matter had been discussed. The evidence, Dr. Sant argued, showed that Dr. Gonzi had lied - a factor which also raised the issue of public trust. Dr. Sant noted that the latest PN clip said that health services are free, not that they will remain free.

Dr. Gonzi replied that the document was presented to the Cabinet's Social Affairs Committee where the proposal to introduce fees on healthcare was shot down immediately and never even made it to the Cabinet proper. He said the Cabinet refuses to discuss the proposals unless they are backed by a proper policy document. The Office of the Prime Minister said the claim in the report that the Cabinet agreed in principle on the introduction of fees was a misrepresentation. Dr. Gonzi stressed that the PN government had no intention of imposing charges on health care.


Part 2: Mepa commission resigns as a result of AD complaint

Mepa defied rules to allow Caqnu's supermarket...

Mepa's Development Control Commission (the board which decides whether or not to issue development permits in Outside Development Zones) resigned after Mepa auditor, Joe Falzon, issued a stinging report on its decision to approve a permit for a supermarket in Safi. The site destroyed for the supermarket is good, cultivated agricultural land outside the development zone. All the members of the DCC voted in favour of the proposed Polidano development despite a recommendation for refusal by the Planning Directorate. "A gross irregularity", says Mr. Falzon. “If the approval of this application can be considered as a precedent, any form of development is acceptable outside development zones.” He adds that “if applications are approved in the way this particular application has been treated, then the very relevance of the MEPA may be at stake.” He concludes that the six members of the board should “shoulder their responsibility for their error of judgement.”

Alternattiva Demokratika had filed a complaint at the end of 2007, when Mepa issued a permit to ic-Caqnu to start the construction of a 6,500 metres squared supermarket and 159 space car park in fields located in an Outside Development Zone between Safi and Kirkop. The development includes a nine metre high structure towering over the nearby fields.

Yesterday, Alternattiva Demokratika announced the auditor's findings and called for the resignation of the commission. AD also called on Environment Minister George Pullicino to assume political responsibility for what has happened and initiate proceedings to withdraw the permit.


All this one week before elections... OUCH!

It will be hard for PN to deny MLP's accusations of corruption.

How will PN avoid mentioning George Pullicino's name from now on?

Pullicino, by the way, can definitely kiss his seat in parliament goodbye.

Dr. Sant and Mt. Magħtab

During his infamous visit, Alfred Sant pointed at trucks going into the facility, calling them proof that Magħtab is still a fully operational rubbish dump. The trucks were actually carrying clay to the engineered landfill, which uses the same entrance.

Dr. Sant then showed journalists some recently planted trees that were dying, and said that Prime Minister Gonzi had promised those trees would grow. Those trees were actually dying as a result of the recent storm. Dr. Sant followed this by saying an MLP government would build a golf course right there. Seems he wants those trees alive so he can kill them himself later.

Everybody knows floating voters don't automatically believe everything a politician has to say. I'm sure Sant knows this. He knows we are different from those nisa hoxnin tal-irhula li jhabbtu it-twapet fit-tieqa while listening to Super 1 radio believing every single word. Yet again, I come to the conclusion that MLP is doing absolutely nothing to win over us floating voters.

Why is MLP basing all its efforts on getting the votes of its usual supporters, when they weren't enough the last time round? Simply because this time they might indeed be enough. If enough disgruntled PN supporters and floaters will vote AD or AN or won't vote at all, MLP will get elected. MLP is keeping its fingers crossed this will happen.

If?

Might?

Fingers crossed?

How about convincing us to vote MLP instead of hoping we won't vote PN?

National Unity Government

I've been meaning to post this all week...

Pop-quiz, hotshot. What do you do when faced with the prospect of losing votes of half the hunters who support you? What do you do?

When asked which party Azzjoni Nazzjonali would form a coalition with, did Josie Muscat reply "PN"? No. With MLP? No. Basically he said: with both of them.

A national unity government with shiny happy MPs from AN, PN, and MLP holding hands!

Mela jien iswed?

Yesterday, MaltaToday published a short interview with Anglu Xuereb, Deputy Leader of Azzjoni Nazzjonali, a party whose members have consistently denied they are racist.

When asked about a court case that has been going on since 1987, Xuereb replied, "the injustice committed against me in this case is that I tendered legally for my land while other applicants for surrounding areas were allowed to freely develop their land while I was not given the same treatment. I had all the permits but I was treated differently because I was in court. I reasoned that: why shouldn't I get what they have been given too? What am I, black?"

A Politician's Promise

Labour's proposed tax credits to SMEs could breach EU rules

Again:

Political parties making promises they know they will not keep? Nothing new.

Politicians making promises the EU won't let them keep? NEW.

Better get used to it, MP hopefuls.

Political Coalitions

PART 1

Gonzi warns vote for AD benefits Labour: PN would have us believe that under no circumstances will they ever, ever, ever form a coalition with AD. What do you expect them to say, 'Yes, dear floating voter, vote for AD and we'll form an alliance with them later'? Puh-lease. If the election results turned out to be PN 31%, MLP 32%, AD 2%, then both PN and MLP would suck up to AD to no end. In that scenario, it would be up to Gonzi to negotiate a coalition with AD better than Sant, which doesn't sound very hard.

Do people really need to be told it's in PN's best interest to keep as many votes as possible to itself? Does PN think floating voters forgot Eddie's year 2004 17-minute bullshit-rant on why we shouldn't give the number 2 vote to AD? Well, we most certainly didn't. PN has a greater chance of winning floating voters over if they cut the crap.

What scares us floating voters is if we vote for AD, and MLP gets the absolute majority of votes i.e. no coalitions necessary - a win for Sant. This is what scares us. This is the scenario PN should be scaring us floaters with.

PART 2

Over here, Daphne Caruana Galizia said:
"You say that a Nationalist government will not legislate for divorce, but that a PN-AD coalition (which has been ruled out) will be able to do so. How? Because AD will have 33 seats and the PN will have one seat in this fictitious coalition? A party with one seat in a coalition, where there is only a one-seat majority on the government side, can derail legislation but it can't legislate."

She's absolutely right. AD or AN would not be able to pass any laws, but they'd be able to stop some laws from passing. However, stopping some things from happening is good enough in my book.

In a PN-AD government, PN would be wary of AD. Knowing AD would vote against building golf courses would stop PN from attempting to build them.

In a PN-AN government, PN would know AN would vote against turning Malta into a haven for illegal immigrants. This would stop PN from even thinking of doing that.

All this would be agreed upon when the alliance is formed. For my money, such an agreement would be as untouchable as the agreement we have with the EU. If PN were to turn its back on such a coalition agreement, wouldn't it deserve the same consequences Sant deserved back in 1998?

Votes floating away from MLP and AD

This letter of mine was finally published on The Times today. At least it's a Saturday so more people will read it.


Losing the floaters

Saying there is something wrong with their DNA will not persuade Nationalists to vote for Labour. It implies that floating voters who voted PN in the recent past need some genetic engineering as well. Is it not Charles Mangion's duty to entice these people to vote Labour?

The MLP is obviously not trying to win any new votes, especially with its leader stating he believes the EU is prepared to reopen the EU package. Never has the world seen another party so incomprehensibly content with convincing Labourites (and only Labourites) who were intent on voting Labour, to vote Labour. In other words, preaching to the converted.

A few weeks ago I was pretty sure Labour were going to win, with AD possibly getting their first seat in Parliament. Today, I am sure floating voters who were going to vote for the MLP and AD are mulling it over.

Keith Chircop
Saturday, 23rd February 2008

This bar chart appeared in the MaltaToday on the 10th of February:



This was published on the MaltaToday on the 17th February:



In 1 week, AD suffered a 1% drop in support.

On Sunday 24th February:



PN now has a 1.8% advantange over MLP.

Please note the "Don't Know" and "No Reply" responses. We don't know who 27% of respondents will vote for.

Who are these 27%?
Are they male/female?
How old are they?
Which social grade do they belong to?
Which districts of Malta are they from?
Most importantly, whom do they usually vote for?

This last report shows MLP and PN neck-and-neck, when in fact it might not be close at all.

Accession Treaty re-negotiations

Alfred Sant at the start of his electoral campaign (04/02/08):
"Once elected, a Labour government would go to Brussels and with goodwill negotiate new conditions on the dockyards and agriculture to uphold Malta's national interest."

Alfred Sant during an interview with Reno Bugeja on TVM:
"Bugeja: This was already agreed in the membership package...
Sant: If this is not proving sufficient for the Maltese circumstances we can talk in that context...
Bugeja: Do you think that the Europeans will be prepared to accept to reopen the package?
Sant: I'm convinced."

Josie Muscat being interviewed by MaltaToday:
"God forbid we were in a position where we have to simply accept everything that is thrown at us because of the treaty we signed in 2003. Otherwise, we would really have lost our sovereignty.”

EU Agriculture Commissioner Marianne Fisher Boel:
"What is agreed in the Accession Treaty is a done deal."

EU Competition Commissioner Nellie Kroes:
"The conditions applicable to Malta Shipyards - including the maximum aid amounts that can be granted, the prohibition of further restructuring aid after December 31, 2008, and the obligation to implement the restructuring plan - are included in the Accession Treaty. Therefore, this cannot be changed."


Political parties making promises they know they will not keep? Nothing new.

Politicians making promises the EU won't let them keep? New.

Better get used to it, dear hopeful Members of Parliament.

A Third Party

Everyone who holds the well-being of Malta dearer to his heart than the well-being of his beloved political party agrees there should be at least three successful political parties on the island. If reading the previous sentence brought Italy’s government to your mind, then you have been brainwashed by PN and MLP. Italy’s unstable government is indeed what they want you to think about as soon as you hear the words “political coalition”. As they would have you believe, a coalition is equal to political instability. Believe this: more parties mean more competition. Don’t be a political stooge, grow a brain of your own, and look up the countless other countries where political alliances have worked.

Why is a new party ALWAYS ridiculed by the Maltese media?

Alternattiva Demokratika, the first alternative to PN and MLP to emerge, was ridiculed in its early beginnings. Its members were dismissed as simple tree-huggers. The media efforts were so strong many still view the party as an environmental NGO to this day. I remember this party being lambasted for criticizing PN and MLP. Can you believe it? You see, they didn’t have any votes to lose by slagging off the main parties. This was seen as unfair behaviour towards the bigger parties. Nobody had ever seen anyone blast both PN and MLP. Instead of appreciating these people making full use of their freedom of speech, the average Joe criticized them! Just goes to show the brainwashing power the 2 main parties have over their followers. It took 2 decades for AD to gain minimal recognition. 20 years.

Imperium Europa was nipped in the bud. Granted, their ideas were extremely radical, but it must be said they were the first (and until a few months ago the only) ones to come up with a solution to rid us of the illegal immigration problem. Yes, the first. Waiting, and hoping, for the European Union to help us out is not a solution, it’s chickening out on a problem that is costing Maltese citizens about €1,500,000 every year. Inhuman an idea as it was, not accepting boatfuls of illegal African immigrants under any circumstances (potentially letting them sink) would have permanently put off all illegal immigrants from ever leaving for Malta, or stopping here on their way to Sicily. Crazy, yes, but a solution nonetheless. The media had a field day with these guys, dismissing them as Nazis, even though they are libertarians who agree with gay marriage! After this party got a surprising amount of votes in the MEP elections, the authorities were brought in to get rid of them. They did this by forbidding all forms of media from reporting on IE’s activities, as well as arresting the most prominent members, who practically live in courtrooms nowadays. They will still contest the upcoming elections, but with no exposure whatsoever whose votes could they ever win?

Azzjoni Nazzjonali is the latest party to appear. They received a lashing from the press before they even stated who their members were. Why? Because its leader, Josie Muscat, is an ex-PN hothead. So what? If anything I admire him for canvassing door-to-door in Dom Mintoff’s district in the bloody eighties. I also understand his demand to fight the Labour government with violence back when the it was torching the offices of the Times of Malta newspaper, beating people to death during police interrogations, sending heavily armed soldiers to stop Nationalist party rallies, beating university students staging peaceful protests, assaulting the family of the Opposition’s leader... need I go on? Was Josie a nutcase for wanting to fight fire with fire? He left the party and became a very successful businessman. Why exactly is his party being vilified by the press? This week on TV’s Bondiplus, a member of Azzjoni Nazzjonali said they would close down the open centres for illegal immigrants and send those illegal aliens back to the detention centre, in order to deter further illegal immigrant Africans from crossing the Mediterranean Sea to get to Malta. He was ridiculed by the show’s presenter and by the representatives of the other parties who were present. Why? Because he was offering a solution to the problem, something PN and MLP have never done in ten years.

Bottom line: the media is controlled by the powers that be (PN and MLP) who do not want more competition.

Where is our freedom?

Standard of Living in Malta

Couple low wages with a high cost of living, add the Mediterranean sea and you get sunny Malta.

A three bedroom flat costs more than the average Joe earns in twelve years. How much does a small vehicle like the Mini One cost? About 10,000 euros more than it does in the UK. The average Joe does not afford these necessities, but he buys them nevertheless. "I can always take out a loan", he says. Finished paying your house loan and car loan, why not take out a loan for a boat or that holiday you have been promising yourself? The banks have a field day every day in this country. The queue to a loan processor must be longer than the queue to a cashier.

Is the average Joe complaining? Nowhere as much as he should be. Blame it on the relaxed Mediterranean lifestyle, I say. Hold on a minute, how can the average Joe relax if he is barely earning his keep by the sweat of his brow? There is more to life than sun and sea, you know. If the average Joe is not that bothered, wealthy politicians will be even less bothered. They win elections over ways to make us save 10 euros a week, like that is going to make a difference. Wages are still fundamentally the same as they were five years ago. The same cannot be said about the cost of housing. How do people on minimum wage survive? Do they eat? Seriously.

Regardless of how much revenue a local company makes, the wages are still more or less the same. Is this ethical? This brings me to the conclusion that Maltese employers think that if they pay their employees well, they will never afford a huge yacht complete with crane to gently lower a 15 foot speedboat into the sea. I am grossly generalizing but, last I heard, Malta was still the country with the biggest number of Ferraris per capita. That is food for thought. Scratch that, make it a five-course meal for thought.

Make no mistake, the problem is not the employers. No, Siree, it is the employees. If qualified people cease to accept low wages, employers will have to increase them. Similarly, if nobody buys houses and cars, the prices will have to go down. But we keep taking low-paying jobs, and we keep buying ridiculously overpriced housing and vehicles. I know we have kids to feed and shelter, but you cannot expect prices to drop if you keep buying, can you? Dear economics students, throw your textbooks out the window because theories of supply and demand, prices and quantities do not apply to Malta.

It is not so simple though. Why are qualified people willing to work for so little? Here is my take on the subject. University is free in Malta. This results in hundreds graduating every year, more than required locally. This, in turn, results in recent graduates accepting local jobs for wages so hilariously low they almost equal those of inexperienced non-graduates. Which, in turn, results in graduates with years of experience not being offered the wages they deserve. Would you hire one experienced, expensive graduate for the price of two or three young, inexperienced graduates? The answer has to be yes. Otherwise it will lead to a scenario where, pay-wise, degrees will be as close as makes no difference to worthless. In that statement, I am excluding jobs which actually require a degree like architecture, medical, and whatnot. This fact remains: the smarter we get as a whole, the less we are being paid individually.

I am sounding bleak I know, but making employees financially happy does not seem to be on the priority list of Maltese employers. Happy? Employees should be thankful they even have a job, right? Not so much. Hiring someone does not a benefactor make. Employees were not out in the street begging for food and clothing before they got hired. A job offer is not a gift. An employment contract is an agreement between employer and employee to help each other out. The sooner we realize this, the better for everyone. You see, hiring a person is easy, retaining that person is another story. Which is why Maltese employers are now complaining about foreign firms opening in Malta and poaching their employees. What nerve! How dare these foreigners offer good wages? The answer is simple: the feudal system has long been gone.

Local employers should take this as a wake up call, instead of laughing at how much these companies are willing to spend to keep employees happy. Some will point out that these foreign firms make more revenue than local ones, but I have already mentioned that wages given by Maltese companies do not vary according to revenue. More foreign companies are opening in Malta and even more will open with SmartCity. Guess where they will get their employees from. Eventually Maltese employers will be forced to face the music and realize what must be done to retain good employees. Eventually the average Joe will be able to afford necessities. Eventually.


Read also Relative Cost of Living and Chaaarge!