One of the most repeated mantras under the last administration was that it was too arrogant. Arrogance had become the byword for Muscat’s opposition, stirring up the people’s hatred and chips until they could take no more. One would expect that after two years of Labour government we would have anything but an arrogant government.
Not. Joseph “What is all the fuss?” Muscat is on track to break all negative records even in this department. This would already be worrying were it not for another not too insignificant detail. The real problem is that Muscat’s arrogance is directly related to one of the most basic tenets of liberal democracy – the right to property and its enjoyment. In this field Muscat has run rampage like no other before him managing to begin to belittle the feats of his hero Mintoff.
Public property is anything but something that is intended for the general enjoyment of the people. In Muscat’s eyes it is there to be raped and sold to the shadiest investor. From Zonqor to Qala the alarum bells are ringing while the Prima Donna in Castille gives us the modern day version of Marie Antoinette with his “Let them eat cake” being the “What is all this fuss?” His cabinet of incompetents can only just back him up in this tyrannic saunter through the res publica – most of them have vested interests in some jaunt or other whether it is strip clubs or property to be developed.
“Qieghdin sew” is an expression that offers meagre consolation. This morning we woke up to the news that through some wheeling and dealing of government sponsored expropriation another individual managed to make quite a few euros. Arrogance? Expropriation – the word of tyranniesthat evokes the ghost of South American socialist (read fascists in disguise) manouevres. So a couple of farmers own the land where Muscat wants to make a cheap sell to place a scam university? No problem – we will move them around because their land is in the way.
The laws that are supposed to be in place to safeguard these democratic basics such as the right to enjoyment of property and the protection of the res publica are also in danger of being rendered useless. This governmenthas become the masterind of the watering down of our legal system. It creeated a momentary illusion of competence by introducing haphazard laws granting social rights. That was the equivalent of the opium for the general public. All too peased for having obtained the long awaited rights by hook or by crook (mostly by crook and false promises) they rushed to anoint the law-maker as expert. Anyone criticising these laws as patchwork that fails to fall within the lines of a general social project would quickly be branded a conservative defender of the fools who for too long ignored the signs of change.
The institutional set-up that should help with legal safeguards is long eroded. MEPA and its likes are full of upstart proto-philosophers busy licking the arses of those in power hoping to get a piece of the cake even if such piece only means a bit of verbal recognition every now and then as well as a keen following of blind minions. The courts are gradually succumbing to a nomination game that is all but neutral and threatens the pilars of separation of power. And all the while the chips on the shoulder against the old, arrogant PN (GonziPN?) are proving to be resilient.
We could blame the arrogance of the former guise of PN that brought us into this mess. We could continue to whinge about how the former government lacked ears to listen. Some among us could even bask in the short-lived sunlight of “I told you so” smugness. All the while though the nation is being dragged into undemocratic ignominy by a far worse adversary than has ever been seen before.
It is time for some people to set their pride away and invest in practical options to bring about change as quickly as is possible. Even if that means holding their noses and backing a party they believed they would never back.
It’s imperative that they realise this now. The future of the nation is in balance and they will have much to answer for if they do not realise it.
