Pictured above: Zonqor point –  together we can save it

When are politicians ever going to comprehend that just because they have slid into that hot seat of power with a handsome majority (or even a wafer-thin one), it does not mean that people are going to applaud their every move like mindless seals?

If something is wrong, it is always wrong, irrespective of who does it. Should that be so difficult to understand? It seems like only yesterday that I was criticizing the PN government because, at every turn, it felt like we were being treated like gullible fools. Disastrous, short-sighted decisions were being taken with high-handed arrogance, and because some of us pointed them out, we were labelled as having ulterior motives or of being in the pocket of the Labour party. It is still very fresh in my memory that every time I criticized (which I admit was often), I was met by what seemed like a wall of people who tut-tutted disapprovingly at me, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately, because (for some odd reason) they felt I should not state what was bloody obvious.

And now, in a depressingly short period of time, here we are again, full circle, only this time it is PL voters who get so very upset when I point out that the Muscat government is already careening wildly off the rails. I think too many people assume that all opinion writers are actually spin doctors who have been hired to massage a political party’s public image, carry out damage control and basically do its PR. The truth is that the majority of us do, in fact, write out of genuine conviction and not political expediency or personal gain. And the running joke among those who write about politics is that if you are getting flak from both sides you must be doing something right.

This wearying, tedious bickering of ‘where were you when the PN did the same?’ is really getting on my last nerves. What is this, a race to the bottom?

I know this might be a complicated concept to grasp by those who are moulded in the “jew maghna jew kontra taghna” (either with us or against us) school of thought, but it is possible for those who have voted for a political party to vehemently oppose something which is utterly and patently wrong. Unfortunately, the emotional bond some people have with their party is so strong that the merest whisper of dissent is considered a shocking, unforgivable act of betrayal. You either nod like a bobble head doll with blind, unquestioning loyalty at everything ‘the party’ says or does, or else, that’s it, you are banished forever into that murky, foggy Siberian wilderness and eyed with suspicion by both sides (hmm, which side are they on…these switchers…pinnuri (weather vanes)…can’t trust them…they’re devious).

Well, I really hate to break it to Maltese politicians (and their fanatical supporters), but it is not always about them. The reality is much simpler: more and more people are flatly refusing to roll over and play dead just because Joseph (or Simon) has said so. Less and less people are willing to wait around with bated breath for Joseph (or Simon) to proclaim his position on something before they announce how they feel about an issue.

As for those who are wavering, you will not be struck by lightning if you publicly criticize your beloved party. Promise.

The phrase made famous by Franco Debono, “mela jien il-pappagall tieghek? (what am I, your parrot?) has become the mantra of many who are resolutely breaking away from the brainwashed, coma-like stance of the past. The sooner that Muscat digests the fact that MANY of those who voted for him are completely disillusioned, the better it will be for him and the country in the long run. The voices he is hearing are the voices of those who demand that this government be better than the previous one. I have never agreed with the phrase that ‘we get the government that we deserve’. Why should the onus of responsibility for a government’s failings be placed on our shoulders? No, I’m sorry, we deserve much, much better, and it is our duty to object, especially when it comes to public land, which is not the domain of any political party.

Stop selling off Malta. It is not yours to sell.