Eight weeks later and under tremendous pressure, the Prime Minister has presented the people with a cosmetic cabinet reshuffle which basically solves nothing.
Workers’ Day celebrations will, as such, be overshadowed by the spectre of scandal, corruption and the Prime Minister’s inaction.
Nothing changes on Workers’ Day
Of course, the Prime Minister’s speech to the party faithful today will treat the issue of good governance as if it was just another project to embark on, waiting to be ticked off the check list, rather than the natural starting point of all political activity as it should be. He will once again express his sorrow by saying how sorry he is that his government’s achievements in economic growth and job creation have been overshadowed by these ‘silly mistakes’.
Joseph Muscat’s address at Castille Square will avoid reference to the cobweb he’s entangled at Auberge de Castille and will instead go on the offensive, attacking Simon Busuttil’s supposed ‘bitterness’ and negativity.
But in boasting about economic growth and job creation, he will be conveniently forgetting how economic growth is not trickling down. While his fat-cat clique of fourth floor friends keep doing well, and sometimes very well, around 100,00 Maltese people, that is one in every four, is living in poverty or at risk of poverty.
In addition to poverty statistics, the Labour Force Survey shows that 78,000 workers – which amount to basically half the country’s labour force – have suffered a real decrease in their annual income when taking into accout wage and salary increases and cost-of-living increases between 2013 and 2015.
So in the aftermath of the general election and a recovery from an international economic crisis resulting in substantial domestic economic growth, half of the Maltese workers are worse off than they were before. These include 21,000 clerical support workers, 10,000 plant and machine operators, 31,000 working in retail outlets and some other 15,000 workers in other elementary categories. They have all been made to suffer due to government’s complacency and complicity in corruption.
But Joseph Muscat will keep singing to John Lennon’s tune about how ‘clever and classless and free’ we have become. Of course, some people will not have such a short-lived memory and will not be taken in by the Prime Minister’s speech, PBS or One TV. They will remember that they have been promised the eradication of poverty by 2018 and a decent living wage for one and all. Not talking about a problem does not erase it.
As long as labour floats
With the musical-chairs-style cabinet reshuffle, not only has responsibility not been shouldered, but more seriously, trust in politics has not been restored. The country’s tarnished reputation abroad persists and the image of a sleazy, Labour Party lingers locally. When everybody thinks that the Labour Party has reached rock bottom, it always manages to dig deeper.
No wonder that almost everyone from the Nationalist Opposition to members of civil society and all well-meaning citizens, bar the blinkered, have been left totally livid.
A glance at the opinion pieces penned in the last weeks, as well at recent opinion polls by the The Malta Independent, clearly indicate people are not oblivious to the situation and they have rather taken heed of the situation and are voicing their concerns. Nonetheless, the Prime Minister’s rebuke seemed to be directed more towards the protesters than the culprits, for keeping basically everything as it was and moving on as if it were nothing but business as usual is simply an insult to people’s intelligence.
After eight weeks of defying public opinion and insisting that he will not take action before the publication of a commissioned audit on the Panama scandal, the Prime Minister hastily convened a press conference to announce his volte-face. Anything as long as Labour keeps floating!
Better than all the rest
In spite of Gonzi and his cabinet having weathered the worst international economic and financial storm in a hundred years, they have been persistently denigrated by the Labour Opposition, their allies and their mercenaries.
What was promised to be the best cabinet of ministers in history has turned out to be the largest and the costliest – in more ways than one.
The workers of De La Rue, Actavis, ST and Enemalta, as well as those suffering the daylight robbery in fuel prices, certainly know a thing or two about this. They very well know that the only new sectors that Labour has created were the sale of citizenship and the ministries’ positions of trust, which benefit only a very inner circle close to the ruling clique. Having its own stomach full, Labour has left its working class heroes to compete with foreign workers for measly paid jobs.