THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW
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A tale of two parliaments

8/30/2019

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It's crystal clear   that many people do not  understand the democratic systems of their own countries. Here we have people proclaiming that "we won by 40000 votes, so our government can do whatever it wants".

​In the UK you get Leavers telling you "We won so we're leaving the EU". But, actually, the UK, like Malta, is a parliamentary democracy. Elected representatives do not  think that leaving the EU without a deal is good for the UK. For 3 years they have been trying to square the circle of leaving the EU and not having the UK in a worse off situation. They've been helplessly and hopelessly looking for unicorns.

The remit of a democratically elected member of parliament is to look out for the common good. So even if a majority of people want to jump off a cliff, MPs are duty bound to not allow them to. It's how a parliamentary democracy works. Parliament is sovereign. It's meant to stop mob rule, it's meant to stop the people harming the country.  It's also meant to be a check on the Executive.

In Malta our parliamentary democracy is dead and buried. There is absolutely no holding of the Executive to account by our parliament. It seems to me as though there's just a biding of time of the Opposition, a waiting for the incumbent administration to loot, pillage and award contracts to their cronies. Until it's their turn (they think) to do the same.

I know some Westminster politicians have dithered and been feart to put their heads above the parapet but at least many have tried to hold the UK Executive to account, to be a check and balance. Here we simply have a biding of time, a treading of water.
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Soon the nakedness of the emperors will no longer be denied

8/14/2019

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The main problem with the toxic political duopoly is that both PN and PL diehards do not see that they are PN and PL diehards.  Even some of the anti-Delia ex PN crowd hark back to the so-called glory PN days and do not see that previous PN administrations were far from perfect.  Now I didn’t live in Malta from 1989 to 2010 but you don’t have to look very far to see evidence of this incompetence of PN at best or its malevolence at worst.

The most shocking illustration of this is the number of building collapses on the watch of previous PN administrations.   And for the very same reason the recent building collapses happened  – the negligence of developers illegally excavating far too close to third party walls.  Three people died in two separate building collapses in 2000 and 2004.  People were also injured in others.

As if this weren’t bad enough, there then was the scandalous (in)justice experienced by the bereaved Vella family at the hands of our (in)justice system.  Nineteen years it took our Criminal and Civil courts to torture the Vella family in a prolonged purgatory.  Nineteen years, and still justice was not served.  The state, which is ultimately responsible for the functionality or otherwise of our justice system, looks on imperviously.  Nineteen years later and we have the collapse of 3 buildings in 2019.  Would these have collapsed if our justice system had served proper justice to the Vella family and all other victims in a timely manner?   Is this what the more recent victims are going to have to endure?

Of course, there are more signs of PN administration failures.  More mundane failures, but still impactful on the lives of ordinary citizens and residents of Malta.  Like the Arms billing system.  Or the Annual Car Licence fee discrimination.  Or the decision to penalise teachers for moving sector.  Or a complete free for all private rental market.  Or the pre-1995 anti landlord discrimination.  Or the 2006 Rationalisation of Development Zone Boundaries (now that’s a title of an Orwellian Ministry of Truth bulletin if there ever was one).  So many more. 

The situation today did not create itself out of a vacuum.  Yes, the PL administration is completely responsible for the direction it has chosen to take since 2013.  It certainly has not made good on its promises of transparency, meritocracy or looking after the environment.  It missed a golden opportunity to increase the bar, to show PN how good governance is done.  I predict that in the long term PL will definitely suffer the consequences of this.

However, the stark fact remains that PN has not had a post mortem of the reasons for its two successive electoral defeats of 2013 and 2017.  It has not accepted its share of responsibility for the current impasse.  It persists with the duopoly status quo.  PN thinks that, by some miracle, the days of alternation of power from PN to PL and vice versa will return  soon.  It doesn’t see that that ship sailed a long time ago.

The people gave PL a chance in 2013 when PN failed to impress.  Just like PN was discarded, this will also happen to PL.   Already you see growing signs of a disgruntlement as the consequences of Joseph Muscat's economic model of choice  are increasingly felt.  

And then what next?  Will the reins of power fall to PN?  Heck no.  Not in a million years.  PN will not have the ability to organise the proverbial in a brewery let alone be an attractive proposition for the electorate to vote them in power ever again.  Thus, in my opinion, the days of the PNPL duopoly are numbered.

It therefore follows that a new politics will come into play.  Something will be building into the vacuum caused by this endangerment of the political duopoly.  The people are key.  Somehow, over the decades, PNPL have manipulated and manoeuvred the electorate into feeling loyalty for PN or PL.  With the result that each of them has come to complacently expect a sizeable number to defend them to the hilt, no matter what.  In this way, we fight each other and are distracted from the maladministration of the day. 

The critical voices are increasing.  One day soon, a critical mass of people, critical of both PN and PL, will exponentially show how to refuse to play the bipartisan game.  Social media is helping to show incontrovertibly how successive administrations take for granted their ability to ignore the well being of the ordinary citizen and resident. 

In the meantime, I suppose, we have to endure the last dregs of the duopoly circus.  It’s interesting how so few of the politicians  seem to be able to see the writing on the wall.  Soon, the nakedness of the emperors will no longer be denied.   
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The state of our parliamentary democracy

8/6/2019

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 I don’t much watch the Maltese Parliament in action these days.  I’ve long given up on the idea that our formaldehyde-seeped corpse of a House of democratically elected Representatives will ever do the job it is paid to do – curb the excesses of  the Maltese Executive and act to protect the common good.  So, I might have missed the parliamentary debate on the direction our national economic model should take.

Or is it the case that this precipitous swerve of direction occurred without any consultation with our parliament whatsoever?  Do successive Maltese administrations even consider that they should first seek a consensus within our Parliament, with the democratically elected representatives of the people, on fundamental issues like the direction our economy should take? 

After all, ordinary people consult with their significant others on momentous, life changing decisions all the time.  Imagine if I decided unilaterally in 2010 that we were all going to live in Malta without stopping to ask my nearest and dearest whether they wanted to do so too?   

The complacent arrogance of successive Maltese administrations as they blithely  take our country down paths, without first  making sure that the people are agreed on that particular path, is simply breathtaking.    Do we really want a Dubai style  country?  One where we have a hierarchy of worker where the 'imported' worker migrant sweeps the roads in the sun, where the igaming executive lords it over the indolent   Maltese landlord?  Is this what we want?  Do we want to forget about the 'għaqal' (prudence) of our forebears?    The forebears that knew the value of  everything and the price of nothing?  

Or is it that PN or PL decide on a course of action for the country even before winning a general election, and then present this as a fait accompli?  Is it the case that pre-election manifesto pledges are solely based on which particular cronies or lobby groups are to be favoured with a project or two and not on whether it is in the public interest?  Do our political parties have any long term vision for Malta?  Do they feel the responsibility for the common good that we entrust in them? 

Why are the above even questions?  Of course we know the answers to the above questions.    Fifty five years of independence, and this is what it comes to.  

I wonder why we have a parliament at all.    PN and PL will tell you that all their proposals were there in their general election manifestos. They will flatter you.  They will tell you that you voting them in, based on their electoral manifesto (which of course everybody studied avidly), was what was most important.  After all, who needs experts or parliamentary democracy?  Of course, you are more qualified to decide on the long term vision of our country than the members of parliament you elected to best represent you.

The gaslighting all over our media and social media is brazen, the information provided confusing.  Does anyone know the actual number of trees to be removed, for example? 

Our promise to invest in our roads was not a promise to tarmac poor quality roads or to fill the numerous potholes, the current administration will tell you.  Of course not. Didn’t you know that this  would mean  the widening of our roads, a decrease in the amount of agricultural land and the chopping down of mature trees?

The Central Link project is but one small diseased twig of the pathological vision for Malta - long revealed - of Joseph Muscat’s premiership.  Sell Maltese citizenship.  Sell our public assets to the highest bidder.  Bulldoze away any objection or resistance.  Create a climate in which the messenger is easily discredited and shut down.  Have a bonfire of regulation.  Destroy our international reputation.  Ignore the distress of the citizen and resident.     Pander to the developer, the hunter, the money launderer.  Ignore the long term common good.  Think of today only.  Never of tomorrow.   This is the seductive mantra of Joseph Muscat's 'vision'.   

How many future 'Where were you when...?' will we hear when it will be the turn of today's dissenters to  bitterly give way to their 'I told you so' instinct?   

I sometimes dream that we have a responsible government.  One which demands that we - the people - think of tomorrow.  One which insists that we have a public transport system which discourages car ownership.  One which makes the most of our tiny country’s resources.  Being small is also an advantage, you know.  A 1.5 hour 5 km commute is absurd.  Our waterways are underutilised. 

So many different ways in which we could evolve our country sustainably and creatively.  You’ve got to ask yourself – Why is it that this administration is choosing to go for this particular economic model?   This question is key.    Suspend all reverence and all  partisan idolatry of politicians and political party.       Consider  your idols to be but mere human beings and then ask yourself - Why is  it that  this administration is choosing to go for this particular economic model?  

And please, let's not go down the dead end, red herring alley of  'But PN did the same or worse.'    We're talking of the here and now.  We cannot change our complicit  silence of the past.   

Is it possible that the people who live for only today cannot look into a future where  we reap  what we are sowing today?    It will surely be an ugly harvest.  
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Notwithstanding the abysmal current state of our so called parliamentary  democracy, there is a hint of a waking up to the looming dangers.  The demography of the recent protest against the Central Link project was interesting in that more young people attended.  A momentum is building.  An understanding that, even if it comes to nothing, we need to stand up to be counted.    I just wish that the people we elected to represent us and protect the common good would do  just that too.  
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  • Home
  • The precautionary garnishee order in Malta
  • Miscellaneous Musings
  • M. M. in the Time of Covid-19
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  • A Thousand Words