Living in fear

According to that master of spreading doom and gloom, we are all living in fear. And this is what Alfred Sant's election campaign is based on - fear.

He is a walking exponent of the feel-bad factor and then he tells us people are feeling bad. What does he expect? What does he expect Labour voters to feel? Does he expect them to feel positive about the upcoming European Parliament election when he continually told them the EU would be bad for us all, and now he tells them to vote because otherwise it's a vote for the PN?

I am positive and I think. So do the majority of Maltese and Gozitans.

A recent survey for The Sunday Times showed that the majority are not as insular as we think and take an interest in foreign affairs. The researcher seemed surprised. I don't know why. Just because people are passionately interested in local affairs, and take a huge interest in every detail does not mean they are not caring about the larger world around them.

And out there there is a lot of ugliness around. Terrorism has put fear into the hearts of all decent men and women. People think twice about travelling, think twice about visiting certain cities, think twice about everything.

And that is what terrorism tries to achieve - a sense of fear.

Here we should be feeling positive not negative. We have the opportunity on Saturday to vote for the best women and men to represent us in Europe. This not a vote about your personal gripe or grudges. It's not a vote because of your undeserved parking ticket or because your road hasn't been done.

It is not a judgment on past performance, not least because these candidates are going there for the first time. That will be our prerogative next time if we feel these candidates haven't represented our interests well.

This is your first vote. This is a different vote. It amazes me that there is talk by some of not voting or voting AD to give the government a shock. The time to do that is in four years' time if you do not believe the government has delivered and - and it's a very big and - you believe Dr Sant and his entourage could do anything, even one thing, any better.

To his credit, Lawrence Gonzi chose candidates who are the most versed in the field. He did not choose DJs, soap stars or people who could get a lot of votes because they are doctors, sitting MPs or whatever. In other words we have a very different group of candidates this time around

Both the Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika are desperate to hide this fact from you. They only want you to focus on your particular grudge or worry. Do take note of that.

If you only listen to the endless streams of negativity that come from Alfred and Arnold you would be forgiven for thinking we were on the edge of a precipice and that only they can guide us back!

In fact the MLP and AD have amazingly and coincidentally got an identical campaign going. The campaign is to search out any worry or grudge against the government and blow it up as a reason to vote MLP or AD.

AD, who abroad at least in their guise as Greens, usually have a strong social conscience, even tried to spread fear about an affordable housing project of the Housing Authority in Attard on a piece of Church land. When they talk against golf courses they are quick to quote the Church-State agreement where Church land was meant to be used for a social purpose. In Attard, to gain votes, they forgot all that!

They are saying nonsense about losing money for roads in Gozo. They are throwing lies around in the same haphazard way the MLP does. I thought the old Labour guard had left AD. Why then are AD copying the MLP's methods?

The MLP always used to respond hysterically whenever I wrote anything when all they had to do was defeat my argument. As they couldn't do that they turned to insults and that is how AD and those who write for them behave too.

But there has been some light relief in this campaign. Alfred Sant was asked what he thought about certain allegations concering MLP candidate Robert Micallef for these upcoming elections

Guess what he said? He shrugged it off with a smile and said words to the effect of "well, you know what this country's like - we all like to throw dirt at each other". How cynical can you get! Anything to create discontent and fear.

Then they sit back amazed and pontificate about the feel-bad factor.

There is a myth in this country which Harry and co repeat ad nauseam, but it is a myth all the same. The myth is that all our problems are because we are half-blue and half-red. Rubbish that's not how Malta works at all.

The truth is we are all subdivided into endless groups which cross party lines and this is where we don't achieve good enough results in many issues.

We are so self-interested and so self-preserving that we don't give in to the common good, at least not often enough. And I say this with six years' experience in quite a tough chairmanship.

Political colour hasn't ruined this country. It's a much more small minded kind of village mentality which is seen everywhere, in our Church feasts, in our attitudes to each other with everyone too keen to dislike anyone for no reason at all, and in our institutions where the self wins too often over the common good.

The reds and the greens are feeding us the same lies.

Live in fear because everything is crumbling around you.

We can make you happy if you vote for us.

We will improve everything and annoy no-one.

We will improve anything and it will cost you nothing.

We can waffle a solution on anything, but we'll tell you later what it really is.

I prefer to have the best team of people working hard for our interests in Europe and a team which will ally itself with the largest group of parties in that huge Parliament.

That is the best way to have our voices heard. The worst way is to vote negatively and out of a sense of fear either for people who never believed in the European dream or for those whose power is insignificant in that Parliament. An AD vote is always potentially a vote for the old Labour guard... And that is a realistic fear...