A democratic alternative

As long as Alfred Sant leads the MLP it is doomed to remain a very big party in opposition. Heading as he is for the waterfall in 2007 or 2008 he may crow over the discomfiture of the incumbents as much as he likes. We all know that another loss for the MLP will mean that their epoch out of office will stretch to 25 years with catastrophic results.

While the implosion of support for the PN government is plain to see, it also reveals the failure of the MLP. In the EP elections Labour lost 14,000 votes over its 2003 disaster. The opposition party is in no position to take advantage of a government that is effectively floored. The government lost and the opposition managed to fail to win even then.

It is a measure of the madness of the two-party system that Dr Sant is allowed to crow over the fallen when his party is itself in a pitiable condition. The PN will not point out the MLP's 14,000 vote drop because they have themselves suffered a freefall of over 40,000. A record 54,000 people stayed home in the EP elections and only the arrogance of wannabe majoritarian parties can ignore that immense reality. They assume that the lost sheep will return to the fold in a general election. It is an astronomic assumption given the novelty of the present political situation. People are not sheep.

Having failed to win an absolute majority in the EP elections, Labour is out of touch with reality if it assumes that the next election is in the bag. Its leader's smug complacency is a guarantee of the opposite. The ruinous repeat failure of the MLP in 2004 has been camouflaged by the contrast between the PN's 2003 victory and its 2004 result. It is an illusion which Dr Sant is keen to sell to his flagging support.

Nobody dares contradict him. His rivals are keen to hide their own shame and keep mum. His internal critics keep mum because of the MLP's tradition to avoid criticising the party. Yet everybody knows that the MLP needs a 50 per cent + 1 majority to return to government. They are miles away. Taking example from his archenemies, the Labour leader is singing while Rome burns.

It is poor comfort to a population that has come to know in heart-stopping detail the costs of decades of internecine political war. Our national debt has run amok revealing a loss of close to Lm100 million per year throughout the last 17 years of Nationalist rule. The government should be shot for not restructuring the shipyards sooner and better. The opposition likewise for not allowing it, for decades. The government should be hung out to dry for inventing the White Elephant hospital. The opposition likewise for enjoying all the scandal without thinking of ending it when it could. We all know that it will be this generation and the next that will be paying for it all regardless of political affiliation and which of the warring twins rules the roost.

In the 2004 election the Green Party went from 0.7 per cent in 2003 to 9.33 per cent. It is neither a sliver nor a "splinter" as it was described by Dr Sant in this newspaper. It is a new political reality. Add to that the fact that more than twice the number of people who voted Green opted to vote for no party at all.

As the leader of a political party it hurts me immensely that such a vast number of fellow citizens who rejected our rivals were not moved to vote for us. Dr Sant is dancing a jig. Despite the immense power of his media empire he was unable to attract a nod from these people. He finds it hilarious. As long as his archrivals did not bag them he's happy. There is a horrible Maltese expression about fools rejoicing when they have their eyes pulled out.

Labour was laughing about the 2004 local council election results. They claimed to have bagged an absolute majority of the vote. Dr Sant consolidated his hold over the MLP immortals. This too was an illusion. The Green Party contested only three of the 23 localities. It polled 10 per cent in two of them. There is no reason not to believe that, had the Greens contested in all the localities, the result would have been a close match to the EP election result with 9.3 per cent going to the Greens and the MLP celebrating their loss because the PN were too dumbstruck to squeak. How on earth did Labour manage to lose? And they're celebrating?

The absurdity of this situation further confirms the disgust of many thousands of Maltese citizens who have shown that they are terminally fed up with our political system. Dr Sant's early election in 1998 after no more than 22 months in office left them with no choice but to return to power the PN which they had rejected a few months before. His antics over EU accession ensured that they would have no choice but to hold their noses once more and vote in the PN in 2003. The 2004 explosion has been a long time coming and Dr Sant has nothing to be gleeful about. He engineered it but not to his advantage.

The Green Party has never been a splinter group. We owe our origins to neither of the other parties. We are fundamentally different because we have always respected basic realities and have never been known to make a U-turn. We do not rely on PR articles and the illusions of a TV monopoly for our success but have earned it for ourselves in spite of virtually insurmountable obstacles.

Our support has not peaked. How could it? We have not yet achieved a level playing field in media access nor in electoral rules. We do not have a fraction of the capillary organisations of our rivals. What would the 2004 results have been if the Greens had not been obliged to fight with both hands tied behind their back? Would Dr Sant be just as cocky?

Both our rivals are keen to suppress Malta's political reality. It has become impossible to do so. Our economic situation is driving us all to the limit. The government is constrained to tighten the belt further and chooses to act with the utmost contempt for the social partners and stakeholders. The opposition is already celebrating a victory it will never have without radical internal reform. It encourages the government to do worse, to be more arrogant because it assumes that it will be the government by default once again. The antics of the other parties delay economic recovery.

Ordinary citizens are disgusted. They want a decent quality of life. They are prepared to make sacrifices but they are not prepared to suffer a government that is arrogant and an opposition that is merely opportunistic. They are beginning to realise that past follies have prejudiced our future. What we have is a credibility crisis more than an economic crisis. There is nothing for anyone to celebrate.

The task ahead of the Green Party may seem daunting but we are encouraged by the spectacular results we have achieved with virtually no resources. Today we speak for close to 30,000 people. We propose to work with very many more to establish a real and truly democratic alternative to the cynical, opportunistic and insubstantial politics which has given the country its present burdens. We will work with everyone and anyone who wants to drive a wedge between the PN and MLP to end this extravagance and to constrain every one in politics to respect everybody else and especially the electorate. We no longer have to ask. All we have to do is to get together and get it done.

Greens and friends will be meeting tomorrow at the Tulip Vivaldi Hotel from 9 a.m. It will be the start of a major listening process through which the Greens will ally themselves with all Maltese and Gozitans who crave a significant positive change.

Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party.