While there is certainly a degree of truth in the assertion that it will be as hard for Lawrence Gonzi to win another election as it may be for us to win one Eurovision crown, Labour leaning commentators should not be quite so arrogantly certain of where public opinion will be in three-and-a-half years time.
It is one thing to predict this is a natural outcome, as political parties do need time out to renew themselves, as Lino Spiteri intelligently did, but quite another for Desmond Zammit Marmarà to paint an amazing gloss over Alfred Sant's ill-fated 22 months in office and to assume a big and easy Labour win.
Essentially there will be a choice of two doctors, two prescriptions and two types of medicine for the electorate to choose from in 2008. Will the electorate go for Dr Gonzi or for Dr Sant? Will the electorate believe in the hand-up prescription of Dr Gonzi, or the unsustainable but good-for-winning-elections hand-out promises of Dr Sant? And will they go for the Gonzi medicine that will really work or the placebos which Dr Sant is offering?
Because essentially that is what the GRTU members were telling Labour about their proposals. Ok it's all very well, but can we sustain the hand-out culture if there isn't economic growth and masses of it? Where is the substance in any Labour proposals anyway?
Labour talks to people who believe in hand-outs and promises more of the same even though they know this country and most others just cannot afford it. I remember hearing after the last general election that some MPs were grateful they hadn't won because they couldn't possibly deliver on what their shadow spokesman on housing, for example, had been promising in his very effective home visits.
Labour must be very careful and most Labour MPs are not making wild promises right now because they know we will still have financial challenges ahead if and when they are in government. Essentially, Labour just want you to vote for them because they exist. They want you to vote for them to give the Nationalists a lesson. They want you to vote for them so you've paid someone back for not receiving your dues or your perceived dues. They want you to vote for them out of some sense of illogicality that there is one area Dr Sant could cover better than Dr Gonzi.
Do you, the person who is thinking of either not voting or wasting your vote on AD or voting for Labour again (which you haven't done since Dr Sant was PM), seriously think there is one area which Labour generally or Dr Sant particularly could cover better than Dr Gonzi? If so let's hear it rather than these comical messages that Dr Sant puts the citizen, first unlike Dr Gonzi. Anyone who is managing anything serious in Malta knows that this is cheap political rhetoric at its worst. People just want something for themselves. Full stop! If they're getting benefits they shouldn't and if it stops they shout. If they are not paying tax and they now have to, they shout. If they see someone getting something for themselves from a different political party they assume it's all because of colour.
In every area there is self-interest more than public interest. You can see the disputes between the various disability groups and you think: Why can't they work together better? You see all the duplication of efforts among so many wonderful NGOs and you think: Why has their own grouping become more important than the cause?
So we, as a nation, do not put the citizen first. It's not part of our culture. We put ourselves first. We put our families first. We put the business interests of our own clique first. We are just not good at the common good and this is why we divide into so many groups, from the political club to the klabb tal-banda, from the Church group to the particular cause we support.
So despite this culture, Dr Gonzi is actually trying to do something extraordinarily different. He is trying to put this country first. And guess what?
It's right there in front of our noses and we can't or won't recognise it because we are just not used to it. And Labour and AD are trying very hard and often succeeding in hiding this from you. Don't let them.
Just look at Dr Gonzi's record in a few short months. He inherited the Dar Malta story and couldn't have sold it again. So he had to face the music, which he did. He has made incorruptibility a cornerstone of his administration and amply dealt with those who were not. On the hospital saga, which Dr Sant created by doubling the size of the hospital in the first place, he has himself personally ensured that we are on a better track now. He fought off the rubbish said on those who helped him in this task and, given what they were actually paid, it is evident the Camilleris certainly didn't do this for the money! They remain highly respected members of our funny community whatever dirt Dr Sant throws.
Dr Gonzi ensured the smoking ban happened and, thank God for it. He ensured the wrong decisions were not made about a golf course but stated that there must be areas where we could have another. He will push through reforms in pensions because this country needs it. He believes in the common good. He believes in giving those who need it a hand-up but he will not let the nonsense we have known about for years go on, whether it was waste in Gozo Channel, funny practices at Enemalta, or crazy practices elsewhere; nothing is being ignored just because it might cost votes.
This is actually revolutionary stuff for a Maltese PM and it's about time we realised that however much we might dislike the PN we do have in the PM's office a man who is behaving better than most of us do and putting this country first.
A cartoon recently exemplified Labour's time-warped hand-out culture. The Housing Authority has just issued flats for sale which are worth about Lm5.6 million commercially and where the prices are being subsidised by Lm2 million. In other words Lm2 million of taxpayers' money to help people help themselves get a loan and become home owners. It's a hand-up!
The cartoon spoke of sussidjun instead of sussidju! In other words instead of praising the government for helping people, for giving people a hand-up to become home owners, they are critical and hark back to the old Labour days when land was taken from some and given to others for a pittance. Is this what they plan to do again? Just imagine all the taxes you will have to pay if Labour get elected again and they start to deliver on some of their moans.
The middle classes that are currently not going to vote or vote AD or are so anti-PN won't know what's hit them...