Vote Alternattiva - get Zminijietna

A funny thing happened to Alternattiva Demokratika's Sliema councillor Michael Briguglio on the way to the general election. Last Sunday he penned two different contributions in the Maltese language press - one in It-Torca and one in Illum - and in both cases he was indicated as the PRO of Zminijietna - Lehen ix-Xellug.

As far as I can surmise, up to some time ago, Zminijietna was simply a quarterly publication issued by a group of extreme left-wingers - that included members of the Maltese Communist Party - calling themselves Ghaqda Zminijietna. In fact, in the April-June, the name Victor Degiovanni appears twice on the same page: once in his capacity of secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Malta, and once as the secretary of Zminijietna. There seems hardly any doubt as regards the political orientation of the group, more so from the way certain issues are 'analysed' in their publication.

In the last issue of Zminijietna, Mr Briguglio wrote an interesting article on the possibility of the MLP winning the next general election. His analysis, which is objectively not very far off the mark, ends by saying that while the masses will determine whether the MLP turns out to be the winner, it is left-wing politics, that is also populist and hegemonistic, that can bring about big changes in favour of a society with more equality and social justice. The style and type of jargon he uses are loud and clear!

In his contribution to It-Torca last Sunday, Mr Briguglio wrote about the European Commission's proposals on the liberalisation of energy and declared that Zminijietna opposed them... and that on this issue it supported the position of the left-wing bloc in the European Parliament. This 'left-wing bloc', of course, is not the European Socialist Party (PES) that includes the three MEPs elected on the MLP ticket.

Mr Briguglio's article in Illum expounded on what kind of Budget measures Zminijietna would like to see: measures aimed at the safeguarding of the rights of workers and their families that are facing harsh realities because of the unpleasant effects of neo-liberal policies. He also called for an increase in taxation of the rich and of speculation of property. He even distanced himself from the position adopted by his erstwhile political party, Alternattiva Demokratika (AD) on the rent law issue, by claiming that many are afraid that these proposals favour only one social group: that of the property owners. In fact, he went on to write that Zminijietna does not agree with more liberalisation of the rent laws before there is a process leading to a holistic national housing plan!

He ended his article by unequivocally asserting that economic growth does not reduce inequality and poverty if the wealth resulting from such growth is not distributed in an equitable manner. Moreover, the concept of efficiency should be put in the context of equality and social justice. The left-wing idiom is evident and glaring. One may or may not agree with what Mr Briguglio wrote - but that is not the point that I want to make.

My point is that Mr Briguglio was elected Sliema councillor on the AD ticket. Those who voted for him did so because he was representing AD's political stance and not as a fervent left-wing activist. Obviously, these voters have been duped. Incredibly, not one of them seems to have even noticed what has happened to the support that AD was given in the Sliema council election.

What is even more of a mystery is AD's silence in these circumstances. Mr Briguglio might have even left AD - a rumour I cannot verify, not least because of the eerie official silence surrounding the matter. Perhaps the powers that be in AD believe that stonewalling will make the issue disappear from their agenda and from the media. Surely, this is wrong. If Mr Briguglio has left them, AD should be loyal to their voters in Sliema and inform them of what has happened. If he has not, I wonder what sort of party discipline exists within AD. In this case, one can legitimately ask how this party expects to inspire the confidence of voters when within its ranks there are such strangely incompatible bedfellows.

Come on, Harry: your party's voters in Sliema are certainly owed an explanation.

Vote money - get inefficiency

I was not unduly surprised by the reactions of the chairman and director of the University's Centre for Labour Studies to my opinion piece two weeks ago.

In my contribution, I purposely restricted myself to commenting on one of the proposals put forward in the centre's memorandum and said so. I did this because I considered that the particular piece of 'advice' I objected to did not make economic sense.

My point was that public entities should not be given a regulatory function as regards working conditions of their contractors as suggested in the memorandum; and I explained why I think that this leads to inefficiency and poor use of public money. Sadly, the two professors ducked this argument completely.

What I cannot fathom is how my opinion piece inspired Godfrey Baldacchino to wonder how I "enjoy seeing young boys dangling from the backs of refuse collection vehicles, involved in our municipal waste collection".

This is just a figment of his vivid imagination and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the truth. Nothing that I wrote could be reasonably construed in such a way as to warrant such a preposterous interpretation.

micfal@maltanet.net