Tuesday, 26th February 2008
Campus debate: View from the outside (1)
The Maltese are crazy about three things: politics, religion and football. These were the words said by a Maltese to me on first stepping on Maltese soil five months ago.
As a foreign exchange student at the University of Malta, I was quite surprised by the debate at the university among the four political leaders.
The first surprise was that the debate was conducted in Maltese despite this being held at an English-speaking university. Nevertheless, I decided to stay and observe and luckily enough, a very kind Maltese girl sitting next to me translated some words and sentences the leaders were uttering.
The impression about the whole debate was one of shock. This is not the way we do politics in Slovenia. Especially, the students' reaction.
I felt like I was at the Ta' Qali national stadium, where the atmosphere was very similar to that during the match between Malta and Moldova. Shouting provocative words and disturbing the speeches during the debate was a very irresponsible and childish behaviour by students. It seems that the trend is that university students who follow politics here loudly support the present Prime Minister.
I have learned that Maltese students in general know a lot about Maltese politics, which is the completely contrary to the situation in my country.
I have also noticed that the leader of the Nationalist Party is a smart and intelligent person who knows exactly what to say to please youths and, of course, get more votes in his favour.
Labour Leader Alfred Sant did not seem very convincing with his statements and especially not popular among the students.
As an outsider I can say there is not much choice for Maltese to vote on. Of course, change is sometimes necessary and the Nationalists have been in office for quite a long time. But voting in favour of the other parties just for the sake of change can be very risky.
It is a matter of argument and persuasion. Who is the greater actor and magician to bewitch the public with his visions?
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Comments
I wish to take this opportunity to show my solidariety wity Dr Harry Vassallo for having his house vandalised by PN SUPPORTERS last Sunday.
Only thanks to the Nationalist Govt do we have the freedom we enjoy today. The reaction of the older Labour MPs present shows that change has not reached Mile End yet!!!
English being the prime language in our University is simply convienient and of course usefull but ought never be given precedence over the Maltese language.
Contrary to Ms Cehner's belief that Maltese students know a lot about politics..sadly, for the most part,they don't .Most of them simply relay parrot fashion what they have heard from their parents.
Thirdly we are not looking for magicians neither are we looking for actors in our politicians but we do look for and welcome argument and persuasion.
Ms Cehner is indeed lucky that in this country she can listen to some arguments/debates in both languages,I doubt wheter that same opportunity would be given to me in Slovenia.
Lastly,why not try to learn Maltese Ms Cehner whilst you are here?.You would be pleasantly surprised at its richness and beauty.
This is perhaps the culture is different or that Malta has been enjoying some form of democracy and freedom of speech a little longer than some countries.
Unfortunately in the 70's and 80's Malta's democracy was pushed to the brink and that was under a Labour government. Keeping this in mind every election in Malta is crucial in that we have no desire to go back to those dark days.
It is also for this reason that students in Malta are more adjourned to the political events. Ms. Cehner is also correct that Dr. Gonzi is a smart man but wish to correct the impression which she may have taken that he is the better 'actor or magician' and with no prejudice to these professionals I will tell her that he is neither. She is correct in her assessment of Dr. Sant who is a better actor (than politician) and a very bad magician since in his short term of office his magic managed to tax the Maltese 33 times, unemployment went up, foreign investment ceased and when elected he not only did not remove VAT but he introduced CET which at the time, on some items, was almost double the VAT rate. Thank you again for your observations and I hope you appreciate that since foreign persons who reside temporarily in Malta and thus have no voting privileges, the preferred language was Maltese but by reading English newspapers I hope you will get the gist of what was discussed during the debate.