The silly season is over... or is it?

The year 2007 was a good year and 2008 augurs to be a better one. The elections are finally over and the "people" chose Lawrence Gonzi as Prime Minister of this beautiful archipelago of ours. After conceding defeat, the Leader of the Opposition, Alfred Sant, resigned and now we are all waiting with bated breath to welcome the new "lion king" into the political arena.

One of the many aspiring candidates for the post is deputy leader Michael Falzon, who allegedly was the only MLP official not to flee a sinking ship in the Naxxar turbulent waters. He was apparently left all alone to face the music and for the courage and determination shown, he has my unconditional admiration. Unfortunately, his noisy behaviour during the electoral campaign was an embarrassment to the whole country and I have no doubt that when and if he sees and hears himself roaring on the podium during one of the Labour meetings he will hang down his head in shame. Singing is definitely not one of his talents and I now understand why hundreds of cubs fled the Labour camp to get as far away as possible from his thunderous deafening roars. Contrary to previous rumours, Charles Mangion, the other Labour deputy leader, has decided to opt out of the leadership race.

Oh dear, what can I say about his performance other than he rewarded us with the sickest joke of the season when he claimed that the Nationalists have something wrong with their DNA! Please note, not different, but "bad". What possesses any Maltese native to denigrate the people in such a hysterical manner? It is deplorable that anyone stoops so low; it is even more unpardonable when the insult emanates from a deputy leader of a major political party.

If Dr Mangion and his ilk think so highly of themselves and their own, I dread to think how they would treat all minority groups and those who are not even "pure" Maltese! As far as policies go, Dr Mangion got it all wrong: His views on overtime and his solutions to curb a national deficit were bizarre, to say the least.

His ex-leader can scream till he is blue in the face but, believe me, there was no misprint when he spoke about reduced overtime rates; neither was he misunderstood when he professed that, if faced with a deficit as Minister of Finance, he would reduce government funds for health and chop off social benefits, etc. What a gloomy prospective!

Jason Micallef is another shining star of Labour's defeat. Does he really believe that promising to be a government for Labour supporters would garner more votes? Does he think he can fool us all with that pasted smile of his? The real Mr Micallef showed his true colours when, in the early hours of the morning, while his colleague Dr Falzon was still on duty solo at the Naxxar counting hall, he appeared on One TV denying the sacrosanct truth stating that the numbers Labour had in hand were different from those of the Nationalist Party. It is an open secret that, albeit with a small margin, the PN was leading all the way. It's bad enough that Labour supporters infested the roads on Sunday morning claiming victory and I wonder what ulterior motives lay under such rubbishy utterances some 12 hours later!

This silly season opened with the Labour leader's prank when he saw fit to jest with Dr Gonzi's name. This led the way to a series of hiccupping weird policies, not to say downright bad ones! Laughable declarations abounded: re-opening the EU negotiations was a Labour priority but striving to reach a surplus for the country was not! Other ridiculous schemes such as the repeaters class narrative, the halving of the surcharge plot as well as the overtime debacle were semi-tragic. Also hilarious were the versions of MLP's electoral programme pregnant with misprints shoved down our throats which included several "new" proposals that were as old as the hills and already in place. Last but not least, thank God we won't be digging I don't know how many metres deep to isolate our capital city, Valletta, and transform it into an island!

This not-so-funny comedy of errors finally reached its climax when the ex-Leader of the Opposition ended up by doing exactly what the Prime Minister had been telling him all along during the campaign. Dr Sant, with all the unnecessary pomp and ceremony, under all the media's limelight, went to plead his case with the Commissioner of Police and this after having spent most of his "political" life defaming this official's impeccable behaviour.

The final chapter to this tragic-comedy is an appeal to the protagonists: Labour has professed too many bad policies. Labour has criticised destructively day in day out. Labour has propagated too much doom and gloom. Bottom line: Labour has lost too many elections. Now, please, read the writing on the wall and smell the coffee. Come down to earth. It's easy. Just listen and be positive and perhaps one day you will be the party in government. Till then, I'm afraid you are destined to stay put on the opposition benches!