Abstention - the worst option

Maltese voters have had enough of the two-party system. They feel blackmailed to vote for the lesser of two evils. Come the elections to the European Parliament, many are relieved they can abstain without upsetting the system. But abstention is the worst option because the voter deprive themselves of an opportunity to send a message to the government to mend its ways. This is the value added of AN in the elections to the European Parliament. It allows voters to express their views, disappointment and anger at the government without disturbing the country’s administration.

The biggest gap between the government’s policy and the people’s will is on the crisis caused by illegal immigrants. A recent online poll on timesofmalta.com shows 61% of respondents hold illegal immigration as the main issue of the elections on June 6. A poll currently on maltarightnow.com shows 90% of respondents support Italy’s policy of sending illegal immigrants back to Libya. But former PN leader Eddie Fenech Adami criticised Italy’s policy and current leader Lawrence Gonzi has carefully avoided supporting it.

The PN leadership is out of touch and out of tune with the people who are afraid of immigrants, especially of the illegal kind, because of the problems they cause. Illegal immigrants are an economic burden, a burden on hospital services, a burden on accommodation, a burden on our social security system and a threat to law and order and national security. Above all, they are a time bomb ticking and waiting to cause the social explosions we’ve seen in other European countries which had carelessly opened their borders to an endless influx of people of completely different cultures.

Two small minorities favouring illegal immigrants have coalesced in GonziPN. The first is made of employers who exploit illegal immigrants by paying wages below the legal minimum and making them work for longer hours and under unacceptable conditions. They are mostly in the construction and catering industries. As the economic crisis bites, they will prefer to keep their cheap illegal immigrants and give the sack to Maltese workers. Trade unions have not yet grasped to what extent foreign illegal labour is a threat to their members.

The second minority is that of well-intentioned but naïve people, with a religious or extreme-left background. The most vocal, the Jesuit Refugee Service, has recently been quieter either because it realised its stand is unpopular or because it does not want to spoil the PN’s chances in the June 6 elections. This minority is careful not to come down to earth by telling us how many thousands of illegal immigrants they want to see settling in Malta, how much of our taxes should be devoted to charitable purposes, how many sacrifices they expect the people to make out of brotherly love for illegal foreigners.

Employers in the construction and catering industries and well-intentioned do-gooders of various stripes have coalesced to keep a stranglehold on GonziPN’s complacent and unpopular policy of being soft on illegal immigrants. It is time GonziPN was given a message that the people’s will cannot be ignored with impunity. That is the role of AN in the elections to the European Parliament. That is the contribution I hope to make to my country by standing as a candidate.