The PN, left, right and centre

Recent post-MEP election analytic articles in The Times have been an eye-opener regarding how political parties are betraying their souls.

Tonio Borg, my party's deputy leader, states: "Never has there been such a right wing Labour Party in recent history. Labour's effective campaign may have produced results short term but it has betrayed the soul of the party itself" (July 7).

This partially echoed Fr Peter Serracino Inglott's earlier statement that "The motivation of my post-election blues is the loss of the elections by the Left... The local victory by the Labour Party certainly cannot be considered an exception to the general trend" (The Sunday Times, June 21) to which former Labour Party (PL) president Mario Vella took offence (The Times, July 6).

It is obvious that the PL here is attempting to be inclusive with the offspring of the workers who, under successive Christian Democrat governments, turned out to be better off than their parents. But the PL's strategy is not my concern.

I will do some soul-searching by focusing on Fr Peter's other complaint, that "the increased relative majority obtained by the Popular Party cannot be considered to be a victory of Christian Democracy. Even my life-long friend Guido de Marco, who is above any suspicion of being a Marxist, defined his position on the political spectrum as being centre-left.

The dominant group in the Popular Party is now rather more right than centre-right". When addressing the House regarding the Social Affairs Committee report on child poverty I felt I could not start without referring to what Peruvian Gustavo Gutierrez OP stated when invited to Malta by Discern a few years ago to deliver a speech regarding Spirituality And The Preferential Option For The Poor. The key word is preferential and this is what he had to say: "As a Christian who believes in the God of Jesus Christ, I must prefer the poor but I cannot say that, therefore, the non-poor are not relevant to me. This would not be a Christian attitude... But, at the same time, we claim that some persons are first. Here lies a tension, not an opposition..."

Is the Nationalist Party (PN) still a Christian Democrat party? While not excluding anyone, are we still ready to prefer the poor? What have the thirsty party grassroots have to say?

In many circumstances, almost all the deputy leader's examples of implemented electoral programme measures fit in; it is easy because there is no tension: tax holidays to all mothers returning to work, retaining a zero rate on VAT for food and medicine for all consumers, stipends for all students, departure tax removal for all travellers.

I have purposely not included the other two measures he also mentioned.

The income tax reduction does not increase the household disposable income of low-income groups.

The car registration system, now based on the polluter pays principle, is a Green initiative but definitely penalises those car owners who, unable to afford to buy a new vehicle, take good care of their old car, also reducing toxic emissions in the process. But here is the main problem: It is not possible to drive your car and service it at the same time. Likewise, governing and soul-searching are incompatible, power politics are transforming one's authentic ideals, blurring the party's sense of purpose.

He may even have omitted other important measures like the elimination of the abrupt manner by which students move from primary to secondary schooling in state schools. But this is exclusive to state schools. And, guess what? The policy was spearheaded by outgoing Education Minister Louis Galea who was never elected deputy leader or leader and was not even returned to Parliament last time round but will remain, along with Ugo Mifsud Bonnici and Eddie Fenech Adami, the creators of what Dr Vella described as a "a popular mass party speaking a local dialect of Christian Democrat language" continuing that "the leftish elements of this language enable Christian Democrat parties to win electoral market share from parties with blue-collar appeal".

It will take time for the tree to grow but then Malta should not remain the most unpleasant place for children to live, according to research by the UK charity organisation Child Poverty Action Group on young people's well-being that ranked the island in the last place among 29 countries.

Conveniently, the PN deputy leader did not mention health at all. And, as I stated in Parliament on July 6, this is the sector where the PN government must watch it. One needn't be an economist to predict that downsizing the primary health state sector will lead to an increase in the presently, by and large, modest private family doctors' fees and the already exorbitant private paramedics' charges.

At hospital level, I have been repeating over and over again that persons who had full private insurance should be given tax incentives not to use Mater Dei Hospital when medically possible so that there would be more room for needy people. Waiting lists are ever increasing and, even if unable to pay, needy people still have to make use of private clinics and hospitals to make appointments with most state hospital consultants. Come on, Gustavo Gutierrez is telling us: "Here lies a tension not an opposition"!

The Prime Minister is right in stating that the PN in government has to remain focused on the global economic crisis. With EU trade down, many jobs are on a lifeline. And the government's helping hand to ailing companies was prompt and effective but as if this strategy is in any way mutually exclusive with useful social policy. I am afraid that the resultant force in his Cabinet has become infected by "the dominant group in the Popular Party, which is now rather more right than centre-right".

As Georg Sapiano recently stated in another newspaper, the PN government is characterised by moral conservatism. And, may I add, simply not being liberal does not mean you are a good Christian. Less so a conscientious Christian Democrat!

But, then again, if you have a toothache you demand the services of a dentist. After all, Margaret Thatcher herself had admitted that Conservatives are the lousiest social policy makers.

Dr Farrugia is a Nationalist member of Parliament.