Political parties should be honest and practise what they preach.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was correct in asking the electorate to judge his party on its performance. One would then quickly discover the difference between preaching and performing. The parties’ main issues are the environment, social justice and democracy.
As for the environment, both major political parties preach the importance of sustainability but do the opposite. With a stock of 53,136 vacant houses (2005 census) a Nationalist government extended the development zones to enable more of what is left of our countryside to be taken up for construction.
Labour’s Joseph Muscat is proposing land reclamation for further development.
Other related issues include hunting, where both the PN and the PL try to accommodate the hunting lobby at all costs, together with the issue of squatters’ areas such as Armier. The construction of illegal boathouses has been going on for 30 years or so. No government did anything to demolish these illegal units. On the contrary, both the PN and the PL had private meetings with squatters’ representatives to reach some form of agreement.
So a law-abiding citizen forks out thousands of euros to purchase a holiday flat in Buġibba or Qawra and the property has to conform to all Mepa regulations while others illegally build a seafront boathouse on public land for free.
Other social injustices include a 500 weekly wage rise for ministers followed by a weekly 1.16 wage rise for the rest of the population.
Contrary to the PN and the PL, Alternattiva Demokratika – the Green party always had clear policies and did not compromise its principles for political mileage. Maybe if AD adopted a popular stand its electoral results would have been better but it always put its principles, including social justice, environment, democracy and civil rights first.
AD does not go mainstream but is driven by righteousness. It was always in favour of divorce even when public opinion was against it.
With AD you know where you stand. With the PN and the PL it’s difficult to know their true colours.