Going further down the gutter
Are we rendering George Orwell obsolete by introducing Maltesespeak instead of doublespeak? The possibility that the Government will fall this evening centres on a simple, age-old fact. A vote will be taken on a motion of confidence – that for the House to go into committee to consider the Finance Minister’s Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.
Of all the procedural motions the Government can put forward that are motions of confidence, this evening’s money bill is the major one. In every assembly based on the Westminster model, the opposition votes against the government on a motion of confidence. If that were not the case there would be no opposition but a de facto coalition government.
We do not have that, not between the Nationalist and Labour side. We have rarely had it, in fact. The Nationalists know that well enough. They have always, but invariably, voted against the government on a motion of confidence.
It beats the imagination, therefore, why they are suggesting that the Labour Opposition has some sort of obligation to support the Government this evening. It is even more surprising that an old institution like the Chamber of Commerce should implicitly come up with the same argument.
Government, Chamber and others are taking this extraordinary wrong stance because if the Government is defeated this evening the Budget motion will not pass and will have to await the outcome of a general election. In that scenario the Government can do – and be exhorted by the likes of the Chamber to do – a simple thing: call an election within the shortest legally possible time, which is five weeks. Instead the Government signals it is planning to take the full allowable stretch – almost three months. If it does that it would be for purely partisan reasons, to give itself time to recover lost ground.
It would behove the Chamber and others to come out strongly against that. Will it, will they? It would also behove the Chamber to tell its members and other employers to pay the statutory wages increase from January 1.They have to accrue for it, in any case. Will it?
The political game is once again dividing across class lines. Labour is being brought into the confidence motion insanely and unnecessarily. It is precedence and the voting numbers that will count. If there is a voting majority against the Government, it would fall. Full stop. If Franco Debono makes it to the House and keeps his word, if all Opposition MPs make it to the House and none is prevented by sickness, the Government will be as dead as the dodo.
It will become a caretaker government until the election is held. It will publish a legal notice which will allow government spending to be carried out on the same basis as last year. Government revenue will also be kept at that relative level, so the excise duty tax increases will have to be reversed.
It will not be the end of the world, the end of Malta. Five weeks – the minimum – will pass; three months, if Lawrence Gonzi chooses to be partisan to the end, will also pass. No Maltese enterprise will close. Very simply, Malta will live a few weeks of unusual history, being governed by a defeated government which anyhow lost its majority and its moral authority months ago.
What will remain, the general election aside, will be lessons to be learnt.
Could the Prime Minister have behaved differently towards not just Debono but also those of his ministers who have brought the Government into administrative disrepute? Was he weak not to sack one or two ministers and reshuffle out of logical leadership choice, and not because he was forced to do so by the stubbornness of a junior MP, who after all was right on a number of issues?
Was there need for so much bloodletting and for the creation of Maltesespeak as a new form of doublespeak which shoves Maltese politics further down the gutter?
Was there, really?
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Giov DeMartino
Dec 13th 2012, 11:19
Under diff circumstances Mr Spiteri would have reminded us that two wrongs do not make a right!
m farrugia
Dec 10th 2012, 21:41
bla bla bla- imagine an election in 5 weeks time on new years eve
Eddy Privitera
Dec 11th 2012, 18:59
M. Farrugia: This would have happened because of the prime minister's decision to keep dragging his feet for many months on end, well-knowing that he had lost both his "moral authority and parliamentary majority" many months ago ! Still, even now , with dissolution of parliament on January 7 Gonzi could still have decided on 5 weeks from then. But party interest came before Malta's interest !
m farrugia
Dec 10th 2012, 19:45
despite all hurdles gonzi managed to reach his aim that is he managed to govern for full legislature and even present a budget which has never before been described by opposition as good.
as opposed to yourself, who when faced with hurdles, resigned and pretended not to have been part of the mess, that is promising to remove vat. and now you feel comfortable commenting pretending to be neutral
Michael Grech
Dec 12th 2012, 07:27
If the aim of a government is to do an entire legislature ...then politics is in a sorry state! As far as I know, its how you govern, not how long your government lasts that should count.
Moreover, you seem to be unaware that there are such things as pre-election budgets, which in Maltese are called 'bzar fl-ghajnejn'
Saviour Cachia
Dec 10th 2012, 18:09
@J. Martelli
1971 80,753 (PN) 85,448 (MLP ). These figures depicts the results of the general elections of 1971 when Labour Party won back power with almost 4,695 votes majority but scraped through thanks to some preferential cross voting to Notary Guze' Abela, 1981 the Nationalists got the majority of votes, but the minimum numbers of seats . MLP win was legitimate and constitutionally.
George Cremona
Dec 10th 2012, 16:39
Is this the same man who was part and parcel of a government for almost five and a half years against the expressed wish of the Maltese and Gozitan electorate? Is this the same man who prior to the 1996 election went on TV debating strongly against the introduction of VAT and after being elected in government resigned from his post as Minister of Finance for abolishing VAT?
John Zammit
Dec 10th 2012, 15:38
From a very well experienced man like you such words Give us courage that the clan cloud be over soon
Michael Seychell
Dec 10th 2012, 15:36
This lesson on parliamentary democracy, coming from L.Spiteri who served his full term under a Regime instead of a democratic govt., where institutionalised corruption and atrocious violence were the order of the day, does not go down well with people like me who was a victim under his government for the simple reason that I was gaining ground against the MLP/GWU fusion.
Michael Seychell
TONY FORMOSA
Dec 10th 2012, 16:45
What was Spiteri doing during those terrible and terrifying years? It is good to have people like
Michael Seychell to remind us. Thanks Michael.
TONY FORMOSA
TONY FORMOSA
Mr ALBERT LEONE GANADO
Dec 10th 2012, 14:53
Well said Lino. I would go further and say that this is not Maltesespeak but pure PNspeak.When the MLP were under a shadow due to a spat with Dom Mintoff, the leading lights within the PN showed no restraint in consorting with Dom and against the national interest brought down the MLP government. Do they now expect the PL to go against accepted Westminster voting traditions to extricate the PN?
Saviour Cachia
Dec 10th 2012, 12:44
Thanks Lino for being so clear in your opinion. We should be ready to face whatever is in Lawrence Gonzi's whims and I think all was set to somehow include the Christmas truce and elections would not be called before March ( possibly 9) for partisan reasons. In what resulted during these last months, general elections should already have been called. Now there is the truce and the five weeks!!!!
GL Calleja
Dec 10th 2012, 14:54
This election should have been called five months ago. This bickering back and forth is not doing the country any good. The PN has lost a lot of it's credibility by using stubbornness as a weapon. I don't care who wins the next election as long as they put country in mind first and start lifting us out of the political and corrupt gutter we are in. Malta is in dire need for new leadership.
Saviour Cachia
Dec 10th 2012, 12:43
Thanks Lino for being so clear in your opinion. We should be ready to face whatever is in Lawrence Gonzi's whims and I think all was set to somehow include the Christmas truce and elections would not be called before March ( possibly 9) for partisan reasons. In what resulted during these last months, general elections should already have been called. Now there is the truce and the five weeks!!!!
Charles DeMicoli
Dec 10th 2012, 11:07
Ethically, the gonziPN gang should have resigned once the country voted against it in the Divorce Referendum. But then again, I'm talking ethics here.
J Martinelli
Dec 10th 2012, 14:52
Yes, and a Labour supporter should be the last to talk about 'ethics'.
Where was Labour's moral ethic when it ruled for five years and three months when in a minority? Because it could, you said? Well if Dr Gonzi takes the full three months - so be it. Still five years short of Labour's abuse of basic rules.
Once a Lejburist always a Lejburist at all costs and beyond all reason, eh, Lino?
Evarist Saliba
Dec 10th 2012, 09:53
Agreed that it is Dr Debono who is solely to blame for this impasse. An election in 5 weeks time from today, 3 of which are a festive season during which both political parties have agreed not to launch the election campaign, makes no sense. On the other hand, Gonzi's proposal that the vote of no confidence should not hinder the approval of the budget, does.
Francis Sammut
Dec 10th 2012, 13:59
No we do not agree. Dr. Debono is not solely to blame. As Mr. Lino Spiteri explained quite plainly that ''if the Prime Minister beahaved differently not just against Dr. Debono but also those of some ministers , who have brought the government in disrepute. Was he weak not to sack one or two ministers and reshuffle, out of logical leadership choice, and not because he was forced to do so...... ?''
GL Calleja
Dec 10th 2012, 14:46
Why do you blame Franco Debono for this impasse? Why not blame Austin Gatt? If Austin Gatt resigned in the first place, all this could have been avoided. So Mr Saliba, Glass half full or glass half empty?
Joseph Agius
Dec 10th 2012, 15:31
When one does not find a logical answer to give to a clear exposition a staunch supporter will resort to any excuse to defend his party; even if he puts his present and future credibility at stake. No, Mr Saliba, many do not agree with youus that Dr Debono is to blame. Indeed many believe that his several new and valuable suggestions are valuable to Gonzi PN, LP, AD and the Maltese people.
Victor Laiviera
Dec 10th 2012, 15:31
Lino Spiteri did NOT say that Franco Debono was solely to blame. A hefty percentage must be put down to Lawrence Gonzi's leadership qualities - or lack of them.
It is ironic that Mintoff and Fenech Adami, so different in so many ways, made the same mistake at the end of their career ..... insisting on choosing their successor and making a very bad choice.
Evarist Saliba
Dec 10th 2012, 16:00
@ Francis Sammut
Who are "we"?
Do you agree that calling an election within 5 weeks, 3 of which are in a festive season during which both parties have agreed not to launch an electoral campaign, makes no sense?
Do you remember Lino Spiteri giving advice to the Labour Party not to go along with the no confidence votes against individuals that Franco Debono (and others) contrived in parliament?
Please choose the reason of your report below: