In the realm of politics nothing is ever very easy to predict. A few hours, a few votes, even a missing receipt can make all the difference in the political sphere. But one thing you can always count on Labour for is that they are consistent: sadly for the country, they are consistently wrong.

When Labour were in Opposition in the previous legislature, Joseph Muscat and his team opposed tenaciously. No issue was spared, no attack deemed ungentlemanly.

Now the positions are reversed. Labour is in power with a huge majority in Parliament. So it is more than amazing that people today seem to blame Simon Busuttil and the Nationalist Party for many problems.

Some claim that Busuttil and his Opposition members are doing the country harm because they oppose what they deem to be wrong. The PN is seen as too critical, too much of an Opposition and too negative by some people.

I do my best to listen to what people from all walks of life have to say. I accept all criticism because, after all, both I and those around me learn a lot from criticism, if it is objective.

As politicians, we need to be close to the people and hear all they have to say. Only by doing that are we kept on our toes and not detached from reality.

Simon Busuttil and the PN are doing what a lot of people will be thanking them for in the future

Unfortunately, however, there are some in the political world who treat criticism with disdain, deeming it as lies, unfounded or unproved. We see this constantly from Labour who react badly to anything that does not paint them as the rosiest of parties or governments.

Some express the desire for everyone – including the Opposition – to be positive in all they do. It’s a great thing to be positive, even super-positive. But it is silly, if not dangerous and sinful, to put problems aside, to sweep everything under the proverbial carpet just for the sake of being seen as positive and avoid being dubbed negative.

Those who find fault in everything the PN does think that, over the past three years, the PN has been the most negative Opposition ever. Although I am a biased observer, such thinking bothers me.

Let’s say this line of reasoning is correct and the PN has been the most virulent, opposing-anything Labour does. Let’s imagine the title of the worst Opposition on record should be awarded to Busuttil and his team. One would have to put everything in perspective when making an analysis.

Over the past three years, Labour has been the most consistent in the country’s political history in causing one problem after another, in acting with utter disregard to moral correctness, rectitude and good governance. So, even if the Opposition merely pointed out what Muscat and his team were doing wrong, they would constantly have had something to criticise.

Labour in power has been a story of greed, malpractice and shameful moves. The electorate gave the Labour Party enviable, unassailable strength in Parliament, which has been the country’s main millstone. It gave Muscat and his close cronies the licence to do anything they fancied from day one.

Whereas we were promised good governance and a good government, we have only seen blatant disregard of all this. Muscat’s power and the magnitude of his electoral victory were turned into a force of all-time greed for the few, the ones who were in his circle before the election.

To all the horrors committed by Labour, one has to add the Panama Papers debacle in which some of the Prime Minister’s closest buddies are involved. No one has been fired or truly demoted and the Premier’s head of staff emerged completely unscathed.

What would have been right in the circumstances? Should Busuttil have kept quiet, meekly accepting all that is being done to the country?

That some PN decisions and some actions may not have been the best is undoubtedly true. No human, let alone a whole collection of humans with varying opinions, can ever be completely right.

I believe that Busuttil and the PN are doing what a lot of people will be thanking them for in the future. There will come a time when the silence of the many who find it negative and wrong to oppose this government’s terrible actions will be condemned.

I feel this government needs to be opposed vociferously because what it is attempting to do is to uproot and destroy all that was built by the PN while in power.

Economically, the country is doing well. Thank God, Labour has not caused problems in that sector, which they found strong, well-oiled and well-equipped for the future. But man hardly lives by economics alone.

We need to preserve our way of life, we need to preserve our environment, we need to safeguard our liberties in every way possible.

We need to make sure greed by developers who are allowed to charge ahead is controlled. We need to fight to keep Malta truly an EU State having good relations with everyone, wary of any secret deals and dealings with pariah countries.

If the PN does not do this, then the Opposition might as well disappear and let Muscat continue ruining all we used to take for granted before he was swept to power.

Mario Rizzo Naudi is a Nationalist Party election candidate.