It’s the season to be jolly, to talk of fun and games and food and sweets. To take things easy and drink a few glasses of mulled wine and think of births, new advents, new beginnings.

It would be great to only think of good things and happy tidings. However we live in a real world where all needs to be faced and done even during the festive season.

The doctor in me cannot stop seeing patients or stop the pain of those going through tough times. This is the way of the world and, while the beauty of Christmas in all its glory cannot ever be forgotten or the message swept away, unfortunately in life we still face wrong, suffering and endless worry.

I wish I could forget my worry about the situation of the country. I wish some mulled wine and a mince pie could make this country erase its problems.

But we are governed by a clique which has now gone way beyond what is permissible. Every week, every day, brings us new scandals and the word revelations now sounds like a tired cliché.

I feel sad when I hear people who should surely know better say that grumbling about the same old thing, the corruption, the lack of governance, will only make things worse.

I don’t only think we should go on saying all there is to say about corruption and bad decisions, but I think that as a nation, yes even as a party in opposition, we do not say enough. This government has gone beyond the pale in all things which are bad.

This government does not care if it does business with the worst criminal and pariah countries. Every day is another day of shame for it

To continue the Christmas season comparison, if Santa Claus had to deliver something for the whole Cabinet during a meeting at Castille, he would find it impossible to transport a mountain of coal to give the ministers, especially the Prime Minister.

I wish I could forget and only write good cheer in this article. I honestly tried to write good things about the government but couldn’t find anything. Even if on paper and on the surface the going is good, this is tarnished and obliterated by something which is staring us in the face.

Take tourism. All sounds rosy, with the minister saying that next year he hopes the numbers will reach two million. The groundwork for such success is PN-based and, without what previous governments led by Fenech Adami and Gonzi did, Joseph Muscat and Edward Zammit Lewis would hardly have much to talk about.

But this Christmas, when talk at the ministry is all about numbers, success and champagne, spare a few thoughts for the Air Malta employees who have no clue what they are facing or who will steer them out of their impasse and uncertain future.

Christmas for them, especially the ones who cannot easily transfer to another job, will be rather cheerless. Assurances by government that no job will be lost could be, and most probably is, as dependable as the many useless promises this government made about transparency and good governance. When it suits them, government spokesmen take questions and smile happily.

But faced with a problem they quit, they run off, they choose all sorts of excuses and exits –even emergency exits. Being offered alternative employment could also be rather useless – because what can someone with a job, a profession or a trade connected to airlines do in Malta if Air Malta is disbanded or if a new buyer or investor is found and they want to shed employees? What sector or organisation will government offer to place them in?

Let’s move to health. We should all go into the Christmas period happy that so much is happening in this sector – new blood, new horizons, new visions. But as usual, instead of winning praise by deserving it for opening new vistas, this government continues dragging its feet on being forthright in its dealings. It is always up to no good, as all the main players in the Labour administration care about is making their cronies rich or richer.

The energy sector cannot even be discussed – there as well everything is covered in strange and shady contracts, meetings and players in the field who have a very bad level of credibility.

This government does not care if it does business with the worst criminal and pariah countries. Every day is another day of shame for it and for our people, who definitely deserve better.

There are a series of mistakes, scandals, people who deserve to be sacked but cling on to power, which can all be reversed or at least stopped from ruining this country.

A new PN government under Simon Busuttil will put a stop to this in no uncertain manner and turn the country from a scandal-hit one to a place where we can truly work to move forward.

Then Santa will only deliver presents to truly make us all full of good cheer.

Mario Rizzo Naudi is a Nationalist Party election candidate.

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