Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today that a year after Labour was elected to government, the people would be right to reflect and ask questions.

For example, did the people feel their standard of living was better, or worse?

Was Malta really taghna lkoll?

Was there a new style of politics, as promised, or had Malta reverted to an old, antiquated style?

Was democracy stronger or weaker? This, after all, was the governemnt which had put the leader of the opposition 'on trial' for his comments about the police.

Was there meritocracy? The people smiled when they heard this word because Prime Minister Muscat had ridiculed the word, Dr Busuttil said.

Did the people believe there was really a fight against corruption? One only needed to see how the government was tackling the smart meters tampering issue. And the audit office just last week confirmed that Minister Chris Cardona and Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis interfered in the granting of a tender. Would they now assume political responsibility?

Had PBS become a supporting pillar for the government?

Was justice any stronger when the prime minister was blatantly interfering on who should be taken to court, as in the case of the smart meters issue? This was also the government that had said it would proceed expeditiously with the Judge Farrugia Sacco impeachment case after he was found prima facie guilty of improper behaviour, but then did everything to stop it.

Had the government created work or raised unemployment? Month after month unemployment had risen, to reach over 7,000, Dr Busuttil observed.

Was the health sector better or worse? Under this government more free medicines were out of stock and more patients were in hospital corridors. 

And after a year, the gift which this governemnt was giving the people of the south who had supported it in their majority, was a gas tanker moored in Marsaxlokk Bay. Quoting a Dutch expert reported in today's The Sunday Times of Malta, Dr Busuttil noted how he had said a gas leak would be 'disastrous'

The expert said: "If this (gas) cloud is ignited and this can literally happen by just a cigarette, it will kill all the people in the flame and have a blast effect characterised as being 50% lethal. Dwellings' walls will collapse and widows shatter hundreds of meters away, and there will be fatalities."

It was an irresponsible government which took such a risk, despite the people's opposition, Dr Busuttil said. The government had betrayed the people. The opposition would continue to oppose these plans and would insist on the publication of all reports.

The government was rushing the project so that Mepa could take a decision on March 24. But whose interests were Mepa and the Occupational Health and Safety Authority safeguarding, the government's or the people's? Alas under this government most supposedly autonomous bodies were now headed by Labour MPs.

Another question the people should ask, Dr Busuttil said, was whether they felt more Maltese now. Were they happy that this government was selling Maltese passports, Malta's very own identity?

This and other issues had served to dent Malta's reputation in the EU and other institutions. It was a disgrace that one of the prime minister's advisers was linked to the former Ukrainian President Yanukovych, whose troops had shot at their own people.

Dr Busuttil said the European Parliament elections were important for the Maltese people to express its views and show whom they trusted to represent them abroad.