Friday 24 April 2009

Times: The Nationalists' many broken promises

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090423/letters/the-nationalists-many-broken-promises
Thursday, 23rd April 2009 by Albert Gauci Cunningham, Buġibba

I don't like wasting people's time feeling all shocked and aghast at some comment Joseph Muscat made regarding that piece of not-so-nourishing beef called a burger and pathetically trying to point it out as the reason people should not vote Labour next June.

Instead I'll waste some of the readers' time asking those who call a spade a spade whether or not this is the same party many like me voted for and whether or not it still deserves our support!

Is this the same party that preached togetherness? Where is the "togetherness" now? Where was the togetherness in the messy utility saga affair when everyone, including those who stood four square behind Eddie Fenech Adami during the EU referendum, told our PM and Austin Gatt that these bills were a menace and a burden a weak economy could well do without? Where is the "togetherness" when these same bills are issued while they are being discussed with the regulator?

Why did the PN promise to widen the highest tax band by 10 per cent (35 per cent tax down to 25 per cent) when it knew that this was a measure the country could not afford in times of economic ills? Why did the PN lie so blatantly when up till last March when Lawrence Gonzi used to say that "finances are fine now, in fact we can focus on the environment" only to find that the deficit is out of control and will increase by more than threefold (€60 million to €200 million)? Why did the PN destroy everything it had so excruciatingly "built" before 2008 just to win an election which it had known it would only win by default (as it did)?

Why did the PN promise to continue helping young people through a particular housing scheme only to abruptly stop it when people had already signed contracts? Does the PN know how many people were up in arms against this classic case of total lack of "togetherness"?

Why did Dr Gonzi act like our modern day workers' hero promising not to give contracts to businessmen who employ people illegally or disregard their rights such as sick leave only to go totally mute on it since March?

Have all these very real injustices faded into thin air now or was it just a load of crap like most of the manifesto itself? Why did the PN promise the Ta' Qali businesses a project which it had now so unceremoniously scrapped? Why did the government promise to support anti-homophobia legislation only to retract and say that we need a "culture-change" after march?  [Click here and here for articles] Whatever happened to the urgency to enact laws that protect co-habitating couples? How longer must these people wait to see this promise materialise?

Why did the PN give the impression that liberalisation was not on the cards in the transport sector when it knew that this was not the case? Why did it promise loads of people jobs here and there only to "conveniently" forget these voters after March? Why promise accountability when we have ministries "drowning" in mismanagement and no-one is held responsible? Why whine about "biting the bullet" on one hand and increase the Cabinet's wage on the other? Isn't that exactly what the MLP had done in 1997 and for which it got a lot of egg on the face from the Nationalist side? So what has changed now? And all this is just the tip of the whole shocking iceberg of broken promises, apathy and arrogance!

True, some would rightly point out that I made my bed and so I should lie on it and as much as I have to accept that argument I have to also reserve my right as a voter in a supposedly democratic country to shout out aloud that the "bed" I got after March was definitely not the one I bargained for and therefore that the "contract" thousands "signed" with the PN through their vote has been disregarded or even worse completely broken. Come June I will definitely not be voting for those who used me for my vote and then did it "their way" once power for them and their acolytes was secured!

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