The flowering and withering of a coalition

These past few weeks witnessed the flowering of the idea of a coalition government. Alternativa spokesmen have been putting forward this idea for a very long time. A coalition government was billed by these people as the panacea for all the real and imaginary evils that this fair land is facing. During an edition of Bondi+ their representative on the panel ruled out a coalition with the right wing Azzjoni Nazzjonali but not with the Nationalists or Labour Party.

In the past week the tempo reached a kind of climax. If the postings on the blogs, letters and news stories in timesofmalta.com reflect in any way the feeling in the country, then the subject is truly controversial. Michael Falzon (the former Nationalist minister) sent a letter to The Times entitled “Coalition Government Impossible” (08/02/08).

At the time of writing this piece it was the third most commented on story in timesofmalta.com. Many reacted with pro or against comments. Daphne Caruana Galizia, for example, strongly made the argument that a vote for Alternattiva will increase the possibility that the next government will be a Labour one. Claire Bonello, on the other hand, sung the praises of the formation of a coalition government.

By the middle of this week one possible actualisation of this vision/aspiration was shot down by one of the partners. Bondi+ of last Monday was again the protagonist. Lou asked the former Nationalist MP, Clyde Puli whether the Partit Nazzjonalista would form a coalition with Alternattiva. He answered in the negative. Lou jumped on this news item but Clyde Puli reiterated that what he was saying was the party line. This was confirmed by Joe Saliba, the Secretary of the PN through his comments to the mid-week edition of Malta Today and by the Prime Minister in a front page story in The Times of Wednesday, February 13, also reported in timesofmalta.com.

With this possibility gone, Alternattiva is faced only with the possibility of a coalition with the Labour Party. Neither Dr Zrinzo Azzopardi, President of the MLP during Bondi+ (11/02/08) nor Jason Micallef, MLP secretary (Malta Today February 13) ruled out a coalition with the Greens.

But Dr Harry Vassallo, had already expressed his opinions on the PN and the MLP when he wrote in The Times of Friday 14 December 2007: “It seems a certainty at this stage that the Nationalists will return to government. The opposition is nowhere at all ….. Every move it makes to stir up its ranks serves only to confirm its doom. The Labour core may get high on antique bombast but it is not the Labour core which can win Labour an election. … Labour still has nothing to offer those who have decided the fate of this country over the last several decades. So it looks like a Nationalist outright victory no matter how much the PN leadership tries to muster every last vote by spreading rumours that it will be a close call."

This leaves Alternattiva in a kind of a bind. Alternattiva have been shunned by those whom they believe will be the outright winners while the Labour Party whom Alternattiva believe is nowhere at all and has nothing to offer has left the door half open. Not the nicest place to be during the second week of the electoral campaign!

Alternattiva are not deterred. Dr Vassallo thinks that the Nationalists will have to reconsider after the election results are announced. His comments to the Malta Today were somewhat in this direction. The Green party has often said that they will get four seats in Parliament. Jason Micallef noted that a party needed 17% of the vote to get a member elected. (Getting 17% in four districts implies respectable percentages in the others.) Published polls give Alternattiva around 3%. They have just under three weeks to make up for the difference. No mean feat.

Shameful Azzjoni Nazzjonali

The xenophobic policies of Azzjoni Nazzjonali are showing the true colour of this party which on this particular area wallows in charlatanism. The latest deplorable incident is the promotion billboard that Anglu Xuereb set up close to the Balzan parish church.

The billboard promises that Azzjoni will close the open centre for migrants in Hal Balzan. The centre is run with great love and dedication by the religious sisters of the Bon Pastur. The parish community together with the Kummissjoni Emigranti and other NGOs did a lot of hard work to try and integrate the migrants with the rest of the Balzan community. Children of the migrants celebrated first Holy Communion with the Balzan children. Several families are from time to time invited to neighbouring parishes.

But Anglu Xuereb has other plans. The centre must be closed he says. Will Azzjoni try and close the other open centres in Malta? Will they put all migrants in detention centre? Will they put them all on planes on the way to Brussels, as they once foolhardily promised? Can he please enlighten us?

Or perhaps there is no need to do any of this enlightenment Mr Xuereb. You can only enact your evil plan if you succeed in forming a national government (as you promise) and that will not happen before the ice of Antartica melts. So keep on putting up as many posters and billboards as you want spreading you know what about foreign migrants.

Mgr Philip Calleja’s condemnation should be supported by the church’s Justice and Peace Commission as well as other church bodies working in the area.

Di-veing deep into insignificance

I commented quite strongly against Go’s decision to stop covering the electoral campaign on its electronic news web site, i.e. di-ve.com. How can a news site not have news on the electoral campaign? What kind of news site is it?

Go is undoubtedly strong enough financially to provide the resources needed to have a first class news web site. It should have invested to give us this service. Doing this would have done justice to its social commitment to our society. The decision to stop news about the electoral campaign is a disservice to Go, its customers and the country.

Happy Birthday Julian

Julian, my great nephew will be three next Monday (February 18).

He has already sent his first MMS. He did it by pure coincidence while playing around with his mother’s mobile. He is more conscious when sending SMSs. He tells his mother he wants to send an SMS to nanna, pushes the relevant button and clicks away at the letter keys and asks his mother to type the number. He finally hits the send button. Julian surfs on the Internet after his parents type in the website address. He clicks the mouse with ease till he gets what he wants.

At the age of three, like those of his generation, he is familiar with computers, DVDs, TV, Internet, mobiles etc.

I remember that the first TV set we had in our house when I was growing up was when I was 13 years old. The first computer when I was 34 years old. The first mobile when I was around 40.

What a different world our kids are growing in! How richer in potentialities and possibilities. How lucky!

Happy birthday Julian.