The game remains the same

We are now in the thick of the run-up to Saturday's European Parliament election and the Nationalist Party is once again playing its usual games with the electorate. The usual game of delaying reforms which are already in the offing just long enough for the elections to pass, failing to inform the electorate on the nature and effects of these reforms, indeed, denying their very existence, only for the electorate to have these reforms and realities staring them in the face no sooner than the last ballot is counted and the final result is known.

We all remember very clearly the loud proclamations made by the Fenech Adami administration, of which the Gonzi administration is nothing but a natural continuation, a clone, that European Union membership will mean that our islands would awaken to a new spring and that employment opportunities would abound for all and sundry.

The past year, which, with much tongue in cheek, has been defined as an 'exceptional' year by Prime Minister Gonzi, has been a veritable showcase of the Nationalists' deceit. Not only have new jobs not abounded, as has been promised, but on the contrary, hundreds of jobs, both in the private as well as in the public sector, have been lost. Unemployment figures are continuously on the rise and the administration appears to be completely unable to stop the rot.

In the run-up to the EU referendum and the last general elections, the Labour Party had warned workers in various sectors of their impending fate, but the MLP's forebodings were dismissed by the Nationalist spin doctors as unfounded prophecies of doom. Today these workers know full well who was telling them the truth and who was spinning a web of lies.

The same argument applies to the self-employed and the business sector in general. The dismantling of protective levies has brought a number of businesses and industries in Malta and Gozo to their knees. The onslaught on the agriculture industry is also about to begin.

The inevitable truth is that, in its campaign to join the EU at all costs, the Nationalist administration and its minions failed to inform these sectors of what was in store for them and, worse still, failed to help these sectors to introduce the necessary restructuring processes to be able to face up to the new challenges. Operators in these sectors today are aware that the warnings given by the Labour Party were real and not figments of a vivid imagination, as they had been dismissed to be by the PN gurus.

This time round, it is pensions reform which is the bone of contention. The government's plan for pensions reform will translate into the initiation of the dismantling of the welfare system in Malta, a welfare system which is a living monument to the achievements of past Labour administrations. The pensions reform which is in the offing will mean a rapid decline in the standard of living of our pensioners and workers. Make no mistake - the pensions reform plan is real, it is already baked, but the Gonzi government of deceit will not bring it out before the EP election.

It is the usual game of deceit which we have seen the Nationalist Party play time and time again. I appeal to the electorate - do not fall into this trap of deceit once more. For if you do, you will be sending out a clear signal to the present administration that it can run roughshod all over you with impunity. Let us show the Gonzi-Fenech Adami government - for there is absolutely no difference between the two - that, as John F. Kennedy had once said, you can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

For this reason, on Saturday, vote Labour. On my part, I once again pledge all my strength, experience and energy to the cause - the cause being that in all that we do, the interests of all Maltese and Gozitans of good faith - workers, artisans, self-employed, businessmen, pensioners, housewives, students - in short, all those who earn an honest living (and not live off the handouts of the PN administration) - are to be first and foremost.

It is with this view that I pledge to go to the European Parliament if elected, to see and ensure that the interests of all Maltese and Gozitans of good faith are properly safeguarded by seeking to secure the best opportunities which may arise and defeat those measures which would undermine the interests of our people.