Back in antediluvian times when the PN was in power in the 1960s, Labour propagandists came up with a winner of a slogan. It went: “Shh. Tgħajjatx għax tqajjem il-gvern.” Loosely translated it means: “Don’t shout lest you wake up the government.”
It worked. It made people laugh. It made even diehard supporters of the PN, then led by Giorgio Borg Olivier, snigger. The government, the joke implied, was asleep, inactive, comatose, practically brain- and body-dead.
Fifty or so years later, the party is in opposition. It is, or should be, in an ideal position. It can talk without needing to face the music of governing.
It just needs to oppose, point out what is wrong and come up with strategies it would implement once in power.
Simple enough. But, with the PN asleep and almost dead, such stuff is impossible to achieve. One would think the PN would gather its forces, create a bit of a spark and generally be seen as attracting all sorts of people to join its ranks.
It should be getting people out in the streets demanding a better life, better air, less congestion, more open spaces, more greenery and a halt to the rape of our countryside, our beaches, our cities, our village cores. And for the government to stop coming up with a new road system every other day.
Corruption is rampant so the PN should be up and kicking the Labour government about doing nothing to stop this corruption.
Yet, here I am, with hordes of others, asking where is the PN? What does it represent? Who is it? What is it doing? How does it oppose? Who are its spokespersons? Has it gone AWOL?
How can it, even after almost a decade in opposition, not yet ever dictate the agenda in this country? How is it possible that it is totally voiceless and inconsequential? How can its MPs even justify their parliamentary salary if they are so quiet or ineffective?
If it weren’t for some mightily brave men and women who make up Graffitti and Repubblika and that lone ranger, Arnold Cassola, no opposition of any kind would exist in this country. True, in theory, the PN is – by virtue of its constitutional right – the official opposition but beyond its somnolence there is nothing to show for it.
Where is the PN? What does it represent?- Victor Calleja
The PN shows no sign of action or, at least, no proper action. Because the opposition has, since the last disastrous election, claimed it will be positive. As in not being aggressive in its ways: it will be like the panto dame who always screams out at the end of the show to “be nice to each other”.
They – these PN pantomime personages – hope that, by so doing, all Labour leaning moderates, all young people, all the old supporters who ditched the PN in previous elections will flock back to their ranks.
If they flock back because the party becomes a lighter shade of Labour it will just be endorsing the present state of affairs.
Malta has become a close enough version of a cesspit where scandals are the order of the day; where impunity of the ruling party members and stooges is normalised and where good governance is just a joke.
Being positive right now equals being complicit in all that is happening, in abetting the erosion of justice.
Labour in government, whether of the Joseph Muscat or Robert Abela kind, needs opposition which is invigorating. It needs opposition with a new energy and spark. If the PN fails in this, if it does not fight the government on all its misdeeds, it will be in collusion with it.
Collusion does not happen only by action. Inaction by the party in opposition will see a one-party state of affairs becoming an accepted fact of Maltese life.
The leap from sweet, serene somnolence to a nightmare scenario will happen without anyone noticing or even caring.
vc@victorcalleja.com
Victor Calleja is a former publisher.