Election Blues
Sometimes I wonder whether it is actually worth fighting for anything in this country, and then I find myself overcome by that same apathy which has taken its grip over most of the population. Everywhere you turn you face brick walls and the same 'nothing can change' attititude. And now that an election is approaching, it i becomingly painfully obvious what a mess we're in.
Over the past couple of years all the faults we had tried to hide have surfaced and hit us back with a vengeance. We are struggling with an unstable economy (which will be rendered even more volatile with the Euro changeover), a rapidly deteriorating countryside, a quantity of unfinished projects which lack vision, a rise in racism and intolerance, and a government which has no idea what to do with itself (including, and particularly, the opposition). The sad thing about it is that no-one seems to be able to offer any solutions or a sustainable vision. We all know that MEPA is corrupt and completely disregards environmental issues and its own policies to accomodate certain contractors, yet no-one dares do anything. We all know that our public transport system and road infrastructure is in shambles, yet all we could change over the last few years has been a few buses and a few roads. Worst of all, we all know that immigration is an issue we have to deal with, an instead we waste time hurling insults and justifying claims of a racial purity we've never had.
What we fail to realise is that we cannot change anything if we keep the same old cliques in the same positions of authority. How can any political party claim to have a vision if they have the same political make-up of ten or even twenty years ago? Even the so-called new party of Dr Josie Muscat has had little to offer. It is merely a nostalgic look back at values and views which are now either obsolete or dangerously fundamentalist. It is indeed rather ironic for a party to want to go back to traditional values (which basically mean power to white, Catholic, heterosexual, middle-class, conservative males) and at the same time advocate a voice for all. And yet this exposes a very important flaw in Maltese political thinking; that keeping the status quo is preferable to change, that education is about remembering the past and not looking towards the future, and that isolation is safer than collaboration.
The result is a collective alienation. How many of our political leaders are young and energetic? Certainly not the leaders of Azzjoni Nazzjonali, Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana or Imperium Europa, who so gradiosely claim that they are the fresh air of Maltese politics. As for the two main parties, the young energetic and passionate candidates are constantly hindered by the usual old cumbersome megaliths whose faces we have been seeing for the last quarter of a century. This leaves only Alternattiva Demokratika, who so far for all their goodwill have failed to have any significant impact.
Ultimately, national confidence and pride is not about votes or political ideology. It is about our ability to listen, to think, to argue and to finally reach a compromise. What is easily apparent is that this is going to be no ordinary election. There will be changes. We cannot keep avoiding change. Let us make sure that this change is a step forward for the better and not a return to the political madness of the seventies and eighties, or even worse to he twisted ideologies of the thirties.
Over the past couple of years all the faults we had tried to hide have surfaced and hit us back with a vengeance. We are struggling with an unstable economy (which will be rendered even more volatile with the Euro changeover), a rapidly deteriorating countryside, a quantity of unfinished projects which lack vision, a rise in racism and intolerance, and a government which has no idea what to do with itself (including, and particularly, the opposition). The sad thing about it is that no-one seems to be able to offer any solutions or a sustainable vision. We all know that MEPA is corrupt and completely disregards environmental issues and its own policies to accomodate certain contractors, yet no-one dares do anything. We all know that our public transport system and road infrastructure is in shambles, yet all we could change over the last few years has been a few buses and a few roads. Worst of all, we all know that immigration is an issue we have to deal with, an instead we waste time hurling insults and justifying claims of a racial purity we've never had.
What we fail to realise is that we cannot change anything if we keep the same old cliques in the same positions of authority. How can any political party claim to have a vision if they have the same political make-up of ten or even twenty years ago? Even the so-called new party of Dr Josie Muscat has had little to offer. It is merely a nostalgic look back at values and views which are now either obsolete or dangerously fundamentalist. It is indeed rather ironic for a party to want to go back to traditional values (which basically mean power to white, Catholic, heterosexual, middle-class, conservative males) and at the same time advocate a voice for all. And yet this exposes a very important flaw in Maltese political thinking; that keeping the status quo is preferable to change, that education is about remembering the past and not looking towards the future, and that isolation is safer than collaboration.
The result is a collective alienation. How many of our political leaders are young and energetic? Certainly not the leaders of Azzjoni Nazzjonali, Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana or Imperium Europa, who so gradiosely claim that they are the fresh air of Maltese politics. As for the two main parties, the young energetic and passionate candidates are constantly hindered by the usual old cumbersome megaliths whose faces we have been seeing for the last quarter of a century. This leaves only Alternattiva Demokratika, who so far for all their goodwill have failed to have any significant impact.
Ultimately, national confidence and pride is not about votes or political ideology. It is about our ability to listen, to think, to argue and to finally reach a compromise. What is easily apparent is that this is going to be no ordinary election. There will be changes. We cannot keep avoiding change. Let us make sure that this change is a step forward for the better and not a return to the political madness of the seventies and eighties, or even worse to he twisted ideologies of the thirties.
posted by Gedudu at 10:45 PM
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