The numbers game Muscat must reckon with

In an effort to negate the importance of Saturday’s protest against the development at Zonqor Point and other Outside Development Zones, there are those who are trying to belittle and question the number of people who showed up. The irony, of course, is that they are trying so hard to pour cold water on the successful demonstration that it contradicts their point entirely: if it was a ‘flop’ as they are claiming, why are they so busy flooding online portals and Facebook with a stream of indignant, aggressive comments, and giving it even more publicity?

I would think that a little common sense, not to mention a basic knowledge of marketing, dictates that when something has not been effective (as they are claiming) your best move would be to simply ignore it so that people move on to the next topic and it dies a natural death.

As it is, Front Harsien ODZ should really say a big ‘thank you’ to all those who ensured that the Valletta protest was trending for the whole weekend and is still being discussed as I type.

But what really baffles me is why the people sticking up for the Zonqor University are gloating. What are they trying to prove exactly? That Joseph Muscat’s government is “safe” and that his absolute power in the country cannot be budged? They are practically demanding that Muscat should just ignore those who are telling him that he is wrong, because he was given a mandate to govern and as far as they are concerned, for the rest of the legislature, everyone should just zip it.

Well, I hate to break it to them, but this is so off the mark that it is clear they have no idea of just how high the level of disgust is among those who gave him his incredible majority.

This is not about the diehard Labour voters who will justify everything he does (even if it means giving away pieces of land for peanuts) because they view any criticism as an attempt to get the PN back in government. Like Nationalist supporters before them, they will twist themselves into a pretzel to agree with every single project, because not agreeing means you should be viewed with great suspicion.

No, this is about those other voters, the 36,000 who made the difference and swept Labour back into power because they were so completely and utterly fed up with the PN.

We are depressingly back to where we were pre-2013, with people grabbing whatever they can because ‘il-gvern taghna u naghmlu li rridu’ - the party colours may have changed but the mindset is exactly the same

How does Muscat think those thousands were accumulated? It began like this, dear Joseph, in dribs and drabs of discontent, a few hundred there, a couple of more hundreds here, until it accumulated and grew and voters who wanted change went into that polling vote, and voted for it.

Well, that ‘change’ didn’t last long did it? In fact, according to the MaltaToday survey, Muscat’s trust rating has already gone down three points since last March, and the difference between the two parties has dipped to 21,000 votes.

If the Labour administration thinks this still gives it a big enough margin to keep on plunging ahead with the way it is doing things, it is being as short-sighted as Gonzi’s Nationalist party used to be. The last elections were a turning point in which people clearly showed they had no qualms in swinging the vote and casting their vote for the PL despite every possible attempt at scaremongering. What is to stop them from doing it again? Or even worse for the PL, what if utterly disillusioned voters adamantly refuse to vote?

We are depressingly back to where we were pre-2013, with people grabbing whatever they can because ‘il-gvern taghna u naghmlu li rridu” (it’s our government and we’ll do what we like). The party colours may have changed but the mindset is exactly the same. The cronyism, the nepotism, the jobs for the boys, the political discrimination when it comes to jobs, government tenders, promotions, lucrative contracts, incompetent people being appointed to high-flying positions because they canvassed for a politician and not due to merit - this was happening in an obscene way for a very long time under the Nationalists.

If things are done above-board Muscat need not worry, but he cannot keep assuming that everyone is going to be complacent simply because the money is rolling in.

There is a difference in the public mood this time though, which I think came about directly because of the oil scandal which was the final death knell for the PN government.

When the lid was lifted off that scandal, it was probably the biggest eye-opener for the average citizen that this country has ever seen. The difference is that now, those who never grab anything no matter who is in power (because they believe in doing things properly and working for what they want, rather than depending on political favours) are not going to wait another 25 years and watch this country pushed even further into shady backroom deals and environmental ruin.

We will speak up now, when it is happening right under our nose, and not let things slide (as happened in the past while Mater Dei was being built) until an investigation is carried out some time in 2020.

The checks and balances of every single project and agreement need to take place now, to keep this government from going off the rails and taking us along with it. If things are done above-board Muscat need not worry, but he cannot keep assuming that everyone is going to be complacent simply because the money is rolling in. What is the point of money if we sell our very souls and Malta becomes just one big slab of cement? It will literally turn into The Rock, as so many ex-pats affectionately refer to it.

As everyone knows, and as we often pointed out prior to the 2013 elections, it is the floating voters who really matter, and that holds true today as much as it did then. And if Muscat keeps ignoring the mutinous rumbling of the people, he should not be too surprised by the election results come 2018. No one is there forever, no one is infallible and no one is an untouchable. If he keeps steamrolling ahead with this kind of governance, when it comes time to vote, those who care about Malta more than they care about any political party, will know exactly what they have to do.