Well, it's been practically a whole week since my last blog, which generated quite a debate to say the least; a debate that I was very pleased about. In the meantime, a whole host of students have finished their exams and are already enjoying the fruits of not doing anything academically-related for a while as their summer has started, and that also means that my entertainment during these dragging times, such as Lanfranco's vlogs, will probably be no more as of the latest installment today... Anyway, as of the time of writing, 5 days, 12 hours and 35 minutes are left until I too can start to enjoy my freedom!
Tomorrow is the day where, according to estimates, around 62% of eligible voters will head to the polls for the second time in 15 months, this time to determine who will be representing Malta in the European Parliament. And while today we're meant to be "reflecting" on how the electoral campaigns have developed and who should be getting our votes, I'm still blogging about it because I don't abide by the rules. Oh, and by the way, some of us - myself included - have Local Council Elections to contend with as well, but I'm not very bothered about those because Councils do jack. When the Council magazine pops into my mailbox once every two months and I open it up to see what projects the Council has undertaken in this period of time, I practically want to start crying when, for instance, they say that they created a "traffic management" scheme in Triq Salvu Bonanno by literally painting a white oval line in the middle of a massively asphalted area. Pathetic.
So, back to my point. Tomorrow, we will be voting for five candidates who we believe are ideal to represent us in the European Parliament for the next 5 years. Or, alternatively, for any amount of time as they may wish, provided an opportunity to become Leader of one of Malta's main political parties arises due to death or simply the incapability of those running the show at either end of the political spectrum at the moment in time. I'm not one to normally show political apathy, but in this case, I can't help but do so. The Nationalist Party know that they're heading for a heavy defeat at tomorrow's polls, and the Labour Party know that they're heading for a landslide victory, just as they did in 2004.
And quite frankly, I couldn't care less. All we've heard - generally - is that these candidates, be it from whatever political tendencies that they might have, are definitely the best to represent us in Europe because of a plethora of reasons, some of which don't even have anything to do with the European Union. My opinion is that all these candidates are going to be there to represent the best interests of their pockets come the full implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, which will see the five (six) elected representatives pocket a cool €400,000 a year, excluding all the perks, expenses, accommodation etc. That works out to a salary of €8,333.33 a week; you could be mistaken that these people would be playing football for a professional club with such wages. So yes, we're essentially voting, first and foremost, for these people to pick up a big pay cheque.
I don't really see the European Parliament as an institution that works. Fine, its power will be increasing with the ratification of Lisbon, but what has really affected Malta via the European Parliament since our entry into the EU? Simon Busuttil might have presented an incredibly important report on irregular immigration, but Frontex has hardly helped solved our problems. On the contrary, they seemed to increase. Italy, on the other hand, seem to have really got the message across by sending boatloads of immigrants back to source, because unless I'm living in dreamland, I haven't really heard of any incidents involving the arrival of such immigrants since the last boat that was sent back to Africa. Further to that, the only important piece of news is that Busuttil was the most active MEP, and David Casa attended most plenary sessions. Otherwise though, there's practically no news regarding Malta that comes out of the European Parliament, whose function, it seems, is just to give their assent to newly-promulgated European Law and approve the European budget.
To conclude, as I don't want this blog to be too long, I'll just say that I will nonetheless be voting tomorrow despite these factors that I've mentioned, added to the fact that these people are going to be elected nonetheless even if I don't vote, so I might as well have my say as long as democracy permits me to do so. Furthermore, despite how arrogant the Government has become and how lacklustre the last 15 months have been for Malta overall, I will still be voting for the Nationalist candidates based on their European track record over the last 5 years, and nothing more than that. It's been difficult for me to consider European issues over national ones, but that's exactly what has to be done in such a circumstance. While the EP is a bit of a big joke, at least the PN seem to treat less as such as opposed to the PL. And I'm not even going into the merits of whether they are still anti-EU or not, I think that now this is a consideration that should be dropped once and for all, albeit still valid in a sense. Anyway, as long as idiots like Glenn Bedingfield don't get elected once again...
God Bless You all!
Matti
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