Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1462882
UNLESS something catastroph- ic happens between the time I am writing this (Thursday) and Saturday, this election is already a foregone conclusion. The question is not whether the Labour Party will win again, but by how much. The best thing that can be said about this campaign is that it was mercifully short. Other than that, it was one big blah... The two big parties were com- peting to see who can be the biggest spender as if the coun- try's finances were a bottomless pit. Neither of the two leaders are brilliant orators who inspire the electorate, so the speeches always tended to be a yawn-fest, and both of them pissed every- one off with their intrusive ad- verts. The YouTube invasion The first time Robert Abela's shouting voice came on as I was watching a YouTube video, I jumped out of my skin and was scrambling to hit 'Skip Ad', but couldn't find it. Bernard Grech's ads, while more softly spoken, were equally annoying. So for the last five weeks we couldn't drive without seeing their ban- ners and billboards; we couldn't scroll through out newsfeed be- cause our social media was hi- jacked; and then we had those random videos popping up on YouTube which came at you out of the blue – it felt like no- where was safe. The PN and PL really seemed intent on pissing everyone off. Between them they owe €4.7 million to ARMS for unpaid in water and electricity bills, and yet here they were spending up to €240,000 per week in politi- cal online advertising. If they cannot manage their own fi- nances how can we feel secure that they are both not just plan- ning to drag the country into a black hole of infinite debt to make good on their wild, almost desperate, electoral promises? The two weights/two measures They continued to anger the public with those large political rallies, where unlimited crowds were suddenly OK and the wearing of masks seemed op- tional, even though restrictions remained firmly in place for other events, from the Arts to weddings. Schoolchildren and their teachers are still masked throughout the school day so they have continued to obey the rules and yet no one dared chastise the diehard support- ers. Meanwhile Covid cases are going up again at a rate of 300 per day… hmm, let me think, I wonder how that could possibly have happened? The insensitivity towards pa- tients There were other issues which only served to irk voters. The insensitive handling of demen- tia patients and whether they are entitled to vote is something which really needs looking into. Anguished relatives recounted stories of parents who could not even recognise their own chil- dren being taken to vote (which does not necessarily mean that they actually voted). Of course there are varying stages of dementia, and not everyone with this condition is not of sound mind. However, surely if they are already in a hospital the probability is that the condition is quite advanced so automatically putting their name on the electoral register by default does not make any sense. Minister Michael Farrugia said that psychiatrists and Electoral Commission officials assessed dementia patients on their ca- pability to vote in recent weeks. The General Elections Act out- lines a procedure that needs to be followed by family members or carers to cancel a voter from the electoral register. But the many complaints point to a sys- tem which definitely needs to be improved, to avoid the distress it has caused to many families. The prisoners' fiasco Another anomaly is that pris- oners were allowed to vote who were interdicted and should not have had this right. While the updated list of the electoral register has been available for months, it seems the PN only realised what was happening when the early voting started at the prisons. It objected and asked the Constitutional Court to annul the voting at the pris- ons, but the Court claimed it had no legal jurisdiction to de- cide the case. Elcom's lawyer argued that, "the party could have filed an application at the appropriate time to have those voters struck off the electoral register." The fact that they did not do this in time indicates that what was once a slick, well-oiled, PN elec- toral machine has turned rusty and needs maintenance. I can't imagine this happening under Austin Gatt/Joe Saliba's watch for example. Let us also not forget that there are PN repre- sentatives on Elcom whose job it is to keep an eagle eye out for these things. Having said that, there is a serious flaw if no re- dress on this matter can be found in our Courts. Ignoring stay-at-home moth- ers When it was announced by the PM, the stimulus cheque was promised to all "workers" instead of the voucher scheme. Now, however, it turns out that those who earn over 60k are not eligible for the cheque. There is nothing wrong with this scheme being means tested, but why not say so immediately? Meanwhile, when it dawned on stay-at-home mothers that they were not going to receive anything they were angry too, and rightly so. As they pointed out, students who already re- ceive a stipend and don't pay any tax got a cheque, as did those who are on social bene- fits, while they got nothing just because they do not work out- side the home. We have always known that all the endless work women do to run a household and raise children is not appre- ciated, but this just rubbed salt into the wound. This is apart from all the cha- os of cheques sent to wrong ad- dresses because Identity Malta and the Inland Revenue De- partment do not seem to be on speaking terms with each other. If, as some have claimed, this was a propaganda exercise for the election, it didn't actually succeed because of the sheer amount of people who were an- noyed. I wonder what the point of women in Parliament is if none of the female MPs thought to point out to Abela that he would have made a more im- pactful statement if he had 're- warded' women who do not work by giving them a stimulus cheque in recognition of their important role. It would have also been wise from an economic point of view – hasn't anyone ever told him that it is women who shop the most? Let's lower educational stand- ards! On Thursday, we were hit by a bombshell. Junior College en- tries has lowered requirements and now students will only need a pass in ONE of the three core subjects, Maltese, English or Maths, whereas before they needed all three. The legal notice was published on 8 March and lecturers re- ceived the email as a fait acom- plit. The decision was taken by the University Council on the recommendation of the Junior College Board. What exactly will be achieved by this terrible decision? Lec- turers at both JC and University will tell you that the standard of both languages is already abys- mal. We are a bilingual country and I cannot think of one job where the use of both is not necessary. Above all, being able to write well in both languages shows a certain level of academ- ic achievement and intelli- gence, as it means the person is reasonably well-read, which I would think comes in handy at post-secondary level. And maths, even if one is not bril- liant at it, is necessary to instil logic and the power of reason- ing, of which we need more, not less. But the warped message this decision is giving is – why even bother? Why tell your children to study for what they want in life, if the authorities are going to turn around and say, hey, no worries, you can get into Sixth form, even if you cannot string a coherent sentence together (let alone write an assignment or sit for an exam). The only ones who will be happy about this are those who (a) dislike Maltese be- cause they are English-speaking and still regard it as an inferior language which they refuse to speak and (b) those who dislike English and see it as a language for snobs. Those who struggle in Maths will also sing Hallelu- jah. The end result is a dilution of educational standards. It is already difficult enough for lecturers now, and this deci- sion will make their job twice as hard – just how much can you 'dumb' down a subject? Because without all three core subjects, the standard in other subjects will suffer as well. It is common knowledge that High- er Secondary and MCAST are easier to get into, so the ques- tion begs itself, is Junior College competing with them to attract students? Lowering the bar to get more students into post-secondary education may look good for Eurostat, but it is a slap in the face of enraged parents (and employers) who believe we should be encouraging quality not quantity. This scramble to get everyone to continue studying even if they are not academically inclined, has not produced a thousand Einsteins. What it has churned out are too many mediocre stu- dents with paper qualifications which they have obtained by barely scrapping through. The message this decision is giving to an already entitled generation is that, if they fail, no problemo, we will just change the goalposts for you. 6 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION A bland campaign which only served to piss people off Josanne Cassar