Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547077
EACH week I sit before a blank page on my computer screen, wondering what I can possibly say, which I have not said a mil- lion times before. Occasionally, a news story which has dominated the head- lines can give me enough mate- rial to write about a new topic, but there are times, like today, when all I feel is fatigue and en- nui. The same problems hover over us, weekly, monthly, yearly and yet the government seems to have been consumed by inertia or indifference or both; unable or unwilling to tackle what really matters to the average person. Robert Abela is satisfied with having won the election and his supporters can gloat to the Op- position that they were given a trashing ("kaxkarnikom"). Abela is secure in the knowledge that he doesn't have to worry about votes for another four or five years. This attitude is reinforced by those who prop him up, in the warped belief that, once elected, politicians do not have to answer to anyone. More than once I have seen the comment, "let this gov- ernment do its job and govern, that's why it was elected, it is in charge and makes the decisions". I don't know what they have been teaching at school for the last few decades, but there are definitely gaps in people's grasp of what a functioning democracy looks like. Sure, the Labour Party was elected to govern, but it does not stop there. It still needs to be accountable to the electorate for every decision, and it is the duty of the public and the media to question and demand answers. We pay their salaries through our taxes, remember? Otherwise, what we have elected are a bunch of petty dictators, and we have enough of those already wherev- er small-minded people are given a modicum of power. All over social media the prob- lems which plague the country are invariably a topic of conver- sation, so I find it hard to believe that Abela and his ministers are oblivious to them. Once in a while, however, they seem to wake up from their stupor. In fact, when the Local Government Minister Alison Zerafa Civelli herself admitted that keeping the country's streets clean is one of the "biggest chal- lenges facing councils", it was a blatant admission of failure. However, she left out a crucial piece of the puzzle, namely that the responsibility for rubbish col- lection was taken away from the councils and went back to cen- tral government. As a result, the service went downhill even more. It is a failed rubbish system. An- yone who has eyes and a sense of smell can see that, yet, what is done about it? A big fat zero. Instead, those who are always looking for someone else to blame trot out the usual suspects: It is the fault of these "dirty" for- eigners. The reality is that the in- frastructure is hopelessly archaic and all the threats that people would be fined for taking out the wrong bag on the wrong day was just talk, especially in the areas where there is the most flagrant abuse. Maybe the minister needs to come up with a better system rather than just stating the obvi- ous. If there is one recurring theme which haunts our feeds it is that of over-population, but when it is pointed out that it is this admin- istration that has actively encour- aged the current situation, it does not go down well with Labour diehards who flail about trying to find scapegoats. Last week, Finance Minis- ter Clyde Caruana also tried to shrug off responsibility, point- ing his finger at employers. So, let's break it down for the people at the back. The entities which need to be involved for a non-EU worker to come here for work are JobsPlus, Identita' and the Hous- ing Authority. Those planning to work in tourism and hospitali- ty also need the Skills Pass from the Maltese Institute of Tourism Studies. According to the web- site, the police force carries out due diligence on a prospective employee. At every stage, the government is making money off every sin- gle worker who applies to enter the country. It is clearly stated on the Identita' site that "fees are non-refundable even when an application is refused, with- drawn, revoked or deemed inad- missible." Now, multiply that by the num- ber of TCNs who are not only working here but those who are clamouring to come to Malta (in case you are curious just check out a FB page called Skills Pass Malta and you will get an idea). And yes, granted, employers are begging for more workers, but it is in the government's power to stop the demand by simply not issuing any more permits for new establishments. It is also in the government's power to stop employing people in its various departments in what are basical- ly non-jobs; by putting so many on the public payroll, they are depriving private enterprise of much-needed staff. At this rate, every Maltese national will have a "job mal-gvern". Overcrowded public transport The overcrowded public trans- port system is another sore point which is discussed ad nauseam and again the fingers are being pointed in the wrong direction. Apart from those who are ad- vocating for what amounts to apartheid by claiming that only Maltese people should be al- lowed to ride buses for free, even though third country nationals pay taxes like the rest of us), the solution lies in the hands of, you guessed, the people who were elected. Rather than illegal dis- crimination, we need more bus- es and more routes. Simple. Of course, that is no guarantee that snooty Maltese commuters will want to set foot on a bus, even if it's empty. One comment I read summed up the collective feeling of the na- tion perfectly, "We did not ask for all this" and this person is right. We did not ask for Malta to sell its soul in exchange for 10 piec- es of silver. This country is visi- bly tired of fighting for its rights. The right to clean streets. The right to decent mass transport. The right to infrastructure which can handle the influx of all these people. The right to an economy which has not been built on the back of imported cheap labour. The right to ensure those enter- ing the country aren't hardened criminals. The right not to have the Stivalas of this world occupy- ing public space, who are told to remove everything and then who furtively sneak back their chairs and tables on the pavement. There is a palpable air of defeat- ism because with every new fight being valiantly fought by envi- ronmental activists, residents' associations and those who truly love Malta, another five exam- ples slip by us without our re- alising it and we are faced with a fait accompli. Those making money are so powerful and there are so many who earn their liv- ing by being employed by them that it truly feels like a losing bat- tle. Greed has chomped us up, spit us out and is threatening to squash our very spirit. As designer Luke Azzopardi so rightly said about Valletta in a recent FB post: "Our capital has been turned into a Kafkaesque nightmare where every available square metre is monetised, oc- cupied, covered, illuminated, ad- vertised, fenced off or filled with plastic furniture…Why bother with walls, architecture, interi- ors, or, God forbid, some sense of visual order when you can simply throw 47 chairs and tables into the street, erect an ugly canopy, add some uglier chairs, surround the whole thing with plastic, fake turf and perhaps a television, and call it 'al fresco urban dining'." When you look around and see what our country has been reduced to thanks to this ad- ministration's policies (or lack of them), it is no wonder that people hop on cheap flights and escape from here as often as they can. 3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 11 OCTOBER 2026 OPINION Josanne Cassar She has worked in the field of communications and journalism for the last 30 years This country is tired of fighting for its rights Prime Minister Robert Abela (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)