GozoNews.Com

Alternattiva Demokratika Chairperson Dr Harry Vassallo said that the various attempts at intimidation made on party activists, party officials and advisors only served to strengthen their resolve to rid the country of one party governments which behaved as though it were business as usual to attempt to suppress the rights of citizens to participate fully in their country’s democratic processes.

“Under the Nationalist regime pressure to silence outspoken dissidents is exercised in a more sophisticated manner than was done under Labour regimes” Dr Vassallo said. “In the past 18 years almost everybody who held a post with the civil service or with a government agency and was actively involved with the Green Party has been warned against exercising his or her democratic rights,” Dr Vassallo said.

“It is altogether intolerable that this practice has continued also after Malta joined the EU when all Maltese citizens gained an extension of their political rights” Dr Vassallo said “In many cases Alternattiva Demokratika officials have been told by their superiors at work that they must choose between their political activity and their hope for promotion or even the right to keep their jobs. In other cases also against Maltese law government employees such as teachers who are required to resign from government service for a month and lose a month’s salary in order to contest an election were told that they has lost their seniority when they applied for a promotion after returning to their posts,” Dr Vassallo said.

“Alternattiva Demokratika elected officials working in the private sector are not immune from pressure either” Dr Vassallo said. “It is a measure of the minute detail in which the regime operates that soon after election to the Sannat Local Council, AD Councillor John Mizzi, was invited to dine with the Prime Minister who did not bother to arrange such a meeting through proper channels. John Mizzi correctly advised me of the invitation and I encouraged him to attend in order to make a firsthand experience of the quality of politics as practiced by the regime. He was not impressed. Following this incident John Mizzi was prosecuted when he was prevented from taking pictures of a Mepa enforcement action against the brother of a Nationalist politician. The prosecution was dismissed in court but the nuisance proceedings carried on despite the fact that they had lapsed by prescription. On instructions from the Ministry for Gozo, John Mizzi was also interrogated for four hours by the police in connection with criticism of the Minister of Gozo on a website.” Dr Vassallo said.

“While we have always submitted willingly to the full force of the law whenever we have taken political action through civil disobedience and to a far greater extent than any other political party, we cannot but express our disgust at the way the law has been consistently abused by the Nationalist regime to discourage free speech and criticism of its actions,” Dr Vassallo said.

“In many cases pressure has been made threatening the family incomes of party activists and impacting the lives of spouses and children of party officials who are extraneous to our political activity. The fact that non-officials are affected inhibits us from making a public issue in every case and some such cases are presently going on” Dr Vassallo said. “The pathetic and absurd actions taken by the regime become almost hysterical when directed at persons who have held office in the interests of the Nationalist Party” Dr Vassallo said. “Their abandonment of the Nationalist Party in order to retain their self-respect cannot be undone by bribes and threats. It can only add to their resolve to contribute to a profound change in Maltese politics,” Dr Vassallo said.

“We have been able to overcome this pressure time and time again” Dr Vassallo said. “At every new incident our commitment is renewed to rid the country of this way of doing politics. Every time we gain the strength we need to give an example to others for them to gain the freedom we have won for ourselves the hard way.” Dr Vassallo said. “When the Prime Minister attempts to make furtive meetings with our local councilors, we take it as a measure of the panic and desperation which has gripped the Nationalist government, its detachment from its principles and from political reality. We take such actions to be a measure of the need for a new, clean way of doing politics which can only be achieved by the election of Alternattiva Demokratika deputies to parliament and their participation in government,” Dr Vassallo said.