A win is a win is a win.

So, I guess, some people reason, who cares whether the win was by a hair’s breadth? The PN won and roughly half the country is happy.

But if Gonzi is honest with himself before he puts his head down on his pillow at night, he surely must admit that there are more people who are not happy with his party than there are those who support him. That’s a fact and there are the figures to prove it. Whether he will do anything about it is something else.

Once upon a time

“We had a story to tell and the people listened...” said Gonzi on BondiPlus about his election campaign.

Well, gee, thanks Dr Gonzi, for confirming that the whole thing was merely “a story”.

Just like that perfectly airbrushed youthful face on those (creepy) huge billboards was just an illusion because, as we know, the Prime Minister doesn’t really look like that.

Oh and Lou, I just loved your hard-hitting investigative journalism analysing the election results where you asked Gonzi piercing questions to explain how the PN just barely scraped by with a 1,500 vote win.

Oops sorry, my mistake, you decided to go with a puff PR interview with Dr Gonzi and his wife instead...um, sure yeah, I understand. I guess that made a much better “story”.

Reno Bugeja’s excellent, incisive interview with Gonzi on Dissett, on the other hand, was exactly what truly objective journalism is all about.

Kicking a man when he is down...

The most difficult thing in the world is to be a gracious winner – the urge to gloat and taunt your opponent when he loses is sometimes uncontrollable, as we have often witnessed after important football matches (x’ghamilnilkom, m’ghandkom xejn, ja qatta imdejjqin! – translates into something like “na, na, na-na, na we won and you didn’t, you losers”). Unfortunately, that part of human nature is sometimes impossible to contain, unless someone leads by example.

Occasionally we do see glimpses of gentlemanlike behaviour. Michael Falzon earned the admiration of Nationalists and Labour alike when he hugged Joe Saliba and shook everyone’s hand when conceding the MLP defeat. He walked out of the counting hall barely able to hold it together, but he did, with his chin held high. To be honest, he had grated on my nerves with his behaviour when addressing mass meetings, but in those early hours of Monday morning he more than compensated for his previous shenanigans.

(Incidentally, people are still asking why he was left alone to face the music on that fateful day?)

But back to the issue of being a good winner.

On certain blogs we are still reading disparaging comments about Alfred Sant. Listen people, the man has now stepped down (and with dignity, I might add), so what more do you want? He gave Gonzipn a run for his money and no one can deny that he didn’t give it all he could under very difficult circumstances considering the state of his health. Whatever you might think of him; for all his flaws, his mistakes, and his lack of charisma, even his critics are fully aware that this, his third election defeat, was no walkover. The ashy, stunned faces of the journalists on NET TV on Sunday morning, when it looked like it was going to be a Labour win, spoke volumes. As the excruciatingly long hours passed by, with sparse information being given to voters at home, both sides were having heart attacks.

The impossibly close result spoke for itself... after all, we are talking here about winning an election by the skin of your teeth and not by an overwhelming landslide. You do realise, don’t you, that a mere 790 votes less for PN and we would be talking about a draw?

So why do some people still feel the perverse need to kick the man when he is down? They say you can tell the true character of a person by how he handles authority and I think the same can be said of how one handles victory. There is nothing so unpleasant and obnoxious as people who continue to hurl insults and offensive names long after their opponent is no longer in the picture. In Maltese we have a very descriptive word for it: “hdura” (malice). What more do you want – his blood? His imminent demise? What will be enough to satisfy what seems to be an obsessive need to crow and gloat that Alfred Sant’s political career is over?

Frankly, this bloodthirsty approach points to a very disturbed psyche.

Popular Jeffrey

I guess one sure way to get voted straight into Parliament on two districts (or titla’ sparat as we say) is to have Alfred Sant accuse you of unethical practices and provide the documented evidence as proof just before the elections. It appears that those who dislike Sant with a passion came out in droves to vote for Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando simply to thumb their nose at the Labour leader. It’s as if they were saying: “Ha! We don’t believe you, plus you made Jeffrey cry and wouldn’t confront him when he pretended to be a journalist. (And anyway, he’s a young cute guy with puppy dog eyes, and has time to learn from his mistakes.)”

Maybe someone should suggest Jeffrey for an upcoming role in Dejjem Tieghek Becky.

Failing that, he can always become a journalist.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was quick to flatly rule out any ministerial post for our most popular boy. Wonder how the people who stampeded to vote him in feel about that.

Coincidence or...?

Among the others who have been left empty-handed are Jesmond Mugliett and Ninu Zammit. Both had allegations of abuse of power thrown at them by Alfred Sant – but during the campaign the PN described this as “mud-slinging”. If the latter is true, how come Gonzi has now dropped them like hot potatoes? Could (God Forbid!) Alfred Sant have been right after all?

The writing’s on the wall

...but Lawrence Gonzi and his cronies are steadfastly refusing to read it.

Despite insults, cajoling and sometimes downright intimidation, Nationalist voters who want a clean, decent government and were sickened by the monster that had become Gonzi’s administration, stayed firmly at home. They did not want to have anything to do with putting the PN back into power with their vote. (As for democracy, someone suggested on a blog that these kind of Sliema residents “should be bombed”).

But the protest voters did not just come from Sliema. Over 5,000 nation-wide did not collect their voting documents. Another 9,000 collected their document but did not cast their vote (although other countries must look on us with bemusement when we describe 93 per cent as a low turnout).

As Prof. Edward Scicluna has pointed out, one cannot just assume that the majority of these were Nationalist voters, although analysing them by district will give some indication of from where the greatest haemorrhage of votes came.

There were others who were badgered into voting who went and invalidated their vote, making their feelings known on the ballot sheet. (There were 3,415 invalid votes and it will be interesting to see how many of these indicated the party against which they were protesting).

No fewer than 5,464 voted for the smaller parties – and even if just half of these were former Nationalist voters, that’s still a large number for Malta’s size.

Taking all these figures together, it is clear that there is a wave of anger and discontent in the country against the Nationalists. If we needed any further confirmation, we only have to look at the wafer-thin relative majority which, against all odds, has given us a Nationalist administration for another five years.

Of course, the figures also mean that despite some wild predictions of a major swing back to Labour, it is obvious that this did not happen. But for now, let’s leave Alfred Sant and Labour out of the equation – they have their own soul-searching to do. As the difficult process of choosing a new leader begins, they have to bear in mind that it must be someone who appeals to a broad spectrum of voters without losing sight of the principles that originally formed the Labour party. Another party that also needs to take stock is, of course, Alternattiva Demokratika, which has still not managed to make itself palatable enough to the average voter. In the end, the “Vote Harry, Get Freddy” ploy did succeed in rattling enough nerves to prevent voters from giving AD their second (or even their 10th) preference – although for a while there on Sunday, the unthinkable (for the PN) almost did happen.

Someone told me recently that “it’s trendy to be Nationalist” and I think this summarises the situation perfectly. However, once the drunken revelry is over and the beer cans are swept up, Gonzi has to wake up to the fact that there is a hefty chunk of the population that has been left without a voice. Will he be man enough do something about electoral reform, for example, which will give third parties a level playing field? From what he said on Dissett, where he mentioned that a constitutional crisis was narrowly averted and “If AD had won a seat, I wouldn’t have been able to form a government”, well you can read between the lines for yourselves.

The fact is that, despite all the slogans thrown at them, many Maltese do not feel represented by Gonzi’s party. They feel helpless against what they see as the ingrained dishonesty, which is not only sanctioned, but seemingly rewarded.

Increasingly alienated by the status quo, they are the silent minority, but it is a minority that is steadily growing.

Footnote

Dr Gonzi’s first act as Prime Minster was to stop all Mepa’s public board meetings, “suspend until further notice” those of the Development Control Commission and announce that no planning decisions would be taken for the time being. Good, commendable move.

However, wouldn’t Dr Gonzi have had more credibility if he had taken this decision during the election campaign, after the DCC board resigned en masse?

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