Statistics are like bikinis. What they show you can be quite revealing, but what they never show you, on their own, is what's vital: The dynamic.
In the past weeks we have been bombarded with surveys, statistics, figures and percentages. The crux of the matter is always the result. Last Sunday we had the Yes vote victory for spring hunting and tomorrow we will see the local council results which the main parties are battling out.
Tomorrow will definitely show another win for PL, given the natural Labour majorities in most of the councils contested. We shall see whether they justify a Prime Minister who is taking decisions based on the fact that he considers himself untouchable.
There are several take-home messages from last weekend’s result. But the bottom line is that, in Malta, half the population feeds itself on media, particularly online social media. This, however, does not exclude the other half which, in a small country like ours, was mobilized by word of mouth and through personal encouragement.
Surveys were showing an advantage for the No vote. Were they wrong? Of course not. It is becoming more and more clear that our elections are being determined by that section of the population which refuses to answer to the questions made over the phone and by those who define themselves as “undecided”. This is a growing number of people who refuse to be labelled and who will keep the privacy of their vote to themselves. They are the ones who sway the result in one direction at the very end.
Pinocchio and Geppetto
Another interesting survey was the one revealed last Sunday by this paper’s sister journal in which Konrad Mizzi was chosen as the absolute favourite to the question, “Which is the best-performing Minister or Parliamentary Secretary?”
This is particularly interesting because Konrad Mizzi has made headlines several times but for the wrong reasons. There was the unfulfilled promise to build a power station by last March, his involvement in the hedging agreement with the corrupt Azeri oil company Socar and his wife’s hefty salary for duties which are still hazy, to say the least. So what does this say about people’s perception of him and hence his popularity?
Simple: People attribute to him the reduction (or perceived reduction) of the electricity bills even though the reduction is actually resulting from the BWSC power station and the newly inaugurated inter-connector to the European grid. How ironic, both projects were the brain child of the previous PN government and both were highly criticized by the then Labour Opposition.
At 2.4%, Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne’s performance is next to nothing when compared to Konrad Mizzi’s 37.1%. This too says much about the grand idea of putting together Energy and Health. I am assuming that Mizzi’s popularity is attributed to his work in the Energy sector and not in the health sector. If health is part of the equation, Fearne would be a tad more popular out there, wouldn’t he?
No, Konrad Mizzi’s popularity must be stemming from energy. A visit to his Ministry’s website reveals that health is nowhere to be seen.
Mizzi seems to have a model which he applies to all sectors under his responsibility. Like the cliché radio adverts, all Konrad Mizzi’s projects have the subtitle “Sale, Sale, Sale”. Secrecy and shady deals are also typical of Mizzi’s plans. Health too is heading down the same road but these are issues in the making.
This survey reminded me so much of the Pinocchio classic. We all talk about the little wooden puppet but we hardly give credit to Geppetto. Is this what is going to happen to Mizzi and Muscat? Muscat has been orchestrating various scenarios which involved Mizzi at the forefront. I am sure that some of these ideas may have come from Mizzi himself but Muscat has worked very hard on his Pinocchio and now his (not so little) wooden puppet is taking over. Muscat, at 17.6%, is half as popular as his Energy Minister.
Konrad Mizzi is becoming his “captain’s captain” and we all know how that ended up in Shakespeare’s Othello.