Recent events have taken a hilarious twist. I was there when Simon Busuttil described the phases a politician goes through in his relationship with the public. The last phase before being booted out, Dr Busuttil said, is when the public starts laughing at the politician. I think I would agree with Dr Busuttil that Prime Minister Muscat has reached this phase. The Russian interference theory is beyond the shadow of a doubt the unassailable proof that this government has essentially become laughable.

That Prime Minister Muscat is under extreme pressure is borne out by the fact that when the Russian spy story was brought up, the Prime Minister, who is usually quite careful with his words, started referring to "our allies". Given Malta's neutrality, one wonders who "our allies" could be when we joined the alliance, and against whom we are allied. (The Russians did not find it funny, and their Press Release No 11/17 clearly had a particular tone when it referred to the "so-called security services of allied countries". One wonders whether Muscat has secretly broken the Constitution.)

However, this tendency toward hilarity is, I believe, taking over the entire Labour machine. I can say this from personal experience.

TV presenter and PN candidate Norman Vella invited me to one of his talk shows to discuss both my new book, L-Aqwa Żmien Għalihom. Erba' Snin ta' Skandli, and the present situation, on the eve of a snap general election called because the government collapsed under the weight of its own corruption.

I expressed a number of opinions, among which my deep-rooted conviction that a new Muscat administration will flirt with abortion and most certainly push to introduce euthanasia. One News jumped on this my conviction and did the following.

It edited the footage of the talk show to jumble up my sentences. Then, while telegraphically stating my position against euthanasia, they told their listeners that my claim that a new Muscat administration poses the risk of introducing abortion and euthanasia is a lie.

It is of course completely acceptable for them to say that what I am saying about Dr Muscat's intentions is not true.

What is not acceptable is that they try to fool the gullible, those who need help even with problem-solving the many situations of everyday life.

I think past experience teaches us that euthanasia will be somehow introduced if Dr Muscat is elected. But because of the way One News spinned it, the poor semi-literate followers of the cult, I mean of the station, thought I was actually in favour of euthanasia, and demanded an apology from me! There was again a moment of hilarity: I couldn't stop laughing – it reminded me so much of the witch scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail movie.

But then I said, hey, I might be the witch here so I stopped laughing.

Because indeed, with all this talk about Russian spies and "our allies", it really is becoming hilarious.

But then, we might be the victims of the semi-literate sectors of society who cannot see beyond the surface of words and think that Muscat can only utter the truth. They are vulnerable people who need sincere leaders to lead them through the vicissitudes of the seasons of existence.

This non-thinking section of the electorate could end up dismantling the entire country. Not in a creative-destructive moment of frenzy like the French Revolution was. But in a moment of destruction fuelled mostly by ignorance, short-sightedness, and the petty squabbling which takes politics for a legitimate alternative to the local derby. That certain sections of the thinking section of the electorate should forge an unholy alliance with the non-thinking section is petty and unforgivably self-destructive.

The non-thinking keep throwing my late father's memory at me: what he would do if he were still alive and see what I was writing. Well, dear posthumous friends of my father's, listen to this. If he were still alive, he would have already gone to the Auberge de Castille, where he once worked in the mid-1990s, and give the Prime Minister and his shady right hand man a piece of his mind. He would certainly not support this Panama nonsense and the insistence of holding on to a Minister and a Chief of Staff who would be ready to sell all their ascendants, of whichever gender, not just their mothers, simply to survive another day in office. This he would have done because, as the One News crowd keep shouting at me, he was a man of principle. What irony!

It is my conviction that all men and women of principle are called upon to boot out this materially and morally corrupt government come next Saturday, to elect in its stead a decent man, Simon Busuttil, and his team of decent people, the Nationalists and the National Force, to steer this country away from its current course and toward normality.

I was going to end this piece like this, but I have just received a phone call from a lady who wanted to know if the Mark Sammut who is writing in favour of Simon Busuttil is the son of the late Frans Sammut. She told me she's "Carmen from Birzebbuga" and when I asked her what I could do for her, she said nothing, she just wanted to confirm; then the phone call ended. This lady sounded confused. It is clear that there is a certain part of the population for whom, like the Russians, the degeneration of the Muscat Administration is not a matter of hilarity but a cause of serious concern. They are seeking direction, because Dr Muscat has managed to trouble their consciences. Indeed, the country is calling on all citizens of good will to make the right choice. For some people, it will not be easy. May they find the force to do the right thing for the nation.

 

Dr Sammut, author of the best-selling L-Aqwa fl-Ewropa. Il-Panama Papers u l-Poter, has just published L-Aqwa Żmien Għalihom. Erba' Snin ta' Skandli.