Either we have gone a little schizophrenic on this island or we believe in fairy tales.
Enthusiasm and hope was quite evident on the granaries on Wednesday evening as Adrian Delia strode up to the stage, after working through the hugs and handshakes of the crowd of supporters there to welcome him as the new leader of the Nationalist party.
It was not the crowd that had been expected. The result of 52 / 47 was a meagre 800 votes ahead of his opponent but the optimism being shown by the new way supporters compensates for the lack of numbers.
On this wave of energy people are eager to believe that anything is possible, that Delia is their Knight in shining armour and his words are more filling to them than bread. They have hungered for a defender and are more than keen to elevate him to the highest status and afford him every esteem and encouragement in striving to deliver them from their profound misery.
His paternalistic attitude is gathering a response and easing anxiety. It is good for people to feel they are being given attention and importance and rightly so. During these past 8 to 10 years, they have felt marginalised and relegated to second or third place, with several amongst them having to endure humiliation and huge disappointment whilst the Laburisti fed at the trough and became Suldati ta’ L-Azzar overnight.
Wars are often born out of a humiliation. One cannot underestimate the pain it causes and the motivation to strike back.
They have, perhaps, felt little comfort in learning of the corruption and manoeuvers happening in the Labour camp. If anything, it was a further slap in the face to know that the leader of the PN was having to allocate energy, time and an election campaign to ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.
To now have an advocate for them, for their grievances, their hopes and their party, was more than a consolation. It is a sigh of relief and a light on the horizon.
Delia, like google, chose his key-words and planted them in the right spots. Words that resonate with the nervous looking for the new way. But this new way is nothing but a throw- back to the 80s. One might almost expect bell-bottom jeans and disco music and be forgiven for thinking that the past almost 3 to 4 decades had not happened.
Talk was cheap. It was a nostalgic trip, cherry-picking bits here and there to impress the crowd and re-assure them that the nightmare they have been living through has passed and now they are awake again in those times when they were still in love and a gay person was not going to marry and the Festa meant that rivalries could be aired with a good punch up and that’s it.
I cannot begin to imagine what Simon Busuttil, as leader of the party and leader of the Opposition, had to counter-act on a daily basis. His load must have been huge but he had no distractions when it came to his belief that it was the true way and that must have kept driving his spirit and method. The meetings he must have had with people who wanted to support him but tried to cajole him into relenting on bread and butter issues and to be more flexible on opposing the negatives, must have tested his nerves but he maintained his way and soldiered on.
This persistence culminated in the huge mass meeting on the same granaries at Floriana on the last event before going to vote in the June election. But just at that point, those people who had strained to support him, felt a deep sense of abandonment, especially when switchers returned to the fold, whilst they remained in the trenches. It was then that the crack became a rift and those same people, lost hope and courage.
It was good, therefore, with Delia, to see people re-discovering their sense of belonging and identity. But it is unfair and deceptive to soothe them with fairy tales. Tales of the days of Independence and the struggles against Mintoff’s Labour. Or what Eddie Fenech Adami did and how Gonzi changed the economy.
Name dropping and playing with their emotions by saying that members of parliament should be given a free vote on matters of conscience. As though that is going to solve the burning issues we are facing in this regard. Of course, it takes a leader of courage and conviction to take responsibility and state their position on matters that are constantly at our heels these days, like abortion and gender identity. It is important that the debate takes place before the free vote otherwise the party is no more than strangers. Ideally too, a party strives to be like-minded on fundamental matters, which would then render the free vote gratuitous.
Bravado talk about not being afraid to meet up with the Prime Minister is also fuel for bullies and stereo-type behaviour which we have hoped now to be leaving behind us or at least are becoming aware of. Certainly, it does not help the cause where women are concerned, no matter what words were spoken on the same subject, when we emphasise inequality and lend power to a confrontational attitude.
One day we are European minded, the next we are back in the 80s. Yesterday we were for the environment, today we are for the permits. We promote women but act against them. We praise Joseph Muscat’s government for liberal laws and then shudder at losing family values. We want Nationalist but vote Labour. We must fight corruption but we elect grey leaders. We want a new opposition leader but we will not give him a seat in parliament.
In this regard, there are those who made it their cause to bring Delia to power, and in so doing, revealed a duplicity and untrustworthiness which has surely led to them losing a lot of the esteem and support of those who voted for them. Giving up their seat, therefore, would be a more honest thing to do. They will not be letting down people of their constituency but actually be accountable for the real mission they succeeded in - that of electing Delia. Might as well finish the job otherwise, then, that establishment mentality that was so often used in the campaign, is truer now more than ever, in the sense that everyone looks just for their own interest.
Coming together will be very difficult. It is not about the partisanship that took place during the election for leadership. There should be place for everyone but many do not identify with the party anymore. Integrity is lacking and quality is sparse. Independence gave us a new identity but we have become afraid of who we are. The will of the people has often proved right but the soul is scattered.
New directions lie ahead for those who do not even remember the eighties, who were not even born then and whose values and ideals have a common goal of peace and fraternity and are of the time we live in and live through. We wait for that leader to emerge, to synchronise the times with the will of the people who see someone they can trust with their future. Whatever it was that we started is not going to get done this way. And do we want to focus exclusively on it or do we get on with the next job whilst letting the one we started follow the course? Surely, in such a quasi multi-party system, there are many more fronts to open and others to consolidate. This may turn out to be the way forward.