Some time ago it was revealed that secret hate groups that circulate online had Prime Minister, Joseph Muscat and the President of Malta Marie Louise Coleiro Preca as members.  The partisan remarks and targeted fake news were of a deeply disturbing nature.  Whoever was the victim of the groups' comments were quite vilified and all of this was being spread on a secret group, endorsed by Labour party senior members, with or without their knowledge.

Having disassociated themselves from the groups, those Publicly Exposed Persons, who are meant to serve the whole country and not just the majority or minority, tried to appear non-partisan by doing so, without however, discrediting the groups' existence.

Last week, the Prime Minister, his wife Michelle Muscat and a gathering of persons, were videoed partying and chanting slogans of the Labour Party, at Girgenti, which is the official summer palace available to the PM for hosting foreign dignitaries and visitors.  It is to be expected that whoever was present there as a guest was loyal to the Labour Party and would understand that What happens at Girgenti, stays at Girgenti.  But instead, the video went viral and also made a good cameo combined with the rising fish from Xemxija, just as the PM and his wife were jumping up and down.

So far so good.  Or was it?  A leak or a plant?  Originally, sharers of the video felt it was a leak and were keeping their source confidential, only to see that the video was already doing the rounds on Facebook.  Surely it could not be a case of Joseph Muscat having some Adrian Delia envy and wanting his own clip to trend?  Yet, very little if anything at all, that Joseph Muscat does is without strategy. 

The European Parliament elections are coming up and maybe, normally, a Cambridge Analytica set-up would be very helpful in drawing the masses to the message.  A celebratory, victorious occasion is just as effective in declaring "We are going to win and have already won" while flaunting a flagrant partisan, slap in the face, to the losers.

Partisanship has always been a part of Maltese identity but it is only now that, in a sense, it has become so openly commercialized.  Something to cultivate and trade with.  It is after all, converted into votes and votes are power.  In fact, the colours normally associated with a party, were changed, in the case of the Labour Party from red to blue, during the 2013 election.  In 2017 the red was brought back briefly for reinforcement but now it is not about colours but about pictures.  And there you have it, the PM and Mrs Muscat, surrounded by their tribe, giving endorsement and witness to all who live by that creed and take pride in seeing the leader going all out for them. 

In 2009, a Ph.D. student from Stanford University, Sean Westwood who made a study on partisan-ship found that "Social media provides a unique opportunity to publicly declare to the world what your beliefs are and how willing you are to denigrate the opposition and reinforce your own political candidates."

With all our choices, opinions and beliefs out there for data-mining companies to collect and analyse, and if that were not enough, with hacks into government web-sites and other sensitive sources, it is no wonder that we now see extreme behaviour and companies that capitalize this resource and turn on the heat whenever it suits them.

Some of the youth, possibly because they are now so much a part of social media, seem to be less affected by the partisan stance and having spent years at University among students of different views, they appear to have discarded the tribal divide and look more for the kind of politics that is about their interests and what they value, rather than following one party just because their family did.  We see little of them at political meetings and their participation level in politics is quite low compared to the previous generations. 

In the past, marriage between members of opposing political parties was quite rare.  Today, it has become more common.  It is not that the politics goes away but that it is avoided or simply of little interest.

With the voting age having been lowered to 16 years, it is doubtful if the party video would have the right effect on the young voters.  It is said, though, that young voters are not expected to turn up to vote in high numbers. 

And so, the Girgenti team can jump up and down and do their bit, confident that success is theirs.

The risk now is that peoplebelonging to the team have become so entrenched in their beliefs that a loss would create a huge vacuum in their life and that would need to be filled somehow.  How better to fill it than with hate? 

Discrimination has now gone beyond race or gender and has extended to political discrimination.  With no boundaries, legal or ethical, stopping the declarations from going around - on the contrary - they are coming, often, from the very same people who should be above them - we are very likely to have a broken society.  We are no longer one country, but one team and if you are not on that team, then you are fair game to be virtually slaughtered, whatever your views are. 

In his testimony before Congress, Michael Cohen, President Trump's former lawyer accused the GOP (Republican Party) committee members of "blindly" following Trump as he once had and slamming their behavior as "really unbecoming of Congress."

"It's that sort of behaviour that I'm responsible for," he said. "I'm responsible for your silliness because I did the same thing that you're doing now for 10 years. I protected Mr Trump for 10 years."

This kind of partisan behaviour has become endemic, here too in Malta, or especially here, where our size and our past, have leant themselves to nepotism and favouritism.  The pool is easy to reach, if not with associations and through family ties, then with social media and biased television stations and radio. 

The standards have fallen so low that nothing shocks anymore but the almost instant meme going online, with the fish and the protagonists reaching out for them shows that the time has come that we are beginning to see the farcical side of it all and it may very well backfire on the Labour Party.  The fish ain't flying anymore.

Having a President coming from the opposition or having one or two members on a Board, is not going to make any difference here, even if were remotely possible that such a proposal would be endorsed.  Neither is showing sympathy with the government going to bridge the divide.  It only sucks the flattery in and churns it out as more material to flaunt. 

If we are to trust again, true character and confidence are needed in the alternative.  The politics need to propose a longer-term view to preserving (or creating) a quality life and environment, jobs that pay and social justice.  

Alternatively, no Labour? No party.