Only a blinkered fool would deny that the political situation in Malta is dire. Even the most positive cannot escape this negativism. Notwithstanding the opinion polls, notwithstanding the smiling, gung-ho prime minister, despite Robert Abela’s cavalier attitude, the country is at its lowest ebb.
In these circumstances, the last thing anyone remotely sane would imagine possible is the opposition being at a crossroads. Or rather on the brink of collapse and desperately seeking a leader.
But then again this is Malta.
We have no good spoofs on TV and very few on stage to make us laugh. We don’t have too many comedians ripping through our strange ways and showing up our buffoon politicians.
Instead we live through a sad, sick, tragicomedy.
We do things differently here. Totally differently. Weirdly differently.
There’s a Labour Party in power which has been so beleaguered by problems it should be facing extinction. It should be close to losing its grip on power and should definitely be facing the prospect of losing the next election. By huge margins. The party should be facing so much internal strife it should be splintering into nothingness.
The reality, alas, is totally different. The opposite is happening. Labour floats comfortably on while the opposition is comfortably dying its own, slow death.
Out of all these contradictions and sombre realities one little spark is flickering bright.
The opposition party seems close to ousting its leader. Soon it faces a battle for its paid-up members’ (tesserati) votes. To decide who will take over this embattled, old war-horse, sometimes called the PN. Or Partit Nazzjonalista.
I have scant knowledge of Bernard Grech who is one of the contestants for the role of leader of the PN. At first sight he seems like a very grey man. Wearing a suit and tie. Tied to old ideas. Appealing to all that is conservative and illiberal.
Yet the good men and superb women who led the revolt against Adrian Delia have chosen Grech as their champion to challenge the incumbent. If they think he is a good choice he must be fine.
Am I being naive? Am I being totally blind? Is the fact that he is the anointed one by the faction trying hard to revive the PN, enough?
In an ideal world, or even in a more normal land than we live in, Bernard Grech would remain an outsider. A grey man amongst grey men. An unknown, untried politician. A fusty man who, however, can dissect the political scene and keep an argument going without descending into idiocy and spin. In a better Malta, the one fighting to oust Adrian Delia would be a talking head. Nothing more.
These however are extraordinary times.
The PN under Adrian Delia has been taken over by a self-destructive miasma. Delia and his stooges – who thankfully are getting less numerous – have done, and are doing, everything they can to turn the party in opposition into an irrelevance.
The party is on the verge of total meltdown.
As a supposedly major force in Maltese politics, the party should have – pre-Covid – organised massive protests while Joseph Muscat ruled. It never even held one mass meeting.
What party in opposition, vying to oust the most corrupt government in our history, would have had a leader who is himself embroiled in so many problems? How can a party fight corruption when the man leading it is fighting his own corruption charges?
And to add to the extraordinary in this country, which opposition leader would have government spokesmen as some of his staunchest defenders? When Labour sympathisers and henchmen defend Delia, you know the man is essential to Labour rather than the opposition.
In a country not in this horrible position, I would be rooting for a non-grey choice as the new leader of opposition. I’d definitely want someone with some political experience. I’d want – preferably – a very competent woman to lead the party. Men have made a mess so why not change totally? And I’d definitely go for someone who will inspire young people more.
In better days I’d ask for more adventurous ways to choose a new leader of the opposition (Bernard Grech will still have to go through the process of being co-opted to parliament; so actually the vote is technically for PN leader not leader of the opposition).
The country is facing a disaster. Its democracy is at stake. Malta desperately needs a reliable, electable, leader of opposition. A man who can stop the downward slope of this political farce we are living through. A farce that is totally tragic as, notwithstanding all the horrors of the Labour party, they are still on track to win a two-thirds majority in parliament in the next election.
Bernard Grech might not be elected prime minister in the next election. If, however, he can stop the democratic haemorrhage, then he will surely prove to be a great choice. If he can get the PN factions together and forge a new party with a new vision and voice, then this will be an even bigger boon. And a boost to the country.
Amongst the good men and women in the PN there surely are more colourful ones than Bernard Grech. They probably would not have managed to unite the party behind them. This is the way of politics.
If he does win the leadership, Bernard Grech must surround himself not with stooges, yes-men and women, but with people who talk sense and talk bluntly. That is where the talent of the PN parliamentary group will play its role. As party leader Grech has to reach out to people who ended up feeling they cannot contribute to a party with no values.
The party needs to build afresh, turn to the youth and give them not just more voice, but leadership tasks for the future the party and Malta deserve.
Let Bernard Grech be the catalyst for change. Let greyness be the most important colour in the spectrum.
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