Are you the one at home who throws the too long spaghetti into the too small pot of boiling water? Do you know why, when spaghetti breaks, it doesn't just break in half but into fragments of three or more and creates a mess? Instead of just promoting the selling of shorter spaghetti, leading scientists have apparently been baffled and studied this problem for ages! Now, two physicists from the University of Paris have found the solution, or think they have. It’s because, in the words of The Economist where I found this gem of a story… “each time a bent strand breaks, a series of these waves ripples down the length of the pasta… and the passing waves cause the other strands to bend even further, which trigger further waves causing the strand to fragment.”
Does this remind you of what’s happening on the political scene right now? It’s not just mid term blues or reds. It’s a sense of multiple fragmentations that is creating more fragmentation. The political classes seem engaged in exercises which seem very far removed from the ordinary person’s aspirations; worse, some representatives do not seem to care too much about this fragmentation that is taking place.
I don't think this is the time to ignore these perceptions. It’s nearly the middle of a legislature. Some think people will forget. I think it’s the time to put one's best foot forward, aware that it may never be enough for the PN to win again, but at least to leave a good memory behind. Despite all the obvious work done by the Prime Minister and the fact that he is genuinely liked and rarely criticised, this doesn't seem to be happening.
The country right now is like a china shop. What we definitely don't want or need are any bulls storming around, acting as if the bulls' demands are all that matters. We are not in some terrible recession but things are tight. Every bit of the country or the economy is in a delicate position. Tourism looks fragile. Exports are struggling. “Flus fil-but” (money in the pocket) is in short supply for some. Too many are maintaining a lifestyle by means of credit cards or overdrafts. Money is tight and we all have to be very careful.
We also need to have the goodwill of many on board to be elected, whether we are red or blue. Anyone who alienates someone in Malta usually alienates the few hundred who are related to or associated with that person, and in that context the right approach becomes as important as the actual product you are delivering. Nobody can for example argue with Austin Gatt’s attempts to try and make the large number of State entities in his ministry more efficient and effective.
But is it really necessary to try and gag anyone in the process. Or if you do need to, shouldn't it be done more quietly. It seems extraordinary to me that a minister should want to see all statements made by heads of entities to the media before they are released. Can you imagine if the Prime Minister was that controlling and did the same with his Ministers? Is it really necessary to be so heavy handed? And now it’s all out in the open, doesn't it make very hard working Ministers look plain silly?
Austin Gatt himself joined in the fray between The Times and his assistant when he wrote: “Here lies today the crux of the problem. There is too little sense of belonging, of corporate responsibility, of feeling that one is part of a greater whole.” Whoa!
Has the Minister himself unwittingly put a finger why so many today like the Prime Minister but not the PN? Do we all have to be blindly acquiescent and only let a minister speak? And why on earth let the media know about it? Do we want a country where chairmen or commissioners cannot express their views without checking with their minister first? There are definitely issues of courtesy, and any chairman who has a good relationship with a minister will keep him or her informed, but frankly people don't want to just hear Ministers. And the media clearly needs to have easy access to people other than Ministers too!
What is this current mania in the PN or parts of government to centralise everything? This really smacks of old socialism and people everywhere are commenting about it. Not socialists but diehard Nationalists are grumbling about this mania to control and to over centralise. The PN was part of the decentralisation. What is going wrong? The PN, the government, have many people who should feel confident to talk to the media. People don't want, as Austin seems to think, a government to be a corporate faceless entity or where only one voice can be heard. It creates such a bad impression while our Prime Minister continues to give such a good one. This is a little island of under half a million people not corporate America for heavens sake!
More worryingly right now is that the PN is like a handful of spaghetti about to be thrown into boiling water. When the time comes to vote the fragmentation could be worse than we think. It may be very difficult for Lawrence Gonzi to win another election for the PN simply because it has been there so long, and change is sometimes necessary. But it will be to his credit and he will be remembered if he does put more than a few things right, and continues to behave as he does. But we should remember the government of Gonzi and not the goings on at Gatt's. In the media the latter is in danger of eclipsing the former and that is not good
In 1996 the PN lost because they were perceived to be arrogant as much as anything else. It may be an uphill struggle to turn the economy round. It’s always an uphill struggle to keep votes in Malta. But all those in politics in general and in power particularly need to tone down their arrogance or our perception that they are arrogant. Otherwise the fragmentation will be multiplied far more than is necessary.