The decision taken by Marisa Micallef (Leyson) to throw her lot in with the Labour Party would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago.

The minute the news broke, everyone was googling her articles to throw back in her face everything she used to write against Labour, and rightly so: to the man-in-the-street it was difficult to reconcile this sudden volte face. (Columnists, meanwhile, were throwing her imaginary kisses – newsworthy events have all but shrivelled up lately and here was a goldmine).

But times change, people change and, from the look of it, even the previously set-in-stone mindset of the Labour Party can change.

Can you imagine Dom Mintoff or Alfred Sant offering such a post to someone who has consistently criticised them and the PL? They would have rather shot arsenic directly into their veins.

What hasn’t changed is the mentality of those who feel that a Nationalist supporter who starts warming up to Labour is, effectively, “slumming it”, or else is seeking spiteful revenge.

A Labour supporter who starts to vote PN, however, is considered to have come up in the world.

When Eileen Montesin turned her back on Labour during the referendum debates and became Eddie’s Number One Fan, it was a signal to Nationalist supporters that Eileen had finally seen the light and become “one of us” (well, not really, of course, but we’ll let her think so). To the incredulity of all those who remembered her from 1980s television and double entendre comedy at the Catholic Institute, there she was in suburban housewife mode taht it-tinda, gushing at her former nemesis.

For the PN, what Eileen represented was not simply that a hardcore Laburista had ventured into blue territory. This was bigger than that. It meant that if someone like Eileen, the epitome of Labour, could find it in her heart to turn her back on her working class roots and everything she used to believe in and (gasp) vote PN, then what was to stop others from following suit? Nothing, apparently, as we know from the results of the referendum and the ensuing general election in 2003. Eileen might not have been recruited as an advisor as Marisa Micallef has been, but her PR clout was just as considerable – if not more so.

I clearly remember the shockwaves in both Nationalist and Labour camps when Eileen changed sides. I also remember the angry phone-ins on Super One radio as people described her as the ultimate opportunist, wondering cynically what she stood to gain from this move.

It was similar to the time when former Labour Minister Joe Grima started presenting a programme on (God help us) Net TV. The veteran employees at PN headquarters almost had coronaries when they saw him striding in through the door, while Labour people bashed him for betraying his party.

So you see, what some are describing as Marisa’s “defection” (I have visions of her dressed as a glamorous Russian spy wearing a trench coat and a trilby) has happened before. It’s just that the Nationalists are not used to it happening to them.

Others before her have also “crossed over”, to borrow another phrase (what, like John Edwards does?). I know quite a few former Labour supporters who brag that they now vote Nationalist – but this is it you see. A Labour voter has been brainwashed by decades of political propaganda to think that switching to PN makes them somehow “better”. It’s the social class bugbear all over again – something that never ceases to exasperate me in this country. I look around at these people who presume themselves to be superior on the basis of some imaginary aristocratic lineage and I really have to laugh at how pathetic they are.

Still, that does not mean the Labour party has overcome its huge credibility problem. Have you ever heard anyone brag that they now vote for Labour? No, they almost whisper it, or say it defiantly as if they dare you to ridicule them. This is Muscat’s biggest hurdle, and he knows it, and this is what giving Marisa this post represents.

Opportunity knocks

Why are people so indignant that Marisa Micallef (supposedly) went knocking on doors asking for a job from this government? You’d have to be the biggest hypocrite in the world to express shock horror at this, not when it’s a well-known secret that most top jobs are doled out like party favours.

Please, let’s not get all high and mighty about something we all know to be true. If you are well connected to this administration and have friends in high places, then yes, most probably you will secure a juicy position for yourself. Alfred Sant will be remembered for many things, not all of them positive, but one of them will surely be for coining the succinct phrase hbieb tal-hbieb (friends of friends). He was perfectly right.

You know it, I know it and every single person, who is true to himself, knows it too. Whether you want to call it clientalism, patronage or having “a saint” (qaddis), we are all fully aware that this is how this country has always worked in the past, continues to work today and will probably continue to work long after we’ve all kicked the bucket. Nationalist governments have deliberately encouraged this behaviour, as did Labour governments before them. As long as everyone is getting something out of it (or are under the impression that they will get something) then that is the way it will remain. Are we so quick to forget how many people gnashed their teeth and pulled their hair just after the election last year because they were “hurt” at not getting what they had been promised?

This is the trait of small communities everywhere, especially small nation states. We try to pull strings and network even for the flimsiest of reasons, from jumping the queue at Mater Dei to wangling free VIP tickets for a Michael Bolton concert. To add to the mix there is the suspicion, shrewdness and conniving nature inherent in a Mediterranean culture.

I often think I must be descended from some other tribe along the way because I seem to be missing that

cunning gene, which would have stood me in good stead on several occasions in my life. But there you are.

What I don’t regret is not having the “my principles come attached with a price tag” gene. No thanks, you can keep the money. When others “sell out” however, I just shrug.

These things used to shock me much more, but age and experience have eroded my idealism. So, I guess I’m not surprised anymore that so many people are willing to exchange their beliefs and their votes if the price is right.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Marisa Micallef was expecting the political party she worked for to “give” her a post. It wouldn’t even surprise me if, after she was left high and dry, she approached Muscat or Muscat approached her, whichever version you prefer to believe.

What does surprise me is why

people are acting all holier than thou about it.

I guess my descent into complete cynicism about Maltese politics is now complete.

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