There is something very odd going on in the usually tedious routine of local council affairs, particularly those with Nationalist majorities where the honey seems to be sweeter and the bees certainly much more adventurous.
Over the past few weeks we have been incredulously watching the ruling party’s secretary playing a form of ten-pin bowling with mayors, deputy mayors and councillors, who are seemingly expected to follow his every directive, irrespective of what their locality may really need or not need at this moment in time.
The long and winding Sliema local council saga, for example, has left this ailing old town with so much unfinished business that unless the whole affair is brought to an abrupt end soon, things will become impossible for whoever finally takes over the hot seat, of course Nikki Dimech et al permitting.
So many Nationalist mayors at present feel like bowling pins, idly standing there and secretly hoping that the PBO (Paul Borg Olivier) ball does not hit them or, if it does, that it does not cause the pain and disruption that has been inflicted on fellow pins – mayors, vice-mayors and councillors – all over the Maltese Islands.
When local council elections were first introduced there were many of us who insisted – and some rightly continue to insist – they should not be based on petty party politics, but more on local issues among local contenders. It was obvious that with full political participation, every local council election, including those that followed the whimsical decision to rope in the so-called hamlets, would eventually become a “national” battle of sorts, with party machines and party henchmen taking an active part.
It is exactly why so many well-meaning and relevant members of village and town societies have, ever since, repeatedly chosen not to offer themselves for election, fearing they would end up feeling the brunt of the big-party guns in search of personal glory and an opportunity to either raise grass root morale or cause the other side’s to plummet.
The current ten-pin bowling tactics being adopted by the Nationalist Party shows there is every justification for a national re-think on local council politics. There are mayors, vice-mayors and councillors genuinely concerned that they could be the next victims of these very same tactics being carried out under the false impression that someone is trying to clean up things when, in truth, he is actually overwhelmed by a huge wave of suspicion with regard to corruption and sleaze at the highest level, indeed way, way above the parochial fringes of local villages and towns.
According to Wikipedia, bowling is an aerobic type of physical exercise, similar to walking with free weights. The only evident aerobics we have seen thus far in the present series, however, are those of mayors, vice-mayors and councillors going to Nationalist Party headquarters to submit their resignations. They are fallen bowling pins hoping to regain some pride, if not a strange kind of loyalty.
Bowling also helps in burning calories and works muscle groups not usually exercised. Well, burning calories do not equate so well with fat cats, but there are muscles in the mind that are being seriously exercised with the sole aim of salvaging an image that has been tarnished from all angles, facets and sides.
The flexing and stretching in bowling work tendons, joints, ligaments, and muscles in the arms and promote weight loss. Not if they have gone rotten with over-use and misuse. The only apparent weight loss is in the overall number of pro-ruling party mayors, vice-mayors and councillors, while many others seem to be rightly dreading the next throw of the ball.
Apart from its physical benefits, bowling also has psychosocial benefits, strengthening friendships or creating new ones in groups. Now, in the context of our analogy, this can hardly be any further from the truth. There are no sychosocial benefits to be had here other than the veracity of local councils sinking in disarray and local communities gasping in disbelief.
As for strengthening friendships and creating new ones, there is every possibility that rather than friendships, PBO’s bowling has been strengthening and creating new alliances, as we have seen happening in Sliema and, in a rather embarrassing domestic mode, San Gwann and Zebbug, Gozo, where the scene has been further embellished by father-son and father-daughter situations.
Such disquieting developments inevitably undermine the public’s trust in their local leaders. People have seen enough sleaze and corruption at national level. To now witness the same grab-while-it-lasts mentality at local level is an obvious affront to their belief in clean politics at all levels and at all times. The general perception today is, alas, that people who go into politics do so solely for their own personal benefit.
When that happens to politics and politicians, the real victims are the majority of honest, hard-working men and women whose regular payment of taxes keeps the wheels of the nation turning, not exactly smoothly, but turning anyway.
That people have long lost faith in national politicians in power is a sad reality that can only be corrected when a real change occurs, a change that puts politics back into focus, i.e. concentrating on the well-being of citizens before anything and anyone else, including parties and party men.
That people should also lose faith in local politicians simply unveils the bitter truth that we have, after all, lost the plot. The PR script may be good, but it is absolutely useless in the present scenario. The solution is to stop playing games, panicky bowling in particular – because that’s not cricket.