“The Opposition is irresponsible in turning this matter into

a political point-scoring exercise as it will only derail the

attempt at solving it. It is disingenuous in making it the

government’s problem when it is as well placed as the

government is to find out what the dust is and where it is

coming from. The government deals with political problems.

Science is something else”

I cannot believe that they are still banging on about black dust in Fgura and turning it into a political problem when the cause, the diagnosis and the solution lie in science and not in political rhetoric.

Joseph Muscat, who is still learning how to shave, borrowed a word from his mentor Alfred Sant’s lexicon of political rhetoric and told us that Labour will sit on Parliament’s Black Dust Committee under protest and will not serve as a “paraventu” (screen) for any delaying tactics by the government.

His confusion about the constitutional roles of the government, the Opposition and Parliament is evident. A parliamentary committee is a parliamentary committee; it is not run by the government. The Opposition must play an active role in a parliamentary committee. It doesn’t do so as a favour to gOnZIpn.

It is the Opposition that is delaying the process of finding out the cause of the problem, which is the first step towards solving it. It is turning the Black Dust Mystery into a political battleground and speaks as though the Prime Minister knows where it is coming from but has a vested interest in concealing this information and in using delaying tactics so that mysterious others can continue spewing black dust over Fgura for as long as possible before they are found out.

The Opposition is irresponsible in turning this matter into a political point-scoring exercise as it will only derail the attempt at solving it. It is disingenuous in making it the government’s problem when it is as well placed as the government is to find out what the dust is and where it is coming from. The government deals with political problems. Science is something else.

The stage was set by Astrid Vella, who has been remarkably quiet of late, for this to become a political feuding-ground when she appeared on One TV talk shows discussing this black dust as though it were some kind of Saddam-Hussein-type biological weapon used by the government against the Labour electorate of Fgura. For a moment there, she sounded just like Inspector Gadget and I’m surprised, quite frankly, that Muscat hasn’t called him in to solve the mystery.

I happen to think that a parliamentary committee to solve a problem of black dust in the Fgura environment is nonsense, because this is not a matter for politicians but for scientists and forensic analysts – but once it has been set up, both parties should cooperate instead of trying to score points.

I would find Joseph Muscat’s commitment to the case a great deal more credible if, instead of waving samples of black dust around in jars at press conferences in the street, as he did yesterday, he were to send those samples for analysis to three different laboratories in Malta and the United Kingdom. That is a whole lot more effective than standing on a street corner whining at the cameras that the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has not done any proper analysis (because gOnZIpn has sabotaged the process). If the Labour Party cannot afford to pay for sample analysis, then it might yet be able to come up with some creative fundraising tactics, like encouraging the people of Fgura to send a text message to a rip-off number.

Political rhetoric is all well and good, but it has to be rooted in intelligence and logic. True, unthinking and uneducated electors will be with us always. But Muscat has to bear in mind that there are other people around who cannot bear listening to half-baked arguments and inanities. I am beginning to worry that Muscat, unlike Sant and Mintoff who lowered their game deliberately so as to speak their audience’s language, is not lowering his game and this really is the way he thinks. He is mittilkless, like his audience, and he isn’t capable of any greater thought or vision. Mintoff and Sant had a plan. It was a disastrous plan, but at least they had one. Muscat, like the mittilkless who listen to him, has only a vague set of unfocussed irritations and gripes. He’s the sort of person who sits around with a glass of wine and complains that it’s time for change. But here’s the catch: He is the change.

What, exactly, does Joseph Muscat mean when he says that the Prime Minister’s stance on the Fgura black dust is “shocking” because the problem is felt “by parents and children”? Do parents and children now have privileged status as human beings? Do they have better abilities to spot black dust than, say, those who are childless or pensioners?

This is the kind of rhetoric I just can’t stand. It is the sort used by American politicians to address white-trash audiences with emotive language, because where thinking skills are absent, burgeoning emotions fill the vacuum. Muscat’s mittilkless electorate has a great deal in common with American redneck culture, but really, there are limits. These islands are tiny and he shouldn’t forget that his words are heard by the rest of us – yes, even by those who are not children and who don’t have any.

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