The Nationalist Party is making the same mistake it made in 1996. This time, however, it is worse, because it proves that the party has not learnt from the lesson that cost it the election.
Fourteen years ago, the PN was defeated because of the promise Alfred Sant had made to remove Value Added Tax. People celebrating with broken cash registers were a common sight in the streets after that Labour victory, which happens to have been the last one as well.
But the PN lost the election for another important reason: its incessant, irritating and sometimes indecent attacks on Dr Sant, who was facing his first election as Labour leader and was still untested.
The campaign that the PN mounted against Dr Sant, literally to demonise him in the eyes of the people, was terrible, often verging on the personal. Posters portraying Dr Sant as a dark, sinister, ruthless person were only one of the ways that the PN came up with to push people away from Labour. That strategy had the reverse effect, because Dr Sant won the election.
These days, the PN has embarked on a similar exercise with Joseph Muscat. Maybe the tactics are not as aggressive as they were in 1996, but there is still a relentless attempt to destroy the new Labour leader and all that he represents. It started as soon as Dr Muscat was elected PL leader, is continuing to take place now that we are halfway through the parlia-
mentary term, and can only escalate as election day approaches.
As was the case 14 years ago, there have been occasions when this crusade crossed the line between public and personal. This may please those whose TV is stuck on the Net station, but it is certainly not being endorsed by the more open-minded people, those who will ultimately swing the election one way or another.
Nationalist Party statements about Dr Muscat – and the way these are then reported, and repeated ad nauseam, on its media – are written in such a way as to give the impression that the Labour leader is responsible for all the negative things that are happening in Malta. It’s as if the PN wants to hide all the government’s defects – and there are many – by trying to put the blame for them squarely on Dr Muscat’s shoulders.
Recently, there was even a propaganda advert on the PN TV station – remember, this did not exist before the 1996 election, so the attack on Joseph Muscat is proportionately greater than that on Alfred Sant – which more or less compared what the PN had done with what Dr Muscat didn’t do, or doesn’t want to do, or what the PN believes he wants to keep away from the people.
For a moment I thought that it was Dr Muscat who has an office at Castille when, of course, the Nationalists have been in power for 21 of the last 23 years. But then it revived memories that took me back to 1996. The Nationalists are using the same trick they used then, never mind that it led to their defeat. This time, the finale has not been written yet, but the way things are going, the PN will lose for the same reason it lost 14 years ago.
For one thing, the PN has the cheek to try and raise doubts about the connections Dr Muscat and the Labour Party may have or may have had with the Delimara power station extension project, when it is the government’s handling of the situation that is shrouded in deep mystery.
It is the government that has built walls to protect itself and does not want the Public Accounts Committee to investigate further, insisting that a report drawn up by the Auditor-General is enough. It is the government that has to explain how and why so many millions of our money is, and will be, spent.
The way the PN is spinning the whole issue, it seems that it is the Labour Party that is responsible for the project and that it is Joseph Muscat who has to explain his connections and those of his party.
What the PN is trying to do – and not succeeding – is to shift the onus on to Dr Muscat and the PL. Knowing that the PL has scored a great political victory on the whole BWSC saga as it has created a strong perception that something is wrong, the PN is trying – and I repeat, not succeeding – to put Labour in a bad light over the whole affair, when the government’s own answers have not been convincing, in spite of the support of the party and its media.
The latest stunt, perhaps even a shot at outright manipulation, is the way the PN interpreted last Monday’s ruling given by the Broadcasting Authority on an edition of Bondiplus. The real crux of the ruling was practically ignored, and the PN focused on what they construed as an admission that Labour would not lower the water and electricity charges.
Is this the PN’s new defence? That Labour will not touch the energy costs? If this is it, then the PN strategists have completely lost the plot. The argument is so feeble that I could hardly believe what I was hearing, and it screamed of an attempt, once again, to blame everything on Labour.
Perhaps the next thing the PN will say is that it was Labour’s fault that the price of oil has gone up so much. The sad thing is that those whose TV is permanently tuned in to Net will believe it.
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