In all the reams of articles in print, discussion programmes and fiercely debated arguments online, it is easy to assume that everyone is as caught up in the ‘hot topic of the week’ as we journalists are.
Once in a while, however, you are brought back to earth with a bang when you meet people who are completely (and deliberately) detached from it all.
“Don’t you realise we are all just puppets and the politicians are pulling our strings?” an acquaintance pointed out to me this week as I was going on and on about the divorce referendum. The look on his face was almost one of pity. “This divorce issue is just another way to alienate us from the real problems the country is facing, and you people in the media simply feed into it.”
I had to grudgingly admit that there was some truth in this. A controversial topic sweeps across this nation quite easily and we often spend weeks hotly contesting all the ins and outs and examining and dissecting it in excruciating detail. The Piano open air theatre, the salary increase of our parliamentarians, who is allowed to receive Holy Communion – one minute it’s what “everyone” is talking about and the next it is a dead duck as another topic nudges it off the front page.
Members of the press and the media play their part because frankly, we have to write about something (and in the case of TV and radio producers they have to find a topic to discuss), so we try to feel the pulse of the country and analyse it accordingly. And yes, through our opinionated opinions we too, steer the direction of public debate in our own little way.
It is also true, however, that public opinion is fickle and unpredictable and chooses its own direction. I often have to adjust my own perception and remember that I am reacting to just a fragmented slice of that public – the slice which bothers to keep abreast of current issues. It is when I have conversations such as the one above that I keep being reminded that there is a considerable chunk of the population out there which has simply stopped caring about these “issues”, because they are more concerned with what is happening in their own lives. The divorce referendum will come and go and divorce legislation may or may not be introduced, and for a lot of people it won’t make one bit of difference because it does not affect what really matters – their quality of life.
Unfeeling and heartless as it may sound, the Tunis and Egypt revolutions don’t even register on their consciousness because they have their own problems to think about.
The switching off of so many people is bad news for our politicians because it means that they have taken a good close look at what both big parties have to offer, and have turned their back on them in disgust. While politicians try to alienate them with the occasional controversy to paper over their own flaws and failings, many voters are now choosing to alienate themselves from local politics. If things continue as they are, with the PN entrenched in its mission to hold on to power while neglecting the country and Labour still not convincing enough people that they can do any better, it looks like the number of voters staying at home and tearing up their vote is going to be even larger than last time.
It is indicative of just how disillusioned people are by the political class that even the presence of AD as a third party is not giving them any hope. You would think that by now AD would have attracted those who have lost faith in the Nationalists and in Labour, and who yearn for a party that has been consistent and clear in its stands from the very beginning. But the fear of the other party getting elected by default with a vote for AD continues to loom large in their consciousness. Not voting, of course, amounts to the same thing, but the voter who does not vote wants to make a clear, unequivocal statement through this silent protest.
It is the Maltese voter’s own mini revolution; this is the voter who refuses to continue to play the political power games that have stalled the progress of this country for so long. Although this will mean that the seat of government will end up in the laps of a party this voter really does not like, he vehemently objects to being put into a corner through outdated scaremongering and be made to vote for the ‘the lesser evil’. In a situation where he has already felt powerless for so long anyway in the face of untrustworthy politicians, he will at least have the small kernel of satisfaction that he did not help to put them there.
All aboard
The appointments to a number of theatre-related boards were announced on Friday, and just as my colleague Noel Grima predicted earlier this week, the choice of names is very interesting. Some of them make a lot of sense because the people are experienced in the field; others are, shall we say, a bit more curious.
Or perhaps I’m reading too much into all of this. So, here are the names. You decide.
Board to administer Piano’s open air theatre: Chairperson: Anton Attard Members: Albert Marshall, Brigitte Gauci Borda, Gillian Zammit, Paul Portelli.
Manoel Theatre
Chairperson: Dr Michael Grech, Members: Kenneth Zammit Tabona, Wilfred Kenely, Karen Miller, Charlotte Stafrace.
Mediterranean Conference Centre
Chairperson: Dr Peter Fenech, Members: Rosette Fenech, Dr Ingrid Azzopardi, Dr Tonio Ellul, Felix Busuttil.
National Philharmonic Orchestra
Chairperson: Dr James Scerri Worley, Members: Franco Valletta, Jacqueline Camilleri, Dr Joseph Camilleri, Sarah Spiteri, Dr Maria Frendo, Cynthia Caruana Turner
St James Cavalier – Centre for Creativity
Chairperson: Michael Fenech, Members: Dr Gege Gatt, Vince Briffa, Immanuel Mifsud, Hazel Sultana, Corinne Vella
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