A neutral observer of the Maltese political scene is so often left perplexed by the contradictions, the ironies and the pastiche that he or she is bound to give up with a smile and a shrug. A constant case in point for a study of this mission impossible is the Prime Minister with his inexplicable standpoints, frequent U-turns and non-stop juxtapositions.
With a general election only a year or so away, unless triggered earlier by the current political crisis, the mud and muck routine is bound to make a return to the Maltese political scenario as one could so clearly see from the Prime Minister’s speech in Gozo last weekend. When political ammunition runs low, inevitably, the rusty artillery of fear and abuse is always wheeled into action.
At a time when so many people from all walks of life and with declared moderate views in politics are rushing to Labour’s side thanks to Joseph Muscat and his belief that the country needs, at this moment in time, a national coalition of progressives and moderates, Lawrence Gonzi comes out saying that the Opposition has been taken over by “extremists”! The neutral observer would have reacted with sudden amusement, though one has to agree that the first requirement of a politician, let alone statesman, is that he be dull. This is not always easy to achieve, but Gonzi is making an art of it.
What is even more remarkable is the grand old display of throwing the mud and raking the muck, like when he spoke about the so-called extremists insisting the Labour Opposition limited the recent no confidence motion debate to just three hours. However, while his Gozitan representatives to his right and left showered him with colourful praises and gentle reassurances, Gonzi did not elaborate. Otherwise, he would have had to say that that same Opposition of “extremists” had readily agreed with him to extend the debate to 12 hours of which the government side had taken the juicy slice of nine-a-half hours. Incredible, of course, and likely to further titillate the neutrals’ sense of being.
In Gozo, Gonzi also accused Muscat of being responsible for the instability and uncertainty in the country. First of all, according to the Prime Minister and his troupe of prima ballerinas in the Cabinet and the controlled media, there is no instability. Secondly, was it Muscat who for the umpteenth time has chosen to pull the carpet from under the government’s feet, or a government MP who goes by the name of Franco Debono? To interpret dissidence within one’s own party as some dark tactic by the Opposition is not only nonsensical but also politically dishonest. Like a bored circus acrobat, Gonzi continues to keep his balance by saying exactly the opposite of what he does.
Gonzi told the Gozitans, at least those who managed to find their way through the chaotic roadworks that, ironically, form an integral part of the vote-catching/saving exercise already under way, this is the worst time to hold an election. Of course it is the neutral observer heard screaming back, what with the ruling party in disarray and in dire need of a bit more time in the hope of bridging the gaps and patching the holes within?
In this way, the Prime Minister has no doubt continued to vindicate the old adage that politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
The mud and muck routine persisted on the sister island with more spent ammunition when Gonzi claimed a Labour government cannot guarantee the stipend system to university students “as the future finance minister has said they are unsustainable and likened them to shipyard subsidies.” Future finance minister? Is the Prime Minister saying defeat is already looking him in the eye?
As if that misinterpretation of an old and long forgotten comment – by someone who is certainly not an extremist but a respected moderate who has freely joined the Labour ticket – was not enough, Gonzi said that Muscat cannot reduce the water and electricity tariffs “as he has no control over the price of oil”. His mesmerised audience was not told, however, how much and what percentage of those tariffs are going straight into government coffers to make up for the astronomical debts incurred by EneMalta over the past 25 years spent mostly under the same ruling party.
Since so many think a politician never believes what he says, Gonzi must have been surprised the Gozitans and the sizeable contingent of Maltese brethren who made the trip, seemed to believe what he was saying. But then, the Prime Minister and his re-assumed advisers know that a government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
The neutral observer has also been shocked by the spiteful and virulent campaign launched against the dissident government MPs that have, during the past four years, spoken their minds on various issues that they considered needed to be addressed by the Gonzi administration. That the government has a one-seat majority of course made their act all the more incisive, with Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando receiving most of the vitriolic.
No doubt irked at having to listen to criticism from within echoing what the Labour Opposition has been saying for years now, we have seen one government MP after the other shoving mud and muck ammunition into their cannons as they attacked first the dissenters, and then, in a quick but orderly shift, the Opposition, as if they had some hidden fear, possibly a Freudian sense of foreboding.
On such one occasion, Franco Debono’s timely retort to this concerted bombardment of insults reminded me of a famous Winston Churchill anecdote. At that stage in his political career when Churchill switched over from the Conservative to the Liberal side of the House of Representatives, many of his erstwhile adherents were sorely offended. A snippish young lady once said to him playfully: “There are two things I don’t like about you, Mr Churchill.”
“Yes?” he inquired.
“Your new politics and your moustache.”
“My dear madam,” replied Churchill coldly, “you are not likely to come into much contact with either.”
Local and overseas neutral observers must not give up now. The story will continue to unfold dramatically, albeit whimsically. There is still so much to come. Confirmation of Comrade Leader Gonzi is one of the enticing prospects. Then there is the mooted rehabilitation of Franco & Co. And the desperate search for lost sheep, the disappointed, the disgruntled and the greedy, all amassed into one conscripted army of electoral convenience. It could be fun if it were not such a tragedy.