Yesterday, our leading article spoke of the mediocrity that has become the Eurovision song contest. But today we will look at the fact that everything that happens on these islands is always steeped and mired in parochial politics. Malta’s participation at the Eurovision Song Contest yet again stirred controversy ranging from one extreme to the other. Sadly, this event is being hijacked by partisan politics with staunch party supporters pouncing on every opportunity to take political advantage. In the space of 48 hours, comments on social media, which started off triumphantly on Thursday after Kurt Calleja unexpectedly made it to the final, shifted to catastrophic tones by the early hours of Sunday, after he finished sixth from bottom.

Initially, some narrow-minded party disciples whose political views are remotely-controlled by party strategists at Tal-Pietà interpreted Thursday’s result as a vote of confidence in the PBS board members, which includes CEO Anton Attard whose political impartiality is constantly under fire from the Opposition due to his previous post at Net TV and his involvement in running the PN’s electoral media strategy. It was utterly ridiculous and näive when pictures of the Prime Minister congratulating Kurt Calleja in his office in Castille back in February when he won the Maltasong Festival, started cropping up on Facebook, suggesting that Dr Gonzi was behind the success achieved at that point in Azerbaijan.

This mood of triumphalism made way for one of gloom and doom as soon as the result was out and Malta’s venture in this year’s festival ended in a bitter way, finishing 21st. This triggered an impulsive reaction by some Labour supporters who immediately pounced on the ‘opportunity’ to pay back their rivals, going as far as implying that people should hand in their resignation on the spot, as they had failed in their mission. Such an attitude is highly parochial and puerile and illustrates that political polarisation in this country is still entrenched in our society. While some might be excused for not knowing any better due to their socio-educational background, the reaction of former Labour Secretary General Jason Micallef, who currently heads One TV, was totally out of place. While everyone has a right to his views, Mr Micallef’s immediate reaction was more of a political rant, which ultimately embarrassed his own party, which heaped praise on Kurt Calleja throughout. An official statement from the PL to disassociate itself from Mr Micallef’s remarks would surely have earned the Labour Party kudos all-round, as it would have sent the message that no-one is bigger than the party and there is no room for such short-sighted conclusions.

Apart from this aspect, Malta’s future participation in this event is highly questionable if the Maltese public persist on treating it as ‘the’ international song contest. Experience shows it is more of a festival rather than a contest, with the musical criteria fairly low in the pecking order when it comes to voting. The fact that the UK’s representative for this year, Engelbert Humperdinck, took the wooden spoon, and Russia’s grannies troupe challenged for the runners-up spot, speaks volumes. Though the former’s song was ordinary to say the least, he nevertheless was able to perform as normal artists do in a musical contest, rather than cooking pizza and trying to put some words together while keeping an eye on the oven.

For years this newspaper has been advocating a change in mentality to treat this yearly event just as a festival, and refrain from hyping it up from months before. Admittedly, we have miserably failed our mission, if the political overtones of recent days are anything to go by.