To summarise the recent contest for the deputy leadership of the ruling Nationalist Party, it was, really, a blatant case of “heads I win, tails you lose”. Party activists who were given the impression they were taking part in some historic ballot cannot have been hoodwinked so easily.
They knew, no doubt, that whoever they chose, it was still obvious that the Gonzi circus would continue to rule the roost and the whole sham business was an exercise in creating a new marketing ruse that would help transmit – to the growing mass of disgruntled Nationalist supporters – the false idea of change within the party system that, in truth, has always been detached from its grassroots. In the Nationalist Party it has traditionally always been accepted that what the innermost circle, made up of a chain of family connections and time-honoured commercial interests, decides has to be followed, a reality which goes totally against the trend within the concept of most modern political parties in the Western world.
When the contest was reduced to a Busuttil-Fenech tie, after early fears of a one-horse race, it was obvious to one and all that, whoever was to win, the only real outcome would be a more-of-the-same approach peppered by the contradictory babbling of a new face to somehow make it more agreeable to those most baffled and confused within the party rank-and-file. On offer was nothing more than the distant mirage of a beckoning oasis in the current desert state of the party.
Even the freshest student of political theory could tell there was hardly a choice between Simon Busuttil and Tonio Fenech. Since the 2008 election both have been loudly supporting and sustaining the Gonzi line in everything that has come up for discussion, from the divorce issue and a suspicious heavy-fuel-run power-station contract to the Cabinet’s horrendous auto financial boost and the public transport fiasco, and both cannot be in any way seen to be willing to change it as that would in effect be no less than yet another condemnation of the hapless administration that, in just five years, has brought both the nation and the party to their knees.
Busuttil or Fenech, the message was sent and understood to be a clear signal for the continuation of things as they stand. This was very much in the same confounding spirit that had prevailed when the Gonzi bandwagon took over from the Fenech Adami dominium. A mere semblance of change, a not-so-subtle way of keeping things as they were by tossing the coin and, heads or tails, always making sure the status quo remained undisturbed.
Why the Nationalists should be so keen, this late in the day, to throw in a new face in the poker game of Maltese politics is no Einstein formula. They know the GonziPN vehicle has lost its wheels. It started on the wrong footing, at the polls, with a relative majority translated into the dubious privilege of just one parliamentary seat, and then started losing bits and pieces by the wayside as it faced an ongoing wave of internal strife, the likes of which had never been seen before. The PN machine had somehow come a cropper and every attempt that was made to restart it only made the situation more complicated.
Even worse, the decision to ignore the writing on the wall and, in so doing, to abuse the whole democratic process has certainly not helped matters. Rather than accepting the fact that the time had come for a reality check and a much-needed, Media-recommended early resort to the electorate, the GonziPN administration has preferred to prolong its stay in power, by fair means or foul, in the hope of scoring a last-minute consolation goal. Throwing in either Busuttil or Fenech as some “super sub” was a tactic the opposing side, united and undoubtedly holding the upper hand on the field of play, could only find highly predictable and a trifle amusing.
What Malta needs at this moment in time is not a slot-machine or video poker machine change that is always promising a bumper bonus, the elusive jackpot, but a cultural change in the way we do politics. On inheriting the leadership from Eddie Fenech Adami, who had crowned himself President in a piece of sudden Napoleonic wisdom, Lawrence Gonzi had loudly indicated he was for this change, and people honestly sighed a sigh of relief, only to be soon brought back down to earth with a mighty crash. Not only did not Gonzi offer a new way, but also he let himself be pushed into a corner from which he could offer no reasonable resistance to the so-called oligarchy running the show for him from behind the scenes.
The tribal attitude to politics on the part of the governing Nationalist Party has never been stronger than it is today, alas. In fact, it is so strong that it has multiplied divisions not only within the country as a whole, but also within the party itself. As a result, well-meaning people of every political persuasion continue to hunger for a change to this attitude, a change that would hopefully rehabilitate the political class with the ever more despondent elements of the Maltese electorate, not least amongst them those many genuine Nationalist supporters who can no longer recognise the party they once loved and defended.
In contrast, the Labour Party has, over its many years in opposition, successfully transformed itself into a strong national movement seeking to bring in this change. Never, in the history of modern Maltese politics, have so many Nationalists, let alone the every growing army of floating voters, openly opted to switch political allegiance, even if it is eventually proven to be temporary. Each and every one of us can come up with a list of them from within our own family and circle of friends. This has of course happened because they were promised change and, well, they never got it.
They now detect that change in Joseph Muscat’s rejuvenated Labour Party and any injury-time substitutions cannot make them have second thoughts, especially if the “new” player on the field has nothing to offer except yesteryear’s moves as part of an obsolete playing formation.