To strike a positive note, if there was one thing in common this weekend between the PL, AD and a lonely voice in the GonziPN team, who has been long making a pitch for the pale blue vote, it has been a clear plea for sanity.

A genuine appeal – even if coming from three contrasting circles – for the voice of reason to prevail.

There have been instances when I myself have been harshly critical towards those who I felt had shown a strong political bias unworthy of their role,  but never have I bothered to attack people personally especially on health criteria or else as far as their private lives are concerned.

Having a number of friends with different political views, we have always continued to respect each other on a personal level, even finding time occasionally to pass a couple of sarcastic – but well meaning – digs at each other’s side, laced with wryness more than anything else.

If there is anybody who stands to blame for this prevalent eerie political climate it is none other than the GonziPN machine itself.

In spite of the promises of a new way of doing politics, since Gonzi assumed the leadership of his party not only did his strident attacks on the PL intensify, but he often allowed base and below the belt personal attacks on the Opposition as well as on dissenting elements within his own party to go unchecked, under the flimsy pretext that he did not believe in gagging people. Even when the ‘people’ concerned happened to be his own fellow travelers, some of whom even include those who actually contributed directly to the drawing up of the PN manifesto. Particularly certain people in the legal profession who have never had a kind word for the PL and anyone who broke ranks with the PN itself.

Another big disappointment was Simon Busuttil whose considerable experience in EP and other related European fora was expected to lend a new dimension to the PN’s way of doing politics.

On the contrary, being the political creation of the GonziPN machine as he happened to be, and also being the chief architect of their past and present election manifesto, he seems to have been left with hardly any option other to allow himself to be sucked into the vortex of playing along and fuelling even further the negativity campaign that had been festering within his own party ranks for months on end.

Discordant as some of his public statements might be, their political acidity jarred even more since it was patently obvious that such a political style and approach does not come easy to him and is not normal for a politician who usually tries to fit into a more moderate role.

Last weekend I had the experience of meeting a senior executive with a leading company who jokingly told me that so long as he was active within the PN he always felt that I belonged to the wrong party. This is not the first time that I heard such views aired publicly. And to be honest there was none of the ‘wicc ta’ nazzjonalista’ (face of a nationalist) sarcasm in his words, with which Simon Busuttil had approached Deborah Schembri on TV in a recent debate.

He told me that in his opinion I might have seemed to belong to the wrong party, but as of now he felt that he himself belonged to the right party since as from the next elections he would be voting PL and he did not expect anything in return.

I guess that this is what is worrying GonziPN most.

Otherwise how could one explain the personal attacks on all those who chose of their own free will to endorse the PL publicly without any fear or trepidation?

How could one also justify the excesses with which the GonziPN machine and their acolytes chose to take it out on all tertiary education students for not giving GonziPN the rousing welcome they expected almost by right.

As a former Nationalist told me only two days ago, GonziPN are driving themselves into the wall, by adopting the same negativity that the PL had on certain occasions adopted with little impact or positive effect in the past.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, GonziPN tended to opt for formulae that have already proved to be not only ineffective but also counter productive.

The ultimate was no doubt the manner in which some even played on the health problems that former Radio 101 anchorman Kevin Drake might be trying to cope with.

Some might argue that it is the two party-system that is facing a crisis of legitimacy, but I personally think that the PN under both Borg Olivier and Fenech Adami was a different breed even if I disagreed with Fenech Adami on various key issues and approaches.

As things have developed this past week or so and as I predict that they will in the coming days, it seems that particularly GonziPN have both by design and by default chosen to wave goodbye to anything that has to do with the party vision, the party electoral programme, the party policies and even the projection of the party leader himself.

Everything has suddenly become expendable so long as they could hit hard, below the belt and go for the jugular.

They seem to have a divine right that is so dangerous that as a result of it they claim to have every right to rubbish anyone, but the moment such people try to put up their own defenses they end up being accused of being either too aggressive, too antagonistic or even too hostile towards them.

Thank God that within nine days or so the campaign will be drawing to an end.

This was indeed a tiring campaign where the only ray of hope and spark of promise was the positivity that the PL showed as from Day One.

Platitudes as of now will not count one bit.

Using the same yardstick that GonziPN had set himself he and his acolytes and fellow travelers will be solely judged by their statements, positions and actions between now and election days.

The same goes for all those who seem to have shed their aura of independence and have decided to join the fray to try and steer GonziPN away from a possible but not yet certain humiliation electoral defeat. I agree with whoever recently said that politicians need to lead by example as they need to be inspirational.

Those who are solely interested in debasing others automatically exclude themselves from such a category.

This applies to all types of politicians be they seasoned, in office, new or even untried and untested ones.

For better days for the Maltese electorate…in more ways than one!

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