Politics is a mission, but more importantly, it is an art. Maltese society, like any other society, is a collection of sub-cultures, of homogenous groups, of orientation clusters, and of factions that identify themselves in specific preferences.
The PN has always sought to foster dialogue with the various interest groups within the Maltese society and has excelled in ‘brokering’ solutions where the different interest groups were uncomfortably happy but could move forward and live together. That is the art of politics.
Joseph Muscat is not a politician, he is a salesman and an expert in marketing strategy. For him, and for his advisers, a situation of uncomfortable happiness is an opportunity to exploit to his advantage. And so he did, clinically and at a capillary level, brokering one-toone deals and promising the entire ‘cake’ to who had to make do with ‘a piece of the cake’.
Prior to joining the EU, the PN ‘brokered’ an equilibrium between those that were in favour of hunting and those that were against hunting. Malta negotiated a derogation for the ban on spring hunting and subsequently fought a court case in order to protect the derogation it had negotiated. However, the PN had also implemented very strong preventive and monitoring measures wherein hunters could only hunt in spring in the ambit of punitive restrictions. Bird lovers were uncomfortable, and hunters were also uncomfortable with the monitoring and the restrictions, but life went on and society in general was uncomfortably happy with the compromise. The master salesman smelled the blood, and went for the kill. It is blatantly obvious that hunters were promised that with Joseph Muscat as their Prime Minister, monitoring and the restrictions would go, and this secured their vote. Of course, this pre-election promise was not transparent and so the vote of the bird lovers was not lost. However, the balance was lost, and those that lost their half of the cake reacted accordingly.
The result is that bird lovers and hunters, and the rest of society, will be voting to abolish or retain spring hunting. From a situation of balance, we will have a situation of ‘winner takes it all’, and the loser will have nobody but Joseph Muscat to thank. One group will move from an uncomfortable happiness to perennial heightened unhappiness. This will scar our society, but for Joseph Muscat this is collateral damage. His objective was securing the votes, becoming Prime Minister, the Labour Party gaining control of government and colonising every decision-making organ within the Maltese society with people who hold him (not even Labour) as their first consideration when taking decisions. Their decisions, in turn, effect society in general. Losing balance, replacing the art of politics with marketing strategy and exploiting interest groups has very long lasting consequences.
If our society had to endure one scar, it would be one thing, but I am afraid that we will witness a lot more loss of balance. Juxtapose the above to what is happening to the hawkers. What they have been promised is wrong, it cannot happen for the common good, and they must realise that if they insist for the ‘winner takes it all’ solution that they were promised, the rest of society will react as the bird lovers did and they will risk losing the part of the cake they had.
Because the new PN is positive and transparent, I am publicly inviting the hawkers to come forward to discuss a solution in the interest of everyone. Let us strive for balance together, and let us foster a culture whereby a ‘winner takes it all’ solution is never acceptable within our society. This is the way forward, now, we don’t need to wait for the next general elections to try haggle a bigger slice of the cake at the detriment of someone else at the table.
What has been happening since March 2013 should be an eye opener for everyone, gays, lesbians, hunters, hawkers, hotel owners, building contractors, land owners, etc. At the end of the day, we are all pawns on Joseph Muscat’s chess board, we are all dispensable in his quest for checkmate.