These past few days, during and after the PN Independence Day celebrations, I have been struck by what I can only call the follies of party leader Simon Busuttil.
The first folly, so to speak, was getting the idea to focus all PN activities outside Parliament.
With one swoop, this agglomeration of stalls around De Valette’s statue brought to nought all PN’s arguments about the sanctity of the precincts and the inadvisability of holding the Monti there.
Even worse than that was putting up two goalposts just outside the House.
Then came Sunday and the so-called mass meeting. It looked as if this was the main reason for shifting the celebrations from the Granaries. The contained area is far smaller and, if one was following the meeting on television, one could see that the area next to the House was cordoned off.
In previous years, with dwindling attendances, the PN had progressively reduced the area reserved for the public but this year’s ruse was too blatant.
Inside this folly was another one: Simon declaring “When I’m prime minister”. This is a folie de grandeur, to show up my inadequate French. I bet no one, not even Joseph Muscat, had ever uttered those fatal words.
Simon’s second folly was his Car Free Day jape. No sooner had I seen it, than I was giving my own, spontaneous, reaction to the newsroom here. Later on it was picked up by practically everyone who pointed out that to record this Car Free Day journey from Lija to Pietà no fewer than two cars were needed, plus obviously a selfie stick.
It would have been far more credible had he decided to bike it every day instead of on one special day in the year.
Having said all this, there is no doubt there was a certain renewed enthusiasm among the supporters on Sunday. It was not just the old party campaign tunes that were played, it could also have been due to the massive number of young people in the crowd. And it may also have been Dr Busuttil’s strong comments about the Labour government that put a certain new vigour into supporters.
There is a new hopefulness among the foot soldiers. Whether that is realistic or not remains to be seen.
However, at this point, the Nationalist leadership must come round to the idea there may be a reasonable chance of the party not just doing better at the polls in two years’ time but maybe even making it to government after just one term, a nine-seat deficit and a 34,000 margin going to the other side.
I still do not discern any understating of this possibility among the members of the Shadow Cabinet.
Let me explain: I am reading Ugo Mifsud Bonnici’s massive autobiography and in it he explains how, during many years in Opposition – from 1971 to 1987 – he cultivated the key persons in his ‘ministry’, that is education. He kept aware of any new developments in that sector, knew the key figures, prepared and assembled the staff he would later have around him as a minister. And at the political level, every Sunday he toured the PN clubs in his constituency, mingling with people, apart from his normal job as a lawyer.
Those were difficult times, far more difficult than today, and yet he, and people like him such as Guido de Marco, kept going.
We can see some key figures in Busuttil’s front bench who are holding press conferences on key issues but so far it seems there is little being done when it comes to getting in touch with the sector, meeting key people, organising a select group to form the core of a ministry, taking up issues and, more importantly, proposing alternative policies.
The truth of the matter – thus Busuttil’s third folly – is that not all of those he has chosen are proving to be the right choices. Some are flippant and shallow, and some carry massive conflicts of interest that no one seems to have picked up on but continue to keep their heads below the parapet.
All in all, I consider it to be one of Malta’s strengths as a democracy that ministers must be elected MPs. This means that a leader is rather restricted to those that can be chosen. It also means that in many cases you get people not exactly suited for a particular role. But an MP must seek re-election, hence must keep his feet on the ground.
It also means that, primarily, a minister must be a facilitator not a doer – something many in this government keep forgetting.
Dr Busuttil has removed most of the previous Cabinet from his front bench, and there were enough reasons for that (though not for retaining those who have been retained) but the new team lacks cohesion, depth in their specific subjects and, most of all, lacks contacts with the people in the specific sectors.
This will not do, and time is short. The party in Opposition (like the one before it) seems more like a leader with a crowd of followers than an alternative government. It is good for the leader to have followers but, at the end of the day, if the people decide on a change of government, the country needs the new government to step in and manage the country from day one, rather than begin learning on the job.
Considering the many blunders and mistakes this government has been making, and the accompanying sense of drift with no one really understanding where the country is heading, it is amazing that the Opposition has not made more inroads than it has.
Maybe if the leader focused less on gimmicks and less on from-the-hip statements that are later found to be not exactly true, but concentrated more on his criticism of the government (which, wounded, keeps bleating ‘Simon is so negative’), and maybe if the new members of the Shadow Cabinet really do their job, then the party may begin to see an upward trend in the polls.
On Sunday, the enthusiasm of the people in front of Simon was not replicated by the people sitting behind him. That is more or less what I have been trying to say today.
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