The rhythmic chanting of ‘Shame on You’ that yesterday reverberated along Republic Street owes its genesis to the small crowd of maids who chanted it as Dominique Strauss-Kahn was being led away after he was accused of sexual harassment of a maid at a top-notch New York hotel.

Then the slogan migrated to Malta and was taken up, rather improperly, when Lawrence Gonzi visited MCAST prior to the election.

Yesterday the whole crowd gathered in Republic Street for the PN-organised national protest chanted it in unison with rather more reason to protest against what has become known as Panamagate.

With the stage placed at the junction between Republic Street and South Street, and with the sun at that time low on the horizon and shining directly into the crowd’s face, people could hardly see Simon Busuttil. Instead, they heard his voice and his eloquent denunciation of the whole list of scandals that have bedevilled this administration.

Over the past days, the Labour media exhibited all signs of panic, with Orizzont headlining it was going to be a Nationalist protest, with One foreseeing that Dr Busuttil was to announce he will table a No Confidence motion against Konrad Mizzi today in Parliament, and with all speakers at yesterday’s Labour conference referring to the protest.

Labour also lobbed a couple of diversions in a vain attempt to divert people’s attention from Panamagate but this tactic did not work either. The huge crowd in Republic Street defied the spin and showed that spin does not work with it anymore. Their ‘Shame on You’ chant had far more reason behind it than the cut and paste version spun among the MCAST crowd.

Were they all Nationalists angry at being out of office? Or were there any middle-of-the roaders, or even former Labourites among them? Who knows.

There were a million other things to do on a Sunday afternoon, yet they all went to Valletta.

It was, one may say, the birth of a Nationalist Moviment to mirror the Labour Moviment created before the election.

Dr Busuttil was very right to make the following points:

-         A Nationalist government under his leadership will not condone corruption.

-         Apart from the key figures in this Panamagate case, there are also those who should be stopping such abuse and do not seem like doing it.

-         All contracts signed by Konrad Mizzi must be investigated.

Yesterday’s protest was no flash in the pan, it cannot be an isolated event. The Opposition would be delinquently not doing its duty if it lets this go, and if it lets things be forgotten. It must focus on those who are now in positions of authority and who have not taken any steps with regard to what has been discovered. It must also smoke out those on the government benches who are visibly uncomfortable with what is happening.

The Opposition must be careful however not to go on overdrive. People have still not forgotten the last PN government was driven out by an avalanche of votes because people got fed up of its arrogance (and also because people fell for the Labour spin that now look so puny compared to what we are seeing.

It takes a lot to lose credibility and, once lost, this is very hard to rebuild.