It is a very awkward time for the triumvirate running the Opposition Nationalist Party. One is enmeshed in a money-laundering saga that seems to grow with every day that people spend time pondering how one can make a hot million in a single go. Another is palpably feeling the brunt of an evident internal attempt to have him shelved somewhere in the party's archives. The third one, the highest of the three, has been daily digging himself into a hole that now has the dimensions of a lunar crater.
All this exactly a year before the people go back on the hustings and at a time when the country's economy has been performing at an optimum level, a fact that, not surprisingly, has won the accolades of all the major credit-rating agencies in Europe and the rest of the world. Hardly a situation to make the genuine party hack's heart flutter, but it is also a sad reality for the neutral observer who rightly believes a strong and spirited Opposition is a democratic requisite.
Four years ago, this trinity of leaders embarked on perhaps one of the most difficult political journeys ever in Maltese modern history. Taking on a party that has won power by a majority of historic dimensions is already a tall order for anyone entrusted with the task of picking up the pieces. The evidence of this monumental challenge was immediately amplified when veteran party journalists and printers were sadly sacked by the fat cats who had led to the electoral debacle. This was followed by a new party leadership contest the outcome of which was by far too predictable.
Regardless, one would have thought the new leadership, ironically a triumvirate format first introduced by Labour in 1992, would embark on an overhaul of its parliamentary frontbenches. But no, it inexplicably chose to retain most of the old guard that had caused the party's haemorrhage of votes in the March 2013 general election. In so doing, the three exposed themselves to a recurring series of strong counter attacks as they tried to land a claw on the armoured body of the new government as it slowly started its inevitable ageing process in power. A fresh-looking frontbench would have met the fresh-looking Labour ensemble on an equal footing, at least as far as everyday political imagery goes.
Facing a government that is not afraid to say it is anything but perfect, and this despite the records set in all sectors of the economy during the past four years, must have been quite a new experience, if not even a shock. After all, when in power the party now in Opposition was used to flatly refusing to accept anything but that it was God's flawless and seamless gift to government, so the people could hardly be tempted to change it. Change it they did, but they in turn have since refused to seriously change themselves.
Now it's all become a vicious circle. The sheer negativity and diatribe sown since 2013 have engulfed a party that had every chance to change, to move with the times, as so many parties of the left and the right in Europe have done, and to come up with a sensible alternative. Today's internal and external chaos is the handiwork of a PN triumvirate which cannot find a common wavelength among themselves let alone establish a proper contact base with what continues to be a bemused electorate.
The "db Group" episode was the culmination of this sorry state of affairs for the Opposition. It is also a timely reminder to Labour that politics and money make for a very dubious and combustible combination.
Perhaps the greatest breakthrough in this whole "db" business is the involvement of a world-respected, multi-national professional services firm, Deloitte, in the estimation of the real estate value aspect of the project. When we had politicians deciding such things -just one example of many, remember the sale of Mid-Med Bank and all its assets to HSBC for a pittance? - it had become obvious one could hardly know who was selling what and to whom and at what price. Thank goodness, taxpayers' holdings are no longer everyday give-aways.
This is the real moral of the current "db" story, one that the Nationalist triumvirate has chosen to turn into a self-made labyrinth in which to lose itself.
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Father of the House
In our consistent aping of the "Mother of Parliaments", do we have a recognised "Father of the House" inside the House of Representatives? I mean father in the veteran sense and not the most sanctimonious MP sitting at either row of the bright green kitchen chairs.
Curious by nature, the query came to mind as I read of the recent passing away, at 86, of Sir Gerald Kaufman, the Labour MP and "Father of the House of Commons" in the UK. Kaufman was described by fellow MPs as "an iconic and irascible figure", endearing terms no doubt. He has since been replaced as Father of the House by the Conservative MP Ken Clarke who jokingly remarked that he would have earned the role earlier had he not let Sir Gerald skip the MP signing-up queue because he had an engagement.
The title is given to the MP with the longest continuous service and who is not currently a minister. Does it mean, in the case of the present Maltese Parliament, that it is a walkover for Labour's Joe Debono Grech? No one deserves it more.
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What has he been smoking?
The best political quip of recent weeks certainly came from ex-Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt when he was reacting on Twitter to a speech by President Donald Trump falsely claiming "there had been a terrorist attack in Sweden the night before." It simply said: "what has he been smoking?"
Trump's claim was later defended by a man described in The O'Reilly Factor TV programme as a "Swedish defence and national security adviser." It was, however, later discovered that the man, going by the name of Nils Bildt, has a criminal record in the United States and no ties to Sweden's security establishment. Even worse for the Trump-friendly Fox News, he might not even be named Nils Bildt. Swedish military, foreign affairs and anti-terrorism spokesmen have no knowledge of him. It turned out that this "Mr Bildt" is actually Nils Tolling, son of the chairman of the Swedish Equestrian Federation! It seems he chose to use the Bildt surname, much to Carl Bildt's chagrin, to start a career as a far-right politician.
This is the fake world of politics and journalism we are living in, alas, even in Window-mourning Malta.