If this were a normal country, going through a normal phase, I would not need to write this. But these are exceptionally bad times of a country riven by unimaginable problems.
So the bloody obvious has to be said – and repeated ad nauseum.
What we are going through right now is not a political issue. It has nothing to do with the ‘them and us’ situation we love discussing and dissecting beyond boredom. It is a national crisis, the proportions of which are earth-shattering.
This crisis can see us go from one gigantic problem to another and it is useless – and more crisis-creating – if we keep seeing it in this dumbest of dumb ways: the political way. We need a washout and a proper change which goes way deeper than a cosmetic change at the top of a Party in power.
The political landscape right now is in total disarray and in crisis. The PN as a party is a shadow of its old self. The PD and AD remain on the side-lines, attracting little attention.
The Labour Party should be leading by example. It has such strong national backing that it should have been the prime mover for change, change that might have been tough to consider but – with the state of the country – would have been the only solution; change that would have seen a proper sweep-out of all the old guard and all that is tied to its corrupt and criminal leadership; change that would have given the country a new lease of life. But all the Labour Party grandees care about is saving the hides of their disgraced leaders and all those around them.
The people don’t care, or rather should never care, about the political in-fighting. What the people should care about is to see justice, in all its aspects, done and be seen to be done. Before justice is delivered and before impunity for anyone dies, no amount of jockeying by politicians should interest the people.
Unless this happens, normality can never return to this land. No amount of posturing, no amount of sweeping stuff under our carpets, will work. If we do not fight for – and seek – victory for justice, we will always remain living in an abnormal state.
Before politicians – especially Labour ones entrusted with the top positions of the country – realise and admit publicly that a huge change is needed, there will be no return to proper living. By denying the crisis we increase it and complicate any future resolving of it.
One thing that the Labour Party needs to do to start the proper cleansing of all its horrors is never to bow to whoever is elected leader as if he were a demi-god.
Since way beyond independence, Most Labour Party leaders have been revered as demi – or complete – gods. Whatever they say is gospel truth: whatever they decide, people follow. And people are treated like demented, brainless sheep that are made to believe that black is white, dust is golden and that the sun always shines upon the Labour gods.
This happened not just with the supporters but with ministers, junior ministers, backbenchers and anyone in a position of power. All power lies with the leader and whoever goes against him is ostracised or exiled into total oblivion.
Whoever is elected Leader of the Labour Party this month must obviously command respect. He must be ready to admit that corruption is wrong, that crime does not pay and that cover-ups only ruin the fibre of the land. He must also seek out the horrors that have been allowed by his predecessors and all his gang. He must seek out all the perpetrators of crimes and those who obstructed justice – a rather impossible order, seeing that both contenders for the leadership were close collaborators of Joseph Muscat.
Whoever leads the Labour Party must also change something which is seen as vital and irresistible in the Labour mindset: total and subservient loyalty is wrong and leads to the horrors we have witnessed in these last six years.
Whoever becomes leader and Prime Minister must constantly bear in mind that everyone has a brain and that everyone should have the gall to speak the truth, not just to listen to propaganda spin spewed out by the leader and his Party hacks.
The new Prime Minister must listen to the real voice of dissent, not to sycophants and arse-lickers by decree, but to people who think independently and are ready to voice their thoughts and opinions.
If we are to move on and out of this sordid state where leaders are emperors treated like deities, where their word is always sacrosanct, then the top man of the Labour Party must be challenged.
The leader’s team must be ready to stand up and be counted when there is a reason for it and he must not only respect this dissension but encourage it.
If Chris Fearne or Robert Abela cannot do this, then they will remain diabolically interested in the power to corrupt, to make money, to pay homage to rogues in the driving seat – and Malta will continue being damned and shunned by all right-thinking men and women.