Let's start with a few confessions. It's Covid time so confessions are easier, more plentiful and more heartfelt. Life has never felt so fragile, especially for the over 60s like me, so on the whole we say the truth and nothing but.
Lately I've been in near-total dislike of politicians, the majority of whom seem to be fumbling their way to a total meltdown. The virus of rotten politicians is not just local but endemic the world over.
The great exception is when a woman is at the helm. Women politicians are definitely giving a good lesson in how to do things properly.
Most of the other politicians should be taken to a castle and locked there, and the world passed on to women.
They make sense, can lead us through a clean-up of the world and can set straight what other politicians have totally screwed for centuries.
The climate crisis is still there. No coronavirus will eclipse its horrors. But uppermost in most leaders' minds is how to keep the old economy going, an economy totally based on fossil fuels and wastage.
They should be promoting more veganism, less animal slaughter, less animal husbandry, more natural foods, more arable land used in an eco-friendly way and striving harder for better and healthier lifestyles.
Dreams? Utopias? Maybe. But it's Corona-time so we need Utopia-seekers and dreamers much more than old-style politicians and old-style economies.
Another confession is that I've never been too enamoured of anything connected to the local Labour Party. Not that I am PN: or PN sal-mewt. In fact, with Adrian Delia leading that P(artit) N(eolitiku) (Neolithic party), I am now totally party-less and far from having any faith in our duo of political giants. Actually one party is a giant, the other rather height challenged.
But back to why I dislike Labour, especially it's most successful leaders and their ways and policies. I know we should love everyone but Labour and its leaders conspire to make sure they are detestable and non-lovable.
The more successful they are, the more unreasonable they become. And ironically - to further prove that electors are herd-like - the worse Labour act, the more support they garner.
Robert Abela should have been a breath of fresh air. A new broom which swept to an incredible victory against all odds and against the long-term favourite. He shot into power with a majority of votes huge enough to keep his power even if he defied his former mentor and chief schemer, Joseph Muscat.
Yet in power he is an insecure bully with hollow ideas and hollower ideals: a populist just vying for votes and shouting out the popular chants the people want to hear.
He had all the attributes: young, son of a former president, bodybuilder. Or maybe that's the clue to his insecurity. His total obsession with a body beefed up artificially. His infantile need to show off his strength, when really and truly, deep down under the skin of a huge man, lies a puny little mouse scared of his own shadow. Why else would a prime minister talk like a bully?
Labour leaders who are in power and successful - except maybe for Alfred Sant in his sad two-year premiership - have always needed to use bullying tactics. They belittle their opponents, they pick a fight, they invent fights to look good.
To be patted on the back by their colleagues who then say "Bravu Dom" (great show, Dom), "Bravu Joseph", "Bravu Robert".
Robert Abela has no opposition to speak of. Adrian Delia and his PN are in tatters. So, not having a good sparring partner worth his salt, he fights with totally imaginary enemies like NGOs. No NGO, however organised, can fight Robert Abela on an equal level.
Repubblika, for example, is only a part of civil society fighting a battle against repression and trying to stop the erosion of good governance. They do not have the funds, the organisation, the media, the whole of government to back them.
When Robert Abela fights Repubblika he does not care whether they are really right or wrong on any issue. He wants to scare them off from all their work. Because he knows they are right on nearly all the issues they fight for.
Robert Abela does not want a proper opponent. He merely wants to be in the spotlight and to make people - the Maltese electorate - shout out in sympathy for the bodybuilder who has no real brains, not even real brawn.
All he has is the veneer of a good strong man who cares only to be seen as a fighter, a defender of truth, a shield of Malta and its soldiers. But sadly he is just a successful bully.
The prime minister's aim is to bully everyone be it colleague or opponent.
Robert Abela has no real sympathy for the weak, he just uses them to prop him up, to give him support, love and votes. He is a bully who cares little about what is right and what is totally wrong.
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