Well, that billboard was a brilliant idea
Elfrid and Jason, with the help of a couple of amateur campaigners who shall go unmentioned but who have featured elsewhere on this blog, and who are best described using coarse euphemisms for the male reproductive organ, tried to ‘steal’ the election by using a couple of cheap tricks. Now one of those cheap tricks has come back to haunt them.
It’s that billboard emblazoned with the faces of government ministers and the word CORRUPTION, for all the world as though Elfrid had in mind the government of Karmenu’s day, when he was prezident tal-partit and accepting invitations to holidays on Soviet dachas. But let’s not go there. He has resigned irrevocably, after all, and happened to be speaking in parliament the other day only because he was sick of speaking to the chickens in his backyard.
Deputy leader Michael Falzon has said on television that he insisted with the party bosses ‘at the highest level’ (and given that he is deputy leader, the only person at a level higher than his was Elfrid) that plans for that billboard must be scrapped. He was ignored. There were other billboards that upset him, but this was the worst one, he said.
“Quite apart from the fact that it was in bad taste, it was also libellous, and I said so immediately,” he told his interviewer. “I was told, insultingly, that I had a conflict of interest and that they would seek the opinion of another lawyer with greater expertise in libel law. I don’t know if they actually did that. All I know is that the billboard went up and we were hit with 16 libel suits.”
A conflict of interest – will they get a grip? The lawyer who the Labour Party uses for its libel suits (for and against) is Pawlu Lia. I should know, given that I have had to stand across from his sourpuss I’ve-just-sucked-a-lemon face for countless times in a courtroom while he picks at nits (metaphorically, of course) and struggles to overcome the urge to spit at me. Ghastly man – now there’s someone who seems to lose his objectivity at the sound of my name or the magic words ‘Labour Party’. Maybe they didn’t consult him about the billboard. Maybe they did. Who cares? All we know is that Dr Sourpuss now has his work cut out for him. No wonder the last time I rushed to court for a hearing I was told that I had rushed in vain, because “Dr Lia is indisposed.”
This little vignette adds to all that we suspected already from that performance in the counting-hall and the fact that Michael Falzon was left, like the fall guy, to sit there and then to concede defeat, which was Alfred Sant’s job. I’m going to take a little diversion here and put it in upper case. IT WAS ALFRED SANT’S DUTY TO CONCEDE DEFEAT AS PARTY LEADER, BUT HE COULDN’T DO IT BECAUSE HE IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY UNABLE TO ADMIT DEFEAT EVEN TO HIMSELF, STILL LESS TO THE WHOLE OF MALTA. HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW HE HAS BEEN THROUGH THREE GENERAL ELECTION LOSSES AND ONE REFERENDUM HAMMERING WITHOUT EVER ACTUALLY ADMITTING DEFEAT? OR AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS NOTICED THAT HE NEVER ONCE MENTIONED THE MAGIC WORDS ‘LOSS’, ‘LOST’ OR ‘DEFEAT’, NOT EVEN DURING HIS IRREVOCABLE RESIGNATION SPEECH? There. Think about it, and what it tells us about this ‘man’.
So this little vignette that Michael painted for us is very telling. What we can see is The Others ganging up on him and excluding him, mocking him for having a sensible opinion and telling them that they were using a high-risk strategy. And the dynamics of this particular group were there again in evidence in the counting-hall. Michael didn’t realise he was in among the freaks. He couldn’t communicate with them because he’s normal and they’re not. In a situation like that, the only way is to pack your bags, raise a reverse salute and leave, because you can’t win and trying to do so just ends up eroding your sanity.
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Yes you are right on Sant’s Psychology and what Michael Falzon should do. However I’m not sure if Sant never did admit defeat. Maybe my memory’s not that clear but I believe he did admit defeat in the 1998 election.
I have much sympathy for Michael Falzon and his problems with Ilfred before the elecltions, many of which are public knowledge. However, the more tales of woe MF recounts now, the more he demonstrates dominant wimpish characteristics that are clearly alien to those required by a strong leader of men ( and women). MF shows that he may know how to absorb the punches but has no idea how to deliver his own. If I were a delegate I would exclude him, if not for anything else, for those reasons alone. I want my leader to take the blows, possibly without flinching so as not to show that the blows have left their mark, but also to be able to kick back a tono and not to crawl into a corner and sulk. Politicts is also conflict, conflict possibly with style and with honour. Living politics is not the same as living in a Hamish community.
That having been said, we are not dealing with any kind of rationale when we try to fathom what is likely to happen on June 5. Plans may have been drawn up months ago, delegates winked at and the leader practically already chosen. This does not appear as if it is an attempot to give the Party and the country the best man available. This internal MLP election stinks of self preservation and continuity for a bunch of serial losers for whom the MLP is just a milking cow.
Any leader that is not Alfred Sant will guarantee a sure Labour win in all the elections coming up, starting with the MEP election in 2009.
@ Avenger
Even if MF is not my favourite Labour candidate I have a point to make regarding him being a strong leader.
He took the blows without finching, as we now know and as was public knowledge for some time before the election, and his performance at the counting hall was his finest punch. He did not crawl into a corner, and get police escort out of there (like AS and Jason), he had the balls to stay at the counting hall and bite the bullet.
The more the MLP gets to 05.06, the more we get to know the pity state in which the party is.
Yesterday we had press statements and counter press statements. MF on monday was furious because he alleged that 2 particular MLP employees had passed on the delegates’ list to MaltaToday and demanded an inquiry. Then yesterday we had the MLP declare that all five contenders had been given the full list of delegates and in a way defending the 2 “sriep”. But then we had JM request an inquiry as well. So we either have the MLP who is taking his followers for a ride or 2 of the contenders taking the micky….Or was JM trying to play/ follow what MF is doing and trying to make up for any gains made by MF on this one ?
Another point I would like to make is about the contenders for the party deputy leadership race. Dr. Mifsud is now in the race as well. Now that JM got his 56% rating on MaltaToday survey, it is like he was waiting for this and now threw in his hat. We all know that Dr. Mifsud is an AS follower as much as JM is. What worries me though about Dr. Mifsud is that the guy has a lot of contacts………..Years back he used to get to know of certain things before others
MLP delgates please note !
That incident in the counting hall – with Michael Falzon, Zrinzo Azzopardi and Alfred Grixti being gentlemen enough to admit defeat and shake hands over a photo finish result – will remain imprinted in my mind for a good number of years to come and has earned them my respect. MF might appear too good for the job of MLP capo, yet I believe honour is the first thing floaters look at when deciding how to vote. What qualities should the MLP delegates be seeking of their new leader after all? If so, Michael passes with flying colours…
… but it’s useless talking anyway. The writing’s on the wall, isn’t it? And BTW Joe, remember what happened when the Party read too much into Local Council and MEP results? The fall from their high horse left them crippled!
IM9
I agree that in the counting hall Michael Falzon and his colleagues showed character. But one swallow does not make a summer.
@ Joseph : you are a shrewd observer. He is even a personal friend of Guido , and John Attard Montalto.I cannot write more , probably for your same reason .May I shake your hand?
May the MLP win all the elections for the next five years with or without Dr Elfrid. May as many of them as possible go to that awful place Brussels (I prefer the sprouts). May they take over all the Kunsilli Lokali and paint white and yellow lines all over the place to their heart’s content. In this latter scenario the paraventu will have to double the size of his force to keep them off each other’s necks at meetings tal-kunsill. May they do what the hell they like as long as they leave the running of this country in the safe hands of Maltin Veri yet once again in 2013.
Wasn’t there something called LABOUR UNITED?
This could have been a good MLP billboard…
It would have gone down a treat with their campaign song…
http://www.3rdmarines.net/united.jpg
@Malcolm
re: Sant admitting defeat
No: it was never. After the 1998 election defeat, Alfred Sant declared that the elected government was illegitimate, and informed many foreign embassies of this fictional “fact.”
Daphne, stop distracting us with your sniper shots (the horse is dead after all and it’s no use stomping on him) and let’s focus on how we are going to deal with the next surcharge raise