As I said way back in May, Joseph Muscat has no leadership qualities
This is a very good leading article, and a succinct assessment of the most fundamental inadequacy of Joseph Muscat: he is a natural-born follower and not a natural-born leader. He has tacked himself to some very important petticoats in the course of his career but not, with no petticoats to which to tack himself, he is at a complete loss. He is coming across increasingly as a tricky schoolboy, bent on annoying the teacher and showing up the headmaster. He has no gravitas at all. The latest move is to appear liberal and hip about issues like censorship and getting down with the tal-pepe crowd and their pseudo-environmental enthusiasms. He appears to believe that this sits well with lots of populist talk about ‘the people’ – the latest tiresome buzz-word for those who won’t be scoring too well in a Mensa test – and inflammatory talk about what the Maltese will and will not tolerate. Apparently, the Maltese will tolerate Stitching but they won’t tolerate a black man, and that’s OK with Muscat.
Muscat is content to visit Islamic schools and mosques, to prate on in parliament about crises that occur when 278 people come in on a boat, and to go on about our cultural values (strange, coming from somebody who thinks he’s young and hip). I sit here and wait for him to come up with concrete solutions, suggestions and proposals, to say “This is what I would do”, and there’s nothing there.
So come on, Mr Alternative Prime Minister – what exactly would you do in this prime minister’s place?
Sunday, 15 March
Editorial
Leaders should lead
Writing in his memoirs on the time he spent as one of Bill Clinton’s most senior advisers, George Stephanopoulos recounted a period in the presidency when the most powerful man on earth was in danger of losing his political soul.According to the author, Mr Clinton had become increasingly reliant on the no-nonsense – and for a time successful – political strategy of a man called Dick Morris, who advocated two rules to ensure electoral success: One was to steal the popular-sounding parts of the opposition’s platform, even if they contradict stands you have taken in the past. The second, and most important, was ‘the 60 per cent issue’ which meant that if six out of 10 Americans said they were for something, the president had to be for it too.
Alfred Sant put the latter part of this theory into practice successfully in 1996 when he was elected, primarily because of his promise to withdraw VAT, which was hugely unpopular at the time. But after having to live with that decision, people were much more wary of populist policies the next time round.
Joseph Muscat now appears to be treading that line as well. He enjoyed the benefit of an early goal with the St John’s Co-Cathedral issue and might well score another with his party’s approach – even though it is a gimmick, no more, no less – to the vehicle VAT refund issue too.
He is entitled to play the political game that way on such issues, since the people will ultimately decide whether that is what they want. However, it is a cause for concern that he also seems to be taking this approach with a matter of such paramount importance as illegal immigration.
When he toured the Islamic Centre in Corradino last Tuesday, Dr Muscat said the Maltese were tolerant, but they could not accept illegalities – whatever that means – and the way illegal immigration was being handled. It was irresponsible of him, however, not to explain what he meant when he uttered such potentially inflammatory statements.
And when The Sunday Times asked Dr Muscat if he thought that on this the opposition should be four square with the government, his response was: “I think we should be four square with the people.”
The most dangerous thing about this statement is the implication that the people’s view and the government’s are not one of the same. This will serve only to hammer a very unwelcome wedge into an issue on which – if we are to be successful – we must be united.
As the government has been telling our partners in the EU and will no doubt have told European Commissioner Jacques Barrot during his belated visit, Malta’s problems need to be eased by more member states sharing a much bigger part of the island’s burden. Whatever proposals Dr Muscat comes up with tomorrow, and one hopes they will be constructive, that is the way forward.
Malta has an obligation to receive and process illegal immigrants. No fanciful talk or wishful thinking can change this fact. We can, as Medecins Sans Frontiéres and others have pointed out, make improvements, especially by taking steps to bring about a better environment at our detention centres. We can also intensify pressure on the EU.
But we can only do these things if we stay true to our human and political soul. Mr Clinton eventually dumped Mr Morris. Dr Muscat would be wise to dump his opportunistic concepts too, since worthy political figures lead – not follow.
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Don’t worry, Daphne. He will always be rescued by those two intellectual giants on his left and right: the Axis of Drivel.
Maybe I am out of context, but in my opinion this young lady is showing political immaturity; she should have kept her mouth shut.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090314/local/nationalist-candidate-says-government-should-refund-vat-on-registration-tax
He replied… tghid ghax qara l-artiklu tieghek? (tghid jaqrahom?)
[Daphne – Those people are among my most avid readers, and have been from the beginning.]
Sorry, but there’s no better place to post this right now regarding the MEP elections.
The Nationalist Party candidates are being struck off my list one by one – which does not mean that I will be voting for any other party – far from it. It’s just that there’s not much choice, except for Frank Portelli, who is probably the only one I would trust to do a good job, and possibly Edward Demicoli and Alan Deidun.
Vince Farrugia is a definite no-no. What were they thinking by asking him to run for election? Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas (could she not shorten it?) showed how desperate she is to gain votes by jumping on Labour’s bandwagon regarding the VAT/car registration tax refunds.
Simon Busuttil, who was never one of my favorites anyway, is trying oh-so-desperately to lure the young crowd – so much so that “his friends” are advertising a “do” on his behalf with someone who is possibly the same person mentioned here in this article. http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/11/26/t24.html . Not a wise choice, if my assumption is correct.
Alex Perici Calascione – The surname is enough to put me off, since I immediately associate it with the FKNK [Daphne – Come on, that’s not fair.]
David Casa – no comment. Rudolph Cini – I’d never heard of him before, but I looked up his site and wasn’t impressed. There really isn’t much choice, is there?
“Opposition leader Joseph Muscat today presented an action plan on immigration and said that if the Prime Minister was not prepared to adopt it, he should put it to a referendum and let the people decide”
At first I thought that this boy was just a nuisance and a joke, but now I realise that his big-headedness is getting out of control, and could become dangerous to the stability of this country. The markets are quite sensitive to threats like these especially from the leader of the opposition.
[Daphne – The real trouble is that he is not particularly bright. Lack of intelligence combined with that cocksure self-assurance that comes from always being praised and never being told the truth about one’s limitations is a very dangerous combination. He’s not smart enough to see how smart he isn’t.
As for that referendum: yes, and then after the result is out, we’ll allow for five years of hindsight in which he can assess the result. Il-vera injorant, miskin. I’m actually feeling nostalgia for Sant.]
“if the international community did not act and the number of arrivals continued to exceed what Malta could handle, Malta should not exclude the suspension of its international obligations” – any idea what this means? Let them drown? Give them petrol and food and send them off to Italy? What exactly is this so-called action plan to stop immigration?
[Daphne – The thing that really gets me about the Labour Party is that it invariably preaches to the lowest common denominator: people with very little intelligence, of whatever social class. Labour, like the church, depends on thinking skills not being taught at school or learned later on in life, which is more difficult. If you don’t have a grudge or an axe to grind, and if you weren’t raised Labour, then it is impossible to be both intelligent and a Labour voter, given the on-going state of that party.]
Daphne,
‘preaches to the lowest common denominator’. The most cogent description of the ongoing woes of this abysmal group that I have read. So succinct, so appropriate, so true. Bet they can sell a lot of soap, though.
I cannot understand why you guys are so amazed at the antics of this little twerp who takes himself much too seriously to realise that he is making such a fool of himself doing so. I have no choice but to be unkind to the man. I shall repeat: anyone who inflicts the names of Soleil and Etoile on to his children (remember Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue”) needs his head examined. To say he’s just an upstart would be complimenting him because upstarts occasionally mature into professionals in their own right………but oh no, not this one. The pattern has been set, and guys, start praying to your God, because you could be looking at your future prime minister!
And I’ve just seen his puerile and inane contribution to the immigration problem. On my god, bet you he wrote it in a pitazz .
NGT
“Let them drown? Give them petrol and food and send them off to Italy? What exactly is this so-called action plan to stop immigration?”
You have identified the basic weakness of Joseph Muscat’s “action plan”: he does not explain what we are to do with the immigrants in excess of “what we can handle”. Basically, he toys with the idea of towing them out to sea – though, being less forthright than Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, he does not spell it out – and, incidentally, he repeated most of what Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said on television tonight. Moreover, he sees no contradiction in claiming to be for the rule of law while suggesting that we break international law.
I have only read an online summary of Muscat’s speech but apparently he did not refer to his visit to Libya (a “breakthrough”) where he supposedly discussed migration and set up a joint committee on Mediterranean policies, whatever that means. When he came back from that visit it seemed as if he had solved the immigration issue.
@ Tony Pace: that little twerp might someday be your next prime minister.
@Harold:
Don’t I know it, and that is precisely why I said in my previous post “start praying to your God…..” because the thought really gives me shivers up my spine.
I’m sure many of you are aware of the relaunch of maltastar.com. I actually found it quiet striking upon first entering, but they really didn’t finish it off very well.
Certain things that just bug the hell out of me:
1. their use of Georgia is phenomenal on titles, but atrocious in body text;
2. if Georgia is not installed on the machine, it reverts to sans-serif fonts… make up your mind guys;
3. very uneven spacing on the page (twice the distance between images and titles than between content section and side menu);
4. The BBC-inspired boxes inside articles, next to the leading images – looks awful, uneven padding, too large font;
5. background – although admittedly this might be due to my own personal hatred of cyan;
6. footers which have no correlation with the rest of the page;
7. “beta version” – would be ok if they had a sharp version people could use and the beta would be for people willing to test only; looks incredibly unprofessional;
8. gossip section – WHAT… THE… F…. ?
These were just some initial thoughts. There are some good things and they might be on to something, but it doesn’t feel very serious at this point. Perhaps I gave them some pointers. Anyone had any other thoughts about it? Any impressions?
[Daphne – Dead and lifeless, and it doesn’t allow you to print pages. Also, the grammar and spelling are as atrocious as ever.]
What’s wrong with the gossip section, I enjoyed the story about Claudia Schiffer and her “helicopter hanger”.
[Daphne – And there’s always a reference to porn. It wouldn’t be maltastar otherwise.]
@Daphne
“And there’s always a reference to porn. It wouldn’t be maltastar otherwise.]”
Actually this is their main selling-point, google “air-hostess porn” and they’re in the top ten ranking! They should have called their site “MaltaPornStar”