Apologists and apologies

Earlier this week, apologists for Muscat and his pathetic statement ‘Black Monday should never have happened’ had me rooting around for Fenech Adami’s valedictory speech to parliament, which contained a true apology, and I wrote about it last Thursday.

A journalist friend reminded me that Fenech Adami had made a similar apology during what could have been his final mass meeting speech ever – before the general election of 2003. It was the make-or-break vote that would have seen us in the European Union or out of it, because the leader of the opposition had refused to acknowledge or promise to honour the referendum result, and if Fenech Adami had lost that election, he would have resigned.

I was at that meeting at the St Andrew’s parade ground, and I can remember the chill that settled over the massed crowd as Fenech Adami segued from a speech of hope, faith and determination (he was good at those, and nobody in either party has ever come close) to what sounded very much like a farewell.

I don’t think anything drove home the point that this could be either the beginning of everything or the end of everything, and that the odds were roughly on an even balance, as much as his words then. People went from determined euphoria to consternation and even greater determination.

Something clicked and they woke up: if Fenech Adami lost the general election, and he appeared to think he might, because here he was, apologising to those he hurt and forgiving those who hurt him, then the islands would be damned. And lest anyone think that is an exaggeration, we only have to use Joseph Muscat’s hindsight to see that it is not.

If Muscat thinks that Malta has problems now, somebody should stand up and tell him, very loudly and clearly, that we would have had truly terrible problems in the current crisis if he and his leader had got their way. But he has reinvented himself now, and like his former leader, he has no regrets either because if his former leader had won that election, Muscat would not be where he is today. He would be just another Super One hack.

So I will transcribe Fenech Adami’s words at that meeting because they are a good reminder not just of what an apology should be like, but of how Doctor Black Monday Should Never Have Happened and his then boss Doctor I Have No Regrets worked so hard to brink this country to the brink of disaster, and almost succeeded.

“Throughout my life I have tried to do my duty – towards God, towards my family, towards society. I greatly regret all those times where I fell short of what was expected of me, and I am sorry. To all those who have let me down, caused me harm, or frustrated my endeavours, I say, ‘I forgive you.’”

Ma’ min rajtek, xebbahtek

The General Workers Union newspaper L-Orizzont carried a prominent story some days ago about resentful backbenchers, cracks and factions in the Nationalist Party.

This and other stories appear to have concentrated at least one mind – the MP Franco Debono’s. He spoke to the press and felt it necessary to reiterate his loyalty to the party and to the prime minister, and said that he is extremely annoyed at being classed as a bitter backbencher. He has no aspirations for a cabinet post, he said, because he is a new MP and is “on a learning curve”.

I think it was rather smart of him to speak like that. It rescued his public image from what it was rapidly becoming – that of an unpredictable and angry man out to cause as much trouble as he can. Franco Debono appears to be smart enough to know that no one likes a bitter loser.

It didn’t help that newspapers with an anti-government agenda, like Malta Today and L-Orizzont, used him as part of their undermining campaign. It didn’t help, either, that the Labour Party thought it was on to a winner with this one and that the more it encouraged ‘angry benchbenchers’ to feel aggrieved, the more likely it would be that Prime Minister Muscat and Princess Michelle would be installed in their Castille thrones by Christmas.

What is most clever about Franco Debono’s move is that he has successfully distanced himself from the real resentful backbenchers. People with ambitions rarely enjoy being mixed up with those who have the attitude of losers, because they don’t want to be thought of as having a loser’s attitude themselves.

Les Miserables

Prime Minister Muscat and Princess Michelle will be mustering the ragged, starving and oppressed masses this afternoon for a howling protest against the jackboot dictator GonziPN, who has led us into the desert where we are all losing our jobs, our savings, our homes, our cars and our human rights as the value of our euro plummets to an all-time low. It should be interesting. The situation he describes is one done far better by Victor Hugo in Les Miserables.

As a lecturer in suffering, hardship and the stress caused by grievous wrongs, Prime Minister Muscat is about as convincing and credible as he is when hectoring his former media colleagues about media ethics. But it should make for a fun day out.

This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.