We’re talking 1987, not 1887. Things were not that different from what they are today.

[Daphne – They were extremely different, and only those individuals who had access to both working-class culture and non-working-class culture could grasp the difference. The Maltese working-class, which made up some 80% of the population at the time, was completely isolated from the rest of the world, and lived in a ‘cage’. There is absolutely no similarity to the situation today.]

Besides, it still doesn’t answer the question of why, if there was a “popular rebellion” born out of “genuine fear and anger” it only translated into a 50.91% win for the PN – down by 0.01% from the previous election. If they knew enough to “revolt” they also knew enough to vote accordingly.

[Daphne – It does answer the question. People who are isolated from the rest of the world, from civilised, democratic, developed normality, cannot perceive that they are in a completely abnormal situation. If they are unaware that they have rights, they do not know that those rights are being trampled upon. If they do not know what democracy is, what free speech is, they cannot know that they are being deprived of this, or why such deprivation is dangerous. To my mind, what is extraordinary is not that the Nationalist Party won by a whisker, but that it won at all. The people who rebelled out of fear and anger were those who knew that what was happening was perverse, dangerous, abnormal and undemocratic – people who had been educated beyond the age of 15; people who read newspapers; people who knew the meaning of democracy; people who knew what was wrong and why it was wrong. They were in the minority by far, though they did gather others along with them.]

By the way – what’s with this sudden respect for “The People” (with capitals, yet!)

Only a few weeks ago you and the rest of the regulars here were mocking “The People” for daring to have an opinion on the Piano project.

Sorry about that. I was thinking about what they (Muscat + advisors) are thinking. One cannot compare today’s circumstances with those of when Sant became leader but neither with those when Fenech Adami became leader. And the MLP’s subsequent actions made things better for the PN and worse for themselves. Still very much “il-mazz f’idejk” as far as Lawrence Gonzi is concerned.

I think it’s a question of misunderstanding H.P. Just knocked over a glass of orange juice …

“The People themselves were rebelling”? “They massed in protest out of genuine fear and anger”? How melodramatic!

[Daphne – Is that so, Twanny. Were you around at the time?]

If so, how come in 1987 the PN only won by 50.91% against Labour’s 48.87 (diff. of 2.04%)? Not much of a rebellion, was it?

[Daphne – And you’re not much of a social historian. You’re talking about a population with a high rate of illiteracy, a tiny percentage of people educated beyond the age of 15 (or even 12), no access to international news beyond RAI (for Italian speakers only) and the BBC World Service (for English speakers only) or the international press (for those who could 1. read, 2. read foreign languages, and 3. afford the Lm1 for a London newspaper out of a take-home minimum wage of Lm29). Even now, with a fairly high level of affluence, 45% of Maltese have never left the island, not even to go to Catania. Imagine what the figure was then – 90%? The level of ignorance was shocking, and only those who came from my sort of background had any idea what normal European life was supposed to be like, because we were exposed to it through magazines, a bit of travel and the pre-socialist years. I always use as an example of the cultural isolation of Malta’s working-class back then, when around 80% of the population was working-class, the time I brought out a packet of cereal at the Karin Grech maternity hospital canteen in 1986. We had to take our own breakfast when we gave birth, and also our own cutlery and lavatory paper. I was the only non-working-class woman present, and it was as though I had an invisible force-field around me because I was left to sit alone at table. Then I brought out my Coco Pops and immediately there was silence. The silence became mutterings of curiosity and speculation – as though I had no ears and was some kind of animal in a cage. Then bit by bit they all began to gather round, slowly drawing nearer. By this point I was really exasperated and reminded of Captain Cook and his strange white men being approached by natives curious about beads and uniforms. Finally, somebody plucked up the courage to ask me a question: X’inhu dak? Dak tieklu biex tipporga? Yes, right: with all those cartoon pictures of Sooty on the packet. I offered my Coco Pops round and no one would touch them. They were actually scared of cereal. Unfortunately, the history of those years is documented only in terms of partisan politics, elections, violence, and so on. Cultural reality is not documented at all, because these things are not considered important. Yet they are very important. People who are so cut off from normality that they have never seen a packet of cereal and do not know what it is – in 1986 – are unlikely to be able to have clear thoughts on threats to democracy.]

In fact, the PN actually had a marginal decrease in votes when compared with 1981 (50.92%)

Of course it’s not the same thing – Labour is doing it – so it’s got to be different and bad.

[Daphne – I would say the same if the Nationalist Party were to begin ghettoising its homosexual activists in a special section. It is backwoods thinking from the Superfly era, masquerading as liberal behaviour, but it’s anything but liberal. Liberal thinkers don’t separate homosexuals from heterosexuals: they just don’t give a damn about sexuality and consider the whole person. Ghettos are for people who are inadequate and who must blame their sexuality, gender, colour, religion, whatever for the problems they encounter in life. The most powerful person in the British Labour Party is Peter Mandelson. Can you imagine him agitating in Britain’s LGBT Labour or fussing about gay rights? Exactly.]

Hmm. I disagree. Or perhaps I misunderstand, Leonard.

If I had to draw up a timeline of PN political raisons d’être from 1977 onwards, it would be:

1977 -1987: Fighting to keep us from becoming a third world Communist cesspit
1987 – 1992: Reform, reform, reform
1992 – 1996: Need to introduce VAT in view of EU membership, and a host of reforms/modernisation programmes
1996 – 1998: This is our last chance for EU membership
1998 – 2003: EU EU EU EU EU
2003 – 2008: The other side are still anti-European. We, on the other hand, are working to join the Eurozone. Take your pick
2008 – : Here the PN runs into a snag. History has conspired to create the image of PN=The Government. There’s a whole list of projects in the offing (of which we only get to hear of the more prole-oriented), and because any exciting announcement comes from the government comms office, not the PN, it reinforces the “blue-eyed boys” myth. The MLP isn’t doing anything except whine about insignificant details of the “price of corned beef” type. The only thing the PN can do, which it won’t because it’s become too much of a goody-goody, everybody’s friend party, is to highlight the differences in position between itself and the MLP.

I can list a few off the cuff. And they never, ever get mentioned:
Keep our membership of the EU military committee: PN yes, MLP no
Reactivation of our PfP membership: PN yes, MLP no
Position on Turkish EU membership: PN yes, MLP?
Connection to Sicilian power grid+other stuff in view of avoiding third power station: PN yes, MLP no, or yes but?

Sadly, that may not be quite the case. We may have a bye-election.

[Daphne – I think you mean a by-election. But anyway.]

The PN and its allies kept up a continuous election campaign from about 1976 to 1987.

[Daphne – Hardly the same thing. The situation was so terrible that The People themselves were rebelling. They massed in protest out of genuine fear and anger. They didn’t go for a nice afternoon out in Haz-Zabbar, waving EU flags.]

May I ask why my comment was not made public? Do i have to register? If I have too please guide me?

Thanks
S. Attard

[Daphne – I don’t seem to have a comment from you here. It may have been deleted in error, or it might have just gone into spam. No, you don’t have to register. Please post your comment again.]

Eddie Fenech Adami was elected leader of the Nationalist Party in 1977 and basically ran a 10-year election campaign. But economic (and other) circumstances were completely the opposite to those of the early 90s. So it seems that Muscat is interpreting the current disgruntlement, borne out by the results of the EP elections, akin to those of the late 70s/early 80s. Whether his strategy will succeed depends on GonziPN’s response; a perverted two-to-tango sort of. Mintoff, and subsequently KMB screwed up, their reactions helping to fuel Eddie’s decade-long campaign and keeping it on track. One should also say that from the late 70s onward, PN policies were clear and consistent. Muscat’s campaign to date has a bit of “one-two-three-four, what are we are we fighting for?” ring to it.