Government by Super One
Look, there's no need to fight. Joseph can have the party and you can have Super One.
The Nationalist Party is a political party with a media machine attached, which it uses to put across its message. But it has become increasingly clear that over on the other side, the reverse is true.
Super One is a media machine with a political party attached, which it uses to put across its message. It is not the Labour Party which is seeking election to government. It is Super One.
The PN media are functional tools in the hands of the Nationalist Party.
But the Labour Party is a functional tool in the hands of Super One and its offshoots Maltastar and KullHadd. While the PN media are used to aid in the re-election of the Nationalist Party, the Labour Party is being used to aid in the election of Super One.
Super One’s profile – its brand, if you like – is now no longer part and parcel of the Labour Party but rather the other way round. The Labour Party is part of Super One. Super One’s profile dominates that of the Labour Party, which over the past two years has suffered a great deal of confusion as to name, identity, brand and logo and is still without any of those.
Super One, on the other hand, has a strong identity, albeit a malignant one, and it has taken over from the party in terms of public perception. The Labour Party is now, in the public eye, Super One.
I don’t think the Labour Party itself is aware of this. That was bound to be a danger of electing as leader somebody who comes not from the party’s political wing but from its media stable. The Labour Party is led not by a seasoned politician but by a Super One hatchet-man, the predecessor of Charlon Gouder, and while the effect of this was already evident two years ago, now it is inescapably obvious.
Muscat knows nothing about politics and policy-making and the party is being run as one huge media machine, with Super One taking over completely. Instead of Super One serving the interests of the party, the party has been brought to the stage where it is serving the interests of Super One.
While Muscat runs his party like a political media organisation, with all the emphasis on creating ‘news stories’ rather than writing sound policy, at the same time he has entirely lost or given up control of the actual media machine that is there to do his bidding. Again, this was bound to happen when he made his Faustian pact, dissolved the role of secretary-general and kicked Jason Micallef sideways into the chairmanship of Super One.
It was obvious that somebody of Micallef’s personality and temperament was not going to accept the boss’s decision and toe the line. It did not take a master’s degree in psychology to work out that Micallef would take Super One hostage and build a rival organisation within the Labour Party, his personal realm.
This is what has happened. Super One and Maltastar are now no longer fighting the Labour Party’s battles or working to the Labour Party’s agenda. They are fighting the personal battles of the individuals who control the Labour media, and who are failing to put the party’s interests first and foremost. Over the last few days, for example, I have received more negative coverage on Maltastar than the Labour leader has received positive coverage.
How is that going to help in the election of the Labour Party to government? People are not being asked to vote for me as prime minister. They are being asked to vote for Joseph Muscat. There have been more leading articles on Maltastar dedicated to bitching about me in a schoolyard fashion, to say nothing of the execrable spelling, vocabulary and grammar, than there have been leading articles which detail the achievements of Joseph Muscat so that we may applaud them.
Last Monday on BondiPlus, Muscat was asked why Super One has from the outset taken upon itself to serve as Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s defender, when this is not a political case but a matter of the administration of justice. Muscat’s response was that he has nothing to do with the stories covered by Super One.
He does not telephone Super One every morning to see what they are doing, he said. I was flabbergasted, but this admission of lack of synchronisation and control told me all I need to know about how and why Super One’s identity, brand, image and direction have now parted company completely with Muscat’s weak and ultimately ill-fated efforts at a new and different image.
Super One undermines those efforts. I had up to Monday wondered about the inherent schizophrenia in what Muscat says and does and the completely contradictory messages he uses Super One and Maltastar to convey. I reasoned that if he doesn’t clamp down on them, then he is responsible for that editorial line and those methods, for the simple reason that the party media are there to serve the party and promote its message only.
On Monday, I understood what I have suspected for some time now: that Super One is no longer within Muscat’s control and that it has been hijacked by Jason Micallef, who now runs it as he deems fit and as how he thinks a political party-cum-station should be run.
That is why Super One has continued to be run along the same disastrous, ill-thought-out and damaging lines it was before 2008, while Muscat makes weak and ineffectual attempts at mouthing platitudes about taking the party in a different direction, all of which are overshadowed and contradicted by his television station.
Lou Bondi wanted to know why Super One tied its flag to Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s mast from the outset of the controversy. The answer to that is simple: both Jason Micallef and Charlon Gouder are close friends of the magistrate. Both were inside the courtroom to support her when she spoke under oath, before I had them removed on the grounds that I will need to call them as witnesses at some point.
Gouder might have gone there masquerading as a Super One reporter, but Micallef had no real Super One role there at all. The chairmen of media organisations do not sit in court and write law reports. He was there as a friend and supporter of the magistrate, along with former Lorry Sant man Ronnie Pellegrini.
Joseph Muscat, when pressed, said on television that he will not enter into the merits of the Magistrate Scerri Herrera controversy. That’s a good thing, because he appears not to know any of the facts. He thinks there is a police investigation (there isn’t), for instance.
But the salient point here is that he is unable to stop his party’s media from fighting Magistrate Scerri Herrera’s battle, even if it means that the party is being hugely embarrassed and compromised by the situation. Joseph Muscat cannot control Jason Micallef, and Jason Micallef controls Super One.
This article is published in The Malta Independent today.
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“I have received more negative coverage on Maltastar than the Labour leader has received positive coverage. How is that going to help in the election of the Labour Party to government? People are not being asked to vote for me as prime minister. They are being asked to vote for Joseph Muscat.”
How true. Well said, Daphne.
This reminds me of the media war Labour declared against Where’s Everybody back in 2003. I remember the eve of the election the MLP aired a 30min feature on TV attacking WE as if it was them running for election. Do these people ever learn?
I never cease to be amazed at how you manage to come up with this sort of rational conclusion, based on facts that have been there in plain sight for all to see, but can’t be added up like you do. Ghandhek mohh tal-wahx.
Vera Alan, kultant inhossni stupidu meta nanalizza il-mod ta kif tanalizza Daphne. Ikolla ragun 100%. F’haga ma tantx naqbel maghha “How is that going to help in the election of the Labour Party to government?” Super One is NOT helping in any way and not even trying.
I lately suspect that there is a hidden agenda (at Super One) to damage Joseph Muscat in losing the coming election, maybe as payback for removing Jason Micallef as secretary-general. If this is right, they are doing a hell of a job because they won’t get my vote for sure.
Joseph Muscat should open his eyes. The PN won some elections thanks to Alfred Sant being Opposition leader, now all the PN needs to do is to let Super One continue heading towards the cliff edge.
They will fall very, very soon and thankfully not being in government they will fall alone. The only pity is that Malta deserves an alternative government, which is nowhere to be seen.
Well-written article, Daphne. You really hit the nail on the head with this one!
Joseph is not and never was in control. Now he is being dictated to, ignored and an anti-Joseph clan is forming behind his back and there is nothing he can do about it. They are much stronger than he is and chips off an old tough, unconscionable lot who will not listen to reason and still abide by ‘might is right’.
No wonder their sideshow (GWU) will set up meetings then not attend them because they realize that the majority are against their tough attitude and will not submit to reason, so they abstain.
Isn’t it a shame that each general election that comes along the voter who wavers or ‘floats’ has the capability of throwing this island thirty-some years back?
The NP is right in not wasting much energy fighting these brainless amoebas while continuing to concentrate on finishing projects and fulfilling promises made in the 2008 election campaign. The recession having interfered with the government’s plans may see tax cuts and some projects postponed, but one hopes that recovery will be fast and some of these promises fulfilled before 2013.
Good article. But still you hurt people’s feelings. And you should be ashamed of yourself for doing that.
By the way: I do NOT believe you when you say you passed your O-Level in Physics without (i) studying and (ii) not paying attention during classes. Do you have a hotline with the Holy Ghost?
[Daphne – If people don’t want their feelings to be hurt, they should stay out of public life. There is no shame in doing what I do, but quite the contrary. There is shame in colluding in our all-pervasive Sicilian omerta: don’t touch anyone lest they touch you. No doubt, the attempts that are currently being made on my entire family’s integrity have merely served to reinforce this popular wisdom. There is the world of difference between mocking politicians and those who are paid out of our taxes and lying about the various members of a journalist’s extended family in an attempt at blackmailing that journalist into not writing about facts (not lies) which those public persons would prefer to keep hidden. And while I cannot understand why you are so exercised by the O-level results of a 45-year-old woman, yes, that’s right – I didn’t study. I never have done. I am congenitally incapable of the concentration and tedium required for study. But I understand things easily and have a retentive, photographic memory. To give you an example, I did all the required reading for my English A-level on the actual eve of the exam and got an A. Now please change the subject, because it is beyond ridiculous.]
Year of the Tiger – you are obviously very young and inexperienced and, possibly, aspiring to be the President of the USA! Best of luck
Let it go and when you mature come back with some serious comments.
Nisthajjel li dan Year of the Tiger wiehed minn dawk li jaghmlu ljieli shah jistudjaw, imorru hazin fl-ezamijiet xorta u imbaghad jaghmlu ta’ bir-ruhhom li ma jistudjawx, ghax huma “cool”. U ma jistghux jaccettaw il-fatt li haddiehor ahjar minnhom.
O Levels are a breeze. You really can pass them without studying. I did it. And if I did, so can Daphne.
Why is this person so consumed with O-level passes and their number? Is he perhaps a collector of scraps of paper framed up on his wall only to break down in a job interview? Grow up man.
Good article, Daphne.
But there is one mistake: The media machine has recently changed its name from Super One to just ‘One’.
They don’t want to state the obvious, that they are ‘super’ that is.
Yanika, well, they are not stating the obvious with “One” either. They are Two, the media, and the party. The media has joined another party …one organised by Consuelo.
Daphne, Alfred Sant over the years as party leader worked surreptitiously to weaken the criminal thugs of his Labour supporters.
It has become clear now that under Joseph Muscat’s leadership a U-turn has taken place. He is so keen in not alienating anyone from the higher hierarchy that he inadvertently has unleashed the wicked minds of the old guard to restore to the old methods: violence, intimidation and hatred.
I sincerely hope the people today will find the Labour old methods unacceptable. It’s going to get worse. The writing is on the wall.
The Opposition leader is finding it increasingly difficult to control all the factions of his party. The interview on Bondiplus revealed this.
I do not believe Alfred Sant really expelled any thugs from the Labour Party; they were simply swept under the carpet because they were rightly thought to be an embarrassment.
The present resurgence of thuggery – both moral and physical – within the Labour camp has been possible, in part, because, although Alfred Sant himself did not approve of violence, he never condemned the innumerable violent episodes which had been committed previously and never took a firm stand against the mentality which had produced such acts. All his decisions, at least in this sphere, were dictated merely by convenience and not taken on principle.Throughout the years of his leadership, Labourites privately continued to believe that the violence had been justified.
Joseph Muscat is too young to remember the electoral harm that the Żwieten, as they were collectively known (even if they weren’t all from Zejtun), did to the MLP, or maybe he believes that enough time has passed and people have forgotten. Whatever the reason, Labour is reverting to its old habits and starting again to use violence, in all its forms, as a routine political tool.
Antoine, good point about the carpet. Apparently, Alfred Sant had a tendency of projecting onto others his own political deeds. Remember him accusing the PN government of “jitfa kollox taht it-tapit”?
Similar to “Hbieb tal-hbieb” – we have recently learned more how his friends in Super One have befriended elements in the judiciary and the police.
I disagree slightly with you about “Joseph Muscat is too young to remember the electoral harm that the Żwieten, as they were collectively known (even if they weren’t all from Zejtun), did to the MLP” – to the MLP? It wouldn’t matter if they harmed the MLP, but they did a lot of harm to many other innocent people, as in Tal-Barrani.
…re your last comment, and yet you were taken in by Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando at the last election. Can’t forgive you for that.
[Daphne – Do you think I can forgive myself?]
Anke nies li jafuh sew belawa. Naf nies li ma’ kienux ha jivvutaw, imbaghad ivvutaw PN bis-sahha tal-biki ta’ JPO.
An article written with amazing clarity and intuition.
I despair for Malta. Labour had a golden opportunity to redeem themselves by electing Dr Abela as their leader and once again they flunked the test. This country is destined to spend the foreseeable future keeping people out rather than voting for the right policies at the right time.
I agree but with caution: Gonzi has to continue reining in the greedy and mopping up the sleaze. I understand that after such a long time in government things get difficult to control. If we get the same farce as last election I will refrain from voting or even vote Labour.
I don’t want the PN to escape the coals of public indignation simply because Labour is being held hostage by its goons with the leadership only for show. The party hierarchy is upside down!
I am aware that this comment is simply that, a comment from a lone voter but still that’s what I hold dear.
[Daphne – Fuzzy logic, Joseph: vote in the goons for five years to rake the PN over the coals. Bit of a masochistic, aren’t you?]
If the PN doesn’t regenerate (something that seems to be finally happening but I’m wary as the election is still far away and things haven’t gone as far as I’d like them to go) then losing the election would help kick-start some soul searching for the party to find it’s way again. I’m confident the party will resurge as it always works best in adversity.
We already have a useless party, too much success risks breaking the only one still with standing and credibility with the speculators and conmen infiltrating the party-machinery for lucre.
Incidentally, do you think Malta would be better off with three or four parties? The UK is teetering towards a hung parliament and there’s a real possibility of a coalition with the Lib Dems. I think in the UK’s case it would be a step in the right direction.
I hope that makes some sort of sense; it is very clear to me though.
“….(PN) losing the election would help kick-start some soul searching….”
Hasn’t worked very well for the LP even after five election losses and one lost referendum!
Staqsi lil tal-Maltastar.com kemm hi brava Daphne – ghax wehedha gabithom qisom pupazzi. Anqas jafu x’se jaqbdu jivvintaw aktar biex jaghlqulha halqa.
Tant hu hekk li zvugaw fil-gideb. Kemm huma tal-affari taghhom hux, Alla jbierek. Dawk progressivi! Kieku mhux hekk ma’ jaghtux kasa. Imma dawn boloh per eccelenza. New Labour tad-dahq.
My question to Joseph Muscat is one – what the hell is it exactly that the leader of the Labour Party does?
How Maltastar wish they could write like this!
So true Daphne…. I cannot understand how people are figuring Joseph Muscat electable as our Prime Minister
@ Year of the Tiger….
You can believe whatever you like, however it is surprising how you then believe your leader Joseph Muscat.
Brilliant article Daph. Perfect thinking and logic. However there’s one flaw in trying to give the benefit of doubt to the Labour Party: things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.
The Labour Party had the chance to redeem itself when it had the opportunity to choose George Abela to lead it. It lost that chance. It can only blame itself for the mess it is in, which only makes it an uphill struggle for this country to prove its democratic credentials.
Dr. Muscat, in trying to wash his hands like Pontius Pilate (how ironic for this time of the year), further condemned the Labour Party. I never had any sympathy for the Labour Party and these recent antics just made me invest in a longer bargepole. Probably it has the same affect on any Doubting Thomas.
Daphne, I don’t think that the relatives of ex Gozitan MP Mr Louis Refalo will be pleased to see this photo again on your blog.
This will recall nasty memories of when Mr Refalo was, involuntarily and without his knowledge – he suffers from ill health – ‘kidnapped’ and taken to a Labour Party conference at Ta’ Cenc.
Later in the evening, One News claimed that he was now a disgruntled Nationalist and that he had switched over to Labour.
Members of his family were extremely annoyed with this statement.
[Daphne – I hadn’t realised it was him, nor the full extent of just how shocking that story was. I actually thought Mr Refalo went to that conference of his own free will, because I quite literally couldn’t believe that Jason Micallef and Joseph Muscat would sink so low as to manipulate somebody who is in no position to decide for himself. But then, what am I saying? Hadn’t they done the same with Jo Said in the last general election? He, too, was unwell. He used to ring me at all hours of the day and night – even at 1am one time – until my husband had to take the phone and ask him to stop.]
Joseph Muscat was a disater on Bondi plus. It amazed me when he spoke about the opera house site. He said something to this effect…”jien ma nifhimx fl-arti….” then continued to say that he had no opinion, and would look into it once he is prime minister.
He even went on to say he would do what Alfed Sant did with Mater Dei Hospital. How can the opposition leader have no opinion on a project which has been such a very hot topic, dominating so many conversations and the media?
What is also interesting about this article is that Joseph Muscat is now falling between two stools. He thinks like a journalist and TRIES to act like a politician.
As a leader he “reports” what he is told, superficially and without political substance. Can anyone figure out his proposal for a second university? Is this a justification to cover up Labour’s disaster on tertiary education when university was a no-go area?
Setting up a second university would not create competition but just two mediocre institutions, as one would drain the other of its resources. It would also drain the country of its financial resources.
What we need is to develop more R & D not set up sister faculties of basic arts and other courses. And by the way, if one had to see Dr Muscat’s 1996 dissertation on party funding, one would quickly understand how superficial he really is. Just go to the Melitensia section at the university library and look at his bibliography, which includes the Oxford English Dictionary and The March on Democracy, a two-volume book by James Truslow Adams, published in 1932 and 1933, chronicling the history of the United States of America.
The first volume covers America from discovery to settlement in 1860; the second volume reviews the American Civil War and the industrial revolution’s impact on the structure of the country.
It was part of a series of five volumes. Big Bird of Sesame Street owns a copy of the work. This is meant as a subtle visual joke, as Big Bird’s character is meant to be only six years old and relatively naive.
Joseph’s idea of a second university makes sense. It is rumoured that it will offer a two-year degree course. The first year will be called ‘Reception Class’ and the second year will be the ‘Repeater Class’.
Every enrolling student is guaranteed to obtain a dikri, especially those who attempted to read the law course at the University of Malta and failed several times.
No spelling is required. Cheating, lying, spinning, bad spelling, plagiarism and misrepresentation are prerequisites.
The only reason to suggest a second university is if somebody is pushing to develop a private university so that they can fleece the govt and students who want to try to get a tertiary education.
If this is the case, then local labour is a basket case beholden to corporate money.
Daphne, what you say in this article is so true, and so obvious, that I am kicking myself for not seeing it. You have a knack of putting in writing the thoughts I would have jumbled up in my head, but it’s only when I see it in your writing that it all finally makes sense.
It is not Joseph Muscat who is a disaster. It is the party he leads and if the party he leads is elected to govern it will be a disaster for Malta, and for Joseph Muscat too.
Daphne, good article, and your analysis makes a lot of sense.
I had some doubts about the photo. I thought this was another enactment of You may now Kiss the Groom as part of a simulation exercise in same-sex marriage (see your post of 24 March), considering that, on Bondi+, Joseph Muscat has now promised marriage, or something like it, to same-sex couples.
[Daphne – Yes, right. And he couldn’t reply when his interviewer asked him how he planned to get that past his party when he’s too scared to do it with divorce.]
He will get that past Super One for sure.
You see, back to the distinction between the two that you raised!
@DemOn A distinction that isn’t