There’s no need for vain promises
Some people just can't stick to the day job
If Joseph Muscat isn’t careful, he’s going to end up hoist by his own petard after he wins the general election in 2013.
He’s taken a leaf out of Alfred Sant’s book and is raising expectations about things that commonsense tells us he cannot deliver.
But not everyone has commonsense, and of those who do, a significant number are quite keen on giving an open interpretation to what has been said, and even imagining that things have been said when they haven’t, simply because it makes them feel better and gives them hope.
Over on the internet comments-boards, they have even convinced themselves that when Muscat becomes prime minister, he will slash the salaries of cabinet ministers and members of parliament back to what they were.
Aside from the fact that this will make no difference to the price of bread, gas or electricity, no government can renege on a salary agreement, and even if the incoming prime minister were somehow able to do so, he wouldn’t because it would mean slashing the income of his own people, with the resulting revolution among the troops.
But even so, what is interesting is the fact that Joseph Muscat never said or even implied that he will do away with the salary increases. He is merely fomenting discord and encouraging resentment about them, and people have completed the sentence in their own minds, utterly without foundation: ‘If he is against the salary increases, then he will end them.”
Such credulity is the result of hysterical thinking, but even credulous and hysterical people have a vote and it doesn’t take much to put the choice of the credulous and hysterical in government, as we shall soon see.
The thing is that in 1996 Alfred Sant needed to promise what he couldn’t deliver because the government was on a roll. People were comfortable enough to feel they could afford to try him out, but still he needed that Big Something Extra to swing him into power. And so he promised the undeliverable: that he would get rid of VAT.
What he didn’t say was that he would replace it with something truly dreadful and unworkable, and even more of a burden, called CET. His finance minister resigned, people stopped boasting that they had voted for him (that was fun to watch) and after 22 months his government collapsed.
The same people who rushed to vote him in then rushed back to vote him out while denying that they had ever voted for him in the first place, and God help anyone who reminded them that they had boasted about it in the immediate aftermath of electoral success.
But Joseph Muscat doesn’t need to do the same. He doesn’t need to prod and coax people into thinking that when he becomes prime minister, families of five or six people will be able to live well on a single working-man’s wage and even go on holiday.
He doesn’t need to give them the impression (while not actually saying so) that he will slash the price of electricity, gas and diesel. He doesn’t need to do any of that because the government is too busy losing the election with those ghastly backbenchers trying their damnedest to sink the ship they’re sailing on, and with its inability to manage public perception.
Those backbenchers – and one EU Commissioner who had better concern himself with EU diaries and Christmas Day instead of constantly licking his wounds like a sore rat on Super One – like to make out that the prime minister is the problem. How wrong they are.
If Lawrence Gonzi is the problem, then how do they account for the fact that every time he speaks in debates, he beats his opponents and convinces a sizeable part of his audience? He is invariably calm, rational, measured, logical and well prepared. His opposite number ends up reduced to cockiness and thinly veiled personal insults.
So no – they, those backbenchers, are the problem, and they are so far up themselves that they can’t even see it. Because they think they deserve more attention and importance than they are given, the boss who isn’t giving them the attention and importance they believe to be theirs by right is the one whose head should roll.
Really, it’s incredible.
John Dalli isn’t even too embarrassed to admit this on their behalf. Here he is again, griping in the newspapers because people don’t think that the Nationalist Party is their home any more. They feel left out. They don’t recognise it for what it was and for how it developed. Well, thank God for that.
If the Nationalist Party were still what it was back in the day, then I for one wouldn’t be voting for it, just as nobody in either my maternal or paternal families did, and for the same reasons. People like Jean Pierre Farrugia, John Dalli, Jesmond Mugliett and Robert Arrigo and others I would rather not mention fail to understand that they are part of what makes the Nationalist Party unattractive to people like me. They actually believe they are the main draw.
Who are these people who don’t feel at home in the Nationalist Party? Electors don’t vote for a party because they feel at home in it, or because they can go in and out of party HQ and be recognised and smiled at and go in and out of doors and stuff things in envelopes and stop by the leader’s office for a nice chat and to tell him how to do his job while calling the various messengers by their nicknames. The individuals who feel this way are in the minority, and they include our awful, griping EU Commissioner and his coterie of resentful backbenchers.
They don’t understand that the world has changed and that the structure and organisation of political parties has changed with it. They are living and breathing in a bygone age. Yes, but with one crucial ingredient of that bygone age conspicuously absent: irgulija, which has no accurate equivalent in English because gentlemanliness doesn’t quite cut it.
Commissioner Dalli’s behaviour is so far removed from irgulija and gentlemanliness that he is, unfortunately, a glaring illustration of the biting truism that, inevitably, breeding will out. The man hasn’t any. His behaviour is disgraceful.
One can understand and brush off an initial bitter reaction in the immediate aftermath of disappointment, but constant whinging and griping and public displays of self-pity are, for want of a better expression, so very tacky.
He feels encouraged by the support he gets from the common man, failing to understand that the common man relates to his behaviour precisely because it is so very common, and by that, I don’t mean ‘frequently occurring’. He should know that something much more, and better, is expected of him in his exalted position – a position he petitioned for, was given, and then proceeded to describe as a prison sentence.
Meanwhile, Dr Farrugia, in his rude, impulsive, ill-conceived and badly written email to his party colleagues, claimed to model himself on Ugo Mifsud Bonnici. What an embarrassment for him, and what an irritation for Dr Mifsud Bonnici, a gracious gentleman of the old school, both in politics and in daily life.
If Jean Pierre Farrugia truly believes that the former president is the sort of man (or was the sort of politician) who would vent his frustration in a rude, disloyal, abrasive and, above all, poorly written and ungrammatical round-robin email, telling the recipients to leak it if they wish because he doesn’t care either way, then he really has no insight at all.
Ugo Mifsud Bonnici is a gentleman, was a consummate politician and, above all, constructs elegant and eloquent sentences devoid of multiple exclamation marks.
This article is published in The Malta Independent on Sunday today.
22 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
I tend to differ.
During election campaigns the Nationalists offer the world to the general public. Nowadays, the new left wing movement is doing just the same even though election day is two years down the lane.
Both parties are failing to realize that fewer and fewer people are taking the bait. The number of people, middle class and youth willing to cast their vote are fading.
Hamruniz! I can only recall elections post 1982 and the victories obtained by the PN were all based on crucial macro policies that were assiduously implemented. On the contrary the MLP’s only victory in this span of time was based on a macro policy which could not be delivered – VAT!
Hamruniz, better have a party promising the world but delivering a little less due to changing circumstances than a party which has no idea how to manage its own affairs, let alone lead a country.
The Labour Party is, in my mind, afraid to govern because all the bull they are trying to feed you, they will have to fulfill if by some odd chance they find themselves governing.
Joe Muscat should tell the public how he would do better, based on costed-out projects, show us how he would reduce the cost of living, lower electricity bills, give out higher wages, reduce income taxes and invest in green technology without raising taxes.
He won’t, because he can’t, but the gullible will swallow everything including the garbage which comes out in the form of lame policy by the Labour Party.
John Dalli, Jean Pierre Farrugia, and all the other whinging back benchers (or is it back stabbers?) are only doing harm to their political selves. Voters who have some sense will not vote for them the next time round. Those who have no common sense, will not vote Nationalist anyway.
Daphne, nobody on the island can express the sentiments of disgruntled Nationalists like you do. Not disgruntled because of the government, far from it.
We are disgruntled by the actions of the people you mention in your article who are letting the side down. After years of embarrassment under a Labour administration, we rebuilt our pride in our country and those of us who have lived abroad for many years have nothing but huge respect for Nationalists leaders.
To witness the whinging, griping and backbiting by these people is so, so sad. Surely the best course of action, should they be so unhappy with their lot, is to retire gracefully and let someone else get on with it.
Their unhappiness is nothing short of pitiful and in my view they are sliding very quickly towards the political trash heap.
Mhux li kien John Dalli jilhaq Kummissarju tad-Dinja Kollha forsi jdabbar rasu u jhallina bi kwietna.
Don’t worry, he’ll get private work lobbying for big pharma after this expensive stint on the public coffers. I assume he’d still want to be the paladin of the poor Maltese, though.
I think that Labour will win the next general election not on its merit but thanks to the own-goals scored by PN backbenchers and the EU commisioner’s sour grapes.
The EU commisioner has not yet buried the hatchet with Gonzi and cannot come to grips with the fact that he lost the PN’s leader contest.
He confirms this by stating that after his four years as an EU commisioner (as if it were a prison sentence) he will bounce back. He goes on One TV at every given opportunity while forgetting that it was One TV that contributed to his character assassination re the false accustions against him.
I for one will stop voting for the PN if he becomes leader. Somebody who hits out at his own party for his personal gain does not deserve to be trusted.
The PN’s dissenting backbenchers are delivering Joseph Muscat a hands-down victory as now even PN supportors are starting to believe Joseph Muscat’s nonesense talk and empty promises.
Let us put it frankly. Is it fair that a minister only receives his parliamentary salary and nothing else and that a member of the opposition receives the salary of his job (because he is entilted to keep his job) and he receives the parliamentary salary beause he is an MP?
As usual Joseph Muscat has managed to twist this argument in his favour beacause it is very easy to pour salt on a sore wound when everybody is feeling the brunt of high prices.
Prices have gone up; nobody can deny that. It’s stupid to blame the government for taking 60c per litre (38c excise duty and 22c -18% VAT) as if buying oil in itself will do the trick.
If through those taxes and the extra costs of electricity and water bills the government is partly financing an extension to the sorely needed power station, then so be it.
What Joseph Muscat does not say is that once he is in government he will wreck the ship in no time and declare the country banckrupt if he delivers his empty promises – just as what happened in Greece.
He has promised a living wage to those who cannot afford to live comfortably even though they occupy a post of no responsibility and I am left to battle with the 600 people under my responibility trying to peruade them that they have to work for their living and not just wait for Joseph’s manna instead of encouraging them to be creative and work harder.
In my opinion we are back to the old Mintoffian days when ignorance and laziness were exalted and people expected social benefits for doing nothing.
We must keep in mind one thing: that nothing comes for free. When somebody gets a social benefit someone else is paying for it and this someone is the average middle class person who Joseph Muscat is saying that Gonzi has killed.
Then there is the deficit thing. Gone are the days when the government borrows without end. Now has come a time when we cannot keep on borrowing ad infinitum.
Firstly, because the EU won’t let us even if Joseph Muscat is in power. Secondly, because we will make our country go bankrupt. So don’t be fooled by cheap promises.
Ahjar gvern Nazzjonalista hazin milli gvern Laburista tajjeb – how true.
Ingrates
Unconnected – The Sunday Times, today – Kurt Farrugia on the University Page – is he the same Kurt as in Maltastar?
If John Dalli is so bitter at Lawrence Gonzi, why did he accept his appointment as EU commissioner in the first place?
[Daphne – You mean: why did he ASK FOR IT IN THE FIRST PLACE? It wasn’t offered to him. He asked for it. And when he got it, he proceeded to call it a four-year prison sentence. What an a**hole. No better word, sorry.]
Long in the tooth, I hope that Dalli does not aspire to taking another shot at PN leadership.
The few ‘rebels without a cause’ will never be sufficient to back him up when it really counts.
John Dalli should do himself and us a big favour and savour his remaining years of unprecedented salary and perks and just please shut up.
The public has a tendency of to remember the more recent events than the past. So any good Dalli did in the past as finance minister will be a blur but his spiteful attacks on the Prime Minister will stick like glue in people’s minds.
[Daphne – You are only as good as your last movie….]
Give it a rest, John.
John Dalli must have forgotten that old Maltese saying about what you should not do to water you drink of. If he thinks he is gaining any support from Nationalists (disgruntled or not) he is severely mistaken. Nobody has any sympathy for a sore loser.
How about, “Iddardarx il-bir li trid tixrob minnu”?
Min ra il programm Bondi+ nahseb li nnota li Marlene Pullicino qalet li il-PL jaqbel li is-sussidju fuq l-energijja ma jinghatax lil kulhadd imma qalet ukoll li il-figura ta’ 30000 illum zdiedet.
Issa is-sinjura Pullicino Orlando hi l-ispokeswoman tal-PL dwar l-energijja. Lou Bondi qalah fl-ahhar ghandna iz-zewg partiti jaqblu fuq dan il-principju.
Issa jigi Dr Muscat fid-diskors li ghamel waqt id-dimostrazjoni u jghid li is-sussidju jinghata lil kulhadd. Hawwadni ha nifhem. Min qed jghid il-verita minnhom?
The executive has blundered repeatedly of late.
The PM’s inner circle is long overdue for a radical overhaul.
Whoever advises the head of the executive on PR has to be sent back to the drawing board or to school if need be.
Basically these problems are all minor mid-term blues. However, if not dealt with appropriately, they can snowball and be a cause of end of term disappointment.
Having said all this, all I ask from my government is that I be allowed to work and to live with peace of mind.
I have all of this and more.
I have no intention whatsoever of moving home.
As if it is not enough that the prime minister has to deal with the MLP’s attacks, now he has to deal the PN backbenchers who are spoiled rotten.
If the PN loses the next election, these unappreciative politicians will be remembered not for what they did for the grand party but for giving us the MLP back in power again – a party known for high unemployment, anti-Europeanism and violence.
The MLP in government will no doubt engineer a clever policy to pull Malta out of the EU. I am convinced their master plan is already formulated in Hamrun.
There are appropriate channels to communicate disagreement with the prime minister and they are more dignified. What a disgrace these Nationalist backbenchers are.
Under the MLP people experienced intimidation, cruelty, violent personal attacks and even death, and these backbenchers couldn’t care less about the victims.
I hope electors teach them a lesson in the next election.
How right you are, Matt. It seems these people want to be remembered as the equivalent of Mintoff who screwed his own party.
It was all right for us to risk our lives at Zejtun and our jobs for the sake of democracy in our country. Now they want to be the crap we wanted to get rid of.
John Dalli would do well to remember, when he goes on One TV, that if he ever gets his wish of becoming PN leader, then One TV will round on him immediately and never let up about his brother Bastjan and his other brother Dun Gorg, and his business interests.
How can he really believe that they are doing anything but using him? He should know better.
Even today, Labour supporters think of Dalli in the negative image portrayed by their leaders in the past, with all the connections of barunijiet u kuntratturi etc.
Do ALL EU commissioners interfere in individual states’ politics?
He seems to forget that he is an EU commissioner and not a Maltese anything, other than citizen since he accepted the post of commissioner.
Fact of life. As we speak, there is no decent alternative to a Nationalist government. Does that mean the Nationalists are doing it right? No way, and yes they have shot themselves in the foot many times especially of late.
But can anyone contemplate ”paying them back” by replacing them with a bunch of incompetent fools who will destroy Malta as we enjoy it today?
Does anyone seriously think that Labour, new Labour, or whatever they want to call themselves would have handled the recession any better than Gonzi and co., have? They could not even handle a simple tax like VAT, so imagine a world recession.
If disgruntled Nationalist supporters (or in this case disgruntled and DISLOYAL MPs as well) want to pay their party back by electing Labour then it says a lot about their level of intelligence.
Talk about cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face! Instead, why not engage in some healthy debate and use convincing arguments to back Gonzi in sacking ministers who have let down the nation (never mind their constituents) so badly.
I would rather work towards improving a party which has proved itself time and time again, than risk electing some idiot on the pretext that ‘we need a change’. Excuse me, but a change to what?
It’s haywired to vote PN just because there’s no one better than them. There are good reasons for voting PN.
As far as I know the majority of Maltese own their own home, own at least one car, dress well, go out for Sunday lunch, travel at least once a year etc. What else you want to complain about?
Johnny Dalli missu jirringrazzja lin-Nazzjonalisti mela joqghod jipprova jaghmel hsara lill-kap tal-partit f’cirkostanzi hekk delikati.
Jien naf canvassers kbar ta’ Dalli imma llum ma jridux jafu bih, anzi daru kontrih qatta bla habel.
Min jitwieled tond ma jmutx kwadru. U anke dawn il-back benchers hekk qed jiggrilhom.
“Hamilton Travel ihabbar gita ghal Brussels – inzuru fost l-ohrajn l-ufficcjua tal-Kummissarju Dalli fejn jinghata djarju ta’ tifkira.”
Possibli tiflah taqa daqshekk cheap, Sur Dalli?
Nixtieq li Gonzi heles minni bhalek u baghtni naqli xi mitejn elf fis-sena mill-anqas u flok naghmel xogholi tiela u niezel Malta mohhni fil-hmerijiet.