Joseph Muscat is out of his depth
The promise
When Joseph Muscat was elected leader of the Labour Party, albeit without a seat in the house, he made grand promises of a bright new dawn for a party that had been in Opposition, by then, for the greater part of two decades.
For the next two years, he spoke about a young and dynamic movement – a Moviment Gdid – that would gather together within its peace ‘n’ love fold the various disparate factions that wished to be part of this happy rush towards progressive liberalism.
For those two years, the Labour Party was the party that dared not use its name or its emblem, the party forbidden to wave any flags but those of the European Union, which in earlier years its supporters had been accustomed to setting alight.
And then, after two years of discussions and competitions and decisions by committee, Labour finally unveiled – at an exhibition which the leader did not attend because one of his legs was giving him trouble – the new Labour emblem: ‘arma gdida ghal partit gdid’. The Labour Party also applied to the Planning Authority to have a balcony built over the main entrance to its headquarters, so that the leader might in the appropriate manner proclaim victory and receive the adulation of the crowds when he is elected prime minister two years hence.
Muscat brought in a chief executive officer on secondment from the beleaguered national airline, who has since not been seen or heard, deleted the post of secretary-general, and handed Super One to Jason Micallef as his own personal fiefdom.
And that’s where the change has stopped.
It has now become uncomfortably obvious that the 37-year-old who has spent the best part of his life living off the bank of mum and dad and the spoils of a fireworks chemicals business, who hasn’t worked other than as a Super One and Maltastar propaganda man and then as an MEP for four years, is completely out of his depth at the head of a deeply troublesome political party plagued with heavy baggage, riddled with knives, and liberally strewn with the intellectually and socially challenged.
Muscat is so far out of his depth that he is drowning. The signs are all there – but the bridesmaid press, acting as uncritically as it did with Alfred Sant in the mid-1990s, pretends that it does not see.
Every rare move is received with over-egged admiration that is fuelled mainly by hope: if this man is going to be our prime minister, so help us God, then we would prefer to see hope where there may be none lest we slit our wrists at the thought of the cock-ups yet to come.
The press is in a collective state of denial. We don’t want to see the truth because it would make us despair.
The signs have been there for some time. Over the last two-and-a-half years, Muscat has lost his hair, become prematurely bloated and heavy and yet, instead of fitting in with these blatant signifiers of stress, his facial expression has become emptier and shallower.
His withdrawal from public duties for most of the summer months should also have been cause for concern. But it wasn’t, not even when his wife began to appear in his stead.
The first alarm bells began to ring for reporters and commentators rather late in the day, when Muscat made his first statement about the stirrings of democracy among our North African neighbours and fell flat on his face. The scale of events clearly had escaped him completely.
It was as though, in the midst of the chaos and jubilation surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall, Malta’s opposition leader had suggested that the government ‘unleash a massive marketing campaign’ to bring to Valletta those tourists who were too afraid to go to Prague.
Nothing Muscat had done or said before that had raised questions about his intellectual prowess. But his tourism statement has done just that. His inability to see what was wrong with it – he said through a spokesman that he had a good laugh about the fuss – only raises more questions rather than assuaging our concerns.
Previous bad behaviour, like rejecting an invitation to a formal banquet and going to Sicily with Anglu Farrugia instead, being rude about the food by saying that he would prefer a hamburger, leaving the prime minister waiting in a studio for half an hour and turning up late to a meeting with the King of Spain, were seen as little more than evidence of poor breeding leading to appalling manners, and not a reflection on his intellectual strength.
Now we have reason to doubt that intellectual strength.
Almost three years into his leadership of the party, Joseph Muscat has yet to tell us what that party stands for. The fine talk about grand coalitions and new movements of liberals, progressives, homosexuals and separated people who want a divorce has dissipated.
He has backtracked and sidetracked on divorce, there is no mention of homosexuals any more lest old ladies are scared off and cease to fawn on Silvio Parnis, and the Labour Business Forum is a joke led by a criminal lawyer and a man being prosecuted for attempted murder.
Muscat bought Marisa Micallef’s scalp at a high price and then realised too late that by turning her into a mercenary he had negated the very same influence he sought to buy. So even that was a bad step and a waste of time and money.
As to what Labour stands for under Joseph Muscat, we are no wiser now than we were when he was elected. We are, in fact, more confused. He sends his supporters out into the streets waving EU flags as a sign of his commitment to EU membership, but when he announced his shadow cabinet last week, he chose George Vella for shadow foreign affairs minister, a man more forcefully and rabidly against EU membership than Sant himself.
For almost three years Muscat has done nothing about an electoral programme which might tell us where the party stands. Now that he has finally decided to start doing something about it in a panic as the months tick by, the man he chooses for that purpose is not some thrusting new figure without baggage and with a fresh approach to the future.
It is Karmenu Vella, remembered by those of my generation as a cabinet minister in the oppressive regimes of Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. And he has named him shadow finance minister.
The rest of his shadow cabinet is no less dispiriting. Muscat’s big plans for a movement that represents the aspirations of new generations of Maltese have come to this: a line-up of relics from the General Workers Union, Lorry Pullicino’s police force and the cabinets and backbenches of Dom Mintoff, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici and Alfred Sant.
The new faces, such as they are, amount to little more than the likes of Silvio Parnis, a man who trades in favours, as evidenced during a parliamentary question only this week, and who posts photographs of himself modelling – yes, modelling – on social networking sites like Hi5.
Muscat may be completely out of his depth, but he is probably not unduly concerned. He knows that it is possible to win a general election without knowing exactly what you’re doing, plan to do, or how to do it, because he was right there with Alfred Sant when Sant did the exact same thing.
He now hopes that what he thinks is Karmenu Vella’s expert touch from the governments of the 1970s and 1980s will pull him through what comes after the victory. That’s because his grandmother convinced him that life under Mintoff, when Vella was a cabinet minister, was great.
And so Karmenu Vella, who was in government in 1981, will be writing the programme to shape Malta’s future in 2013.
Will the last one out pull down the blinds.
This article is published in The Malta Independent today.
And the reality
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I almost – but not quite – feel sorry for Muscat. The raw material at his disposal is of such poor quality it’s made him believe that his own intellect is the real McCoy.
The trouble for him is that he’s still stuck with all that rubbish.
The trouble for us is that they’ll probably be elected anyway.
The Times and the usual “comment-posters” seem to disagree…
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110203/local/malta-benefits-from-egyptian-port-disruptions
Don’t you think the headline is an attempt at vindication of our Dear Leader?
[Daphne – Kurt Sansone wrote it. I always read the by-line before I read the report. Given that Kurt is one of those former AD activists who think that Joseph Muscat is their new political home, I am far more interested in the angle he gives to stories rather than the stories themselves. I think he’s forgotten that he no longer works for Malta Today, where, when we last spoke eight years ago, he haranged me down the telephone using words like ‘stupid bitch’ because, in one of my last articles before the 2003 general election, I had carefully explained that all those who wanted Malta to join the EU should vote PN and not AD, so as not to split the pro-EU vote and get the anti-EU party elected. This was in direct contrast to the propaganda being spread by AD, and Kurt was hysterically angry. I basically told him to go and f**k himself, that I wasn’t having a bunch of nitwits like him ruining our chances of EU membership just to get some AD chancer a seat in the house.]
Viva Joseph, study this sentence well:
The sources, who did not want to be named, said Mediterranean ports, including those in Malta, were benefitting from the situation although this was expected to be short-lived.
Those idiots have missed the whole point. It’s quite obvious that neighbouring countries will benefit from the instability in Tunisia and Egypt.
But no head of state or government should ACTIVELY encourage anyone to piggyback on the misfortunes of others. Imagine if the PM had said what Muscat said, the embassies reporting back to their capitals, and they would not take kindly to such remarks when so many of their citizens have died and are suffering.
Not to mention that the historic significance of what is happening in North Africa has whizzed past him completely.
Last time I checked, there was no magic spacetime-wormhole-canal to the Indian Ocean at Malta Freeport. But perhaps I need to buy a new atlas.
The headline is misleading (purposely?) because the story does not mention one single concrete case of “benefits” but only quotes “sources who did not want to be named” mentioning vaguely that some ships may be re-routed to Malta.
So Kurt does whatever he pleases and what about the editor?
The above article illustrates just why the PL tries to discredit you. You are brilliant at depicting a true picture of what is really happening within the PL. They find an excuse and attack your blog but articles like the one above are really what matter and they know it.
Yes, unfortunately it looks like the PL will get elected. Today’s youths have never had it so good and they think the situation will remain the same. They do not remember or care about what happened during Labour governments.
This is the same for the so called ‘floating’ voters. Now it is up to the PN to really embark on an aggressive campaign to make people realise how truly the country has advanced since they have been in government.
The PL TV and radio bombard viewers all hours of the day and night (they repeat their news bulletins even at night time) with their propaganda whilst the PN is complacent and is not doing enough to convince the electorate what it has done and what it plans to do. Wake up PN – it is not too late yet.
I’m more than sure that he’ll never make it to Castille.
from today’s times comments
S Vella(1 hour, 45 minutes ago)
After all Joseph Muscat is not immature in what he said!! Time proved him right straigh away.
Joseph is a young sharp genius and he can forecast and see long term.
So is tha Government going to refuse these transhipments now? because they are coming from Egyptian ports?
Those who tried to misinterprit what Joseph said were given an factual answear straight away.
I remember when Dr Muscat was elected as party leader. The first thing he did was praise Mintoff. I was told that was something he sort of had to do in order to please his supporters. I wasn’t convinced, not that that made-up reason gave me any piece of mind anyway.
I thought it was a direct invitiation from Dr Muscat to Mintoff, telling him that he is welcome to come back, after Sant and him fell out. And sure enough, Mintoff showed up at the Labour Headquarters not so long after, and sure enough “Front Maltin Inqumu” wakes up, along with the Malta Communist Party,
I know I read too much into things, so someone correct me if I’ve gone off at a tangent. But from the start I felt that something was not quite right.
Then people started telling me that I was a conservative, which came completely out of the blue. Then, those who were in denial of the sad sorry state of Maltese politics, started going on about how the PL are the new Liberals, that it was unfair to always bring up the past, and that I shouldnt bully the PL by using their history against them.
What madness is this? Since when is someone’s past not relevant when they are in politics? Your reputation is everything in politics. Why do so many people insist that it is unfair to bring up the PL’s past?
[Daphne – Because they want to justify their decision to vote for them in the present, to themselves as well as to others, and because they know within themselves that this decision is inherently stupid. The more defensive people are about their decisions, and the more hostility they manifest to people who debate their wisdom, the more confident you can be of their self-doubt and fundamental uncertainty about what they have done or decided. This applies to every area of life and politics is not divorced from life. I have absolutely no qualms about telling people that I have better judgement than to vote for such rubbish, and at this stage in life I am not even embarrassed to tell people like the ones you mention that if they are planning on voting for Joseph Muscat they should keep that fact to themselves lest smarter people rate them as not particularly bright. But then it usually is the case that they’re not particularly bright, I find. It’s not a coincidence that the messier people’s personal lives are, the more likely they are to drift to Joseph Muscat.]
I think it might not be fair to always bring up the past if the PL actually did something to rectify those wrongs.
A few ideas would be:
1) Issue a proper formal apology.
2) Get rid of anyone who had anything to do with Labour in the 70s and 80s.
3) Prosecute those who were guilty of criminal offences.
These things are not going to happen, however, are they?
R. Camilleri –
Point (2) is a huge one. Most would love to see the back of the undesirables you refer to, for good – but then just who else is there to replace them?
Most of those with any scruples or sound principles or talent have upped and left over the years, and who can blame them?
So then what – start a new MLP/LP/Moviment Gdid from scratch? Hey – now there’s an idea.
…aha…well let me remind you that during 22 out of the last 24 a certain “Nationalist Party” was in power…which means, may I explain, that they nominate the Minister responsible for the Police, among other duties. So how about that, dear R. Camilleri? I mean…what really do you suggest…the Labour Party setting up kangaroo courts or something like that, acting as a sort of private justice system. You should give your suggestions to those who govern the country, dear R. Camilleri.
Dear Albert,
you should know that I have no love for the PN and the day that a proper liberal party makes it onto our political scene, they will have my vote. You equate disliking the PL with being a PN apologist.
If anything, not even the minister for justice is responsible for prosecuting anyone. The courts/police are. The government has indeed been spineless (albeit diplomatic) in handling the people responsible for the horrors of our past.
In reality however, the PL would have more to gain by pushing for justice than the PN do. Come election time, you will see adverts linking PL members with their past atrocities. Sane people get scared from voting PL. This works for the PN. If the PL wants to detach itself from its past, it has to be honest and own up to it and assure people that those days are over.
So fine, dear Albert, you caught me out on a technicality. The PL cannot prosecute anyone. They sure can use their influence though.
Not even a still life photograph could capture the reality in as much detail as this piece.
The “take-their-tourists-whilst-they-bleed” blunder is symptomatic of at least four other issues.
1. When talking, this person cannot sense a pitfall in a mile, and when he does he gladly jumps into it
2. This person is not aware that the price tag of a holiday in Tunisia is far off the lower end of our price bracket.
3. This person is not given, or does not want, sound advice from his troop (granted it’s not available).
4. This person cannot own up to his mistakes.
The worst thing is not that he is not a statesman, but that those clamouring for change are not interested in having one either.
I guess Winston was right all along then.
Look at them in that picture. They are well and truly out of the woodwork. An assortment of windbags who don’t think they caused enough damage to this country.
They are nothing but the shameful face of Labour from the 70s and 80s, the same people who condoned violence against fellow Maltese citizens either by directly accepting it or by their own tacit silence.
Why did you have to mention his balding and gain in weight? What has this got to do with anything?
[Daphne – Because in his case, they are directly related to stress. He became leader with a full head of hair and immediately thereafter, the loss has been exponential. It is the same with the changes to the rest of his physique: they have manifested themselves at least five years too soon and again, rapidly and exponentially. It is unusual to see such a dramatic change in just 18 to 24 months in somebody who is under 40. His wife, who is the same age, still looks exactly the same.]
Like Joe Grima he certainly hasn’t overdone his wii fit. But then what do you expect from hamburger man himself.
Fine. Not that that has anything to do with his intellect or capabilties as leader, but baldness is, saving disease, a hereditary condition. The fact that it has manifested itself so quickly is in fact a confirmation of this rather than a sign of stress having an effect. This of course is to the best of my knowledge.
The fact that he has added on a few pounds can be ascribed to a more sedentary lifestyle, perhaps – maybe he’s physically less active given that he’s got more time to invest elsewhere than at the gym….what do you think?
[Daphne – No, I don’t think so. It’s unusual for a person to age exponentially between 35 and 37. Of course baldness is hereditary, and so is the way we react to stress.]
On the other hand I am pretty certain that EFA had a much more stressful life than Joseph Muscat – even in the first years, nay especially in his years, as leader of the Opposition….and yet he’s got a full head till this very day….so pinning this down to stress may not be necessarily correct.
However, you could be right for all I know and it’s all stress related – but what does this show?
[Daphne – That he’s not coping.]
“A sedentary lifestyle” is no excuse. No senior politician and aspiring prime minister, especially one from a privileged background such as his, should be overweight. Our parliamentary line-up is a parade of bellies, jowls and excess fat.
He’ll only make us look (even more) ridiculous when he meets other EU leaders. I know we top the charts in childhood obesity, but why does our future prime minister have to emulate our bell curve?
And gym? What gym? Someone with his tendency to pudginess needs to lose fat, not gain muscle. A protein and vegetable diet (no steak, no alcohol, no Maltese platters or hamburgers or pasta) and 5km run every day, minimum. In six months he should see some positive results.
You can tell a man’s worth by his physique. David Cameron, with the same tendency to pudginess (albeit with the advantage of height) does everything possible ot keep his weight under control.
Sarkozy, short and stocky, takes regular runs – with his prime minister. Medvedev was positively fat before the elections. He forced himself to run to hours a day and is now svelte, if still short, and he is respected for it.
The weight gain must be a result of all the business lunches he is having organised by the like of Sandro Chetcuti.
Don’t get me started on that nasty piece of business….
It had to happen. The die was cast when Gorg Abela (contesting for the leadership) was booed when he said that the election of ALL party posts, including the leader, had to come from ALL party members.
Now it is clear that the delegates, after electing Joseph and dumping Abela, started shaping the party in an old-fashioned, time-warped way: Anglu, Toni and the first skeleton from the cupboard in the shape of AST.
Frankly I think that Jospeh had wished to bring new and fresh ideas to the party (even though porbably he had no idea how to go about it). So he roped in Marisa, Manwel and Bundy. But his hands were tied and the internal ” war” started and now it has come out in the open.
The old guard have taken over the party again. We are now being regaled with deja’ vu politicians (long past their expiry date). And this is just the beginning.
This party just cannot take off and are glued to the past for the simple reason that they have no idea how to deal with and plan for the future. Their politics have always been makeshift or to quote Alfred Sant ” inbazzwru ftit minn hemm u nbazzwru ftit minn hawn”
Daphne, you’ve wrapped it all up very nicely. You can now stick a label on it with the words: Partit Laburista – not fit for purpose.
The press is in a collective state of denial. We don’t want to see the truth because it would make us despair.
This is so shocking, Daphne…..so really shocking and yet so very true.
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/kicking-up-a-storm-shoe-designer-kenneth-cole-causes-outrage-over-egypt-tweet-20110204-1aftz.html
US fashion designer Kenneth Cole was beaten by Joseph in his bid to turn the North African situation into a marketing opportunity. At least he’s quoted as being remorseful at what he’s done whereas Joseph still thinks his was a brainwave that the PN is shooting down because they didn’t think of it first.
Hello spa
You really got guts! Your mention is the only one I came across which is supporting your saviour’s ‘vision’ regarding the troubles happening nearby. Don’t forget to vote for Joseph come election day, and please make sure you write down the exact preferences on the ballot paper. And screech and wave the new emblem flag and an EU one as well when Joseph appears in the balcony. He deserves you.
As to Daphne’s article what can I comment? That article will be a future reference for some idiots and disgrunted nitwits.
That wasn’t spa commenting. He merely copied someone else’s comment from timesofmalta.com. Re-read his post and you’ll see for yourself.