The prime minister is BRIEFING the opposition leader, not CONSULTING him
The Labour leader’s only statement about the Libya crisis was delivered to his audience via Super One radio last Sunday morning. The statement was then paraphrased and released to the press.
The first thing that struck me about it was the reference to the prime minister “continuously consulting” Joseph Muscat.
Initially I put it down to poor knowledge of English, which led to ‘consulting’ being used instead of ‘briefing’ or ‘informing’.
But then I thought this couldn’t be the case, because ‘jikkonsulta ma’ ‘ means the same as ‘consulting’, so no confusion there as to meaning, nothing lost in (literal) translation.
The choice of the word ‘consulting’ was deliberate. The Labour Party seeks to create the impresson that the prime minister doesn’t act before picking up the phone to ask the leader of the opposition what he thinks, and obtaining his agreement.
It is trading on the fact that so many people don’t understand correct procedure. The prime minister is the prime minister. He is the boss man. He does not consult anybody except his own advisers, and he does not need anyone’s consent to take a decision precisely because he is the boss man. The buck stops with him.
In a crisis situation, he is obliged to consult no one, certainly not the leader of the opposition, and so he doesn’t. He takes decisions and he has advisers to help him reach those decisions. But they do not tell him what decisions to take. This is not because of arrogance or big-headedness. It is because he is responsible for those decisions and cannot cop out by ‘burden-sharing’.
The prime minister is obliged to keep the head of state informed – in the same way that the British prime minister is obliged to keep the Queen apprised of developments – but he is not obliged to brief the leader of the opposition. He does so out of simple courtesy, so that the leader of the opposition does not feel cut off and left out.
But it is briefing, informing, and certainly NOT consulting.
The Labour Party has put about the myth that the prime minister is consulting Joseph Muscat because, without it, it cannot help generate that other myth: that the opposition is ‘collaborating’ with the government in this crisis.
Their choice of the word ‘collaborating’ is an unfortunate one, because though it is a proper translation of the Maltese ‘jikkollaboraw’, in English it has come to have a more precise meaning which was first secondary but is now primary: cooperating with the enemy. The Vichy Regime in wartime France, for example, collaborated with the Nazis, as distinct from cooperating with them.
The word the Labour Party needs there is ‘cooperating’ and not ‘collaborating’ – unless they are being deliberately ironic, of course.
The untruth of consultation makes possible the untruth of cooperation. The opposition, or for that matter the Labour Party (Labour tends to conflate the two distinct entities) cannot cooperate with the government in this crisis even if it wants to. There is nothing to stop the various members of Il-Partit ta’ Joseph putting on high-visibility jackets and standing on the wharf to distribute food packs and bottles of water to evacuees, if they wish to, but at an official level there is absolutely nothing they can do and so they have no role to play.
The only thing the Labour Party and the opposition can do is keep quiet, refrain from splaying themselves out in the proverbial manger and hollering, and not put spokes in the wheels. Perhaps they construe that as ‘collaboration’.
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Our Prime Minister is a seasoned politician. On the other hand, the Leader of the Opposition is just seasonal.
I wonder what has kept the opposition/PL from putting the usual spokes in the wheels during this current situation.
Popular opinion.
The deliberate use of ‘consulting’ instead of ‘briefing’ is classic proof that they all suffer from an extreme case of inferiority complex (including Joseph, of course) and that they will seek every opportunity to portray him as someone more seasoned, mature and intelligent than he really is.
Remember the Muscat – Gonzi debate when Muscat kept addressing the Prime Minister as Lawrence?
It’s not the complex they suffer from which irritates me, it’s their actual inferiority, which, if not careful, we shall have to contend with in a couple of years.
They’re going nuts on the Labour sites about this. How dare she say that the prime minister isn’t consulting Joseph?
They’re working as a ‘tim’.
Yes right, and the PM has given Joseph a desk at Castille, so that he can help him out with those pesky decisions.
This is a man who took three months off work last year because he had a hairline crack in his shin bone.
Are you surprised about the deceptive use of words during this sensitive period? What do expect of a political party that is trying to rewrite the history of the 70s and 80s to deceive the segment of the population who were born after 1980? They will tweak any news story as long as they keep the pampered leader in the limelight.
After all, the Labour Party and its media machine don’t bother separating truth from fabrication if they think this can help them achieve their ends.
Though I believe I was one of the first to raise the question on the consulting claim raised by the PL, further back in another post, it is not correct either to say that the PM does not consult with the Leader of the Opposition.
There are a number of instances where the PM has a constitutional legal obligation to consult with the Opposition (Public service commission, electoral commission, President substitute etc.).
Another point made in this post that I could not agree with was that, in times like these, the PM briefs the Leader of the Opposition out of courtesy, so that he doesn’t feel cut-off. I also think that this is mistaken. First of all, the fact of briefing the leader of opposition in times of crisis is a matter of convention not mere courtesy. Secondly, this convention, like so many others is drawn from tradition and wisdom. Thirdly, as we all know, constitutional convention, which though not legally enforceable, is something which we hold dear enough to adhere to religously (except during the golden Mintoff/KMB epoch which saw the spaghettification of convention)
Indeed, it is wise to brief the Leader of the Opposition, because in democracies, like ours, it is perfectly possible for the person occupying the post of Leader of the Opposition to become Prime Minister the following day. The prime-minister-in-waiting then, ought to be briefed on matters of crisis given that by definition emergencies are apolitical, transcending political boundaries. Their proper management is vital for the effective administration of the State during the period of emergency.
Hence, the convention.
Willywonka, your definition of ‘consulting’ seems to be hazy at best and gives the impression that you are confusing it with ‘briefing’.
When someone seeks advice, he/she ‘consults’ with someone who is perceived of having a better idea in order to arrive at a good decision. Joseph certainly does not fit in this scenario. He/she still makes the decision, rightly or wrongly, after having taken or declined the advice given to them.
Briefing someone is the sharing of information or of decisions already taken by whoever is responsible to make such decisions.
Read the Constitution, which I even quoted it for you. I’m not confusing anything.
The more I read MALTATODAY the more I confirm that it is the English version of the PL’s news. Lies, imsinformation, twisting of facts and all that.