Trouble for nothing
Just what Malta needs right now
This was my column in The Malta Independent yesterday.
When Franco Debono brushed off his interest in the financial health of the country with the cavalier words that the economy is important but his list of complaints about cassette tapes in court and television in parliament more so, he wasn’t joking.
The man who has single-handedly brought business grinding to a near halt over the last few weeks, with no sign of respite for now, must be among Malta’s most despised.
That poor soul Robert Musumeci was on Super One the other night, arguing against harsh criticism of Debono in the press (and the inevitable blokks) on the grounds that it isn’t helping. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
What isn’t it helping, Robert?
People who write for the internet and for newspapers are not responsible for the psychological equilibrium of politicians. It is not our job, still less our duty, to keep them calm so that they don’t flip again and do something bloody-minded. If those are the sort of mentally unstable politicians we have, if that is the extent of their emotional fragility, then it should be obvious that this – and not what is written or said about them – is the problem.
If Debono and others are the sort of politicians who can’t respect one of the most basic freedoms they bang on about – the freedom of expression – then the sooner they toddle off, the better for the rest of us.
‘Don’t write about me or I’ll lie down and scream and then you’ll see,’ is not acceptable or tolerable behaviour in a member of parliament, and instead of acting as enablers, people like Robert Musumeci, who has much to be embarrassed about, should crawl under a stone and stay there.
How wonderful to know that some of our politicians are made of such stern stuff.
We’ve lost sight of the fact that the country is in this situation because of the selfish pique of just one man. Incredible, isn’t it, how one man can cause so much trouble for so many.
And here I am not talking about the trouble he has created for his political bosses and colleagues, but about the trouble he has created for Malta. Nobody needed this – not even the Labour Party, despite its protestations to the contrary. The scheduled general election was just a year away anyway, and so kicking up this ruckus made no sense at all.
Debono should have let it ride for another 12 months then let the electorate deal with whatever the electorate thought needed to be dealt with. That’s democracy, Franco. What you are doing now is the antithesis of it: one man deciding for everyone else, like a dictator but with negative power, the power of obstructing and of bringing things to a halt rather than the power of doing.
Joseph Muscat is another one with a poor sense of judgement. He could have emerged from all this as the better man, the bigger guy, the statesmanlike politician. “Malta doesn’t need these problems at this juncture,” he could have said. “We’ll go to the people at the appointed hour and not before time. Until then, we’re pulling the same rope.”
By doing that, he’d have emerged the winner in terms of public image, and almost certainly been the winner eventually at the polls. But his chosen course of action has had the opposite effect. It has made him look foolish and desperate. It has brought him out as having poor strategic skills.
It was bad enough that he failed to read the signs that Franco Debono had no intention of voting in favour of Anglu Farrugia’s motion. But then did he have to emerge from parliament wearing such an angry and sour expression, because he had been thwarted?
Worse still has been the way he has stuck to plan A and continued to up the pressure for a general election. The backdrops saying ‘Stabilita’ had been printed already, the suits and ties had been chosen, the speeches written and rehearsed, so he just rode with it as though the government had lost the confidence vote.
With the vote lost, that would have been the obvious thing to do, but in the circumstances, it is not. The campaign on which he has embarked is not sustainable. He can’t keep up this momentum until an election is called, even if that election is imminent, and there are no signs that it is.
Muscat has peaked already and without an electoral programme. He is about to plateau and the signs are there in that the sight and sound of him is increasingly irritating rather than inspirational.
The thing that works most against Joseph Muscat, though, is nothing external. It comes from within and it is called self-love. He cannot conceal his delight in his own nearness to the premiership, his childish pleasure in being brought a year closer to his goal by this unexpected turn of events.
He is no longer able to conceal that growing self-satisfaction. There are times, such as when he spoke at the party’s general conference, that this ‘I made it’ smirking glow takes over his face. A few days ago, a television camera caught him in close-up when speaking at some event. It caught the fleeting but so obvious expression of enjoyment that passed over his eyes and mouth as the crowd clapped at his ‘rousing’ words.
I found the sight of that almost as disturbing as anything his former classmate has done so far.
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“What you are doing now is the antithesis of it: one man deciding for everyone else, like a dictator but with negative power, the power of obstructing and of bringing things to a halt rather than the power of doing.”
“He who can destroy a thing, controls the thing” – Paul Muad’dib, Dune, Frank Herbert.
Another contradiction that emerged from his speech was when he recounted asking his grandfather who was on the right side of history at the time.
If he’s thoroughly convinced Fenech Adami was right, we’re owed an explanation why he voted against EU membership. Unless he would have us believe he wasn’t aware the Nationalists had the EU in their sights since 1987.
Should that not be “since 1977”?
“…expression of enjoyment that passed over his eyes and mouth as the crowd clapped at his ‘rousing’ words…”
I’ve seen this many times over by many different politicians. One that comes to mind, was Gianfranco Fini when he parted ways with his former ally Silvio Berlusconi, in a speech he delivered to his break-away supporters of IlP Popolo delle Liberta’, in the first “comizio” of Futura e Liberta’ Fini had just created.
Even a seasoned politician is not immune to human feelings of the sort. Thus I find nothing extraordinary if you got a glimpse of this in JM. Could have been the case, but where’s the big deal?
[Daphne – The big deal is that I hae never seen anything similar with Fenech Adami or Gonzi. The big deal is that it points up a major character flaw. The big deal is that you see this sort of thing in people who are after power for its own sake. The big deal is that there is a major difference in being pleased that your speech is well received and quite literally getting off on the thought that you are standing there doing that.]
Mandango, you make defending the indefensible an art.
Thanks for the compliment. I take it as such.
Honestly, I admire your persistence.
Mandango, Joseph’s ‘normal’ expression on his face as described by Daphne, illustrates a deeper sense of arrogance, spite, cockiness and an ego hardly containable within his ever expanding girth.
He has unknowingly turned the situation into a Joseph-Franco race to power which has absolutely nothing to do with national interest.
He has also demonstrated his cowardice in not presenting the motion of no confidence himself, leading us to believe that initially he was against presenting such a motion but was forced into it by the old Mintoffian guard. Still he had one of his elves do it for him. That is weakness and not leadership.
You are right to point out that “a seasoned politician is not immune to human feelings”. It is a matter of how a seasoned politician is able to control his emotions and not be overwhelmed by a partisans’ crowd clapping its hands.
Joseph lacks such control and comes across as a smug and immature politician.
Is “Joseph” a seasoned politician?
@ old timer.
In this case, too much pepper, not enough salt.
Definitely not seasoned with salt and pepper. It fell off long before.
Chortle chortle.
@ Old-timer: Not quite, he rejected the ‘sale e pepe’ look.
Mentioning Fini and what he did is practically the same thing Debono wanted to do to Gonzi. Only that Debono abstained and Fini went ahead. Do you what that today Fini, (who had a regular 10% of votes when he was still in AN, then PDL) is considered a turncoat, a nullity, a poor nobody…
To say it clearly, here in Italy the saying today goes like this: “Berlusconi va a puttane; il PD (the Left) ha mandato il paese a puttane; Fini è una puttana!” (Berlusconi visited the whores; the Left sent the country to the whores; Fini is a whore!”)
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_AAY67jON_lw/TQI0M0C1DlI/AAAAAAAACh4/L24_EkOqdyg/s1600/fini-con-la-faccia-scettica.jpg
“…a glimpse of this in JM…”
More than one glimpse of this, Mandango.
There was the same expression when he told TVAM “Issa se naghmlu jien il-vot ta’ sfiducja…”
He never went back to TVAM to tell them about how he lost his “vot ta’ sfiducja.”
So would have Gonzi achieved statesman-like status if he had: expected and accepted Austin Gatt’s resignation on a failed transport policy; fired Dolores Cristina for the student grants debacle; asked Tonio Fenech to remain at the Emirates Stadium when he decided to jet set with prominent businessmen to watch Arsenal play; sent Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici packing for a disastrous court-management policy and the botched introduction of lawyers present during interrogation; elevated Chris Said, Jason Azzopardi, Mario de Marco, Robert Arrigo, Franco Debono, way, way earlier whilst getting rid of the dinosaurs mentioned earlier; accepted the will of the electorate unequivocally in the divorce referendum and avoided acting like a beaten dog when Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando introduced the bill; recognised that inaction on a myriad of things with the excuse that he’s focused solely on the economy is laughable; and finally took more notice of the fact that by winning an election with a mere thousand votes actually meant an inclusive style of government.
No worries, the Labour Party scares the shit out of many people, me included, that GonziPn (pathetic slogan coined by his entourage) might just pull it off. Pity we are destined to get more of the ‘unstatesman-like’ actions either way it goes.
It’s already been said that Joseph Muscat and other Labour people are the Gonzi’s best assets.
An inclusive style of government implies an opposition willing to cooperate in the correct implementation of the chosen electoral pledges.
This legislature has been marked by the opposition’s obstructive tactics as soon as the new leader gathered support amongst his parliamentary group.
He refused to agree to a pairing mechanism, disrupted parliamentary committees, and what’s worse, hasn’t presented a single bill worth mentioning.
If one had to use football as an analogy, which seems to have become the only way to discuss politics lately, Joseph plays the notorious ‘catenaccio’ style, a method which kills the game.
People like Franco end up a potential off side without realising that it is their position which has to change. If they intend to score for their team, that is.
Choosing the lesser of two (or three or four, in other countries) evils is unfortunately the rule rather than the exception when electing governments.
At least, here in Malta, one evil is much less than the other so the choice is not so hard to make, as the people showed in all the recent elections bar one.
Jean, appointing ministers is a prime minister’s prerogative. Dismissing them entails the careful judging of circumstances most of which are privy only to the Prime Minister. What is opined in the Press is often close but not exactly a true analysis of a particular situation.
The ‘Arriva’ fiasco cannot be laid on Austin’s doorstep. His main job was to rid us of the cowboys and old wrecks and securing a company of good repute to run a more viable alternative. I will not go into details regarding the initial withdrawal of service by some ‘800 drivers sympathetic to the old regime’, etc. A few months after Arriva’s introduction, the issue is completely off the news.
Ministers are human and as long as there is no breaking of laws or scandalous behaviour, one cannot dismiss any of them simply because the Opposition said so, or amplified the ‘transgression’ aimed solely to rouse public resentment.
Franco’s major mistake was to ‘grade’ his own colleagues including the Prime Minister when to begin with, he hardly qualifies for such a job and secondly it is not for him to do.
Being prone to ‘political suicide’ hardly makes for future leadership material. Franco already has proven so much.
Jean what I think you miss is the fact that the best opposition to the party in government, is found within the same party.
Spot on analysis. I sure hope Joseph Muscat doesn’t pay any attention to your blog, or he might actually stand a chance.
The truth is that Joseph Muscat does pay attention to Daphne’s blog. There are many signs that show it. The facial hair, the colour of the hair, the flags…
Would Daphne ever learn?
The moral of the story is that Franco Debono has succeeded in harassing the entire country and in showing up Joey for the nincompoop he is.
Is he now boasting with MIDI’s investment as well? Or am I missing something?
“Muscat added that if a new Labour led council is elected in Gzira it will concentrate on infrastructural projects. “Residential roads will be given the priority. Another project which will be given importance is the MIDI consortium’s proposed investment in social and sport facilities in Gzira.” http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/…/newsdetails/news/…/Muscat-LC-elections...
Well, if Cyrus Engerer deems it correct to put up images of the belvedere implying it was one of his achievements, why shouldn’t Joseph do the same?
I agree with the title of your write up”Trouble for nothing”.
Where we part company,is who could have avoided all this trouble, Franco or Gonzi?
We all agree, the P.N. and Gonzi included, that most of the proposal put forwrd by Debono are both good and now even to be adopted by the government.
So my question is and has always been, why then if they are good. did it have to go so far, why couldn’t they have said so in the first place and avoided bringing the country to a standstill?
[Daphne – If it wasn’t those things, Silvio, Franco would have thought of others. If he couldn’t throw a tantrum about X, he’d have thrown it about Y. He didn’t want those things done so much as want to have a reason to scream and shout. Face it, when the justice and interior ministry were split to his instructions, that’s when he threw his worst tantrum.]
I do not agree that this is the end of Franco (politically) as a matter of fact I think this is his beginning on the way to higher posts.
I think he will be remembered as the one who risked all for his convictions.
[Daphne – Tghidli xejn.]
Franco will be on the way to “greatness” only when he is accepted in the PL skip. Outside of that he is forever doomed as a politician.
Only a fool would trust a proven blackmailer.
Franco assumes he was born great and is convinced he has achieved greatness.
Whether he will ever have greatness thrust upon him depends entirely on the extent of Joey’s foolishness. (Twelfth Night).
“Greatness’ is something I never mentioned, what I said ‘ on the way to higher posts”
K.M.B. occupied the second highest post in the country. I am sure you will not classify him as a great man, and some others that I would not like to mention, either.
As to your remark about ‘fools’ I can assure you that you would be surprised as to the amount of these that abound in our country. We will be spending 80 million Euro to house some of them.
So let’s leave Shakespeare out of this.
Wrong on one count, Anthony.
Do you think that Joseph will even allow Franco within a mile of his skip?
You think that he will be willing to throw a fox in a chickens’ coop?
Anyone giving him their vote again, EVER, needs to have his or her head examined. Even accepting his candidacy would be foolish to the extreme. You can’t trust someone, as unstable as Franco, in a position of power. He’s finished, in more ways than one, I would hazard to say.
Excellent post. I enjoyed the read!
@Jean.
For your info GonziPN was indeed a winning slogan last election. Dr Gonzi won that election against all odds, nothwithstanding disasters from Jesmond Mugliett and some other useless ministers.
In his first legislature Dr Gonzi had a number of successes, notably the completion of Mater Dei hospital, and coming close to balancing the budget – indeed the GonziPN slogan was coined because the electorate was seeing a tired cabinet, and Dr Gonzi promised a slimmed down cabinet if re elected.
It is to be noted that a mere four months after the April 2008 victory, this legislature has been strongly hampered by a global financial crisis, and compounded by prima donna behaviour by the three notorious backbenchers and the-prisoner- of -Brussels- Dalli, who even had the effrontery to belittle the GonziPN slogan.
In these circumstances, there was no feel good factor among the electorate throughout this legislature, and the government was unable to deliver on further reducing the income tax burden.
I firmly believe that if the world economy was booming in the past four years, Dr Gonzi would be heading towards another landslide victory.
Where I agree with Jean is his comment about Tonio Fenech where he was clearly out of his depth and was unable to handle his super ministry of Finance and Internal Investment.
Dr Gonzi’s shortcoming was that he should have handled a mini re shuffle midway through the legislature and kept the ministers on their toes , as he said he would when he appointed them.
Alfred Sant managed to lose the last election for the MLP when all the augurs pointed to a victory if only out of pity for the long time the Labour Party had been consigned to the opposition benches, and the dangerous temptation to try new blood in the total absence of any more cogent reason.
Joseph Muscat appears to be hell-bent to repeat that performance of snatching defeat out of a seemingly undeswerved victory. De gustibus ….
Two days ago Michael Falzon (ex-PN minister) participated in a programme on One TV. He said that he agreed with what Debono was trying to achieve but disagreed with his methods. He disagreed, he said, because in this manner, Debono will not achieve his objectives re justice reforms etc..
What Michael Falzon should have told Debono was that nobody agrees with his methods because:
(1) there is no matter of principle at stake – he rebelled because he was not made minister;
(2) because there is no principle at stake, his use and abuse of the PN’s one seat majority is immoral and undemocratic;
(3) he is creating instability by keeping people guessing how he will vote; it is he, and nobody else, who is causing hardship to many people and businesses.
About time that Debono stops his guess-my-next-vote games. As you say Daphne, this is all trouble for nothing.
One thing is clear, Franco, with his vote, did not call for an early election. Hilarious how the press missed this, preferring to give vent to accusations implying the presidency’s complicit silence. Marisa being the first to do so this week, her twisting of this country’s democratic protocol typically Labour.
No one bothered asking Franco why he took this decision, and what he intends to do if the PM is confirmed leader.
No one asked him why didn’t question the decision to open the contest within the party, either.
Another comment made by Franco which seems to have gone unnoticed was that ‘he doesn’t want to have anything to do with Labour’.
All Joseph can do, is to watch events go past him, as his media kicks off Franco’s demonisation. He’s now a ‘manipulator’
The Herreras are back in business….
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120204/local/announced-drugs-court-reform-cosmetic-pl-spokesman.405256
“Malta doesn’t need these problems at this juncture,” he could have said. “We’ll go to the people at the appointed hour and not before time. Until then, we’re pulling the same rope.”
Even if parliament cannot pass any legislation until that appointed hour?
[Daphne – Why wouldn’t parliament be able to legislate, do you think? The Opposition isn’t obliged to oppose bills. Often, it votes in favour. And if not, and Franco Debono decides to oppose even the bills he favours, there is the Speaker’s vote.]
For eight months or so Alfred Sant continued his business-as-usual in Parliament with the help of the Speaker’s vote. And there was no MLP Tom, Dick or Harry who said that the government was illegitimate.
An interesting read from Malcolm Mifsud.
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=139420