Labour: not quite sure what they’ve done or why they’ve done it
"I think we might actually have f**ked up here."
I don’t think it’s my imagination when I see this wholly unsavoury business as having damaged the Opposition far more than it has done the government.
When the dust settles, and it has begun to settle fast already, the reality of their strategic error will become more clear. It hasn’t brought the Labour Party any closer to government and it has made them look like Franco Debono’s evil stooges.
It’s not a good look for those aspiring to win the votes of people with higher standards than those of Labour’s core vote.
Maltese social culture is strange. There is invidja and lanzit and hdura but there is also a quite basic sense of fair play.
What was done to Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici is largely perceived as unjust, amoral and cheap, a collusion of evil, envy and lust for power. This is not an image the Labour Party needs to foster, because the response to it is Pavlovian.
Carm Mifsud Bonnici maintained his dignity to the end and showed absolutely no hostility or antagonism to his spiteful nemesis, not even when he insulted him in parliament after voting against him. He did not attack the Labour Party. He walked out of parliament looking calm and serene, smiling politely at reporters and those who greeted him. He does not read the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying or carry it beneath his arm. This is his actual character and personality.
All of this has made him look better even as the Labour Party and Franco Debono are looking worse.
But it goes beyond that. The collusion of Franco Debono and the Opposition has stirred something deep inside our collective soul. It is what we feel when we see public spectacles of bullying and unfairness. After a period of confusion back there, when we weren’t quite sure who was bullying whom, the situation crystallised last night, and we didn’t like it.
Even the members of the Oppositon looked shell-shocked by self-doubt, though knowing the characters who make up the Opposition, that’s almost certainly transient. The Labour Party’s supporters are not quite sure what happened exactly. Are they supposed to celebrate, and if so, why? Because a well-liked man from their Bormla district was sacrificed to satisfy Franco Debono?
That’s all it boils down to, really.
The Labour Party is now looking quite ugly, and I suspect it knows this. Despicable manouevres are generally forgiven by the Maltese public if the victim is equally despicable or if the end is just and useful. But despicable manouevres against a well-liked gentleman, using a vote of no confidence intended for ministers who are caught lying, cheating or committing specific bad acts, with the sole end and purpose being the serving of Franco Debono’s revenge, leaves that Maltese public feeling a vague disquiet and unease.
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Spot on in your portrayal of Carm Mifsud Bonnici. That’s really how he is. A true master at self-control.
Actually he’s conscious of the fact that he’s a Bormliż minn Bormla and he’s always scared that he might lose his temper some day. Well, if he didn’t lose it yesterday, I doubt he ever will.
There are quite a few people in the PN who I would be happy to see leave their post, as some people cannot distinguish between what is right for themselves and what is right for the common good.
However Carm Mifsud Bonnici is one man who should have stayed in his post.
The PL should ask itself what the country has achieved with this vote. Absolutely nothing.
I remembered what Franco Debono had told Lou Bondi: Lou , mela jien il-pappagall tieghek?
We can now safely say that Joseph Muscat huwa l-pappagall ta’ Franco Debono.
So true. Can a Labour supporter tell us what Franco gained?
To add insult to injury, Labour keeps harping on ‘uncertainty’ when we all know full well that the ‘uncertainty’ is actually people’s fear of Labour past and present.
Add to that the fact that Labour now feel free to lynch any public official before Parliament (not the Courts) as they are doing with their motion against Richard Cachia Caruana and as they did to Charles Demicoli and several others who had the temerity to disagree with them in the past.
Another fne mess, you got me in Ang.
One can rant as much as one likes about the PN being inefficient, been there too long, they took 500 euros for themselves in salary, blah blah blah, and I for one was for leaving my vote at home but by Jove, these past two days have really convinced me why I need to put my no.1 against a blue box.
At least Dr. Mifsud Bonnici can leave his post with his head held up high that he was only forced to step down due to the ganging-up of power-hungry Socialists and a self-absorbed MP.
Not because the country’s police force was using tear gas during mass meetings, beating up suspects at the Depot, framing perfectly innocent individuals or for not having a Constitutional Court for 4 years.
Grazzi ta kollox Ministru.
Yours is a reasonable point of view, but many people also think that CMB was the scapegoat for what went wrong wih the PN government. Naturally, you may think that nothing is wrong with the PN, but few people would agree with you nowadays.
People feel that the government had to be warned about its past failures and abuse of public funds. It just happened that the circumstances (Franco Debono) brought CMB to the fore of the queue leading to the sacrifical altar that our political system has construed as a safety valve when public discontent with government needs to be quelled.
The resignation of CMB should now serve as a warning to other PN ministers and sinisters. But will they listen? I doubt it.
[Daphne – You have misread the situation. This unsavoury episode does not serve as a warning to other ministers. It serves as a warning to the electorate.]
Are you sure all of all this has been read into the situation by the *ahem* hoi polloi?
So blinded by the thought of power the don’t consider the political implications. The sad reality is they could well be in power, making blind decisions for all of us. Labour just jump from one mistake to another.
The worst thing of it all is not that we have an MP making a mockery out of parliament but that an honest man was sacrificied for the sadistic ambitions of another.
Pu ghal wiccek Franco u ghal genn li ghandek f’mohhok.
As election time approaches, I suspect that Labour are losing their popularity and PN voters with a laissez-faire attitude are starting to wake up to the reality of a Labour government.
Let Labour shoot themselves in the foot; although I feel sorry for CMB. I also hope that PN chooses its candidates more carefully next time round. No more loonies please.
“Let’s focus on the reforms now.”
Dan qieghed jahseb li ser ikun xi Prim Imhallef jew xi Ministru?
Possibbli li qeghdin jghaddulu dawn il-hsibijiet mill-kuriduri ta’ mohhu?
Jekk veru jemmen dak li qieghed jghid, ahjar jibbukkja kamra f’H’Attard.
Let there be no doubt about it, the Labour Party supporters now know that Dr. Gonzi is still prime minister and that the Labour Party’s new leader is Franco Debono and not Joseph or any of his stooges. They know that Labour Party is powerless without Franco Debono’s vote and that they have been dancing to his tune for quite some time, completely oblivious of the ridiculous image they are portraying even with their own supporters.
Unease and disdain at the cold and calculated moves orchestrated by the new, relatively unknown leader of the opposition.
There’s a growing dissent among the grassroots for two reasons; If Joseph’s capable of this, there’s nothing to hold him from doing the same internally, when he was supposed to be the one to heal the wounds. Maybe the choice was piloted to keep out those genuine enough to believe it.
Now that it’s out in the open that a growing faction thinks these tactics are counterproductive and inelegant, whose role is it to see that the inner circle doesn’t cut him off completely? It cannot be his wife, she carries baggage going back to 1996, Anglu’s non existent and has no appeal, Toni Abela can’t stand Yana and George Vella won’t be hanged out to dry again after last Monday.
Joseph has one major defect, an impatience which leads him to contradict his ghaqal mantra. This was the one who vouched a responsible, constructive Opposition remember? The more time passes, the more rushed the decisions.
One wonders who’s pushing him to it. It could be a test to see how long he’ll last.
You were right, Now what? Is it back to kontijiet tad-dawl u l-ilma? Bit humdrum now.
“Are they supposed to celebrate, and if so, why? Because a well-liked man from their Bormla district was sacrificed to satisfy Franco Debono?
That’s all it boils down to, really.”
It is indeed. When I heard about the vote yesterday, I was having dinner at Valletta Waterfront. I just looked across the Grand Harbour, saw the Three Cities and thought to myself: funny how the PL colluded to remove one of their own.
Indeed, Carm Mifsud Bonnici is no Labour man but he is very much loved by so many Labour people.
This is not some high-flying businessman the PL has attacked. No. This is a humble lawyer, working for peanuts for years trying to help his clients’ (more often than not) desperate lives. I know this as a fact, personally.
So, with whom has the PL scored points really?
My heart goes out to Carm because he has indeed been the sacrificial lamb.
And now Jose’ is trying to defend the indefensible on Bondi+: he’s pitiful.
Carm Mifsud Bonnici is such a gentleman that even Labour voters cast a vote for hin in elections.
He is such a likable person that all in Bormla will regret this dirty useless move.
Mifsud Bonnici gained MORE respect. The PL is made to look ridiculous and Franco Debono seems to have become the Leader of the Opposition.