GUEST POST: History will not be made on voting day, not this time
During Friday’s vaguely disturbing youth rally, Joseph Muscat repeated the mantra that a ‘kapitlu kbir’ of Maltese history will be written on 9th March. Buoyed by the regimented enthusiasm of the crowd, he upped the ante further.
“One day,” he bellowed to the sea of bobbing heads attached to ‘I’m in’ sweatshirts, “you will tell your children that in 2013 you were on the right side of history”.
Let’s take a peek behind this verbal hysteria, shall we? For starters, history is made by statesmen but it is written by historians with the benefit of hindsight.
It is only when we look back that the peaks and troughs of what is genuinely historic gradually break through the mists of time. It is therefore cringe-makingly embarrassing for Joseph Muscat, a 39-year old ex-Super One reporter, to claim to be making and writing history at the same time.
Another thing: how did this man fare when he did encounter real moments truth. VAT? Joseph was in favour of its removal. Joining Europe? Joseph told us that it was going to be ‘the burden of the millennium’?
The Eurozone? He wasn’t there either. The Arab Spring two years ago? Let’s drum up some tourist business from this, he told us. The fall of Gaddafi’s bloody dictatorship? Joseph looked the other way, turning his head only when it was politically safe to do so.
Clearly, this is a man who does not recognise a historic moment if it walks right up to him and says, “Hi, Joseph. I’m a historic moment”. So how can he, then, rise to the occasion?
Joseph Muscat does not see historic moments when they loom larger than life, but then he sees historic moments where there are none.
By no stretch of the imagination can this general election for the Maltese parliament be called historic, whoever wins it. Quite simply, there is no big question to settled. There is a lot at stake and lives, careers and futures can go to pot in a matter of months. But it won’t be because of a missed appointed with destiny. It will be the result of installing a dangerously flippant man in Castille.
As with everything else he does or says, when Joseph Muscat speaks about making history on 9th March, he is talking about, well, himself.
For Joseph, history is Joseph’s history, another chapter in the second biography to be written, perhaps this time by Kenneth Zammit Tabona rather than Cyrus Engerer.
18 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Calm down.
Don’t take a Joey win so personally.
Relax.
Think of it – five years of golden chances to take the piss.
Yes bystander, now repeat that to your children.
A pleasure I can very readily forgo.
Joseph Muscat should know that history will also be written after the 9th March, especially if he manages to ruin the economy of the country.
Whether Malta wins or loses won’t matter to Joseph Muscat. He told us himself that “l-aqwa li one enjoys oneself”.
We do not tell our children what we voted in every election – we probably do not even remember.
BUT we WILL surely tell them that we voted YES for Europe.
Hawn hu wiehed mill-floaters (li seta kien) tieghek Joseph.
What we know is that there is a high risk that from the day after the voting day, Labour will be in office, busy re-writing history. Which means that we are still in time to change the course of history.
I m so tired of Muscat fooling his supporters and lying to the country just to stir up hysteria.
Malta is doing fine. Much better than any other country in Europe. Whatever Muscat says is wrong, which means no one can actually trust a man who looks at the current numbers in the context of the global economic climate and think “Gosh this is bad. We should go the opposite direction”
The Mass Rally was on Thursday right?
I still cannot understand why all keep thinking of the past. 17 Years ago, which is clearly ‘long ago’ and not ‘not long ago’ as found on Lawrence Gonzi’s page. Times were different, in 17 years a lot has changed. Yet one who is afraid still tries to scare others by retelling certain things. You must be truely scared for a patticular reason. Don’t talk about how we are going back to Mintoff times, it’s utterly bullsh!t, another lie. Or about how we are going straight into the wall, another lie to scare others.
I am a student still under 20 but eligible to vote and do not recall the history of the past legislatures except the last one (properly). Good things have been done for the nation’s interest but not properly to strengthen the nation’s foothold. Many mistakes have been done. Some which affect us ingeneral, some which affect only those in need of something in particular..badly.
toni – In a few months’ time, you will recall this post and with hindsight you will reflect on how wrong you were.
I too was a student when Alfred Sant was elected to government and I remember all too well what he had in store for us students.
Yes mistakes were made, but think of all the good. Think of the bigger picture. Think.
Toni, you may be under 20 and so you do not remember the horrendous times foisted on Malta in the 70s/80s by many of the same people that still surround Joseph Muscat.
If Joseph wanted to be credible he should have rid himself of all that baggage.
The thought of those people being in positions of power again scares me. The platitudes spoken by Joseph Muscat, even if he believes them, could be worth nothing if they take over.
I believe that Joseph has as much chance of controlling them as a chihuahua controlling a pack of Rottweillers.
Yes a lot has changed in 17 years since when you where just a little child (as you said you are still under 20). All the improvements and big projects in Malta have been carried out by PN cause MLP only managed to stay in power for 22 months out of the 17 years. Enough for MLP to ruin our beautiful Maltese islands.
By Joseph Muscat’s yardstick, joining the EU was not a historic moment but his election as PM clearly is.
What is certain is that one day he will tell his children that he was on the WRONG side of history in 2004 and 2008.
I honestly would feel very sorry for our PM if not elected.
With all the ups and downs there were during these last five years, Dr Gonzi managed to keep Malta safe from all the economic turmoil surrounding us, get an incredible financial package for the coming years from the EU, create jobs, build schools, create new courses at MCAST, keep the stipends, guide Malta during the Libyan crises, save Air Malta, increase tourism to record levels, and all this when neighboring countries are going bankrupt.
Shame on those who are not even embarrassed to say that all of this means nothing to them. What a poor reflection it is on their character.
Of course a PL win is making history! Such a win is extraordinary! Such a win is incredible! Such a win is so much incredibly extraordinary that it is unbelievable!
But really, why is such a win unbelievable to a PL supporter/leader? It is unbelievable because they know PN did great things. Because they know PN prepared Malta for the future. because they know that PL can never do better than PN.
PL thinks this win is making history because it should never happen.
PL thinks this win is incredible because PL believes they have been relegated to the opposition benches for life!
If PL were convinced that they should win and govern our land, then this win would be obvious, forgone and expected – and no such thing would make history!
Dit-tabella x’naghmel biha?
Inti hudha u kif jibda jitkellem Joseph gholliha.
Orrajt! Joey dak x’hemm miktub fuqha?
James Ensor’s ‘Christ’s entry into Brussels in 1889’.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Christ%27s_Entry_Into_Brussels_in_1889.jpg
Taghna lkoll maketh, to destroy.