GUEST POST: ‘Come on, boys, come on, girls – it’s a crazy, crazy world’, they sang. And they’re keeping their word.
Here’s Labour, being positive on the Opposition benches.
Throughout the quarter of a century or so that the Labour Party spent in Opposition, it did everything in its power to be as destructive as it possibly could. It changed leaders and deputy leaders, logos and slogans with wild abandon but never ceased the slew of negativity.
No, not even under Joseph Muscat. Especially not under Joseph Muscat.
This has been Labour’s story on majority rule, privatisation, liberalisation, pluralism in broadcasting, local councils, Partnership for Peace, EU membership and the Euro. Only electoral losses made them change their minds on all these things, and we’re not even sure about that. Labour criticised, even boycotted, every PN government nominee to the presidency except the one who came from its fold, the current incumbent.
This legacy has another equally negative feature. Labour refused to accept any offer made by PN governments to give its contribution on issues requiring national consensus.
The PL understood being in opposition to mean being a dog in the manger.
Muscat, now safely esconced in government, has zipped to the other extreme. He says he wants to absorb opposition MPs into his government, a move which flies in the face of all parliamentary practice and procedures.
The prime minister has taken this politically perverse suggestion a step further. Because Simon Busuttil, the PN leadership candidate, had the nerve to disagree with him, Muscat chided him for being stuck in a “politika negattiva u tal-passat li tagħmel distinzzjoni bejn aħna u huma”.
It’s just so Animal Farm.
Let us be clear about what is happening here. Muscat has just spent five years laying into gOnZiPn at every parliamentary turn – voting with psychologically unsound MPs to bring down ministers, to illegitimately fire an ambassador and to sabotage a budget he liked so much that he is about to adopt it and bring it before parliament as his.
For Joseph Muscat in opposition, democratic practice was always secondary to his goal of becoming prime minister. Now that he has become one, he is attacking democratic practice from the diametrically opposite angle. Before the election, he ignored it. Now he wants to make it obsolete.
Come on, boys. Come on, girls. It’s a crazy, crazy world.
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Joseph is ruthless and will use the same tactics used by Berlusconi when prime minister, ie to literally buy the vote of weak members of parliament of other parties to achieve his goal.
Watch out Joseph. You are already abusing of the power of incumbency. This tantamounts to political fraud.
Kudos to the author: a succinct and realistic analysis.
How many people do actually see this IS what’s really happening?
Probably as many who foresaw this happening. Few.
Not enough. Even when they do see it, they will have so much personal ego invested into the scam with their words, opinions and actions that they will be psychologically trapped in their position.
It will take way more exposure to tip the balance.
The snake-oil artist knows this, but there will always be the greedy ready to take the place of anyone whose eyes suddenly see the scam for what it is, and is ready and confident enough to action himself out of that scam.
There are other ways of dealing with those who opt out.
Not a lot. Just tune in to 101 Radio when there’s a phone in programme – all you hear is – the P.N. hurt me, MEPA was not fair with me, I got a fine for not paying my utilities bill, I got a traffic ticket and the minister, member of parliament, did not help me. The list is endless.
It seems as if the only worry for most Maltese is me, me and always me. That our country has a very low unemployment rate, our standard of living has risen, that we are members of the EU, doesn’t matter.
I’m seventy years old and throughout my life, for a lot of the population, all the good that P.N. governments achieved just fell like manna from heaven and not through good governance.
But then when a Labour government fouls everything up, it’s OK, the P.N. will be the one entrusted to remedy the situation.
And now this buffoon in the picture who was deemed not fit on ethical grounds to be deputy leader and who is still recovering from an attack of political assassination will this morning will be nominated as Speaker of the new parliament.
Definitely a crazy, crazy…Malta.
There is more to it than meets the eye: JM will try to split the Opposition to achieve what Mintoff achieved in 1974, a change of the Constitution without the formal approval of the Opposition.
JM believes and practises that “every man has his price” – but in the rare event of his encountering somebody who can’t be bought or flattered into submission, he will use his “evil and massive Stalinist Super One machine and its satellites to search-and-destroy, assassinate characters, foment hatred and discord, spread negativity and start off lies and rumours.”
Simon has already had his share of that. And so have you. There are others – including, most obviously, Lawrence Gonzi.
Agree entirely with you and he has his strategist by his side, who is trained in this game, who will help him all the way.
I think it is about time the PN start giving a bit back in return by way of their Net machine.
The only difference is that they will have so many examples to chose from that they would be able to do a CNN with constant Breaking News.
I hope the Parliamentary questions start coming.
Is that photo edited and if not what was going on in such session ?
Was so disgusted hearing the President’s Opening of Parliament Speech. It sounded like a Labour political party speech to me.
Shouldn’t the President be neutral?
Should the President be negatively judging the previous government all the way (even mentioning the €500 increase)?
Does the President know that by doing so he is insulting the 130,000+ people who voted for the previous government?
Shouldn’t the President respect every Maltese individual?
I thought that the President’s role was to “speak” about the manifesto of the newly appointed Government and not to throw a very bad light on the outgoing one.
Shame.
Perhaps he was following his daughter-in-law’s orders.
When the Abelas came to the test they faltered badly.
I definitely agree that with hindsight nominating him as president was a grave mistake.
Another way Saviour Balzan and Labour collaborated. You buy 30 copies my newspaper (because nobody does ) and I will publish your ‘postive’ story. Enough said.