How to undermine, neuter or otherwise weaken the Opposition
Joseph Muscat’s individual targetting of Opposition MPs (and be sure he has selected those whose Achilles heel is most exposed in terms of egomania, vanity, resentment, or some other character flaw which renders them highly vulnerable to flattery) for government roles isn’t crazy.
It’s wicked (and not in the contemporary meaning of the word). Now I know that wickedness is much admired in Maltese culture, but when that wickedness poses a democratic threat, admiring it makes you wicked yourself (and daft).
His aim here is three-fold: 1. to buy the collusion of enough Opposition MPs to give him the two-thirds majority he might need if and when he needs it; 2. to weaken the Opposition by creating an Us and Them situation within its ranks, should some vain and spineless MPs take up his offer; 3. to foment discord and resentment among Opposition MPs should the Opposition leader lay down the law and refuse to allow them to take up those positions if they want to.
Dear readers, please wake up. The games people play in Opposition to help them get into government are not the games they should carry on playing once they are in government and have no need for them any longer.
That Muscat has carried on with his games of fomenting as much trouble in the Nationalist Party as is humanly possible, even now that he is prime minister and should be getting on with the business of governing, indicates that he has a long-term agenda to destroy the Nationalist Party when it is in the national interest that it should recuperate and form a strong Opposition.
Read the Labour Party’s statement today, as reported in The Malta Independent:
The Labour Party expresses its disappointment over PN leadership candidate Simon Busuttil’s negative attitude adopted regarding Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s proposal to include Nationalist MPs in executive roles.
The statement further read that the aim of such a proposal is to include everyone in the running of the country, including members of the Opposition, so that the best qualities of individuals are used, irrelevant whether one has different political beliefs, and this done in the interest of the nation.
“Dr Busuttil’s comments clearly show that if he is elected as leader of the PN, the party will continue to adopt its negative politics of the past which distinguishes between us and them.”
The “best qualities” of members of the Opposition are not there to be deployed in the service of the government (“running the country”) but in the service of the Opposition, a crucial Constitutional role without which democracy cannot survive.
Which is, all persons of common sense can see, the real intention here.
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“Negative attitude”. “Negative politics”. This is getting really old really fast. Sticking a label on something works a treat, doesn’t it.
Yes. The PN is now in opposition. It can afford to use labels on the government, and they will stick fast.
Regime, dictatorial, undemocratic, bulldozers, arrogant, irresponsible, incompetent, insensitive, insolent, are all words that describe governments like the one being run by Muscat very well – possibly they are even understatements.
That red-blue billboard should be brought out again. This time it should say Tana Biss under the red face, and Ta’ Kulhadd under the blue face.
I wish Simon Busuttil would read this. I doubt anyone at PN HQ ever browses through this blog.
I am very sorry, but at PN HQ there is not enough sense that somebody can grasp this plan by Joseph Muscat.
Daphne is hundred percent right.
The pattern of appointments is clear.
First served are the inner core who helped in the campaign.
These are now preparing everything so that those who financed the campaign will get their due compensation.
Make no mistake, this would be a hefty compensation to the detriment of the Maltese taxpayer and to the detriment of our environment.
Second in the line are the PL people proper – everyone who has or has had Labour ties or involvement.
This group contains a considerable number of retired persons.
Third in line are the switchers, those who rendered valuable services. Their payment is more than symbolic. It says that switching to Labour pays.
It says that the beating of the PN is not over yet and that the role of the appointed switchers is to beat the PN even more. It says that PL is implementing its slogan Malta Taghna Lkoll (even though it’s not).
Joseph Muscat’s plan is becoming clearer by the day. It is the dismantling of all that has been achieved by the PN governments since 1987.
It is all about the usurpation of power and about suffocating the freedoms that we have achieved.
But it will also be about destroying the quality of our lives. All this is in the air. Many are feeling it already and it is creeping in by the hour.
Muscat’s strategy was already amply clear when he was running for the MLP party leadership position.
He wrote about it in the present tense, so assured was he of his inevitable success, and there was all that talk of a movement of liberals and progressives, even though he was (and still is) surrounded by relics of Mintoff’s and Mifsud Bonnici’s governments.
None are so blind as those who will not see. Hence prime minister Muscat.
The Nationalist Party is understandbly weak at this stage and one expects the Labour Party to get even stronger as it dishes out the pecuniary promises and benefits during its first legislature. It was similar with Mintoff in his first term in office and Labour got a stronger majority in 1976.
PN leaders have no easy task to manage this situation. I claim they need to nurture a stronger sense of belonging and ownership within the party first and foremost. The party was strongest when it was on a war path, literally, with the opposition.
The danger in the PM s proposal is so clear I cannot believe that the press, with a few exceptions, has not as yet caught onto it and torn it apart.
The PN parliamentary group must show a united front and immediately reject this proposal before it hatches.
I for one, will never again vote for any elected member of the Opposition who, instead of doing his duty from his parliament bench, compromises his position by accepting a role which could, even if remotely, be perceived as working for the government.
greasing his palm with one piece of silver.
Wy is this news to any of us? It has always been one of the fundamental values and beliefs of the PL that they should be the only party in the country, like in China.
That is why there has always been such a problem with them and any other politician party, and their supporters.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent just how dangerous Joseph Muscat is. He’s apparently taken his idol’s teachings to heart and want to improve on them by destroying the PN from within.
What makes it all worse is what the motivation, in my opinion, behind all this is. It’s not because he geniunely believes it’s the best route for the country, but because he wants to satisfy his over-inflated, immoral (not amoral) ego, to be remembered in the annals of Maltese history and be the new Mintoff for future Labourite generations.
It’s alarming and disgusting, and I fear how much irreparable damage Muscat will be able to cause in these five years alone.
A systematic undermining of democracy and milking of the Maltese economy to the detriment of the nation: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-04-05/news/ministers-aides-employed-in-higher-salary-scales-than-predecessors-1330479104/
Muscat is the reincarnation of a more evil and Machiavellian version of Mintoff.
One of the most undemocratic propositions I have ever read in my entire life and I hope that the opposition MPs can smell what is happening here and not give in to such demands.
This is a threat to democracy. If PN MPs are included in the day-to-day decision in the running of the country how can then the PN oppose decisions taken by with the blessing of its members.
Having said that, I have to (negatively) admire this masterstroke by the PL. Even though it doesn’t make sense, they will win points in the eyes of unwary people. The bar has been raised and with it the PN has to raise its game too.
As a country, we need to have a strong opposition and intelligent decisions have to be taken in order to be in a position to counter such effective use of the media being done by the PL.
These tactics are showing why the PL won the last general election and also, while the PN have accepted its place as opposition (at least generally), that PL is still playing its mind-games with the people to show the ‘arrogance’ of the PN, while making atrocious amateurish mistakes in deciding how to best place itself and maybe one day, hopefully in not so distant future, start governing the country.
The Labour movement objection to the selection of Simon Busuttil as Nationalist Party Leader and Leader of the Opposition is the strongest possible argument in favour of his election to fill that role.
It is just not credible that there could exist NP delegates, entrusted to select the new leader, who are so naive and so clueless as to believe that J Muscat’s movement has any desire to promote the emergence of a rejuvenated, efficient Nationalist Party recuperating from the humiliation inflicted by the electorate as a direct result of the NP leaders’ arrogant neglect to listen to the lamentations of its grass root support. Listening instead to the deceiving siren song of the Labour Party in the choice of a leader would be rank stupidity beyond belief.
It is in the interest of the nation that the best minds in the Opposition scrutinise government fulfiling their role.
Muscat’s PL is ridiculous and absolutely uneasy with judgement.
Opposition MP’s need to understand that the electorate itself will realise all too soon that the sooner this scam is uncovered, the better it is.
It’s as if he lacks what’s needed to govern. Moral advantage perhaps, truly a case of oops, now what.
Hypocrisy is the only evil that walks invisible.
John Milton
It is the knife under the cloak.
Muscat did say (during the electoral campaign) that, if he had the choice he would make himself invisible.
The question is, of all things under the sun why does he wish to be invisible? It is up to you to draw conclusions.
Apparently they are afraid that SImon Busuttil will be appointed Leader of the Opposition. So please, please PN appoint Simon …. he’s the best of the current crop of would-be Leaders
I agree, the more the PL opposes Simon, the more I see him as a leader.
Opposition MP’s in executive roles – my willy. Probably there are indications that there are more JPOs and Franco Debonos on the Opposition benches.
They will try and cripple the opposition even more along the way, especially if any of them accept such roles. Wonder what is next?
The strategy employed by the Labour government is quite reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s drive to undermine support for the continuation of war by his enemies.
It was a tactic he constantly used in the early stages of WWII. After conquering a nation, Hitler would hold out the olive branch to the Allies. Naturally, a rebuttal of his pretended claims for peace would appear to make the enemy lose face and justify Hitler’s attack on the next country.
I stand to be corrected, but ‘Der Fuhrer’ tried it one last time after the fall of France, when Britain stood alone, weak and practically defenceless. He delivered a cunning ‘peace’ speech, targeting the British public, in the hope that they would not support Churchill. It didn’t work – the answer was a defiant ‘No!’.
PN, it’s time to close ranks.
These are the games they have been playing for the past 6 years in government departments. They started before the 2008 elections and upped the game year by year.
Now it’s peaking. Dr. Gonzi’s team were made aware of this by many several times over, but failed to stop it. Unfortunately this was his failure.