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A little bit of patience, please – I’ve been working all day having left the house at 5.30am to do the airport run, and have just sat down to moderate/upload the 300+ pending comments. When that’s done, I’ll start on my posts: what I think and what I’ve observed and what people have sent me.
Meanwhile, here’s one of the first noteworthy comments I’ve come across as I begin to go through them. Please carry on sending in your views.
I am especially interested in hearing from (coherent) people who voted for Norman Lowell.
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Posted by Bob-a-Job:
Joseph Muscat has been Labour Leader for six years and there wasn’t as much as a whimper in his first two years or so. The problems within the PN allowed him the breathing space to germinate.
Eddie Fenech Adami took a few years to find his feet but when he did he bowled all before him and that included three MLP leaders.
Mintoff used to call Fenech Adami ‘Vavu’. L-Orizzont, It-Torca and the Labour Party newspaper used to depict him in cartoons as a caricature wearing a nappy with a large safety-pin. Joseph Muscat is making the same mistake and is trying to belittle Simon Busuttil. He too will live to regret it.
Looking back, one must realise that JPO and Franco Debono were just the tip of the iceberg. Mismanagement flourished within the PN as did reckless and seriously doubtful spending in the last years.
Lawrence Gonzi should have immediately put a stop to all the nonsense and called an early election, terminating underhand sabotage tactics from individuals who were eyeing the leadership and relishing the difficult moments the PN was going through.
By not going to ballot Lawrence Gonzi pressed the ‘self-destruct’ button on himself and the Nationalist Party and allowed his ‘unknown’ antagonist to survive another round.
It took five years to come to this. It is therefore quite reasonable to expect a little time for the PN to be rebuilt even with the best person at the helm.
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Lawrence Gonzi kept focused on the economy, thinking that the party was not that important. He had problems everywhere he looked, and yet he managed to juggle them while walking on a tight rope.
One should not forget that some of his back-benchers behaved more like back-stabbers.
So if there was someone who believed and behaved in “Malta first and foremost” it was Gonzi.
I agree that Lawrence Gonzi had problems everywhere yet many of the more serious ones were of his own making.
It was his choice to surround himself with an incompetent entourage.
It was his attitude that drove away some of the better people by refusing their opinions.
It was Gonzi who replaced many experienced people with others who found everything ready for them without having to work for it.
It was his choice to leave the Party in the hands of bungling and incapable Secretary General.
When the PN was repeatedly warned that the Party had never been in that kind of disarray the warnings were ignored.
It was Gonzi’s decision to demonstrate that he could complete his full term no matter what that caused an internal haemorrhage from which the PN could no longer recover.
I could say much more but this is not the right platform to say it on. What I can say is that some of those who had been driven away are returning and those returning are the same people who in their youth built the Party and worked closely with Eddie Fenech Adami to give you a Party that held for over a quarter of a century.
It is now up to today’s youth to do the same as others did 35 odd years ago, to have the same energy and determination to win with Simon Busuttil and wipe Muscat’s silly smile off his face.
The fact remains that for Gonzi, the country came before the party especially in the midst of a widespread international economic crisis. THAT and only THAT needs to be kept in mind.
One cannot play solo all the time in an orchestra THAT and only THAT needs to be kept in mind.
‘I am especially interested in hearing from (coherent) people who voted for Norman Lowell’.
That’s more like it.
I tend to agree. As history has repeatedly shown, appeasement never works.
As soon as trouble started brewing on the backbenches, it would have been wiser had Lawrence Gonzi immediately stood up to the dissenters – had he followed up by calling an early election, the PN would probably have lost but certainly nowhere near as heavily as in 2013.
Nevertheless it would have lost. Losing heavily and losing with a few votes would still put you on the Opposition benches.
I disagree.
The main problem with the Nationalist Party is the magnitude of the 2013 loss. The “36,000 votes” syndrome. I think it shell-shocked the party. It now finds itself in a kind of psychological paralysis.
And Joseph Muscat understands this, and keeps banging on about it.
18,000, not 36,000.
36,000 is another Labour soundbite. Why give it wings?
I subscribe to Bob-a-Job’s opinion. Rumours of rife corruption have not been mentioned, though. Although so far no one has been officially accused of massive corruption among the PN ex ministers and MPs, and most probably nobody ever will, I think that this was another major reason for a massive swing in favour of the ‘moviment’.
Otherwise, I see the passage of time (towards the next general election), as generally in favour of the PN, on the same lines as reflected by Bob-a-Job.
So people who are shocked by corruption vote in a government that includes relics of the golden years led by a dodgy pumpkin head.
With a mentality like that, no wonder labour’s in power.
Most, if not all of the ‘corruption’ you are talking about was only mudslinging orchestrated by the Labour Opposition. Nothing has been proved or substantiated.
One can maybe prove slight irregularities but not corruption. The PN’s critical mistake was and still is that it never bothers to rebut with all its might the mudslinging thrown at it.
‘Nothing has been proved or substantiated.’
That proves little as it is in no politician’s interest to open a can of worms.
Since it’s pointless voting for past Members of Parliament if you are going to have to live with the suspicion that they are crooked – simply vote for the new faces in the coming elections.
That way you’ll be sure that the persons representing you are ‘bone honest’.
Daphne,
I am, like many on both sides of the political divide, astounded by this electoral result.
I really don’t think anyone saw this coming. This result is in fact worse than last year’s general election – it equates to the equivalent of a defeat by 43,000 votes in a general election. That is significantly worse than 2013 and all the more disappointing given that the PL has been in power for over a year.
[Daphne – You have taken the Labour Party’s lead, as have the newspapers, of comparing an EP election to a general election. You can’t. The factors at play are completely different, as are the electors, a key point which nobody has seen fit to mention yet. The electoral roll for EP elections actually IS different: it includes thousands of electors who are not Maltese citizens. Turn-out is more than 20% lower than it is for a general election, and thousands of Maltese electors are also on the EP electoral role in the other EU member states where they live, with many hundreds of them choosing to vote there instead of in Malta. 80,000 people didn’t vote in this election. When do you ever have a situation in which 80,000 people don’t vote in a general election? And yes, people did see it coming. Are polls published for no purpose at all? The information was right there, in every poll published over the last couple of months. But you don’t even need polls – a party that has been in government for just one year cannot lose more than a few thousand votes (and it did lose a few thousand votes). It is certainly not going to lose 10,000 votes, or 15,000 or 20,000. A better sense of perspective is called for here, I think.]
Everyone – and I mean everyone – expected the PN to make inroads on last year’s deficit. The opposite has happened.
Winning elections is about attracting more votes than your political opponents. Bottom line. And the PN has failed again miserably.
It would be simplistic to blame the electorate for this defeat. Arguments such as “they don’t deserve any better” or “pajjiz tal-hamalli” will continue to keep the party alienated from the vast majority of the voting population.
The biggest failure of today’s PN is to understand what are the major issues that matter to the people, just as the biggest strength of the PN until a few years ago was to consistently be in sync with the desires and aspirations of the electorate.
The party is now in disarray and I feel that it should really step back and undergo a radical change in its leadership. What vision does the party have? Does it realise that it has to update its policies especially with regards to social issues? Is the party in the stranglehold of two separate competing cliques?
The current crop of leaders are associated with a faltering government which, by the end of the previous administration, was totally exhausted, on its knees and resigned to a heavy defeat at the polls.
I personally feel that it is time for a major overhaul of the party from its top leadership to its structures.
Above all, the Fenech Adami faction must now go. It has served us well in the past but we must now look to the future.
We need a fresh liberal PN with a clear vision as soon as possible.
Indeed our country needs it.
[Daphne – I think the root of the problem lies in a hangover from the previous leadership: the belief that appeasement and negotiating the middle road and trying to keep everyone happy works better than putting your foot down. There’s also an inability to recognise and seize the moment: under the previous government, with divorce legislation, for instance. And now, with spring hunting. The big messianic projects are gone: no more fighting against gross and endemic human rights violations and oppression or for EU membership. Now it’s a matter of differentiating themselves from Labour on the things that really matter.]
That could be messianic itself. It does require a radical shift in language however.
I’ve noticed that Labour’s insistence on success at the polls still cannot legitimise it’s policies, even though they keep trying hard. Lawrence Grech keeps harping about removing the PN’s cens perpetwu; an admission that the movement lacks the instruments to capture the balance achieved by the PN over the years. There will come a time when ‘GonziPN’ may turn out to be what Labour will have to follow in the end.
Even because that administration was the one to face post-Lehman reality. There’s already some grumbling to the ‘stiff competition’ provided by the previous PIIGS, be it financial services, tourism, TEFL, innovation, clustered manufacturing; Muscat’s EU hostile geo-strategy will be his undoing.
The PN however has to be the one to identify the alternative., the instinctive driving force causing us to rush back home.
Louis Grech, apologies.
Now that you’ve mentioned Louis Grech. He gave Muscat the fabulous idea of leasing/renting his own car to himself as Prime Minister. That’s what he did when at Air Malta and he still owns that BMW. For his suaveness, he is stingy with his employees and never there to take a decision.
Whst is happening is quite natural. Labour will win the next general election too. Then it will be the time for the PN to start thinking of regaining the reins of the country. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes they committed in their last legislature. I doubt it though.
Dear Daphne, why are you bending yourself backwards in defending Simon Busuttil? Is it because you wouldn’t like Mario de Marco leading the party?
[Daphne – I defend nobody, Peter. I merely express my opinion. The experience of seeing a Maltese woman write/say exactly what she thinks in a coherent manner is not novel: I have been doing it for publication for 24 years. Sometimes, when people do not agree with my view, they prefer to tell themselves (and others) that my view is not theirs because I am ‘defending’ somebody or something, or because I am paid to hold that view (which is slanderous). This is a lot easier on their own psyche than admitting that here is a fairly intelligent person with a quarter of century of experience in political observation, who has a view that conflicts with theirs, which just might indicate that their view, and not hers, could possibly be wrong.
Mario de Marco and I have been friends since we were 17. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you give him a tinkle and ask him. In politics, as in one’s personal life and business, there is such a thing as the moment which passed. Switching Simon Busuttil for Mario de Marco will not help or improve matters. Mario de Marco is deputy leader of the Nationalist Party. If you must insist on seeing this weekend’s vote as a vote on the PN leadership, then it was a vote on his leadership too. If you don’t understand the significance of the deputy leader, I suggest you examine the way Joseph Muscat shed Anglu Farrugia on a cursory pretext and replaced him with Louis Grech to pull in more of the Swieqi-switcher vote.]
By ignoring Busuttil’s gaffes I am afraid you are not taking your readers seriously enough. Yesterday, trying to justify this latest trashing, Busuttil said Labour’s year in government went OK. He had just spend five weeks repeating ad nauseam that nothing went OK in Labour’s first year in government.
[Daphne – I do not ignore anything I disagree with. You are a regular reader and you know that. I do not, however, think in chorus or repeat mantras. I know for a fact that those mantras are fed deliberately into the system for the express purpose of repetition by those who neither read nor follow the news. People who do read and follow the news then become convinced that theirs is the wrong view because they meet so many others repeating the same mantra, and they start to think that the mantra-repeaters are probably right. Do not do the Labour Party’s work for it. The rightness or wrongness of an opinion is not linked to how many people hold it. Simon Busuttil does not have an instinctive understanding of what people want and need to hear. But he can learn, and that’s what advisers are for. Muscat, for the first two years of his leadership, was a ‘hamallu liebes ghal tieg’, pairing black suits with black shirts and white ties, with a terrible goatee, horrible shoes and a really primitive way of communicating, and with a wife in terrible Manchester tan make-up. His make-over came two years into his leadership, and it covered every aspect of dressing, comportment, presentation, speaking, networking, and so on. It was so complete and so effective that people (like you have) have forgotten all about how bad he was for his first two years. But I suggest you go to YouTube and jog your memory.]
I have been supporting the Nationalist Party all my life. But I have never felt so humiliated and let down.
Busuttil is another Ed Miliband. A lousy party leader who will never get what he wants.
[Daphne – The root of your difficulties lies in that word ‘humiliation’. Exactly where does humiliation come into it? Unfortunately, you have bought into this primitive way of seeing politics as a horse race or boxing match, and you feel ‘humiliated’ when your horse doesn’t make it. I don’t feel humiliated by election results, because I am convinced of my choices and my political views in and of themselves. It is not the number of people who share my views which gives me comfort that I am right or makes me feel humiliated at being wrong. I do not work out whether I am right or wrong on the basis of how many people agree or disagree with me. I arrive at that conclusion through a process of thought and analysis. Drop the herd-thinking, and you will feel a lot better about yourself and more self-confident in your views.]
There’s an excellent lesson for you in Daphne’s words, Mr. Mallia. I am disappointed with the elections results like every PN supporter but I do not feel ‘humiliated.’
I am disappointed that the majority cannot see through the machinations of the PL, but that does not and will never change what I believe is right or wrong.
I felt humiliated not by the defeat but by the way our leader reacted to it, saying that Labour’s first year in government was a positive one.
I have just accepted Daphne’s invitation and went on YouTube and saw Muscat debating Gonzi 12 months after becoming Labour leader. I invite everyone to do just that. What I saw confirmed my thoughts, that Busuttil, a year into his leadership, is lightyears away from where Muscat was in 2009.
[Daphne – This is what you should be looking at, Peter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pip1D8l5tjE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_MYvpy9ijg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb9T4_GeE5w ]
Thank you for taking your time to reply, at length. I appreciate.
Although the question is not addressed to me, I must answer.
I have been accused of criticising Simon Busuttil and not supporting the PN leadership. So take it from me when I tell you that Simon Busuttil is the best leader for the Nationalist Party right now. He should stay.
Contradiction?
Not at all. Opposition leaders are future prime ministers. That’s what we vote on in general elections. We vote for our prime minister of choice, not for our party leader of choice.
Simon Busuttil will be a superb prime minister. He has all the right credentials, the right intelligence and all the right character traits.
Muscat, for the first two years of his leadership, was a ‘hamallu liebes ghal tieg’, pairing black suits with black shirts and white ties, with a terrible goatee, horrible shoes and a really primitive way of communicating, and with a wife in terrible Manchester tan make-up.
Could u please explain ?? what this has to do with politics or a good politician ??
You talk about Mantras and Co ?? You constantly try to Project an Image of somebody, in this case his clothes Conclusion: he is a hamallu, Sorry, hamallu for me has a complete different meaning. Besides are all Nationalists politicians wearing Armani ? Just look at Pullicino !! I think with this Kind of journalism u reach a certain Kind of public, mainly hard core nationalists, but not moderate People with a mind of their own.
[Daphne – Hamalli wear Armani, Tigiega. You just don’t get it, and perfectly illustrate the point that people vote for those with whom they identify. Why do you think Muscat began pulling in ‘Sliema’ types when he changed his way of dressing and speaking? Why do you think it is now mainly lawyers who find the PN attractive?]
So according to you the PN is the Elite Party for classy People with education and for People who know how to Combine their clothes.The question is now, if i were a real hamallu, or a bus Driver in Malta, then i cannot identify myself with the PN ? there is no place for me in this Party ??
If the answer is yes, i wonder how u or the PN want to achieve that . With your attitdue for sure i would not feel welcome and at ease, and if it is no, then no wonder there is such a big discrepancy in votes.
[Daphne – Bus drivers are not necessarily hamalli. And prime ministers are not necessarily not hamalli. It has nothing to do with money, the lack of it, or where you born in the social spectrum. Or even where you are now.]
By the way i dont agree that lawyers and Co find the PN more attractive than PL, and u have no statistics to vouch for that. People are trying to Analyse why th Nationalist Party cannot Close this 36000 gap. In my humble opinion is that with the above comment and similar comments one can only achieve that the Gap becomes wider. Similar, is when Simon told Deborah, that she has a face of a Nationalist. Such comments just backfire. U want more votes, well, the man in the street and the hamallu, and the poor and and and have as well votes u know. And being uneducated does not mean u dont have a voice. or that u r automatically stupid.
Irid vera jkollok mohh ta’ tigiega biex tahseb li biex tkun ta’ klassi trid tilbes l-Armani!
@ TinaB, I dont think to have class u have to wear Armani, Trussardi or Valentino.
[Daphne – No, Tigiegia, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. What’s being said here is the reverse: that only hamalli wear Armani suits.]
Daphne was criticising Josephs` clothes not me. I was trying to figure out what kind of attire one has to wear to classify as a good politician, apparently Armani is not good enough !!
[Daphne – No, it isn’t. It’s the wrong choice. Armani suits scream ‘flash hamallu with no taste’. Better a Bortex suit than an Armani suit. I don’t feel like explaining why. It’s late and I’m fed up of dealing with people.]
Besides I am not sure that the majority have this Point of view. Others look for other Qualities than just attire.
By the way i chose my nickname on purpose. It was predictable that somebody will fall for it, and be offensive !! didnt have to wait long ;-)
Tigiega – 18000 votes, not 36000. See? The difference has already been cut by half.
Tigiega, Joseph Muscat would laugh at you. How do you think he managed to attract that 36,000 majority? By doing his damnedest to shed the hamallu image and by using the Labour sophisticools as his agents to recruit the non-hamalli.
If you want to know why the Nationalist Party will not close the gap, there’s your answer. It needs to reach out to everyone, including the sophisticools who know that Armani suits are only worn by Gulf State hamallu oligarchs.
Daphne,
I’m not sure if it was intentional, but you rightly point out one important aspect related to Simon Busuttil: his advisors. From what I hear he is surrounded by 2-3 people (mentioned in Balzan’s editorial); I don’t think they are particularly inspiring.
Two or three people cannot really surround someone, can they?
If you think that Saviour Balzan is going to feed you any information that does not have a hidden agenda to his benefit, then you seriously need to wake up and smell the coffee.
Simon Busuttil believes in teamwork; he always did and that is the reason the Nationalist Party is coming together again.
bob-a-job: You will find many PN activists who have experienced this first-hand.
Agree 100 %
My thoughts exactly, with one reservation.
These are different times, thirty-odd years have passed. The internet did not exist back in Eddie Fenech Adami’s days. Today it’s all about marketing and presentation. The Nationalist Party urgently needs to find the financial backing to engage proper marketing consultants.
Surely they can see that Muscat’s marketing strategy has so far worked brilliantly. Pretty much the same is happening in Italy. Matteo Renzi is marketing himself (not the party because it is in shambles) excellently and he too has obtained a majority he himself never dreamt of.
It’s all about image; unfortunately today substance matters much less than it did thirty years ago. The PN either do not use the means available or use them badly, giving the impression that they are still hobbling along disjointedly, with no self-confidence or clear vision.
Had they been using the means available, to their full advantage, then we would not be flocking desperately to a blog written by one journalist in her free time and for no money, would we? In Eddie Fenech Adami’s days, for what it was worth, we rushed to buy the Nazzjon Taghna, a Nationalist Party newspaper on which the party had full control.
As for using it badly – Simon Busuttil tweets. What did he tweet yesterday? That he congratulated Muscat on his victory. Was that information worth a tweet? How did it make him look, if not like a loser, dragging with him all those who voted for him.
Renzi tweets constantly. His tweets are extremely effective, oozing confidence and stamina. His marketing machine works. PN, learn.
Simon Busuttil’s Twitter account is not run by himself, but by his “team” (another Gonzian word that needs to be banished). So we can assume that most of his tweets are written by someone else. Someone dull, boring, lickspittle and very very Maltese, by the looks of it.
That’s another, probably bigger, problem: the party apparatchiks. I’m no insider, but from the looks of it, the party is full of nincompoops not very different from Alex “it-Tander” Saliba.
Absolutely. Simon Busuttil is way above any of his aides in terms of intelligence. How they can even be of any use to him is beyond me.
Maltese politics needs an IQ injection. Labour won’t do it, so the Nationalist Party must.
“Team” needs to be urgently replaced (strong underline) by self or “private” dry wit advisors.
And where reaction is concerned, 30 minutes is too long and 5 minutes is ideal.
Some of Muscat’s tweets are “positively and laterally identifiable.”
A problem with Simon Busuttil is that you cannot message him back because he doesn’t follow those who follow him on Twitter.
If I’m not mistaken it’s similar on Facebook, you can’t message him on his page either. Not too good if you can’t send a message.
Yes, this is a problem.
And then again there is a minimum of two-way communication that must take place.
The assumption is: they can write an email.
The proper thing to do, these days, is to simplify the channels inwards to the max so that the electorate is not frustrated by barriers to communication.
The onus is on the NP to simplify those channels inwards, not on the electorate to find a way through the barriers.
I disagree with the (repeated ad nauseam) view that Gonzi should have called an early election to resolve a domestic dispute within the PN.
Gonzi was a prime minister with a country to run, and not a band club committee chairman.
When, exactly, should he have called an early election? When the financial world was still in meltdown? When Europe’s economies were teetering on the brink of disaster? When north Africa was in turmoil?
When war erupted in Libya and Malta was minutes away from disaster?
Calling an early election to shore himself up is what you might expect a self-serving navel-gazer like Muscat to do. Grown-up behaviour requires more of a responsible prime minister.
Precisely.
Gonzi should have called it off just as soon as JPO was found to be very obviously lying in his teeth, right after the 2008 elections.
Also, elections should have been called for when it was so glaringly obvious that with Franco Debono’s shenanigans, JPO’s and Dalli’s machinations and three quarters of the PN team made it impossible to carry on with proper parliamentary procedures.
Instead, Gonzi ploughed on, plunging the government and party into oblivion.
Of course, all this is said with the power of hindsight, as, at the time, I did not appreciate the real situation.
Not being altogether au courant with the inner circle of the echelons of the PN, it is only now that I’m hearing horror and shocking stories of negligence, incompetence, and back-stabbing which I had previously associated with the MLP. There you go, you live and learn though.
‘Grown-up behaviour requires more of a responsible prime minister.’
So he “lamented quite bluntly” to former US ambassador Molly Bordonaro that the elected Nationalist Party MPs offered a “limited talent pool from which to select ministers”
I have intentionally omitted putting a name to the ‘he’ but we all know who that was.
Now why don’t we just wrap up this comedy of warping history and get down to the business of winning an election.
Exactly how was that a problem if it was untrue? The only reason you knew about it is in jail for life.
Granted. But he did not press the Destruct Malta button. Unfortunately when people don’t know history, they tend to repeat it.
Eddie Fenech Adami came to power thanks to those many who wanted to “try” Mintoff in 1971. In 1987, in spite of the Mintoffian excesses from 1976 to 1981, do you think the PN had a landslide victory? Far from it.
And in 1996, in spite of all the good Eddie Fenech Adami’s government had done, people preferred Alfred Sant, a man in a bad wig, campaigning on an anti-EU platform.
So no, Gonzi did not press the self-destruct button. Totally the opposite, so much so that this government is still riding on the crest of the wealth the PN government created.
Do you remember the word ‘Gerrymandering’?
Do you remember the 8000 jobs given just before the 1987 elections?
Do you remember the thugs who stopped people voting in Zejtun and other ‘hot’ places?
Do you remeber there was only one TV station and that was run by the MLP and our present Ambassador to the UK?
Do you remember the political murders and the torching of PN clubs?
Of course the PN did not have a landslide victory, I’m surprised how it actually won if you ask me.
Fl-opinjoni tieghi l-izball ta’ Gonzi kien meta JPO ried jipprezenta l-private members bill fuq id-divirzju.
Hemm Gonzi li ghandi rispett kbir lejh missu ghajjat elezzjoni.
Kieku zgur li kien jitlifa ukoll imma mhux b’daqs l-ahhar darba u konna inkunu f’pozizzjoni ahjar illum. JPO kien ikun il-kagun tat-telfa u ma kienx issir dak il-vot storiku ta’ Gonzi kontra ir-referendum tad-divirzju fil-parlament (li taqbel jew ma taqbilx ghalija wera li hu bniedem ta’ principju) li minnu l-partit ha timmbru ta’ stagnar u konservativismu.
Kieku u kien qatt ma ltaqgħu flimkien.
As I have previously stated, this year, and for the first time since I have voted in 1987, my vote did not go to the PN – my vote went fringe, or to be more precise, I voted 1, 2 and 3 to Imperium Europa.
My explanation as to why I have voted to IE is quite simple – it has been a vote to show my concerns with the unchecked immigration coming into Europe from Africa, while, at the same time, admittedly knowing that in practice, voting for Lowell would have next to zero immediate effects on both local or EU level politics.
On the other-hand, not voting for the PN might be a little bit more complicated to put down to paper.
Although I do not consider myself to be a ‘Nazzjonalist’, I have always voted with my mind. I never voted because I needed personal favours from the parties in Government. I always voted bearing in mind the general good of the country. I believe that if I am entitled to anything, I should pursue the official channels and not go knocking on the doors of politicians asking for alms or favours. Thus, theoretically at least, having the PN or the PL in government should not make any difference as long as they are working for the benefit of the country and generally following democratic lines.
I must admit that my decision to vote as I did came after a lot of thought, and my concern about the future of Europe eventually won the day.
I see that Europe’s face is changing and our centuries-old traditions, values, culture, and standard of living, which have all been acquired at great cost, are being undermined by unabated immigration from Africa.
In my view, there is a limit as to how much we, Europeans, can open our hearts to aid the hundreds of thousands fleeing Africa.
Always in my view, this undermining is being abetted by main stream European political groupings and politicians, who have brought upon us Europeans a situation where-in one can be readily accused of being racist if one voices his/her concerns.
Thus, this time round, and for the first time in my life, I did not vote PN, nor PL for that matter, but for a fringe party which, albeit far from perfect, makes the right sounds which will hopefully set the main-stream political parties thinking that there are people like me out there who, rightly or wrongly, harbour concerns which I have mentioned above.
Votes as currency are inherently anti-democratic. If you thought strategically you’d have seen your vote was self-defeating.
The message of voting for Norman Lowell and his bitch is not ‘something must be done about immigration so sit up and take notice’. No. The key message of that choice is how poorly you understand decision-taking processes.
If you want a political party to know what you think, send an email. You are, after all, literate.
The proper use of a vote is to elect a representative. The proper medium for wiping your arse is toilet paper. You seem to have confused the two.
La Redoute, as much as I admire your resilience and your defence of what you believe in, I beg to differ from your statements such as ‘how poorly…..processes’.
In practice, politicians are human and just like humans they can become used to living in their comfort zone (coupled with some gravy along the way).
Thus, unless their boat is rocked, it is unlikely that they would go against the flow. In this case in point, those who poorly understand decision-making processes voted in their droves (millions actually) all over Europe to attempt at rocking the boat, and show their concern by voting non-mainstream.
Now, the signals have been loudly given, it is up to the centre to decide what to do.
@Another John
It is perfectly possible for thousands to be wrong, so out with the self-satisfaction that Europe is flooded with irresponsible cranks and that therefore you are right.
I encourage you to read Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. It is stuffed with stories of people who believed they were right because so many others behaved as madly as they did.
Did you vote for Lowell and his bitch and lapdog because you expected them to be elected or because you assumed they wouldn’t be? If you did the former, you are seriously deluded (exactly how would MEP Lowell stop immigration?)
If the latter, you are madly irresponsible and completely irrational because it means you voted while hoping for a contrary outcome brought about by others not voting as you did.
@ La Redoubte: you enjoy sitting on that high horse, don’t you? Looking down, fantasizing and theorizing. All those who did not vote your side of the divide must be wrong; surely they don’t have a clue. Get real and don’t be so judgemental please.
[Daphne – When people express their dismay at the fact that rational people vote for mentally unbalanced candidates who lost their job at the bank where they had worked for years for embezzling around Lm1 million or so, and whose prosecution only collapsed when the file was stolen, and whose policies include human rights violations like preventing dark people from ‘breeding’ while creating a white super-race presumably made up of Middle Eastern types like him with a criminal bent and the most catastrophically stupid girl in my class at school, Arlette Baldacchino (and that’s saying something), they are not being “judgemental”. They are right to express their perplexity and concern. And you should be concerned about your choices too. Please don’t tell me you didn’t know why Norman Lowell was fired from the bank. Please don’t tell me you didn’t know he was prosecuted for embezzlement of a large amount of money. Please don’t tell me you didn’t know his policies include gross violations of human rights. Please don’t tell me you didn’t know that his sidekick Arlette is so genetically stupid (can’t you tell by listening to her?) that she didn’t even make it out of St Dorothy’s Convent – hardly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – with the rest of us, including those who barely got a single O-level. I could go on, but I shan’t. It’s shocking, even leaving his views on ‘negroes’ and his obvious mental unsoundness aside, that you would vote for somebody like that.]
@ Daphne: why are you taking it like this? Bear in mind ‘symbolic’? As in ‘symbolic vote’?
[Daphne – The vote is not a symbolic act, but a personal choice. You made a personal choice to vote for Norman Lowell. You are now upset because you are being criticised for it. If you didn’t want to vote for Labour or the PN, you could have voted for AD or even for harmless Zaren tal-Ajkla. But you chose, literally CHOSE, Norman Lowell – a thief and a vicious racist who is also mentally unsound, accompanied by his long-time girlfriend Arlette Baldacchino who was so stupid at school that she didn’t even survive in the Stupid Stream and had to be held back, failing to leave school with the rest of us. I’m sorry, but if you don’t realise what this says about you, you should be worried. By ‘symbolic’ I suppose you mean ‘hu go fik’. And you actually want praise or understanding for that, when you are a grown man with some education?]
What has, in practice, came out of such a vote? My calculations and conclusions proved correct. There was no margin of error – the vote for ‘Lowell’ translated into nothing in practice. I do not speak on behalf of genuine Lowell supporters, if there are any. I am not one of them. Now it is up to the main-stream to take the hint, as they are apparently already doing in Europe.
You will explain how voting Lowell will in any way move Malta physically out of the main route of immigration.
The guy wants to send super babies into space to preserve the master race. I doubt moving Malta out of the way of immigration routes would present any major difficulties.
Shortsighted or misinformed. Geography has got nothing to do with it. It is the decision-makers in Brussels (or elsewhere?) who determine policies and type of action.
Malta is not the main route of immigration, Jozef. The central Mediterranean route – that includes Italy as well as Malta – is the most prominent one here, but it is by no means the only one nor the most populated.
Another John
You are silly then.
Let me rephrase: How does Lowell plan to stop immigration?
I say the EU consider North Africa as ripe for our values. Even because it will be in the interests of those states haemhorraging under the onslaught of Islamic fundamentalism and Chinese neo-colonialism.
Europe is an ideal, just like Rome.
Do you now see how limited Lowell, with his brain fried on excess Youtube is? All he does is alienate issues from the mainstream.
The problem isn’t the phenomenon, it’s the absence of a sound convinced right. Muscat tries hard but can’t shirk off his vulgarity, ergo prefers to give it a wide berth or turns it into anti-EU mumbling. Some socialist. .
That’s another space the PN can fill, given that both Muscat and Lowell use the same language; a fear of the unknown.
One is mentally deranged, the other, dim.
Voters seem to prefer a good salesman to a statesman.
The PN need to push forward and listen to people like Claudette Buttigieg much more than they have done so far. She has been a popular TV personality and has the feel of the common people. She is witty and not easily intimidated and can speak the language people understand. She is liberal and moderate and uses her brains to be one step ahead of the sly Dr, Joseph Muscat’s strategies.
I respect Dr. Simon Busuttil and I believe he represented the Maltese nation perfectly in Europe but find his professional attitude and approach very weak against Dr. Muscat. We heard the same arguments ad nauseum yet other more important issues were brushed aside.
I am sure there are more people one can can mention such as Jason Azzopardi and others. Dr. Claudette Buttigieg comes to mind as I believe a woman for leadership would be good for the party. We have not had one since Mable Strickland. It would attract the female vote to say the least.
You’re joking right?
Simon Busuttil cannot be slicked up any further.
Busuttil is Busuttil, and he will be the same even if they polish him sparkling bright on a buffing wheel.
The PN is saddled with a lame duck leader, the public of all political spectrums senses this.
I said this before but in my long business life I quickly learned that you cannot be a gentleman when you are dealing with non-gentlemen, you end up losing every time, all the time.
[Daphne – I agree with you on that last bit, and have written exactly that myself. Gentlemanly behaviour presupposes the same in others. With those who are not gentlemen, you must act accordingly. There is no need to lose your dignity to shark them back. And you have to think as they do, not to behave as they do but to anticipate what they will do next.]
Simon Busuttil, as God made him, is no match for the now well-oiled and well-moneyed PL machine.
The PN needs a savvy Giorgio Borg Olivier type of the 21st century to deal with these scoundrels that pass as Labour politicians.
We have to admit that the majority of PN supporters are not like the ones from the 1950s and 1960s; they are now much like today’s Labourites with the same short attention span and a love of the sizzle instead of substance.
The constant sizzle costs mucho money; think Obama.
Jo has long known this and has capitalized very well on this knowledge that seems to have escaped Simon Busuttil and the whole of the PN in general.
Plus the PN needs a tanker or two or three loaded with money if it plans to fight the Chinese-money-backed MLP in the next general election.
Keep polishing Simon Busuttil all you want, but at the end of the day you will come to realize that he and his job re not a good fit no matter how much you wish it so.
Simon Busuttil just needs to admit to himself that he’s the better man.
Simon Busuttil is perceived as being too much of an educated gentleman, a pulit. What the Opposition need now is someone like Austin Gatt.
So what you’re saying is that PN should have chosen Dalli over Gonzi.
Where would you think that would have got us now?
Simon Busuttil is the best choice there is.
If you don’t know him fix an appointment and get to know him and I assure you that you will change your mind.
ajma hej – Austin Gatt! The man who single-handedly lost PN at least 10,000 votes.
PN need to focus on sections of the electorate one by one and see what they can do for them. They must not sell out to people like fanatical hunters, boat-house types and so on (no great loss – they nearly all vote Labour).
Rather, they should appeal to those with family in the army and police who are currently being victimised.
They should make their peace with the LGBT lot, being careful to court those who are reasonable and dissing the Engerers and Gabis.
They should go after the civil service big time and remind them of how they treated it, as compared to what’s happening now (though they could see about phasing-out half-days too).
They should offer support to fringe sports niche by niche: divers, rock-climbers, mountain-bikers . . .
As Joseph Muscat has taught: it is ONLY about marketing now, plus tossing a few sweeties to the Panto audience.
I am sure Simon Busuttil is a fine high quality human being but at the end of the day he will not get results, ie: place the PN back in power in the next election.
It is 90% voter perception at election time that goes up to 99% voter perception when it comes to filling the ballot at the voting booth.
And that is all that counts, unless being leader of the opposition in perpetuity is what he and some PN supporters want.
By that time, what took 25 years to build via PN stewardship in Malta will be so razed to the ground by PL amateur-ship and better-than-them class hatred and pay-back that no one will recognize it.
“So what you’re saying is that PN should have chosen Dalli over Gonzi.”
Bob, the problem with Johnny ‘Snus Dalli is that he is too tainted, so tainted that not even his pet cat will brush against the side of his trouser-leg.
Other than being Jo’s bosom buddy ( and future CEO of the Malta Bourse, thanks to Jo), his real calling would be as a capo for the ‘Ndrangheta.
Maybe they have an opening?
The only person to make Muscat lose his cool so far has been Simon Busuttil. He just has to do it more often or rather regularly so that even the empty heads amongst us see through the mask presented to them. Tpastas naqra Simon u ssalbu.
rosie,
jitqarqac, mhux jitpastaz. .
” voting for Lowell would have next to zero immediate effects on both local or EU level politics.”
Imagine if more of us had reasoned like you.
You also contradict yourself. If Imperium Europa is so hopeless that it doesn’t have any effect neither locally nor abroad, how will your views about immigration be put to the forefront. It would have been better to speak openly in other fora.
You should have the courage of your convictions regardless of how others label you. In my view, voting for Lowell because of immigration is the coward’s way. If you had not written here we wouldn’t know about your concern. Lowell and Imperium Europa stand for much more than immigration.
I exercised my right and voted only for the three candidates of Imperium Europa.
Both the large parties do not deserve my vote. Labour never got my vote and never will. PN under Simon Busuttil has been a weak and ineffective opposition.
AD is a joke.
Both Labour and PN have not effectively dealt with the problem of illegal immigration. Burden sharing is a joke. Without referring to any statistics, we get 1000 immigrants and other countries take maybe 100 or 200 of them, and its usually the USA that takes the most, not European countries. We get lumbered with the rest of them.
Being one of those 6,700 or so voters who voted for Norman Lowell, we have sent a message to the large political parties that they need to do more about this problem.
Votes are not carrier pigeons. If you want the political parties to have your views on anything, write them down in an email and press ‘send’.
You exercised your democratic right to vote but you have forgotten about your democratic duty of informed analysis and responsible voting.
The message sent by single-issue obsessives is exactly that they are single-issue obsessives. No more and no less.
Voting for Norman Lowell isn’t going to reduce immigration any more than it will expand your horizons enough for you to realise that immigrants arrive in the EU through many routes, not just Malta alone.
La Redoute,
I agree that votes are not carrier pigeons, but I know as I’m sure you and everyone else knows too that the political parties don’t listen. PN is stubborn and Labour just hands out cheques of 110 euro.
I know that voting for Norman Lowell even had he managed to obtain as seat won’t directly reduce illegal immigration but it does send a message to the larger political parties that a large part of the population is fed up with the ineffectiveness of their dealings with illegal immigration.
As I said, I never have and never will vote Labour and as of late I do not find the PN appealing at all and Arnold Cassola is not much less of a Joke than Il Ajkla.
You diss AD yet you voted for Lowell and you expect to be taken seriously.
Political parties don’t listen. People do. Exactly what is it you expect a political party to do about immigration? Wrap barbed wire around the island?
If you agree with Lowell’s position then you already have the government you want. Muscat is not averse to pushback or to letting people drown. So why didn’t you vote Labour instead?
My view is that the powers- that- be in the EU want European lands flooded with Africans and muslims, illegal or not.
They don’t want to stop this program, no matter how many illegal migrants die at sea.
Guys like Lowell are controlled opposition, and he plays it over the top in the kookiness department just like Charlie Chaplin in his film, “The Great Dictator”.
The EU as a whole could easily put a stop to this uncontrolled illegal immigration but it doesn’t want to.
Even if Norman Lowell was PM of Malta, the mother ships with human cargo on dinghies to be released near EU lands will still be allowed to make land.
People don’t all arrive in the EU by boat, Ken il-Malti, any more than they only arrive in Malta. Many immigrants in the EU are from Eastern Europe. You don’t notice them because they don’t arrive in a boat wearing only the clothes on their backs.
The largest immigrant communities in Malta are Chinese and Filippino. Last time I looked, the latter were Catholic.
Does anyone of you concerned with the African situation agree with the EU taking matters into its own hands in North Africa?
Kick both the Chinese and the US out?
@ ken il malti: your views are same as mine re European lands being on purpose flooded with Muslims and Africans. The question is who wants this and why. Could it be that the orders are coming from overseas?
PN needs to cleanse itself from legacy members. A son of a great politician does not inherit his father’s greatness.
What I would like to see is Joseph Muscat facing an Anne Fenech. Successful women politicians are tough to handle, remember the Iron Lady.
At this stage the worst mistake the PN could possibly make is to start second-guessing the leadership. Like in 1996-98 what is needed is the setting up of various think-tanks on matters like the economy, health, education, technology, immigration etc and come up with future electoral programmes.
They exist already. Take your pick and join one.
The PN needs to completely rejuvenate itself if it wants to once again be an appealing and electable party.
I think Simon Busuttil is very intelligent but he is a weak leader. Maybe in time he may become stronger, but I doubt it.
The PN needs to learn from its mistakes. PN learnt absolutely nothing from the divorce issue 3 years ago. This stubborn mentality of sticking to ‘principles’ and acting according to personal religious convictions at the cost of votes is political suicide.
Most people probably disagreed with combining gay adoptions with civil unions (i did for sure), but by abstaining the PN only showed weakness in the leadership and disagreement within the parliamentary group and they fell into Joseph Muscat’s trap.
At the end of the day, whilst it is probably fact that most of the electorate disagrees with gay adoption, it is not really a big deal and will soon be forgotten as it already seems to have been. But unnecessary damage to the PN has been done because of their stand.
Another mistake that the PN keeps repeating is negativity. Whilst I agree that it is the duty of the opposition to point out the shortcomings of the government and in most issues the PN is right this is another case were the PN is just getting boring and less appealing because they overdo it even though most times they may have a point.
That is my humble opinion as to why the PN is losing its appeal amongst voters.
Look here, can we stop saying that Simon Busuttil is a weak leader? He is just being Maltese.
Hands up those of you who will refuse to shake hands with Labour politicians when they visit your workplace.
Hands up those of you who will omit the words “Alla jahfirlu/jahfrilha” when mentioning Mintoff or Agatha Barbara.
Hands up those of you who will say “Joseph Muscat” and “Alfred Sant” without the “Doktorr” title.
Hands up those of you who will say “MLP” instead of “PL”. Hands up those of you who will remain seated in the presence of President Coleiro Preca.
Because this is what it’s all about. The Maltese seem to think that courtesy should be extended to scoundrels – to the ‘role’ rather than to the person who fills it – and that good manners require unctuousness. They don’t.
Context doesn’t change people. The function cannot be dissociated from the person.
Just wait six months, and we’ll have both party leaders working the phones on that execrable programme ‘L-Istrina’, smiling at each other and urging us, hand in hand, to show some Christmas spirit.
So let’s help Simon Busuttil by starting a little revolution.
Calling Muscat Dr. is particularly offensive.
Hands up all those who don’t believe his PhD thesis is entirely his own work.
To Baxxter: Hands raised.
My opinion is that I do not wish my representatives to lose ‘principles’/’values’. I agreed with the stand taken by PN.
When I go and vote PN, the person I give my number ‘1’ to is a person I think is closer to my values. And I keep going until I reach the end.
Hear, Hear Baxxter.
I will not even address Joseph Muscat by the title he is given and haven’t done so in a while.
Hands raised to both you and It-Tezi ta’ Mario.
It’s about time personal action is taken.
Well I never. There may not be 300 of us yet but I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
And anyone else can join. Try it. It’s fun.
At a recent embassy party, the great, noble and dead gorgeous Alex Sceberras Trigona was going round pressing the flesh. Everyone was in awe. The men were practically scraping the floor, the women wobbly-kneed and desperately invading his personal space.
The air was thick with compliments and niceties. The atmos. was all bonhomie and sophisticated grovelling.
Then he came round to me. So I stood to, made sure the pinstripes on my jacket and trousers were perfectly aligned, raised half an eyebrow, stiffened the upper lip and calmly sipped at my champagne. And I met his gaze with an eye like Mars, to threaten and command.
That confused the hell out of him. Was I a barrani? Was I the exhibiting artist? The ambassador’s son-in-law? Some rich and famous high-net-worth investor?
It was great to watch his growing confusion. Then he walked on towards the next group of grovelling Maltese.
See? It’s fun. Try it, and report back.
No! Gonzi did the right thing in pressing the ‘self-destruct’ button on his party and himself rather on the country.
He put country first, party second.
If the PN has to suffer for years because of that decision, so be it. But history will vindicate Gonzi.
When in a few decades, long after his death, people will discuss the Great World Recession, everything will boil down to the truth. And the truth is that Gonzi put country first.
I fully agree. In my opinion, Dr. Gonzi is a true statesman and a man for all season. Many seem to forget that additional to the global recession he had inherited massive fund-drainers such as the shipyards and the public transport which he effectively dealt with.
That’s the job of the Minister of Finance Minister.
If Lawrence Gonzi wants credit for that then what was Tonio Fenech supposed to be doing? I was tempted to say ‘winding clocks’ but I won’t.
The job of the Prime Minister is to hold the ship together and there he failed miserably and took us down with him.
But we’re not staying down are we?
To do that the whimpering has to stop and the energy has to go towards getting PN into government again.
We don’t owe it to them – we owe it to us.
Sorry Daphne, but from 1987 until last Saturday i always voted PN,but for the first time Saturday i voted AD. I did this as a sign of protest towards Simon Busuttil’s leadership,and no i did not intend taking MDM down with him,how else can i show my disapproval towards him? Sorry but i never thought the time would come when a PN leader is on TV i would switch channels after a couples of minutes. And by the way, the majority of people i know are of the same opinion.
[Daphne – ‘How else can I show my disapproval towards him?’ Write him an email and tell him. The purpose of your vote in this election was to choose your representative in the European Parliament, and you wasted it. ‘The majority of people I know are of the same opinion’ – that’s called group think. It’s pointless trying to impress me with it, because I have been impervious to group-think since schooldays, and known for it. Why, I even built a journalist career out of it.]
Bottom line is we have to come to terms with the situation (dobbiamo farci una ragione) – they are here to stay with a PN being punished for its arrogance after 25 years in power.
As long as the PL continue to stroke the vote-catching niches and our economy does not crash, they will remain in power. Better stock up on the Prozac.. we’re going to need it.
Arrogance? What arrogance? Maybe you are confusing arrogance to decision-taking and managing? To me it seems you have watched and fell for too much super-one diatribe.
Please leave Simon Busuttil alone. As for those morons suggesting that he ought to mimic Joseph Muscat- forget it.
We love and respect him precisely because he is so different from Joseph Muscat. This is a very challenging time for the PN but changing the leader is not the solution.
We need Busuttil at the helm right now. Just have some patience, give him some time and have faith in his leadership.
Simon Busuttil sorely lacks charisma. To my mind, Anne Fenech would make a hell of a leader – no nonsense, intelligent, articulate and tough – I really do not see anybody else within PN ranks coming close to her right now.
Funny you say that. I know Dr. Fenech and she reckons that Simon Busuttil makes a perfect leader and is very supportive of him.
I think Ann Fenech would make a perfect minister but convincing her will take a bit of time.
@C.Mifsud.
Voting for Lowell – I admit – is quite a temptation. But I think you are more intelligent to control your emotions. If you just consider the fact that this is a European issue, who put Malta at the European table? I do not make you out to be stupid. So please do use your grey matter and don’t let your emotions overtake you. It is dangerous.
People who think immigration is the overriding issue of our times are irrational by definition.
I really can’t fathom why this issue of the PN leadership should crop up. The Nationalist Party never had the personality cult.
The PN just incidentally produced great statesmen because of the way it is structured; I.e it always operated in a democratic fashion – in spite of and with all the downfalls of being democratic.
But then that is why it was capable of restoring democracy in Malta when it was wiped out not so many years ago. And if anyone believes that democracy is not under threat, then you are on another planet.
Well said. If one thinks rationally; the choice in Malta is simply between democratic principles – PN and dictatorial rules – PL. All one has to do to fathom this, is see with whom the PL rulers like to mix – China, North Korea, Azerbaijan and other similar buddies.
Anne Fenech is in her rightful place. In addition, she has clearly stated that she does not want to be the leader.
Simon Busuttil can and will lead the PN through the tough process of change. I certainly do not agree that he lacks charisma. ‘Charisma’ is highly subjective and more importantly, charisma develops.
As a leader grows on people, his charisma grows as well.
We cannot expect overnight miracles from Simon Busuttil. The battle is long and difficult but let’s give him a chance.
How can we judge him after one year? How can we measure his effect against the cult of Joseph, which has taken Malta by a storm?
Had Simon Busuttil not been there, could there have been a more pronounced swing towards Labour in yesterday’s results?
And please stop comparing Joseph Muscat after one year as a leader with Simon Busuttil. Muscat only had to overcome a tiny hurdle of a mere 1000 votes, whilst Simon has a massive mountain of a growing 36,000 votes to reconcile with.
Joseph Muscat arrived at a time when PN support was very weak and dying a natural death, whilst Simon Busuttil has to fight against a party which is at its strongest hour.
If I had to do my due diligence on Joseph Muscat and his being democratic, to what can I lend credence and reliance?
His adulation to the most despicable Dom Mintoff? To his European convictions?
Ironically the people he is duping most are the Labour supporters, and Marlene Farrugia realises this.
And that is the stark difference between PN and PL. PN will anger you and make you curse them but they will not cheat you; PL will appease you to exploit you
Nispera li dawk li vvutaw lill-Imperium, meta jkollhom xi bicca xoghol ta strapazz ma jkunux minn ta l-ewwel biex iqabbdu xi mmigrant irregolari halli jifrankaw ftit Euro.
Daphne, I recall when during the PN leadership contest you were asked the question who would you favour between Busuttil and de Marco as leader, you said you had your personal thoughts, but you will support whoever will be the leader. I had the same feeling, as I am loyal to the PN.
[Daphne – The fact is that I thought none of the available options was ideal, and so had no preference at all. On a Muscat psychology/elector impact level I could work out that the ideal could at this point only be an intrinsically glamorous and highly intelligent man with a strong physical presence and a manner of speaking in both Maltese and English that is the hallmark of a privileged social background, who makes Muscat feel naturally intimidated and admiring, and with whom all the tedious switchers would instantly identify as ‘one of their own’. Either that, or going for something completely different with a woman in the Merkel mould – a no-nonsense type with not the merest hint of glamour. Neither was available, so you work with what you have.
If I need a wardrobe, and there are just three or four available which I don’t think particularly suitable, I don’t leave my clothes in a heap on the floor while longing for the wardrobe I want but which doesn’t exist. I just take one of the available wardrobes, put my clothes in it, make it look as good as I can, and just get on with it. That’s the kind of person I am. It’s the same with voting. That’s why I would never dream of not voting or of using my vote to ‘send a message’. Other than the fact that I’m literate and perfectly capable of using email to send a message, I’m well aware that the purpose of the vote is to choose a government, and I have to work with the options available, not sulk because the option I want just doesn’t exist.]
However, after having followed Busuttil’s performance in the past year, where repeatedly he would have a clear upper hand on several issues, he would somehow end up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory by the end of it. This happened on the army promotions, power station, citizenship, even the budget debate.
Sometimes I can hardly believe he is a lawyer by profession in the way Muscat manages to out do him – and please don’t say this is not the case. It is the PERCEPTION that counts.
[Daphne – I am not going to say that it’s not the case. You read me regularly, and you should have seen that I have repeatedly written much the same thing: that you can’t be a gentleman with somebody who is not one, that you can’t play by the rules with those who don’t, and that lawyers have to stop thinking like lawyers and learn to read Muscat’s behaviour pattern and predict his actions. Muscat is actually a very easy person to read because his personality traits are fixed and it is easy to work out how he will respond and what his intentions are. He is also unable to contain himself. As soon as he said, a few days before the election this past weekend, that this was going to be a straight contest between him and Busuttil, between his government and the Opposition, I knew for a fact that the final polls were showing a truly massive majority for Labour – which was obvious anyway, as the polls published by newspapers had long been showing the same thing.
I’ll use one example. The Opposition has been putting a great deal of pressure on the government to publish or release its contract with Henley & Partners. These are the lawyers speaking and thinking: they want to examine the contract. A politician would have ignored the contract as a side issue and gone straight for what matters to the electorate, demanding the following information from the government which the Opposition has not bothered with at all: 1. how many passports have so far been sold, 2. who to; 3. how much revenue has been collected; 4. where has this revenue gone.]
Notwithstanding his shortcomings I was convinced the electorate would give Muscat Busuttil’s famous yellow card (it was Busuttil who triggered the contest, Baxxter please note).
[Daphne – Yes, that was a major tactical error. You don’t do something like that unless you know already that the outcome is in your favour. The Nationalist Party’s major failing, with which I have disagreed all along, is its faith in human nature and in the electorate. It then gets a shock that is-sewwa ma jirbahx zgur, that the better man does not necessarily win, and that if you do your best God will do the rest. A politician must always start off from the assumption that people are perverse in their reasoning, that nothing is obvious, that they don’t necessarily prefer the better man, that they might have a different definition of ‘good’ and that they don’t necessarily want good to triumph but might actually prefer evil in its various forms, however apparently minor. They should trust nobody and especially not the judgement of electors, and instead they have repeatedly trusted everybody and everything, and behaved impeccably even towards absolute scoundrels.]
Little did I expect that so many PN voters would take this quite literally and decided to show Busuttil the yellow card, and not vote, or vote for a fringe party. This is clearly evidenced by comments here, and by so many of my friends who for the first time did not vote. Truthfully it took quite some convincing for my mother to vote, as she was refusing to do so, as she says Busuttil bores her to death.
[Daphne – Yes, that is the most common complaint: that Busuttil is boring and that when he speaks he fails to engage his audience. Boredom is a major problem generally in Malta and responsible for many major ills including the widespread, above-normal anxiety. Muscat understood this and understood, too, that bored people find trouble attractive because it adds zest to their lives. Far from being repelled and worried by all these strange liaisons with China, same-sex couple adoption, big and dangerous gas tankers, championing of people who have been sentenced to prison, I suspect that people actually love it all because it gives them a frisson.]
This is not about a makeover for Busuttil. I’m sorry I can’t agree with your naive comment about sending him an email to do so. That’s what elections are all about – it’s the one time Joe Citizen can speak up loud and clear – with their VOTE.
[Daphne – The one thing you can’t accuse me of being is naive, at least not politically. I am very clear in mind about the end game, always, and about what the result should be. I will act to get that result. If I want PN candidates in those seats in the European Parliament, then I will vote for PN candidates, and not act in any manner which will increase the number of seats for Labour. Sending a message to the PN is of secondary importance and yes, it should be done by the civilised means used by literate people. What you are saying here is something quite different: that lots of people you know don’t actually care who fills those EP seats and so used their vote for other means and purposes. I call that irresponsible and politically disengaged – and yes, immensely naive.]
And please Baxxter let’s not have more of your Dad’s Army comments. Of course I would shake hands with Coleiro Preca. She is our President, and has not usurped anything undemocratically.
Some very serious damage has been done by this result. If you think Gonzi was humiliated by the general election result, he was the outgoing prime minister, and people used their vote to punish the PN government. This time round people punished the Opposition instead of the government. This is a VERY strong message indeed.
[Daphne – Yes, the strong message is that little or nothing has changed in the Maltese mindset since the early 1970s, exactly what I have been saying for years in irritation at the PN’s constant ‘faith in human nature’ and ‘is-sewwa jirbah zgur’. The reality is that Maltese society is relatively recently developed out of very basic peasant/harbour underclass society and has a fundamental resentment for the Nationalist Party and all that it is perceived to stand for, while also having much, much higher expectations of it and taking good performance for granted. If you notice the pattern of voting over the last 45 years, you will see clearly that the PN gets voted in only when the situation is desperate in Labour or when the Labour leader is nuts or weird, and even then the electorate does not feel the need to punish Labour which still creams around 45% of the vote however freaky its leader or dangerous its performance in government. How else do you explain a situation in which the electorate punishes the Nationalist Party whether it is in government or in Opposition, and savagely so, while feeling no such need to savagely punish a party with KMB or Sant as leader, or a government that was unbelievably violent, oppressive and corrupt, in 1981 and 1987? When I hear all this talk about punishing the Nationalist Party, I don’t get cross at the Nationalist Party, but cross at the people who think like this. They are simply not logical. It is a real, serious problem that manifests itself throughout Maltese life and society and not just in politics. And sadly, there is no solution to it. I realised a long, long time ago that far from being repelled by Labour because its perversity, people are actually attracted to that kind of thing in the same way that they are magnetised by bad men or bad women in their personal or social lives. They like it, and they want that frisson. It makes them feel alive in an otherwise deadening life. This certainly accounts for the Norman Lowell factor, make no mistake about it, and not concerns about immigration. And it accounted for the Franco Debono/JPO factor too. There is, unfortunately, no solution to this sociological fact. But it’s not going to turn me into one of those people, or make me impatience with good people for not being bad enough to be attractive to bored people.]
Busuttil has put his head on the outcome of the 3rd seat.
Whether the PN gains or loses the 3rd seat by a margin of a few hundred votes, it is quite irrelevant. It is a humiliating defeat for Busuttil, and he is increasingly looking the village idiot, with his defeat speech. He should do the honourable thing. This would invigorate the party big time – and possibly a new leader crops up, who did not even contest last time.
[Daphne – Oh come on: the deus ex machina dream. See my reference to wardrobes, above. Here’s another thing that astonishes me: the way ‘people like us’ invariably use their huge store of cynicism to address PN behaviour when they fail catastrophically to use it to analyse MLP behaviour. Given that I can read Muscat’s personality fairly well, it is perfectly obvious to me that if he thought Busuttil an unworthy opponent with no chance of election, he would not be dissing him all the time and encouraging supporters of the Nationalist Party to get rid of him and replace him with somebody ‘better’. Why would Muscat want to get rid of an unworthy opponent to have him replaced with someone who poses more of a challenge to him? To pick up Muscat’s mantra and actually believe that he wants to improve the PN – THAT is naive.]
What you mention Daphne, is the underlying motive to identify with Labour; subscribing to Maltin.
Which is why I insist on tackling this matter head on. I have been insisting, coyishly perhaps, that maybe certain bad blood between those who certainly don’t worship at the altar in Birgu and the ‘orthodox’ PN be overcome.
Unless this country regains its responsibilities, Labour will prevail. Responsibility as in identity of descendance, mindset and cultural instruments. Without having to use those to bash others around the head. I think you’ll recognise that immediately, accused of being ‘mgebbda u kiesha’ when it’s the exact opposite.
The same applies for those will always, to date, remain the sons and daughters of traitors. I don’t think it’s a coincidence the PN closed in on itself after 25 years of rule, no chance ever given to express a revisitation of the core, (Baxxter please bear with me).
Or better, being latin cannot remain the stuff of auctions or the never ending polemic dated 1939.
Which is also why Piano was illegible, such is our predicament. The barbarism that is Labour corresponds to the brutal utilitarianism in all we do, Hoxha’s Albania as you call it. (Have you seen what they’ve done to Tirana, coloured it beyond recognition?)
http://blog.ted.com/2013/02/08/9-views-of-tirana-albania-with-its-bright-multicolored-building/
And they don’t have half the ‘cultural heritage’ we have, so they set to work. Labour refused the bridge, calling it to nowhere.
Gives one an idea of what their horizon tells them.
Dad’s Army? What I’m talking about is 100% 21st century principles.
I refuse to shake anyone’s hand if they were part of Mintoff’s killing machine. I refuse to defer to scoundrels and crooks.
Heavens, if Malta was Berlin the Wall would still be standing, because “dak ghamlu l-gven skond il-ligi u mhux sewwa li nkissruh heqq”.
And you know what, your sort are the ones who let regimes like China and Saudi Arabia get away with anything. Ghax meta jigi l-ambaxxatur jiddiskuti l-business, irridu nuru rispett, hux tassew, ma mmorrux noffenduhom. It is such an honour to have you, You Excellency.
One day I’ll tell you the story of August Landmesser.
Both your positions are not as distant as they seem. In fact, I can’t disagree with either viewpoint.
Daphne, you describe the ideal PN leader as “an intrinsically glamorous and highly intelligent man with a strong physical presence and a manner of speaking in both Maltese and English that is the hallmark of a privileged social background, who makes Muscat feel naturally intimidated and admiring, and with whom all the tedious switchers would instantly identify as ‘one of their own'”. You just described Mario Demarco.
[Daphne – I absolutely have not. Much as I am very fond of Mario Demarco and know how very good he is at getting along with a certain kind of crowd, he does not fit my description on any score and is dramatically far removed from what I have in mind. Mario Demarco is actually another version of Simon Busuttil, but with different friends. They come out of the same mould and are practically in every respect clones of each other. They have the same views, and the only difference is that they probably disagree on how to handle them. They are also both extremely reserved, ‘closed in’ and private people. I speak from the advantage of having known both of them before and outside of politics.]
I’d personally rather see my clothes hanging in the Demarco wardrobe.
The debate you both make is identical to that I have with my family and friends.
My conclusion is that the Nationalist voter is intrinsically different from a Labour voter. The divide is cultural and social. And I don’t mean this in a classist way, although classism is a taboo here in Malta, while it is an accepted way of life in the UK.
PN voters have higher expectations of the Nationalist Party because they have an intrinsically European aspiration. Voter apathy and switching is normal in a European context. By abstaining or voting for other parties they feel like they are behaving maturely, just like any European would. The problem here is that the Labour Party resembles Hamas more than it resembles the German SPD.
The Labour voter, on the other hand, enjoys the hamallagni, the under-the-counter deals, pjaciri, the sense of importance that comes with being granted a favour by a Ministru. I suspect it is not really so much about the personal gain as much as it is about having your existence acknowledged by someone who is famous, popular and powerful, like a minister.
We’ve all met this kind. People who would rather pass on a commission to a public official to have their way, even if they did not need to. It just makes them feel powerful and important, too.
It is ultimately a number problem. There are too many of the Labour kind making up their core vote, and too many of the Nationalist kind who enjoy feeling “mature” by abstaining or fringe voting.
It is also an image problem. The Nationalist core vote will vote PN irrespective of who the leader is. If the party wants to attract the Nationalist switchers and some of the Labour core, it needs a leader which will appeal to them more than Joseph Muscat does. I don’t think Busuttil fits the mark.
Daphe, you ask why Muscat disses Busuttil all the time. The answer may be quite simply that finally he can have his come-uppance and not be dissed himself, as he was at school.
I don’t think we value the personal nature of Muscat as much as we should. The best defence in that case is a very strong attack back.
Oh come on, Daphne. Of course Muscat is happy to have Busuttil leader of the Opposition. However this will not stop him from dissing Busuttil.
Indeed the one thing he may never expect is for the PN to change its leader after 12 a mere months. (Frankly, I dont expect this to happen either).
[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I don’t recall Eddie Fenech Adami or Lawrence Gonzi ever dissing Alfred Sant. Both of them always treated him with courtesy and respect, even when he routinely dissed them and behaved abominably. Lawrence Gonzi did not diss Joseph Muscat, either. He behaved with perfect manners towards him. So there is no ‘of course’ about it. Muscat is a vulgar savage with no manners, and he really doesn’t have to be that way because he has all the advantages. Does he have to diss Simon Busuttil? No. He’s way ahead. He does it because he’s crass, and he is admired for it by those who are equally crass. He seems unable to understand now he is prime minister the standard of behaviour expected of him is very different to that when he was working for Super One TV.]
Similarly PN kept on winning elections because of the Alfred Sant factor. This did not stop the PN dissing Sant, and couldn’t believe their luck when Labour kept him leader post 2003, after having lost 2 general elections, and went on to lose the third one.
The PN did not reason, hey Sant is our best asset, let’s stop dissing him but praise him so Labour keeps him as leader. Oh come on – THAT is being naive.
[Daphne – Read my comment again. I am not talking about the LABOUR PARTY dissing Simon Busuttil or about the NATIONALIST PARTY dissing Alfred Sant. That is normal fair play and acceptable behaviour in politics. It is par for the course. I am talking about THE PRIME MINISTER dissing THE OPPOSITION LEADER. I have never known that to happened before now, bar the way Prime Minister Dom Mintoff routinely described the newly elected Opposition leader Eddie Fenech Adami as ‘vavu tal-harqa’. And there you have it.]
The PN will hang on to Dr SBusuttil but in the end after many years they will realize that elections will not be won by him. In the meantime a lot of years will be wasted. It happened to Labour.
[Daphne – Not quite. Alfred Sant won his first general election.]