TOP COMMENT OF THE YEAR
Overlook the typos, ellipses, AWOL capital letters, multiple interrogation marks and erratic Maltese spelling. This is one hell of an excellently-expressed comment which a reader has just sent in.
I wanted to cheer and clap as I read it. And I bet many of you will, too.
Posted by Christopher in reaction to the video clip of the prime minister reiterating his promise to resign, only last March:
U ir reazzjoni tal partit nazzjonalista ghal ahbar bhal din?….Din?….clip ta 30 secs is sur Busittil jikkundanna ( Malta Independant )……. Din l oppozizzjoni li ghandna?? Bis serjeta?, din il hegga li ghandkom bhala mexxejja ta partit?….Din l ahbar kien haqqa konferenza ta l ahbarijiet , bil grupp parlamentari tieghak kollu warajk !! Kieku din l istorja grat vice versa ahlef li tas super 1 ilhom ikkampjati quddiem il power station 6 xhur u jiehdu video ta kull zrara li tohrog jew tidhol hemm gew, e jekk ma tiftahx ir radio u hlief skandli u korruzjoni ma tismax…..u fuq arlogg,biljett/vjagg ta loghba football,dawra fuq yacht nqala panigierku tal blieh fuq il medja ,jistennew fuq il moll,l airport,bil microphone go wicc saliba u tonio borg….nsejtu??……possibli insejtu ??…..u bicca xoghol bhal din..li hafna nies mhux jirrelizzaw,li il boghod mill partiggjanizmu kollhu ha taffetwana inkredibilment fil futur meta nigu dipendenti minn kumpaniji/pajjizi barranin ghall uzu ta l energija…….il kap ta l oppozizzjoni johrog clip ta 30 seconda jikkundanna x gara?…qisu kien qed jiekol u waqaf f nofs id dezerta ? Hekk ibqaw sejrin….nixtieq nkun naf min jtik il pariri…ghax qed tghix f dinja ohra jekk minghalikom li ha toqghodu tilghabuwa safe u tilghabuwa ta miss goody two shoes u in nies jkunu warajkom….mela ahna tigieg jew?? … in nies timxi wara min jispira….u int u il partit bhalissa,trust me …you are inspiring as a miss world contestant saying that she wants to save the dolphins….thats right,thats how shallow you look at the moment with the lack of real opposition in front of situations handed to you on a silver platter that you should be taking full advantage of ! …….old school and gentlemanly tactics wont work in this modern age where everything is analyzed and dissected and action taken within seconds of bieng said and done,……so,or step up your game,or be damned to eternal opposition……….
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Ace.
Kif jghidu bil-Malti “Well speaked, you hit the nail on the head.”
I know comparisons are odious but I feel that Simon Busuttil is more like George Borg Olivier – a true gentleman, but too gentle for the job.
[Daphne – Borg Olivier’s problem wasn’t that he was a true gentleman or “too gentle for the job”, but that he spent his time in office drinking and running around with women who were not his wife. In 1970, the year leading up to the 1971 general election that changed the game for Malta and led to the 16 years that would prove so tragic and disastrous, Prime Minister Borg Oliver was in the full throes of a very public affair with the (drunken, chaotic and unstable, but beautiful) actress Dawn Addams who lived in tax exile here for a brief while. Meanwhile, Mrs Borg Olivier had become pregnant through her own affair, with a priest who then had to emigrate to Australia because of the scandal, and gave birth in 1970. So hardly the ideal scenario for some proper campaigning for the 1971 general election or for focussing the mind on political objectives, wouldn’t you say? That’s why the press plays such a crucial role in the life of a country: had those matters become properly public, rather than merely public in restricted circles, Borg Olivier’s position as prime minister and party leader would have been completely untenable (it would be completely untenable now, let alone in the late 1960s) and he would have been forced to resign. Then somebody who wasn’t taken up with all that torrid business would have replaced him and changed the course of history to one which did not feature 16 years of disastrous Mintoffian rule. If, if, if…]
What we need is another Eddie Fenech Adami, a truly inspirational firebrand who managed to channel his conviction that “Is-sewwa jirbah zgur” into our very souls. He too was always a gentleman, but also an indomitable and fearless fighter – a true leader. His style of politics was the winning formula – not the soft pussyfooting going on at the moment.
[Daphne – a truly inspirational firebrand who managed to channel his conviction that “Is-sewwa jirbah zgur” into our very souls. That’s precisely the problem. ‘Is-sewwa jirbah zgur’ is a complete untruth, but it has been drilled so profoundly into the PN psyche that the things which really make for winning, including preparation, clever campaigning, knowing your audience and getting across to people, came to be considered optional.]
I must admit you’re right here, Daphne – you’ve definitely hit the nail squarely on the head. I was speaking about the general perception of the public , not the stark reality of what actually happened.
I must also admit that although our rallying cry of “is-sewwa jirbah zgur” inspired us to fight for it to happen, it is no longer applicable today because of its implication that “is-sewwa” will happen anyway without any effort from us or the PN.
However we do need a leader who is capable of waking us up from our stupor, to act and react powerfully and most of all to inspire us, in the same way that Eddie Fenech Adami did. We need a new rallying cry.
[Daphne – No, the days of rallying cries and inspiring ‘peasant leader types’ are gone forever. Those things belong to the third world and emerge from it. It is easy to forget that Malta was a Third World country at the time, but it was. Even Fenech Adami himself metamorphosed over the years from a folk leader with a battle cry to somebody statesmanlike.]
So true, Daphne
Spock, when Fenech Adami first became PN Leader, he was no firebrand; the firebrand was Guido De Marco.
In time, Fenech Adami proved himself, again and again, a resolute and fearless fighter, facing even physical threats and abuse.
Couldn’t have said it better myself! Just bloody wake up, PN.
Daphne – we need a good leader though – somebody with all the qualities necessary to fight and lead a decent Opposition. Who in the Nationalist Party can be and do all that?
How many times did you attend meetings/conferences held by the PN?
How much did you contribute to the Nationalist Party’s coffers?
How much do you write in your own name in the media, even if just Facebook?
Before asking the Nationalist Party to wake up we should first ask ourselves what are we doing to help combat the Labour Party and this corrupt and dangerous government. We have had enough of armchair critics.
Why the secrecy?
Citizenship scheme monitoring committee meeting secretly for the first time ( The Malta Independent)
Brilliant. Spot on, Christopher.
Whilst agreeing that the Opposition can be more active and be more inspiring I do not agree that they should do what Labour did when in Opposition.
I don’t want NET TV to be like Super One. And there is nothing wrong with being a gentleman – on the contrary, that is why the PN attracts a certain type of voter. What this reader is expecting from the PN is for it to act like Labour. I expect better much much better.
[Daphne – Just a couple of observations. Political parties are not in a shared market place but in a zero sum game. You either get enough customers to win the seat of government, or you lose it completely. Your attitude would work if the PN and the MLP were, say, men’s outfitters, one appealing to gentlemen and the other to non-gentlemen. The latter would have a chain of shops and the former would have just the one at a good address, but they would both still be in business. Not so with political parties: one gets the shop and the other gets to protest occasionally that the shop floor isn’t being swept properly and that the window display isn’t as attractive as it could be, or that one of the assistants has his hand in the till. The fact is, while you can make policy in Opposition, you can only implement it in government. The business of political parties is to make and implement policy, which means that their business is to get into government, not Opposition.]
Daphne, Ghalhekk meta kellu c cans Gonzi ma messux qaghad jitkessah li ma jimpurtahx mill voti ghax l aqwa li jghamel ‘is-sewwa’
But not at all costs.
Ijja, at all costs. We are not living in a world which allows compassion like the old days where problems used to be solved by duels and pistols and stuff. Nowadays a simple mistake like a picture or text or even simple wrong perception can and will destroy you and everything that you touch.
A simple cleaner having an affair with a senior CEO can destroy a billion dollar company. Where have you lived in the last ten years, was that gentlemanly politics the Labour Party used for you? And Daphne pointed it out exactly in the sewwa jirbah zgur bit above: it’s like believing that the like that you left on Facebook has bought a bottle of water for a child that has never seen clean water in his life. Yep, dream on. Reality sucks and in the real world mistakes could kill, let alone playing the gentleman.
If i had my way I would make a Willy Wonka style empire with people working round the clock 365 days a year, looking for that little bit of information that would destroy my opponent.
We lost, we know that, everyone knows that, but we were not crushed like some people think. Today’s politics are different politics from 25 years ago and if the NP finds its balls in the near future it would give a good fight with a more than even chance of winning. At least that’s the way i see it. It’s doable as they say because the amount of ammunition thrown into their faces is phenomenal.
At the moment it’s like seeing a Blackadder clip, but in real life. And that is not acceptable because the Nationalist Party is supposed to have a mentality that has changed with the times, with a clear goal, and make no mistake, we are living in times that could change in a blink of an eye and change the whole world as we know it, so no, we cannot wait, it’s really a matter of survival basically.
Everyone in their own way has to survive, but not alone, we cannot do that. Some lucky ones can, the vast majority can’t, that’s why we elect and trust politicians, that are supposed to fight for our bigger survival so to speak, as a country, as a whole.
Right now, it’s like having kids in a candy shop, big kids, very big kids….with a blind shopkeeper, blind and mute, actually the 3 monkeys all rolled into one. Whatever anyone says, the NP have to up their game, big time, all-in, otherwise Baldrick rules.
Dear Daphne,
Thank you for your comments. Feel free to correct, arrange any grammar or mistakes that you see. That’s why I read your blog, because the level of English that you write with is second to none and I love it and wish I was as fluent like you and it refreshes my mind from the people who have no idea what context and in some cases real life means. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Daphne, in spite of all you wrote there are times when one cannot goes against the current. Gonzi like Borg Olivier found himself in circumstances when the people have had enough of the Nationalists and wanted a change at all costs whatever the efforts put in.
This kind of things happen often when a party has been in power for some time.
[Daphne – Borg Olivier could have won the 1971 general election if he had not been so badly distracted by personal matters and general frivolity. The result of the June 1971 general election: Malta Labour Party (MLP): 85,448 votes (50.8%) 28 seats; Nationalist Party (PN): 80,753 votes (48.1%) 27 seats. You will see that there is absolutely no comparison to be made with the results of the general election last year.]
Spot on. Take the damn gloves off otherwise there’s going to be nothing left of this country at this rate.
Incompetent Opposition to an incompetent government.
Agreed. Simon Busuttil and those around him should show more “grinta”. Being polite won’t get you anywhere. At least the PM should be reminded every day that should he not keep his word and resign he cannot be considered an honourable man.
Prosit, Christopher, ibqa ikkontribbwixxi. Nerga nghidlek prosit tassew.
In the vernacular and from the depths of his heart.
Prosit, Christopher.
The dire situation facing the country is crying out loud for leaders of calibre to rise to the occasion.
What leaders? What calibre?
Why? The electorate now knows that he won’t make it – he lied and has to face the music come next election.
I hate this mindset of having to scream over the rooftops; not my style. The Nationalist Party is lying low at the moment. It is part of their strategy and it is the correct way, although it is being interpreted as a weakness of Dr. Busuttil.
When the time comes a well planned communication strategy assessing the past 5 years should take care of things. It is up to the Maltese to again choose the government they deserve or desire.
[Daphne – Lying low? And then what – pounce with fangs bared in March 2018 while expecting the general public to remember who they are and what they look like? If the Nationalist Party’s strategy is, as you say, to lie low for five years and then suddenly appear in time for the general election campaign with a “well planned communication strategy assessing the past five years”, in full faith that it “should take care of things”, then I shall set about planning for life elsewhere because I have no intention of dying under Labour circa 2054. Il-vera ma tifmhux sahta – and that’s a statement of fact, not an insult.
Here’s a fact for free: people are assaulted by information from many different sources and media all day long, every day. This means that the average person has the fact-retention powers of a goldfish, and this is if you can get through to them with your facts, views and information in the first place. If you bang on about it 24/7, 365 days a year, they might remember what you said. Of course, you can’t bang on about everything round the clock, all the year through, so you distill your messages, choose which facts you want to get through to people. And you stick with those. The Labour Party has always understood this, except for a minor hiatus back there under Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici. That’s why, despite being a wagon of pimps, thieves, scoundrels, bums, freeloaders and crooks, with no policy and totally unfit for purpose, it still wins, or almost wins, elections against the infinitely superior Nationalist Party which has far too high an opinion of human nature and far too much faith in the untruth that is-sewwa jirbah zgur. ]
I’m sorry for getting you worked up! My point is that elections are decided by a small percentage of the electorate. I like to think that most of them can think and act rationally. Aggressive behaviour to me is simply ‘uneducated’ in social behaviour. I understand that my way of thinking is not mainstream and I read your posts because you also do not lend yourself to mainstream; unfortunately your upbringing betrays your bias which when emotional, you cannot contain.
[Daphne – You didn’t get me worked up. Elections are not decided by a small percentage of the electorate. That is another mistake the PN makes and please don’t tell me that they are still making it despite the results of the last general election. Elections are decided by everyone who votes.That is what electoral democracy is.
Another classic PN error which you repeat here: fond faith in the rationality of people. People are irrational. They are especially irrational when casting their vote in secret.
The reason few people expressed surprise at the fact that the AD chairman, Michael Briguglio, voted Labour while campaigning for AD, and that Karmenu Vella now claims to have voted Yes in the EU referendum while campaigning for the No vote and then presumably voting anti-EU immediately afterwards with a vote for Labour, is because that is how they behave themselves.Given a choice between voting to improve their lives and voting to harm the lives of others of whom they are envious, very many people will choose the latter.
You know absolutely nothing about my upbringing, and that’s quite apart from the fact that I am 50 and not 15 or 25, so it is irrelevant anyway. The mistake many Maltese people make, and this is precisely the problem with the Nationalist Party and with the individuals who are running it, is to think that any form of verbal aggression or rudeness is the hallmark of the ill-bred. But several forms of verbal aggression and rudeness are the hallmark of the opposite. The confusion may arise because in Maltese, verbal aggression tends to be crass and vulgar, and because Maltese culture in general does not deal in the art of the smart comeback or the sharp put-down. What is really called for in the PN right now is a leader who can do both and carry it off. The situation is crying out for it.
But the inadequacies of the language and of many of those who use it make that kind of thing very difficult. I suppose you think Winston Churchill, whose verbal aggression has gone down in history and is still admired today, was ill-bred. I suppose you think David Cameron, mocking his opponents cheerfully in parliament with pointed remarks and carefully crafted insults, is ill-bred.
In that you wouldn’t be alone. Most people I know in the Nationalist Party would be of the same view. Why? Because they lack social confidence. They are so afraid of being thought hamalli, so carefully schooled at home not to say bad words or mean things or upset anyone in case they are thought to be the wrong sort of people, that they will never tell anyone, couched in whatever language, to eff off. I have no such anxieties.
There have been individuals in the PN, with a similar lack of those anxieties for roughly the same reason, who are far more forthright and verbally aggressive than I am. They had more enemies in their own party than they did in Labour. Actually, this is a very interesting point you’ve raised, because it has helped me understand that what annoys me most about so many PN politicians and senior people in the party is their complete inability to be joshingly rude to and about their opposite numbers in public or in parliament when the situation calls for it. Eddie Fenech Adami was a master of the art of the cutting remark. He was extremely verbally aggressive in the right sort of way, and that helped him beat Mintoff, who was verbally aggressive in the wrong way – cheap, crass and vulgar.
That was a long reply, but yours is, I know, the dominant view currently in the Nationalist Party, which is why the rest of us have resigned ourselves to 10 years of Labour followed by the PN winning by default because the electorate is sick of Labour and not because it is impressed by the PN.
Oh, and another thing: if people see you as completely ineffective in Opposition they will conclude that you will be a total disaster in government. This is another example of irrationality that you cannot wish out of existence. Because Labour was such an effective Opposition, people concluded that it would be a fantastically effective government. Despite having this theory disproved, they are still not going to look at the Opposition now, dead in the water for five years, and think ‘Maybe they’ll show proof of life in government so I’ll vote for them.’ ]
So. Very. Precise.
Hear, hear.
I have rarely ever read anything on this blog or elsewhere with which I have agreed more wholeheartedly.
Elections are decided by a small minority, we live in a tribal cultured mentality. The tribes will always sleep with their own and this is reflected in most organisations in Malta especially non-profit.
[Daphne – Missed the last general election results, did you? And the pubic and private discourse that preceded them? I’m beginning to wonder.]
Everyone votes but a few make the difference.
[Daphne – Again, this is fallacious thinking. Elections are won by the majority. The difference made by ‘the few’ is merely the numerical difference between the majority and the minority. This mentality of ‘the few’ has seduced the Nationalist Party into long-term thinking of its voter base as a monolithic whole so then it’s a matter of going after ‘the few’ to get those extra votes you need to win. This is rubbish. Muscat understood that you have to go after the whole all the time. If you want the majority, you have to court the majority, and not just ‘the few’ you think you need to make the difference. And when you court the majority, you first segment it as minutely and accurately as possible.]
Do not underestimate the last election, people voted for a change in government not in policy. This is being exploited by Muscat, who is slowly eroding the little respect MPs carried and bringing everyone down to the same level, another Marxist leftover from the past.
[Daphne – Yes, I agree with you that people voted for a change in government (by which you clearly mean a change in people running the show) rather than a change in policies. If MPs want respect, they can start by earning it. The world has changed.]
Yes, people are irrational but if you read carefully, I am referring to the minority (5%?).
[Daphne – I repeat: there is no such thing as a minority which shifts elections, the same people changing their opinions from one election to another. In every election, the shifts are caused by a variety of special interest groups or gender-age-socio-economic-group combinations, and also the entirely random. The real shape-shifters in every election are the new voters and the bored and angst-ridden middle-aged people. The first lot are more likely to vote according to fashion and the second lot tend to be driven by negative values like spite, anger, resentment, frustration and envy which, in the polls, still gets listed as ‘concern about the cost of living’ or similar. But if you prod deeper you’ll find that oftentimes it’s not the cost of living that really concerns them, but the cost of living like the people they want to keep up with and who they would like to see in trouble.]
You mention EFA, he had ‘great faith in the people’. He ’empowered’ them.
[Daphne – I did not mention anybody or anything called EFA. I mentioned, as I recall, Eddie Fenech Adami. And I don’t think you’ve registered one iota of what I took the trouble to write: it is precisely that mantra of ‘great faith in the people’ that has been the Nationalist Party’s undoing, ultimately. Nobody should ever have even the merest glimmer of ‘faith in the people’, let alone great faith in the people. Do you read much history? Well then, you should. There are not only lessons there but the great consolation that there is nothing new under the sun where human behaviour is concerned. You will also learn that anybody who has ‘great faith in the people’ ends up nailed to a wooden cross or hanged, drawn and quartered with his head displayed on a spike for the people in whom he had great faith to spit at and mock.]
I do feel that rudeness is a hallmark of the uneducated. Sarcasm can be easier for some but unfortunately it is not understood and provokes violence in aggressive persons. I’m sure you will agree that the pen is mightier than the sword and a pen never killed anyone. Creates a lot of harm though.
[Daphne – If you think that rudeness is a hallmark of the uneducated, then clearly, your definition of education is the sort of careful anxiety I described to you earlier. The reality is the truly educated have perfect manners at all times except when they think rudeness is called for. And then their rudeness too is calculated. That is, in fact, one of the ways you can tell the truly educated from the merely socially anxious: they are not afraid to be rude when circumstances demand it, and will even glory in it.]
Try another 15 years.
[Daphne – It’s never happened before, but yes, there’s always a first time.]
Daphne, I agree with what you say about being persistent in repeating certain messages.
However, there is a risk that people will tune you out over time. Added to this, there is an enormous amount of apathy out there amongst the electorate.
The question is, whether the PN should lead the way out of the apathy or wait for the right moment after it solidifies its internal structures. You have to keep in mind that during the Gonzi leadership, the party was abandoned to itself. Gonzi was more of a prime minister/ person for the national institutions rather than a politician and political-party man.
[Daphne – People tune you out when what you have said has sunk in. You tune out that Bloatease advert on the radio, but no doubt you know exactly what it says by now.]
I can smell a midhla tal-Istamperija a mile off. You’re the sort who put off the crucial 5%.
Oh, so there is a 5%?
[Daphne – Yes, but the 5% are defined socio-culturally and not politically as you seem to imagine, which is why those famous contributors to the national press, Martin Scicluna and Peter Apap Bologna, vote Labour and I don’t. I suppose if you were to meet either of them you would automatically assume they were on your side politically because that sort of person is ‘automatically Nationalist’. Having grown up with all that (I have to say that my upbringing can come in terribly useful at times, and the neighbourhood in which I grew up more so) I make no such assumption.]
Indeed HP. Even the choice of name ‘logical’ says a lot. That air of sappituttagni which has distanced so many.
I guess you should start packing your bags now.
Positive thoughts are not enough. We need positive feelings and positive actions. I acknowledge that it is easier said than done, however by just thinking positively we are actually doing nothing. By doing something in line with your positive thoughts, the positive feeling will be immediate.
[Daphne – Those who want a positive feeling should pop an anti-depressant. At least they’re legal. Political campaigning is not about positive thinking or positive feelings but about strategic research and planning, followed by perfect or near-perfect execution with minute attention to detail. No amount of smiling and thinking positive or positive action is going to get you out of that one. Lots of the time, negative action is called for, like firing people and giving others a good bollocking instead of a pat on the back.]
Daphne, the last sentence is what Simon Busuttil is missing. Otherwise, he has the potential to become a statesman.
This is not a question of “when the time comes”.
That (over)due time is here and now.
It is not possible to sanitize a gullible voters’ instinct that had been fed insidious political propaganda lies for years by any last-minute rescue attempt based on a mythical “communication strategy” and hope for miracles to happen.
Ms DCG, your comment here should be sent to every person in the PN scene. What are they waiting for, a bolt of lightning?
Do they not see how history is being re-written and how voices have been silenced?
People are desperate and many do not look up facts or think critically.
Any more of this playing dead from the PN and we will feel that those who should have stood up to be counted are the very ones who are keeping up appearances and our heads below water.
And as for Christopher’s comments, they were indeed worthy of your highlighting them. Thank you.
Why have people not woken up to the fact that there is a science to winning elections and that it is not done by crossing your fingers, praying and hoping for the best ghax is-sewwa jirbah zgur.
The Labour Party realized this and paid for a strategist who is an expert in damage control. Just look at the facts.
Is it a surprise that Malta has a problem with science subjects? Most would not recognize an analytical brain if one hit them in the face. Maltese people are superstitious and believe too much in luck and prayer as sufficient substitutes for proper planning and action.
Just a few days ago there was a statement by someone who said that prostitution has been with us for thousands of years, it is here now and it will continue to be here, so we might as well legalise it.
The dim wit reporting this did not ask if, since murder has been with us for thousands of years, it is still here and is likely to be here till the end of time, should be legalise murder as well?
[Daphne – Prostitution is legal. Organised prostitution, living off the prostitution of others, and organised prostitution, whether consensual or white slavery, are not.]
Fair enough. However, when PN was in government all that Muscat needed to do was mention one petty episode and the ‘independent media’ would run with it for days on end.
As yet, almost 2 years down the line, the ‘independent media’ are still pussy-footing around Muscat and unfortunately few people follow Net TV and Radio 101.
Why is that?
Maybe because they had identified themselves with Labour, and are afraid of looking silly now that all the spin and bling they have swallowed and regurgitated are proving to be the pie in the sky?
Anyway, who says the media or anybody really is independent?
The journalists, to say nothing of the media houses they represent, are all conditioned by their circumstances, their aspirations, their reader base, the advertising revenue, and even to some extent, to whether they are allowed to piggyback with a delegation to say China, or to have to pay their own way to report the story.
And don’t forget that Muscat has infiltrated the media houses, as evidenced by that lady who was caught by her employer emailing him.
Also, I hate to say this, but Simon Busuttil, whilst the nicest of gentlemen, is not somebody who inspires confidence when it’s time to go to the mattresses. Whilst undeniably the superior statesman, he hasn’t got the necessary aggression and killer instinct to take the battle to Muscat.
And when he tries he only manages to look petulant.
Times of Malta is beholden to the power behind the throne.
Muscat had taken great care to have all machines synchronised and acting in the same direction.
In conch fishing, which is done in shallow waters, over sandy bays and during the day time, the fishermen don’t keep their conches in the open boats. Instead, they hole and thread every five shells and leave them on the sand, in the sea, at marked locations knowing that since every shell will move in a different direction, the five shells end up going nowhere.
If the shells were synchronised however, they would avoid being picked up and eventually the string would wear away. They would be free again.
With no synchronisation, people end up going in different directions too. But never forward. And if by chance they do, then not with the momentum and energy of a synchronised base force.
Synchronisation is what permits a solid base from which advance can follow.
Sometimes this requires a leap of faith on the one hand and astuteness, clarity and direction on the other.
If the base is very ready for synchronisation and there is little to no direction forward manifest in visible and audible form – with opportunities lost along the way, the nervous energy trying to prod it forwards is only to be expected.
Absolutely spot on, Christopher.
In times of old this episode would have become a battle cry.
Does the PN have anyone versed in PR and marketing?
A few days ago I realised that for many weeks, if not months, I had not been clicking on news items that reported what Simon Busuttil had to say.
I had lost interest except for the rare press conference by Jason Azzopardi who must be feeling so impotent and frustrated by his party’s quasi rubber-stamping of all these dirty doings by this incompetent government.
If the Nationalist Party is waiting for the government’s policies to be their own undoing, then that’s just wishful thinking.
It is the PN’s duty to call for Joseph’s resignation at the next parliamentary sitting not just for not keeping his promise on a most economically fundamental electoral campaign promise but for actually committing electoral fraud.
“It is the PN’s duty to call for Joseph’s resignation at the next parliamentary sitting not just for not keeping his promise on a most economically fundamental electoral campaign promise but for actually committing electoral fraud.”
Daphne, could this comment get some exposure?
This is really what should happen.
Agreed, it bridges the PN to an electorate at odds with the anti-climax permeating everywhere.
It also revives a long lost principle so dear to the PN, being independent thus having no need for middlemen to realise oneself.
Muscat must be tackled for what he represents and his inner beliefs. And yes that’s totally personal.
Time to drive a wedge between Muscat and his amorphous ‘movement’.
Btw Christopher, great show and thanks Daphne for giving this comment the exposure it deserves.
Damn – now that’s what I call giving them a piece of his mind. He really felt like shaking the guy out of his dreams.
This is true – I hardly heard about the promise the PM made that he will resign.
I agree that the PN have become too scared. They have become a bunch of toothless yapping puppies.
But I reckon that they may be also afraid to speak out just in the remote case the PL are playing a fast one and manage somehow to make it seem complete and then they would end up with egg on their faces again after 2 massive electoral defeats.
Nothing that mental agilty and preparedness can’t cope with.
If they are afraid, and I think they are, they are in the wrong place.
Well said. It’s too cosy, maybe the result of an inverse Taghna Lkoll within the PN itself, people expecting to be untouchable.
A detente of silence and stories of old let to fester.
Christopher is very correct in what he says that the PN need to stop pussyfooting around and need to lash out hard, constantly.
They need a good communicator who can pass on the message in a simple and effective manner strongly. Claudette Pace has such a voice but they aren’t using her at all. I still haven’t understood within the PN who would be her male counterpart.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141013/local/pn-welcomes-government-decision-for-next-years-council-elections-to-go-ahead-elections-will-be-held-with-spring-hunting-referendum.539579
Can someone enlighten me. The opposition seems happy with a solution that has pushed the election forward two years? Have I misinterpreted the whole article, or is this some kind of joke. They made a whole fuss about the local council elections being postponed, but am suddenly fine to push the election of government.
It is the same old, old, successful story of starting with insisting that a dog has six legs not four. When the astute liar later whittles down his gross lie to the smaller lie that the dog has five legs the stupid Opposition shouts victory because by using its “powers of persuasion” it had acquired a false compromise.
Patrik, you have to factor in Times of Malta’s bad reporting, which purposely or through incompetence changed the tone of Busuttil’s statement. Thankfully they uploaded his actual words.
The Opposition has not “welcomed the Government’s decision” at all. It welcomes the fact that the PN has been proved right.
They are not happy with the so-called solution as a whole but only with the first part, regarding next year’s elections. Otherwise, for the 2017 elections postponed to 2019, the Opposition has “reservations”.
In Malta, there is always political apathy when there is no immediate cause for which to fight and rally support.
Politics of solidarity garner support and gather crowds. Lack of a cause/issue (violence, VAT, corruption etc.) dimishes the will to fight.
We never liked civil, polite discussions and there has to be a change of mentality for this to change.
Anne Fenech is another good communicator. She would have been great as a deputy leader.
Yes, a wonderful one she would have made, working in a legal office that’s an IIP agent.
The IIP makes it much more difficult to promote our financial services industry, as it revives perceptions (which took years and years to diminish) of Malta as a sleazy tax haven.
The scheme is very lucrative, but it has stalled the rest of the industry and, just as bad, is a very short-term offering. Others can easily replicate it, it is very exposed to external regulation, it does not encourage the development of tranferable skills, etc.
Ann Fenech, on a personal basis, can well afford not to be an IIP agent. Others, on the other hand, cannot. Whilst rightly damning the IIP as immoral and, crucially, damaging to the financial services industry, her firm has no choice but to offer the service.
Otherwise not only will they lose the few clients who want the IIP (including longstanding clients who, understandably, would not appreciate being denied a service offered by everyone else) but they will also risk losing their other clients to all the other law firms subsidised by the IIP.
This double-whammy scenario is familiar to all honest entrepreneurs and professionals facing unfair competition from their tax-evading counterparts. Now imagine the government were to abolish or drastically reduce tax – one could disagree on the basis that government cannot survive a reduction of tax collected, but however one cannot exclude one’s firm from the scheme and expect it to remain viable.
There’s another thing Ann Fenech shouldn’t do, appearing in front of Mepa boards for ‘developer’ clients who simply rely on breaking the spirit of regulations via legalese.
And that includes proposing a humunguous barracks on top of Xemxija to then negotiate down the number of floors. Such a waste of time, space and resources.
Even because those ‘entrepreneurs’ are simply not up to it, not when that mentality prevails.
1992 is long gone, drunk pepe’ on concrete block trailer trucks celebrating ir-rebha outside Muddy Waters something that Muscat regards as the victory’s ingredients.
Doing and being must coincide in the PN if any meaning has to be produced. It’s called coherence. If they won’t, there’s no reason not to vote Labour, anzi, with Labour in power becomes the thing to do.
‘..it does not encourage the development of transferable skills..’
She is a liability. Too many conflicts of interests. She cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
She needs to decide what she wants to be – managing partner at Fenech & Fenech or PN president.
In this day and age where environment is/should be one of the main concerns she personally defended the Kuwaiti contractor in the obscene Mistra development. Her firm is one of the IIP agents touting Maltese passports, when the PN mounted that crusade against the scheme.
She is intelligent and a good communicator but in her present position she weakens the PN. So if she wants to make a difference and get involved in politics she should step down from her private practice.
Let’s hear it again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jve0C2B_8SQ
Nothing new here. It was very obvious Busuttil was not the right choice for a leadership position. This is not Brussels but Malta. The PN needs leaders like Fenech Adami or Demarco – people who are intellectually sound, full of verve and possessing the right dose of guts and hamallagni. How on earth can party lead by someone who speaks under his breath and is obsessed by village fiestas be a match for a brutal and criminal Labour Party?
Hekk ghidlu lil Mario Demarco – that he has a dose of hamallagni. No I don’t think he is leadership material either.
Well let’s face it. And it’s not exactly clear why, under his watch, the Times is as far from ANYTHING Mabel Strickland would have wanted.
With that being murky, how can he command respect as Deputy Leader.
Don’t think this hasn’t been positioned to have a precise effect on Mario Demarco’s ultimate fate.
I agree wholeheartedly with Christopher and I’ve been pointing it out to anybody that will listen. I have truly lost faith in the PN though at this point.
They seem to be happy where they are in Opposition.
They should be airing Muscat’s pledge to resign every five seconds on NET TV. Instead it’s like it never happened. I truly can’t understand what’s wrong with them.
The PN are just tired – plain and simple. But those who voted for them are impatient and want them to stop moaning about why they lost the elections and get down to the proper business of being a strong Opposition. If needs be ruthlessness should be part of their strategy. No half-baked compromises for fear of rocking the boat.
In nazzjonalisti ghandhom iqumu fuq taghhom ghax simon qet jitnejjek bina…jekk mhux kapaci jkun kap jitlaq jew inehhuh.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141013/local/pn-welcomes-government-decision-for-next-years-council-elections-to-go-ahead-elections-will-be-held-with-spring-hunting-referendum.539579
Dan huwa l-Partit Nazzjonalista tal-llum. Qed jifirhu ghax ‘ghaddiet taghhom’ pero postponiment ta’ sentejn ta’ l-elezzjoni generali ma dejjaqhomx.
Qabda mehjutin minn ghajnhom!
In all fairness, the proposal as now revised, after strong opposition from the PN and its media, is for next year’s planned local council elections to be held as planned (concurrently with the referendum against spring hunting) and the following local council elections (NOT general elections!) will be held in 2019. Quite frankly – unless I am really missing something, this should be an acceptable plan.
So very well said.
This was excellent, Christopher.
The reading on the frustratometre enough for some timely action?
Now?
I firmly believe Tonio Fenech would make an ideal leader in this situation. He can easily trash Joe Muscat’s shallow arguments the way he exposed the ridiculous incongruencies in Konrad’s childish power plant plans.
The party’s media needs to raise to the occasion – otherwise we’re dead in the water coming next election. Being nice and polite will not win any elections. Unfortunately the party’s voice is not inspiring the majority of the people who do share the current PN convictions and are feeling cheated by this administration.
Thankfully the opposition does feel more united right now and got a myriad of valid members who can easily outwit the incompetent ministries with their failed policies. It will be a pity that such a united and capable team won’t make it to government and fix the mess we’re in today – hoping it’s still recoverable after 5 years.
I suspect that Christopher is better educated than he makes himself out to be. Whatever, a good piece indeed.
The Nationalists are not only timid in their criticism of the government but reluctant, especially the new kids in town, to defend the record of the past administration which was far from all bad.
Case in point is the manner Claudette Pace sympathized with a foul mouthed ‘disgruntled’ green bus owner in a recent radio programme.
Can someone find the clip on YouTube, when in the 2013 election campaign Busuttil was campaigning at the Birkirkara open air market, in the absence of Gonzi who was visiting Merkel in Germany to get her endorsement. Effectively Busuttil was acting PN leader.
At one moment a PN supporter asks him, “X’ghandna Bzonn biex nirbhu?” to which he replied “Hafna talb!”
I rest my case.
Unfortunately, if the PN shouts too much for resignation Joseph Muscat might call their bluff and call for a snap election. The PL will win again and we’ll be stuck with PL for another 10 years.
[Daphne – It won’t. We’re suffering from voter fatigue, remember?]
People still have “faith” in Joseph and his band and will not vote him out of his office yet. Actually an election now will help Joseph Muscat to introduce some nasty legislation while demoralising the PN even further.
Joseph Muscat says we’re suffering from voter fatigue: ghax hekk jaqbillu!
God helps those active people who help themselves not those who rely solely on his handouts.
Truth is that Busuttil’s PN lost the European elections with a 30K plus margin despite the new quartet at the helm, without the burden of government, without Gonzi, Austin Gatt, Paul Borg Olivier and the rest of the people who were blamed for the electoral loss of 2013… and instead of hiding in shame they were celebrating getting a third seat in the European Parliament which then they used to help a dinosaur of the 80s become EU Commissioner.
Then they started taking drastic measures: they decided to stop the Sunday meetings.
U halluna!
Daphne
A few weeks ago a “midhla tal-istamperija” told me that the PN have a theory that it takes three years for “switchers” to admit they were wrong so any efforts at this stage are wasted.
I was shocked at this position and trust (hope) it’s not the case. However I do get the impression that Muscat knows he can get away with murder.
On your “is-sewwa jirbah zgur” comment, I remind your readers that “is-sewwa” won by a mere 4,000 votes in 1987 when it should have won by 50,000. You are right – the electorate cannot and should not be left to its own devices.
Occupy PN.
I attend all the Nationalist Party’s activities and I wonder how many of those persons who wrote above, finding fault, have ever attended on one occasion.
The fact remains that the PN’s supporters are different to those who support Labour. The Labour supporters are active all the time while the Nationalists enjoy themselves criticising this and that and make no effort to help the party get into government.
They expect everything from the party and when the party calls, it finds little support unlike Labour. Armchair critics are found in abundance in the Nationalist camp.
Oh do sod off. Why should the rest of us attend Nationalist Party events, which at best are boring as f*ck, and at worst are wall-to-wall hamallagni? Life’s too short to waste at that kind of thing.
Jien nghid aghmlu lil Ann Fenech bhala kap u lil Daphne bhala vici u mbaghad nibdew niehdu r-ruh u daqshekk jibqaw jitnejku bina Joseph Muscat u l-klikka tieghu.
i said it before, maybe in not so many words…credible Opposition WANTED.
Sensing worrying times for the Maltese economy, I’m suspecting the Opposition does not want to win the next election.
I think you may be right there although it is hard to believe they have thought that far ahead.
If the PN were to win the next election the reforms and economic rigour that will be required to clean up after the mess will most likely restrict them to one term, the reason being that people will associate the PN with the hardship rather than making the obvious connection that it was of the PL’s making.
I think two terms for the PL followed by 3-4 by the PN is most likely what they are after. But Busuttil will resign after the next election thus making way for a De Marco. Yeh, rosy times ahead – sarcasm intended.
Excellent comment. Spot on. Simon Busuttil is just not good for the job. That is the overall feeling.
With the Opposition fast asleep the government can do as it pleases. By now the Opposition should have regained most of the 35000 votes. When will the PN wake up, when when the gap hits 70,000?
I feel the same exasperation. Chapeau to this reader. I cannot believe that NET TV is not exploding and screaming with clips of this clown saying he’ll keep his word and step down.
Yet all hell would break loose if he were to actually keep his word, on more fronts than one. Who will take over? Our very lukewarm bleating deputies? I was hoping that somebody would actually rise up to the occasion, but so far from the whole Parliament the only set of balls I can see belong to Marlene Farrugia. Period. We are not negative but we are certainly qerrieda. You should listen to Radio 101 call ins when some labourites calls and rubs their nose in the shit. All they can say is Grazzi talli cempilt. Dawn bis-serjeta? Thank God for the other listeners who call in to respond. What’s happened to our steel guys?
While I fully agree that PN leadership needs to give better results, the biggest problem lies within its media and the way it reaches out to the general public, or rather, doesn’t.