Life is all about choices, but people in Malta think they don’t have to make them

I have read this report in the Times of Malta and watched the embedded video interview with Mario Demarco, deputy leader of the Nationalist Party. I will try to be as tactful as possible.

The trouble with this country is that people don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘choices’, which cohabits with that other alien word, ‘decisions’. Maltese people want to wear lots of hats simultaneously and think they have a divine right not to be criticised if they can’t cope with all of them. And other Maltese people who think this state of affairs is entirely normal speak and behave as though the job or post should accommodate the person, when everywhere else in the civilised, normal world it’s the other way round.

The inability to cope due to illness is not a justified excuse to fend off those who point out that you are failing to deliver. You can’t cry “Oh, but I’m too ill to cope!” Illness is a reason for resignation if you are in a CEO or deputy CEO position, because the nature of that position means that you cannot be temporarily replaced or filled in for, and that the functioning of the organisation depends on your pulling your full weight.

Those who care about their duties more than they care about themselves don’t stay in situ while the job fails to get done, and then get angry and hurt when they are reminded that they are there to do a job and that the job has got to be done.

As I said to Mario Demarco myself when he rang me the day I wrote what I did – we spoke for a long time, and much of it was personal, confidential and can’t be reported – when his medical problems are of that nature, what he needs most of all is peace of mind and as little stress as possible. “I can’t understand why you’re not prioritising,” I said to him. “There are no supermen in this world. In your position I would have stepped down. I can’t imagine having to cope with such a serious medical problem while stressing out about all the other stuff. What on earth for?”

It is plainly obvious to any sensible person that Demarco has got to make a choice. It is too late now to make the choice to leave the deputy leadership – the general election is just a year away, and that choice should have been made as soon as he was diagnosed. So the choice he has to make now is to throw his entire weight behind the campaign to get rid of the corrupt government. Lying low and crying illness is simply not an option. Besides which, the same complaints were made about his invisibility back in the electoral campaign of 2013, and he wasn’t ill or undergoing surgery back then.

I am not one to say things behind people’s backs rather than straight to their faces, so unlike all those who are muttering that Demarco is as invisible now as he was in the general election campaign, I said what I think when we spoke on the phone. I said to him that it is not possible for any human being to cope with a demanding professional practice, a seat in parliament and a constituency, a position as deputy leader of a political party which has to fight a tough electoral battle while restructuring the party itself, a young family, and also a very serious illness which has twice required major surgery and which has had permanent debilitating consequences, both physical and psychological. It is impossible to do all that. So something has to go.

Mario Demarco never wanted to go into politics. He absolutely detests the limelight and is a very private person. That is the real reason he failed to speak publicly about his illness, and not because he wished to conceal information from the public for nefarious ends, like that other one in the Auberge de Castille. But this is the classic heat-and-kitchen scenario. He is also shy, self-conscious and extremely reserved. These are good qualities in a man, but they are not good qualities for fighting dangerous electoral battles.

Demarco wanted to be a lawyer working in New York. He said as much once in an interview, but most of us knew that anyway. He went into politics for his father and he has stayed on as a tribute to his father. And unfortunately, it shows. As he himself says, unlike his father he is not a political animal at all. And as it happens, that’s exactly why I like him and think he has made enough sacrifices to fulfil the wishes of others. Now it’s time to do what he really wants to do, which clearly isn’t politics. Instead of listening to the aides who want him back in power so that they can be in power themselves, he should listen to his own heart. And I told him this myself.

Mario Demarco is at a personal crossroads. He must now choose between putting his true nature aside, staying on as deputy leader of the Nationalist Party and fighting hard against government corruption, or stepping down to follow his own heart for the first time. We don’t get to live our lives twice over.