The lights are on, but nobody’s home
Jason Micallef needs a pair of these shoes.
Jason Micallef gave an interview to Malta Today, wearing his best baseball top. The interviewer noted that he was a little bit too casually dressed for a day in the office, but what can you expect of somebody who wears brown walking shoes with a dark suit?
Micallef was his usual confident self, concerned with image above all else, his own as well as the Labour Party’s. ‘I think that in 2003 the way our message was relayed was a bit outdated,’ he said. ‘The image was not that of a party which inspires you to vote for it – forget substance for a while.’
Forget substance for a while? How about for an entire five years? No wonder Labour’s electoral programme was a rush job full of misprints and computer malfunctions, and the only thing we remember about their electoral proposals was a repeater class.
Jason wants to be sophisticated
Jason believes more sophistication is required. Maybe that explains the fat ties with the giant knots. Vote for Labour, because its general secretary really knows how to knot a tie – though he doesn’t have a decent pair of shoes.
Even a peacock knows when it’s made a mistake, but Jason Micallef just can’t get a handle on things. On Xarabank he insisted that there were 17,000 new voters in this general election. When it was pointed out to him that there were actually 34,000, he dug his heels in and kept repeating the magic number. In the Malta Today interview, he did it again. ‘There were 17,000 new voters,’ he told his interviewer, pausing only just long enough to register the fact that they didn’t seem to like his ex-boss.
That really shows how on top of things he was. You’d imagine that the general secretary of a political party that hoped to win the election and form the government would know how many new voters there were, so that he could go after them with a net and a noose.
That’s the problem when people are promoted beyond their abilities. They mess up. Jason Micallef is the perfect person to host Super One’s cookery show, but he isn’t the perfect person to keep the party ticking over and winning elections.
Jason discovers the power of incumbency
Jason tried to sound important by chucking in the phrase ‘the power of incumbency’. Now, I wonder where he first heard that? As Alfred Mifsud pointed out in one of his newspaper articles, if anybody at all was using the power of incumbency, it was Alfred Sant, taking advantage of it to consolidate his position as leader.
Our peacock friend had a couple of words of praise for this blog, too. He spoke to his interviewer about ‘blogs – systematic blogs that you can hardly keep up with’ –yes, you can, Jason, once you learn how to read – ‘blogs coming from government circles and contributing to the fear campaign.’ Fear campaign? How about the giggle campaign? But Jason the peacock is probably one of those people who would much rather be feared than laughed at. Now I have to work out what he means by a ‘systematic blog’.
Sucking up
There was the requisite amount of sucking up (‘I definitely do not attribute this defeat to Alfred Sant’), which also shows that he doesn’t have a clue how to read public opinion, even when it is staring him coldly in the face in the form of polls, surveys and a general election or three. Instead, he pulled out the power of incumbency again, and blamed it for the flight in to Malta of 3,400 members of the electorate who live elsewhere. The government can bring them in, because the government has the power of incumbency.
Oh, and Jason blamed the media, too – obviously. When in doubt, slam the journalists. They’re all against us. They eat peacock for dinner.
The interviewer asked the peacock in a baseball jacket whether he plans to resign. Uh-oh, wrong question. He got the stern reply that the peacock won’t resign because the statute does not oblige him to. This is like Harry Vassallo hanging on to his protected tenancy because the law does not oblige him to give it up. Micallef thought a bit of explaining might be in order: ‘I feel personally very disappointed because the country deserved a new beginning. But despite my disappointment, I still feel I have a lot to give to the party. I’m still young, and going by the support I got from the delegates out there, I feel I would be failing them if I had to leave just now.’
Jason is the chief executive, but he’s waiting for the pope
How interesting it is that Jason should think he has a lot to contribute because he’s young, rather than because he’s bright. But he had more to say. Apparently, he is now carrying the full weight of the Labour Party on his neat little shoulders. ‘Given that the leader’s resignation is irrevocable, I’m the chief executive here,’ he said. ‘What happens if I leave? You might tell me that when a pope dies, another one is elected…We have the most important election ahead of us. There would be nobody to organise it if I were to just disappear.’
Pfffttt! There he goes, in a puff of smoke.
Now let’s hear what he has to say about surveys, shall we? ‘It has always been our practice not to treat surveys as the gospel truth. They are a tool which gives you an idea, perhaps a snapshot, of what the people are feeling.’ Tell that to the gamblers, Jason. No wonder they lost their rag and Labour lost three elections on the trot.
Cue the violins
And then we had this poignant snapshot from the night when Labour’s fate was sealed. Why wasn’t Jason holding Michael Falzon’s hand at the counting-hall, the interviewer asked? He repeated the story that he was with Alfred Sant, consoling him. ‘I took Alfred Sant home in a rented car at around 1.30am, escorted by police,’ he said.
Now let’s see – that would be around one-and-a-half hours before Michael Falzon conceded defeat on his boss’s behalf. So was his boss snoring at home at the time? It looks like it, if our Jason is to be believed. It-tim tal-bidla, Labour United.
I loved the tableau of Jason and the boss in a rented car with a police escort, though, trying to go incognito by leaving the getaway Mazda behind, as they fought their way through bumper-to-bumper car-cades of delirious PN supporters waving maduma scarves. I wonder who had the foresight to rent that car? Meanwhile, as they headed home to bed, the Lion of Change battled it out at the counting-hall.
Now that’s what I call leadership.
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Is Franco ‘Preening’ Debono Jaysin’s long-lost brother, I wonder?
answers on a postcard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ag8J2NMYmc
Gosh Meerkat…Franco Debono is part of the one-seat majority of the Conservatives….part of the package which is now ruling Malta. Another part is JPO…on whose land “gross irregularities” were committed. Tassew Gvern sod. Prosit Malta.
Why wasnt the report published BEFORE the elections?
Open your eyes, 1,580 majority. See what you are already getting. Not even a week into this government.
Jason Micallef won’t resign. Now that he’s discovered the ‘power of incumbency’ he’ll hang onto it halli jaghmel hafna magiks fil-partit. He should consider selling tickets. It’s going to be one hell of a show.
Jason really needs to call it a day, that is if he ever wants the Labour Party to be in government one fine day! I cannot understand how the Labour Party top officials have not yet asked him to resign, what are they waiting for? The more the guy represents the party and the more he opens his mouth, the stronger the Nationalist Party becomes. Although I have always voted PN, I would like to have the opportunity to choose another party during the next election. Why not afterall? Not that I am one of those PN supporters that have recently been grumbling about everything possible and threatening not to vote and all that crap because on the contrary, I think the PN have done quite a good job especially the last two years and they deserve to still be in government for the next 5 years. However I, together with the rest of Maltese nation, should hope that the MLP will manage to really find the right leader and become a polital party that could qualify to eventually take over the running of this great nation of ours! I guess we have to wait and see whether the Sant faction within the MLP are ready to budge because at the moment they surely seem to have a hold on this party. Are we maybe looking at a possible split in the MLP due to all that’s currently going on at the moment? I hope not because what i do hope is that people who are currently not officially within the party because of their indifferences with Dr Sant, are allowed back within their party to stand fairly for the post of leader. I am not too sure, though, that this will happen since there are too many Sant followers that need to accept that they should no longer hold a relevant post within this ailing political party.
Jason,
Please pretty please with sugar on top, do the Labour party and the country so much yearning for a decent opposition a favour: resign and disappear into oblivion! With you as secretary general, MLP will never get elected, even if it’s the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit leading the party.
@ M Cutajar…
Ehe…Anglu Bellu kull meta jiftah halqu dahka wara l-ohra…ghadni kif spiccajt nara Bondi+…
The gag-a-minute trophy was a toss up between Anglu u Toni Abela…
Lou deserves Gieh tar-Repubblika for putting up with such a man
What is this new(?) rubbish way of thinking within the Labour party that Maltese living abroad should not be allowed to vote?
Now more than ever many Maltese are working in Europe, travelling often to and fro and although based in other countries they are not less Maltese than their counterparts.
I currently do not live in Malta and all my European colleagues are allowed to vote during their general elections in their respective embassies which is the civilised way of doing things. Nobody treats them like they are interfering in the politics of their own country or that in some way they are cheating. On the contrary, they are encouraged to actively take part in choosing the government of their own country.
Labour has lost the plot on this one as well. It assumes, almost wrongly, that all Maltese living abroad vote PN. Is it because they tend to be better educated and more independent voters? Instead of luring these voters they would want them not to vote and make them feel unwelcome in their own country. What an inferiority complex ridden party!
A friend of mine with the name of Sally once made a very profound remark:
“Never, but never, ever trust a man in brown shoes” :) :) So there…!
Oh and by the way Marie B, Hope you enjoyed the champagne, which was supposed to be savoured when your “brilliant” friend entered Castille.
Well, bad luck mámour, it ain’t happening !!
Hafna nies diga’ qeghdin jidolizzaw lil George Harbilna-F’Nofs-Kampanja Abela. Tinsewx li fuq dal-bahbuh ftit li xejn ghadna nafu hlief li jinqala’ biex jirrispondi lil Lou u hu midhla ta’ Lino Telqilna-Wkoll Spiteri. Jien nghidilkom: ”Tghagglux, hbieb tieghi. Ghadu kmieni wisq. Tuh cans lil Gorgi jsirilna lider tal-MLP jekk, qabelxejn, il-Boob-Job Jasons ta’ din id-dinja jhalluh jidhol mill-bieb jew mit-tieqa tad-Dar tal-Hgieg. Imbaghad tuh cans juri xi jsarraf lil Gorgi meta jkollu t-tmun tal-mirkeb ahmar ghoddu mfarrak f’idejh. Veru, fil-Lejber hemm nuqqas kbir ta’ karizma, tbissim, wit, humour, karattri sodi u persunaggi ta’ veru. Abela jista’ jkun li ghandu minn dan kollu. Jista’ jkun, mind you. Ir-ragel la jkollu l-poter f’idejh se johrog il-karattru proprju tieghu, mind you. Imma, infakkarkom, hbieb: ma’ Gonzi l-Formidabbli se jiggieled, tafux! Ma’ prim ministru rispettabbli, kapacissimu, statista u father-figure, tafux! Prim li ma marx Boston u Harvard imma nafux xi jsarraf, le? Gorgi se jitqabad ma’ Mr Policies, Policies u Policies innifsu! Bit-tbissim u l-hehehe biss Gorgi mhux se jirbah lill-Ggant Impekkabbli tal-Politika Maltija, ta! Jien nawgura minn qalbi lil Harbilna-f’Nofs-Kampanja li ghandu bajd ikbar minn tal-prim forsi l-Lejber jirbah imqar elezzjoni generali wahda wara li miet u mmoffa u niten fl-Opozizzjoni minhabba, primarjament, dak li jhobb jaqra u jikteb id-drammi. Imma ghalissa nieqaf hawn. Ma rridx nghaggel. Il-qattusa ghaggelija frieh ghomja taghmel. U kif kien jghidha Fredu taghna: The proof of the pudding … Bilhaqq, qed insemmi l-lider kbir tal-MLP, qed taqra xejn, Fred? Gadamer lest? Hemm xi Bla Bidu u Bla Tmiem iehor ta’ xi hamest elef pagna, jew? Jien naqrak zgur … nippreferi l-letteratura tieghek mill-mara u t-tfal ghax int validu hafna! Insisti, Fred. Hares … ara tithajjarx tuza l-PC flok it-tajprajter? U forsi tixtri bicca televixin u toqghod tara Gonziplus jew Xarabank ta’ Peppi tal-Pipa? Jew ixtri xi kocc pjanti ha jzejnu l-gnien tal-papri u l-flieles li ghandek … Tibqax daqshekk lura, jahasra .., isma’, jekk titwebbel tixtri xi pjanti Jason mhux se jiddejjaq jigi jsaqqihomlok, ta; dak jinqala’ gmielu ghal dan nejk. Caw, ghaziz lider. U toqghodx iddendel gdiedem, ta. Ma jimpurtax billi tlift tlitt elezzjonijiet wara xulxin u referendum. Strieh u serrah. Ghandek hafna x’toffri, ghaziz … imma mhux fil-politika. U tad-DNA imnellha jridu jitilfu xidarba! U mur sabbar ftit lil Marie Benoit ghax xi cried her eyes out when Labour bhas-soltu lost the election.
Jaysinn please resign will you? Killer smile and svelte figure and all. Go quietly into the night. You are done for. Look ! The long Knives are out! I hope you realise that your days are numbered. The truly monumental gaffes you did on Sunday during the counting and the abandoning of the poor Ljun to his fate will be your downfall. And here we are giving you the importance that only a marionette deserves on this blog. At least we have someone to blog about. Jeysinn, maybe not many people know that your family was the prime contractor for Mater Dei. Go and enjoy that money. And dont threaten me by proxy again. I will say one thing however, we should never underestimate the predictivity of stupidity. Id-delegati might not agree with us and keep this fowl alive for some time yet. Maybe thats not a bad thing. We will have something to write about, especially that ghastly rictus of a smile….
Appell to keep Gaysin on as secretary General, for Labour to remain in opposition for another 25 yrs.
Also I nominate him for the post of Mayor of Mellieha……oh hold on they lost that one….
John
@ Albert Farrugia
Yeah! .. “Not even a week into this government.” and we already have 3 major vacancies! “ghax Gonzi jgib ix-xoghol! u ara x’inhu gej! with 855 million euro to spend! on our country irrespective of opinions and culture! Ara x’gvern ghandna!
and for the records we still have four years, 11 months and 3 weeks to go!
I think it is better you write some letters to your friends, the peacock and all the Lebjer delegates and inform them that they have to elect a new MLP leader who has credentials to lead Malta in five years time and not to elect only a political party leader and face another defeat in five years time!
Kuragg Dr. George Abela! Kuragg! All Malta is behind you, since we TRULY need a good Opposition party! and that would be a True BIDU GDID!
Jekk trid REBHA .. IVVOTA ghal Dr. George Abela! imma jekk trid TELFA ivvota l-alternativa!
May I humbly suggest a new job for Jason ?
The windows at the ‘hen house’ need a good wash up. At least there will be a sort of ‘transparency’.
I have a strong feeling that Jason will be kicked out, screaming and gnashing his denture. However, it is obvious that this can’t be done easily and immediately. The source of his “power of incumbency” has to be whittled down and his support reduced to challangeable proportions. In other words, the rug has to be pulled out from under his feet. That’s the way it’s done apparantly at the centru.
Looking forward to an electable and potentially popular Labour party :)
Golly Albert Farrugia or is it Victor Laiviera
At least we can criticise our own without being thrown in the gulag or having sinister stuctures like the KGB er sorry the BorD tal-Vigilanza gagging us till kingdom come
By the way, Amanda Mallia, I suspect you are right about dear Albert’s identity
Corinne – Judging by today’s OFFICIAL Maltese spelling (cerpersin, blekbord, televixin, kuxin, etc) I think that should have been “megiks”, not “magiks” lest you find the Akkademja tal-Malti people rushing to correct you :)
M Debono said “Jeysinn, maybe not many people know that your family was the prime contractor for Mater Dei. Go and enjoy that money.”
Hey, is that true? Good luck to them, but maybe the MLP lackeys would do well to know about it!
Tony Pace – Nahseb li ahjar inhalluha, l-Marie B., ghaliex mahruqa bizzejjed, juding by the crap she wrote last Sunday. :) (Which articles, incidentally, I never usually read, but have only done so lately out of curiosity because of the election campaign and results.)
Meerkat :) Do you mean “disgruMPLed” Anglu (his own word, on Bondi+, not mine)?
Allahares ikun hu l-leader (sorry, lider) il-gdid!
Tony Pace – I’d like to add on to your “brown shoes” comment:
Never trust a man with a second-hand car salesman’s smile (Or one in a wig for that matter – There, go, Marie B. go! Enough fodder for next Sunday?)
me – Or maybe it could be the new glasshouse, so that he could go back to his former “tal-pjanti” job. (Which is not meant as an insult to any other tal-pjanti, people.)
Seeing Harry’s Labour nether-region licking of late, I wonder if anyone considered his running for MLP leader?
Amanda – I hope it isn’t an insult to the ‘pjanti’.
Dear All
Victor Laiviera has returned to action after a weeks recovery from shock. HURRAH
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080317/local/cabinet-holds-first-meeting
@ Amanda Mallia :-)
Shall we ask the learned Dr Licari to parse ‘Mr Albert Farrugia’s’ writing to check whether it’s Victor Laiviera? Isn’t Dr Licari an expert in Linguistics?
As for Anglu’s disgrumpled, I nearly choked on my din-dins… Imagine him lider of the MLP going to foreign delegations…Ohhhhhhh Carry On Anglu.
Bert,
Tassew, ghax ma giex ippublikat qabel l-elezzjoni r-rapport tal Mepa?? Jista jkun illi forsi dan il-kaz inqala 3 ijiem qabel l-elezzjoni? Jien insaqsik – il-ghaliex dan il-kaz hareg fil publiku 3 ijiem biss qabel l-elezzjoni? Ghalfejn AS ma harigx dan il-kaz qabel? Kien jghamel izjed sens li kieku inhareg qabel, ghax kien ikun hemm bizzejjed hin biex ir-rapport jitlesta, u jkun mgharraf lil publiku!! Hawn ikolli, irrid u ma rridx, naqbel mat-teorija tat-tigieg!!! Li ma kellux mohh ta tigiega, kien johrog biha hafna qabel u forsi dawk il 1500 voti kienu jispiccaw ghand il-lejber, u mhux ghand il-PN!!!
All this talk about George Abela being perfect for Leader of the Labour Party,in In-Nazzjon of 22nd October 1996, supplement pg 4, George Abela Deputat Kap tal-Partit Socjalista was quoted as saying “Ganni il-Pupa kien ippoza ta’Laburist fi zmien ta’ vjolenza politika fuq partitarji Nazzjonalisti” Meditate gente meditate
Much as I enjoyed Bondi+ yesterday, I felt that Lou was being too polite in the face of that Toni Abela. He could have also let Anna rip into Toni but I feel that Lou was more of a referee than an instigator. The programme lacked the usual bite.
I think that stunt that Toni l-wejter pulled – congratulating Lou for ‘helping your party’ win the elections seemed to pull the rug from under Lou’s feet.
I would have loved it more had Lou invited Jaysin personally to go over the nonsense he spewed on MaltaToday rather than ask the formidable Anna about it. Indeed, I would have asked Anna about it just the same but Jaysin’s presence. It would have been a bloodbath a made a good TV. As it was, Bondi+ was sedate.
It wasn’t Jason Micallef’s family that was a main contractor for Mater Dei Hospital, but his in-laws. His wife is a Gatt as in Gatt Brothers, the development contractors.
Allow me this snide remark – doesn’t it just fit the picture that Jason used his looks to marry money?
Jason is married?!? :|`
Even I thought that GA was the perfect man to lead the MLP..but his declaration yesterday that the GWU comes before the Labour Party made me doubt his true intentions of being the the right man for the job! I’m nearly his age, and I never in my life remember the GWU as a union that really cared for the worker…1st & formost came the labour party. So don’t ever think that the Labour party would have found their new Messiah, should they choose him.
Meerkat,
I still think it was illuminating to have Toni l-waiter (or tal-flushin’? an unforgettable ingenuity coming from the mouth of this bozza fil-glasshouse) on yesterday’s show. It surely confirms, if there was any need, the sorry state of the MLP. Anna Mallia was bold enough to realise that such an attitude has soured the image of the party with those they need to lure on polling day.
Toni’s stunt on Bondi may have indeed took the presenter by surprise. Yet Bondi’s hitback was cunning. In auguring Toni tal-flushin’ to continue to militate within the MLP, he was basically telling him, you stay there and a PN win is guaranteed.
Yes, Matthew Borg, Jason is married.
Anna Mallia would make a good secretary-general. Maybe that’s why she makes Jayson Micallef nervous.
AlphaBeta
Yes,I agree with what you said but Lou’s response was not immediate so it lost some of its sting.
Daph, re your above comment … seems like you think Jason is good looking. :))) :p
@Dumbledore: being able to see objectively that somebody is good-looking because his features are in the right symmetrical order is not the same as finding them attractive. I actually find Jason repellent. That kind of slick smoothness coupled with lack of brains (and brown shoes) makes my skin crawl. But that’s just me.