GUEST POST: Come on in, Joseph. Welcome to the real world.
“If he’s black, then I must high-five him.”
This is a guest post, which means that somebody else wrote it and sent it in.
The first week of the campaign has revealed a simple truth about Joseph Muscat. Yes, it has to do with his barmy proposal to reduce the water and electricity rates by 25%. But it goes way beyond it.
That Labour’s energy proposal is a political scam does not require much elaboration. It could be stated in a single question. Which private company will build a new gas-fired power station worth €400 million (€600 million by Minister Tonio Fenech’s techncial advisors’ estimate), reduce the rates by 25%, freeze them for 10 years and recoup the capital costs and make a profit?
This is the essence of Labour’s scam.
Leaving aside Labour diehards, anyone with two brain cells rubbing against each other has or will see through it. But what is significant is that most of those who have already seen through it were shocked.
For four years they harboured an image of Joseph Muscat confidently asserting that he will reduce the water and electricity rates, as though he had some secret recipe.
They even accepted his explanation that he would not divulge this secret recipe “because the government might copy it” – even though serious political leaders know that their responsibility is to the people, not to their party, and that anything they know of which might benefit those people should be revealed and not used cynically as a vote-getting measure.
Now, in four days, the man is all over the place trying to prevent the scam he came up with from blowing up his entire electoral campaign.
How did this come to pass? Why did Muscat’s sweet words turn sour? And why so suddenly? Here’s what I think.
For the entire duration of this legislature, the Labour leader has been allowed to get away with murder. We had four and a half years of nothing but cliches, platitudes and jumped-up wisecracks.
It was as though the media and constituted bodies, people in general, were so relieved to see a Labour leader who seemed sort of normal, unlike his predecessors Mintoff, KMB and Sant, that they were prepared to forgive him anything and also, more crucially, expect nothing of him.
At the outset, the bar for Joseph Muscat was set really low, and the tolerance threshold really high. The opposite, in other words, of what happens with the Nationalist Party and its leader.
Joseph Muscat lulled Malta into thinking that all there is to politics is rhetoric. You want better national finances? Nuzaw flusek bil-ghaqal, says Joseph, and people applaud. But in the unlikely event that a Nationalist Party leader were to say something so facile, people would ask for the specifics, the what, where, when and how. And the media and constituted bodies would be at the forefront.
Employment for Gozitans in Gozo? Gholli jdejk, says Joseph. Work? Xogħol li jixraqlek biex int tgħix aħjar. More private investment? Inħallukom taħdmu, Joseph says. You get the picture.
For four and a half years, he managed to create a dream world in which his ‘solutions’ to the real challenges of politics in all spheres is found, well, in his words.
If Joseph says that he’ll solve it, it is already solved. If Joseph says that he will do it, it’s done. If he says that he will do this, that or the other better than Lawrence Gonzi, it means that he is better by definition.
In this dream world, in which the ‘how’ never features, politics is emptied of all content and substance. And it is replaced by a surreal mindset which operates independently of the real political and European world.
For four and a half years, the Labour leader was aided and abetted in the creation of this fictitious world by an independent media which largely failed to look for substance behind the smokescreen. Rather than ask for facts to substantiate his claims, they sheepishly reported his claims as if they were facts.
The electoral campaign kick-off this week shattered this world when on the second day Joseph Muscat launched the only proposal he promised to deliver since he became leader. Journalists suddenly started asking questions, so did everyone else and, finally, the Nationalist party entered the ring.
Almost overnight, Muscat’s dream world turned nightmarish. Is this what we have been waiting for all these years, people are saying? Why did the once-confident Joseph Muscat ingrained in the public consciousness suddenly morph into a cagey, paranoid man who is unwilling and unable to answer simple questions about the only promise he has made as party leader?
Why has the once calm and composed Labour leader turned defensive and aggressive, snapping at journalists when caught off guard without an answer, and promising to resign as prime minister if he plan goes haywire, which it will?
The answer is simple. Joseph Muscat is now facing the real world of politics for the first time since he became leader. It is a world in which concrete proposals matter, not dreamy words, in which arguments are settled by facts and rationality, not applause and emotions, in which seriousness is prized over frivolity.
You would imagine that he would have known this. He was, after all, Alfred Sant’s main aide for years. But that was a dream-world, too – of VAT removal, Svizzera fil-Mediterranean, and fictitious Partnership fictiously winning the EU membership referendum.
Welcome to the real world of politics, Joseph. Please excuse the inconvenience.
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Go to timesofmalta.com. There is a video of Joseph laying wreaths next to all monuments of national feasts. How fake. Il-Bambin jilliberana.
Has the Great Siege monument been missed out?
Just as stupid as this: ‘Destroyed houses will no longer receive utility bills’. The Times, today.
Surely little Joey will take credit for this, as part of his, ahem, tariff reduction policy.
I watched him on TV laying wreaths. It was hilarious watching him laying a wreath with a stand horizontally on the Independence monument and laying another wreath which wouldn’t stand on its base.
Apart from his trampling on the plants in front of the monuments, that is.
Alla jilliberana.
Molly-coddled from birth, too, with his very own futur garantit in the form of doting parents who gave him anything he wanted and everything he needed, bar a sense of the real world.
Another spoilt brat like the Ghaxaq capon who never had to fend for himself or carry family responsabilities from a young age .
There’s something else I don’t get about the way they’re handling this.
Their refusal to answer questions which don’t conveniently fit into their campaign plan doesn’t exactly endear them to anyone other than halfwits and hodor who will vote for them anyway.
Q. What’s the difference between Joseph and Konrad and magicians Penn and Teller?
A. Penn and Teller reveal the tricks behind their illusions.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UYTmEVFL_NA#t=94s
panic, panic, panic.
[Daphne – Martin, please, shouldn’t you be under some igloo, cheering the great leader on? Or are you there and using your iPhone (ghax mejjet bil-guh)?]
A silly little post based on a totally false premise – that Joseph Muscat has “turned defensive and aggressive, snapping at journalists when caught off guard”
Pure imagination (or wishful thinking).
[Daphne – By definition, Martin, anybody who votes Labour has no insight. I will tolerate your views in the spirit of charity.]
Panic, panic, panic. Mario, your leader is losing it.
That’s what happens when you send a boy to do a man’s job.
Muscat wants to sell something to the electorate, but refuses to answer the electorate’s questions. His toy soldiers have been drilled to repeat ‘nghidu l-fatti fil-hin propizju’.
Can you picture that sort of sales pitch working in any environment other than one stuffed with morons who’d vote Labour even if Muscat promised to put a red hot poker up their arse?
Hardly a silly little post. It is excellent. Had Daphne not said it was a guest post I would have thought she had written it.
Daphne, you just don’t get it do you? Il-vera kaz ta, min imaqdar jrid jixtri.
[Daphne – I’m sorry, but I really don’t wish to buy 1. the Labour Party, 2. Joseph Muscat, 3. Martin. And that qawl Malti is way off the mark. I used to argue that at school, and I feel the same way today.]
‘Spirit of charity’, priceless. Martin my mate, you have just been swatted as a witless fly. Try Maltastar next time.
The Labour energy proposal could be only one of two things.
Either it is just sale talk to catch votes without real plans and deep studies or it is a done deal.
Anyone checked the polls recently?
The Sunday Times will publish polls tomorrow.
Unfortunately though, they have already stated that the survey was done before Joseph’s miracle plan was revealed, so they’re probably not going to be incredibly insightful.
Out tomorrow in The Sunday Times.
Joe Muscat qal li ftiehem (jew ser jiftiehem) mal-privat għall-prezz FISS tal-gass għal-għaxar snin.
Din kullħadd jaqbel li mhix fattibli. Is-suspett huwa hawn! Ma ngħamlux mod li b’fiss irid ifisser persentaġġ FISS tal-prezz tas-suq (i.e. international gas price) u miegħu jżid PERSENTAĠĠ FISS hux?
Fl-ekonomija l-istatement tiehgek huwa gust u l-PL qieghed jinheba wara dan.
Il-hasra hi li l-populin mhux kapaci jgharbel sewwa l-fatti li qeghdin jinghadu min certa kelliema Laburisti.
How long has he been promising an electoral program, details, concrete plans, solutions dictated by criteria which shun overkill and what have you?
If people are shocked, I’m not, just angry at myself for letting him raise a minimum of expectation last Monday, that maybe he would vidicate himself. Not anymore.
Character assassination, the distortion of political discourse by hiding one’s identity, creating the false impression that there’s a mass exodus to his movement, stoking instability and the unstable of character, you name it, he’s done it.
Unlike Sant who declared war and resorted to blatant obstruction when in opposition, Muscat does it with a smile on his face. He could, he had a collection of idiots to send forward. And failed.
The plot didn’t include an electoral campaign, that left him without the proposals he should have worked at.
The victim as usual, was any merit in discussion, why even the basic facts are overturned every five minutes, just look at Super One, their MP’s and newspapers. The pattern was to disrupt any constructive argument.
I sincerely don’t remember politics taken to such a low shoddy level as these last four years, coincidentally since he took over.
We’ve created an anticipation simply to remove the islands’ main dilemma; how, indeed will we ever, get to choose our government if Labour’s the alternative?
The unwritten agreement was to create a new taboo, a self-contradictory posit, a movement which is anything other than Labour.
Transposing the PN and the collective memory of its achievements, (I say Labour only grasps the electoral victories) to try to carry our own imagination into a shared victory. That it won’t be so bad, that maybe voting Labour isn’t for our baser instincts.
The answer’s simple, the so-called floaters, I call them those who switched from Labour, know what it means to vote PN. They’ve done it before. It’s relatively easier on one’s conscience.
Well yes, but it’s only easier on the conscience if we get a clear pledge from Lawrence Gonzi that he will step down if he wins the election, and make way for a fresh team led by Simon Busuttil.
We’ve had enough of his cabals and his incompetent appointees.
All in good time Baxxter, all in good time or, fil-hin propizju.
And just think, Josef. Little Joey still has eight weeks to further screw up. Such an ignominious start.
The critics of the Labour energy proposals are saying that this is a gimmick because no private company can expect to recoup the investment and make a profit by cutting energy prices and keeping prices fixed for ten years.
This is an outright lie.
Such a company can indeed make a profit, if it considers the losses it makes in the first ten years as part of the investment and then bleeds us dry in the remaining 15 of 25 years.
Because, for 15 years, there will be no fixed prices, and the citizens will be subject to the fees imposed by a private company. We should be asking what happens after the first ten years.
This should be sent to The Times. They are giving the PL a huge palata in their reporting without encouraging their journalists to ask pertinent and objective questions about the PL’s energy proposals.
Polls or no polls one needs to take reference from the 2008 elections.
In 2008, there were 21,251 additional eligible voters of whom only 8586 cast their vote. PL added 7796 votes and AD almost 1800. PN managed 2704 less votes than the previous 2003 elections. The turnout was of 92.21% which is the lowest to pre-1971 elections.
PN won by a mere 1580 votes which was less than the increase of AD over the previous elections, but the real question is: what about the 12,665 non-voters of 2008?
Were they disgruntled PN voters who chose to ‘punish’ the party? If that is the case then both PN and PL are working towards that figure of so-called floaters who in reality are nothing of the sort.
I consider them dormant voters who prefer to show their dismay or their indifference by not casting their vote.
Now how much of that portion of the vote will head the PN or PL way remains to be seen but it is that portion that will result the outcome.
Nice post.
If you watch Super One TV all the time then that’s the world you describe.
And until you disallow political parties running TV stations, it will stay the same.
They are fooling nearly half the people, all of the time.
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/photo.php?fbid=395603273856567&set=a.225163160900580.55270.100002206942203&type=1&theater
Can anyone picture the scene in the unlikely assumption that Joseph Muscat’s new power station comes on train within two years?
It’s 2025, Joseph Muscat’s choice of operator for the new power station has been charging abnormally low tariffs patiently for 10 years, the price of gas is three times what it was in 2015 and in terms of Joseph Muscat’s 25-year energy supply agreement signed in 2013, the tariffs applying as from the eleventh year are about to be negotiated. At that point, Enemalta’s bargaining position is down to zero and the operator needs not only to adjust 2025 tariffs to the gas prices prevailing at the time but would be all out to recover any losses incurred in the first ten years of the contract. The inevitable will happen and the tariffs would rocket twice over. Essentially it will be “look here, we have for ten years lived up to your stupid choice of tariffs and now it is your turn to put up with our choice of tariffs for the next fifteen years whether you like it or not.”
And then God help us. And we’ll all be very pleased with ourselves and our choices in 2013 and that as Joseph Muscat tells us “Malta taghna lkoll”.
Excellent point.
Can journalists please start asking what will happen after the initial ten years?
Thank you.
The Moviment Gdid’s campaign reminds me of the typical American promotion for a penis enlargement product or an abdominal toning gadget. Buy, apply and a magical world of opportunities await you including that promotion you’ve been waiting for. Though the consequences of choosing Dr. Muscat’s Movement will be worse than just loosing a few Dollars.
Dr. Muscat seems to have finally accomplished what Alfred Sant had set out to do. Turning idealistic politics into charlatanism. Combine it with Mintoffianism and you’ve got one dangerous mix.
Labour for the past 40 years has gone on and on about there is a group of people who oppress the poor and they are the ones to free us. Il-Baruni, the Oligarchy, Gonzipn etc have all been what they have told the people they will fight against.
But there is one problem: they don’t have anything to fight against any more.
Now it wants to hand over electricity and water to a group of investors. Does the PL want to create an oppressive ruling class?
These people will not be in government and will therefore be able to charge what they like and will never be voted out. They will be the most powerful people in Malta even though they might be all from over seas and have never set foot here.
They will literally have the power of Malta in their hands and we will be powerless to stop them.
Perhaps then these elves might actually know what it means to live under the oppressive power of an oligarchy.
These investors will be the baruni they purport to hate and it will be all thanks to them that we will be lumped with bills that will send thousands into poverty, like it has done in countries all over Africa.
Muscat, please don’t take water and electricity away from the people.
If Joseph Muscat and his advisors had any sense at all they would have wheeled out this crazy scheme on the last day or two of the electoral campaign, and it might have flown just long enough to get them the votes they wanted.
But their pathetic and simple minds couldn’t even see what was an inevitable disaster waiting to happen.
I’m happy I brought out the popcorn on day one because the protagonist self-destructed before the film even started.
Can you please publish the results of the phone-in poll held during the programme Xarabank?
[Daphne – Offhand, it was something like 84% for Tonio Fenech’s arguments.]
“Tahseb li l-proposta tal-Partit Laburista hija fattibbli?”
IVA: 17%
LE: 83%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR-4TxiTGVg
Unfortunately, that’s the real world of Maltese voters.
“If Joseph says that he’ll solve it, it is already solved. If Joseph says that he will do it, it’s done. If he says that he will do this, that or the other better than Lawrence Gonzi, it means that he is better by definition”
Take a look at the Editorial of The Times of January the 9th and you get this same impression.
A very good piece, with a lot of insight into the Maltese psyche since trouble started brewing for Gonzi after the JPO-Mistra shock.
If Joseph and his party hasn’t turned “defensive and aggressive” why the
– “If it fails, I go.”
– “Shame on, shame on you, Minister Fenech, shame on you!”
– “He’s talking Panic Station, not Power Station” – the Robot, earlier on on Xarabank. (L-ispizjar milli jkollu jtik!)
– “inti taghmilli l-mistoqsijiet, u jien inwiegbek fis-sekwenza li rrid jien.” – Leo Brincat on Xarabank.
– “Meta jkun il-waqt, fil-hin propizju,” – Toni Abela u Marlene (JPO) Farrugia when asked if and when the reports will be published.
– “Not a Direct Order but an Expression of Intent” (can someone explain to me the difference?) – Toni Abela.
– “Lil xi hadd bhall-Alternattiva ntihomlhom (ir-rapporti) ghax kostruttivi, imma lill-PN le ghax dawk jimmanipulawhom” – Abela on Bondi+ with Simon Busuttil
And more to come surely as their proposal is further dissected for the scam it is.
@ Martin – Lots of people, perhaps more than you think, are now wondering where the panic is.
I’ll go a step further. If Joseph had not opened his mouth, EVER, and just simply smiled and looked prime ministerial, he would have probably already beaten PN.
And I agree with what your contributor reckons, that it’s because of the low standards expected.
But not only. People take chances, and are seduced by new faces. Look at how they chose Sant over Fenech Adami.
Let’s be honest, and with hindsight (Joseph’s favourite word) – who in his right mind would discard a tried and tested leader, and instead settle for an oddball like Sant? But despite this, Sant managed to swing it.
But unfortunately, that deeply ingrained narcissism of a person who came from nowhere, to within grasping distance of the prize, will prove to be his downfall.
He had to do nothing, just smile, and he would have gotten away with it. Nope, he opened his mouth, and promised.
Sadly for Joseph, people remember promises made by Labour. They tend to be expensive.
Therefore they examined his proposal, and found serious issues. And asked questions.
And there the facade cracked.
The Labour Party is an old tired lady of the night (save you editing, Daphne), but somehow or other, managed to mask her unappealing visage, with a five inch thick layer of make up.
From far away, she looks like a teenager’s wet dream, but close up, she looks like something that the cat wouldn’t even drag in.
From a distance, Labour’s proposal looked good. Let’s be honest.
If you promise Tonio Fenech that you’ll reduce his electricty bill, he’ll probably vote for you.
But people know Labour. So while Joseph promised the beef, all knew that somewhere, somehow, there has to be a bone, and in this case, there not only is a massive bone, but the beef is crawling with maggots.
Whenever there’s nothing being said, I fear a PL win.
Whenever PL speak, I fear for the people who are so clueless and dense that they may even for one second consider voting Labour.
As you once said, Daphne, I don’t essentially fear a Labour government, I fear an incompetent one.
This is not a matter of “let’s give them a try!”. This is thr future of our country.
I may not always agree with the way you get your message across, but I never disagree with the message.
Interesting…and frightening:
http://timrileylaw.com
Just switched to OneNews.
The W&E proposal is not the main item; it’s about Labour’s proposal for LGBT, homosexuals, transgender and the rest. They’re trying to move the subject on.
Din ahjar http://timrileylaw.com/LNG.htm
Unfortunately I remember Joseph in Sixth Form, and my image of him as a sniggering nerd at the back of the class will forever tarnish my perception of him.
He seems to be using the world of politics to try to forget what an utter wallflower he was when he reached adulthood.
I look at him and think “This guy is full of himself and will promise anything to get people to adore him”.
My consolation is that even if he where to become prime minister, his gaffe-peppered political history will lead to an early election.
I feel sorry for the people in Marsaxlokk and Birzebbuga. Another power station in the backyard and massive storage methane gas tanks in their neighbourhood. A mild earthquake or fire can blow up an entire village. Froga that only MLP can think of this plan.
As soon as MLP gets in power their property values would take a steep dive. This is what Muscat thinks of the labour leaning residents.
People wake up before it is too late! How can you be so brainwashed with Muscat’s propaganda?
And that uttermost wanker didn’t say a word to the implications about to be unleashed on his district.
Ara vera gakbin.
Isn’t the MLP electoral manifesto to be launched tomorrow? Or shall we be informed in due time?
This is a great article. Till now I can say that Muscat is not being treated as Sant was treated in his last election.
Journalists are being lenient with Muscat. Amanda Ciappara, badgering Sant in the 2008 campaign, was outstanding. Nobody is doing the same to Muscat today. Moreover, certain independent newspapers cannot be trusted anymore.
Now it is just a question of waking up at least some of his followers – particularly younger ones.
I meet and know several otherwise intelligent people who believe passionately in the Muscat described above. Until a few years ago they would have never even considered attending an MLP meeting, but attending PL events has been made cool.
Change has been turned into a purpose in itself and PL being the instrument of change will, by definition, bring a fairer society and answer all earthly problems.
One has to admit that in terms of marketing and (re)branding PL and particularly FZL have made miracles – so much so that in my opinion the following few weeks may be insufficient to untangle the myth from reality.
With Muscat’s proposal to spend €300-600 million for a power station we don’t need, to produce electricity that the consultants he paid have confirmed will be dearer than the government’s option, it’s all gas down għal ġol-ħajt.
The Nationalists should not be drawn into an energy tariff war.
They should hold their ground and not allow the MHRA and like thinking organizations to bully them into submission.
If these organizations wish to take a gamble and compromise the financial stability the country has managed to secure against all odds, so be it.
The suffering of the Greeks and Spaniards etc is no fantasy and is too close to home for comfort.
If disaster had to befall Malta because of a cavalier attitude by the MHRA, Michael Falzon’s building society etc, they will have a lot to answer for.
For four and a half years Joseph was permitted to create a dream world. So true, but he did not do it alone.
He was helped by The Times of Malta which not only consistently trumpeted Muscat’s positions but viciously attacked Gonzi on all fronts. The Times’s sins are worse.
He was also helped, unwittingly, by PN itself, which adopted the mantra that “we don’t need change”. If they had sharp-brained strategists and writers over at “Dar Centrali”, they’d know better than to script Gonzi’s recent: “M’ghandniex bzonn bidla fid-direzzjoni.”
What that says is that PN is only offering us more of the same. A right turn-off for prospective voters.
I would have said: “Ghandna bzonn tigdid.”
Ha! There! Put that it your pipe and smoke it, Labour. Renewal. Something new. But an affirmation of that which already exists.
Why do we use language so poorly?
Baxxter, what are you waiting for?
Jekk lil-dan l-iswed ta’ fuq l-istampa tah five, allura ghax ma tax bewsa fuq xoffitha/u lit-transvestit li gie/t tindirizza lis-seminaristi?
Professor Edward Mallia busted another of Joseph’s myth today on Dissett, which by the way was the best non-biased panel ever to discuss the PL energy plan till today. Incidentally 2 engineers, a chemist and a physicist all expressed doubts in the Labour proposals
Basically Edward said that you have to decide whether to start with an LNG terminal (liquified gas transhipment to tanks) or go with a gas pipeline (delivering natural gas in gaseous form).
Once the pipeline is online, the LNG terminal would be of no use – so Joseph’s claim that he can work with a pipeline will be at the expense of the LNG investment, making this project more unfeasible.
Ironically Konrad Mizzi was Norman hamilton’s guest warped in his own distorted reality about the feasibility and delivery of his energy plan.
Marco Cremona fails to understand that if the project fails, we’ll bear the risk. He said it will only be Labour’s.
No it isn’t, where does he think the money to get rid of the mess is coming from?
Excellent guest post.
Spot on!