Comment of the day: Muscat targeted the vain and insecure through emotional seduction, rather than the strong of mind through convincing argument
Posted by La Redoute:
Labour core voters will always vote Labour, and will always think of their party as the Labour Party.
‘Moviment’ is a marketing term, a product sold to those who would ordinarily shudder with horror at the thought of getting down and dirty with people they think or as way beneath them.
Luring such people into a movement is a means of expanding a voter base. Persuading them that the time of political parties is over seals your advantage over any opposition.
Anyone calling themselves a party, or identifying with an opposition party, is now classed as a freakish outlier because, a) it has now been decided by the Great Leader that the time of opposing parties is over and b) if you speak up for a party, particularly one in opposition, you’re automatically an outcast.
Why else did JosephMuscatDotCom target the vain and insecure through emotional seduction, rather than the strong of mind through convincing argument? He doesn’t have a case, that’s why – but then, neither did Reverend Moon and look what happened.
Fortunately for this man, the strong of mind are in a minority
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Muscat had quite a different tone at OPM today when speaking to staff straight after the Duluri mass, saying: “Naf li m’hninix il-favorit ta hafna minnkom imma tridu tahdmu ghall-poplu”
Really? How do you know this?
Humpty dumpty sat on a wall ….
You know what, La Redoute, Lawrence Gonzi did neither. In nine years as PM he couldn’t turn a single Labourite over to his cause. Probably because anyone with an ounce of sense was already voting PN anyway.
Bottom line: if PN wants to win the next election it must stop doing politics and go full throttle for marketing. The Maltese market is a sea of idiots. So be it.
Didn’t either, you mean. Actions, I’m afraid, speak louder than words. It is not necessary to convince by argumentation when one’s actions prove one’s worth.
Look, La Redoute, if one’s worth were worth anything, PN would have won this election. Clearly, then, PN has to try the Labour approach.
I meant “did neither” as in “Gonzi didn’t do any of the two things you mentioned. He never managed to convince a single Labourite to vote PN through a convincing argument. Neither did he manage to turn any Labourites through emotional seduction.
I say again: that’s because he couldn’t. Anyone who could possibly vote PN had already done so. Which makes you wonder how the EU election was ever won.
In any case, PN has too much faith in the Maltese people. The Maltese are a nation of pimps, scoundrels and thieves, and the ones who aren’t are just troglodytic imbeciles. Labour understood the game – boy did it understand it. That’s why they’ve won every election (yes, including those won by PN – I’ll explain later) since the 1940s. They were never a political party. They were simply a mass movement, a mirror of Maltese society.
Electoral battles, in Malta and Southern Europe, are not about politics, but culture. The cultural battle was lost from day one. Which brings me to Xarabank. It defies belief that anyone can accuse it of being biased in favour of PN. It isn’t. It breeds idiocy. It is TV by the hillbilly for the hillbilly. It is the ideal Labour breeding ground. And the same goes for most TV content.
The situation is so hopeless there is only one thing that men of good will can do: emigrate. Yes. This is no country for intelligent men and women. Emigrate. Get away from here. You won’t be missed. In fact they’ll probably take over your house, ransack your library as fuel for their Lidl barbecues and take a dump over your Persian carpets. Save your children’s future while you can. Malta is no place to raise your offspring.
Leave.
You are so correct Baxxter.
The PN won the majority of votes in 1981 yet failed to obtain the majority of seats in parliament and so remained in opposition. (We all know that story)
In the subsequent election of 1987, after being governed by an incompetent Prime Minister and having witnessed mass violence and political murder, the PN actually suffered a loss in votes undoubtedly resultant from the employment of 7000 within the government sector.
Few know this but proportionately, the PN lost more votes than Labour in the 1987 election. What saved the day were the votes that went to other Parties and were ‘lost’.
The PN had won by default not through merit.
This election has proved that in the past twenty-six years the mentality has unfortunately remained the same.
Malta is a world unto its own, La Redoute, where one’s actions appear not to prove one’s worth.
It seems that ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ does not apply here.
Ahem. What are you doing here?
@ HPB
You are so right about Xarabank being ‘TV by the hillbilly for the hillbilly’. Perfect description of a host who cannot control the guests let alone the audience! The same applies to journalists in general.
The other day I was watching CBC news after the Federal Budget was presented and as usual the show host invited several journalists to comment on what they heard in the Minister’s speech.
They came from different backgrounds and obviously held somewhat varying opinions. They knew their stuff, they expressed themselves clearly with no interruptions and went straight to the points they were asked about.
They had all of three hours to scan through a 400 page document to prepare themselves to deliver an objective analysis!
Visions of Ramona and her One media companions and Reno Bugeja came to mind, and I cried. I tried hard to find one or two real journalists in Malta who would even come close, save for perhaps, Daphne whose talents she chooses to limit to what she does so well.
I can envisage her in one of the many ‘press conferences’ held by Joseph behind his phallic podium, refusing to answer questions about anything controversial. He surely would not have gotten away with so much.
Before the Labour victory, Malta still lagged the rest of the world by some thirty years, now the handicap has doubled.
H.P. Baxxter Some strata of humanity has a tendency to enjoy being pulled by the nose. The Nationalist politicians forgot the great Roman tradition of keeping the crowds at bay with free bread and entertainment.
We would never be able to appeal to these people. Labour will always be labour. The only chance of PN getting back into to government in the next 5 years is by PL making such a mess we wished we lived in Cyprus with a Alfred Sant in government.
Now I don’t particularly want my country to suffer but it’s not on my conscience. You say we should market better, do you mean we should lower our standards?
I’m not going to fooled by a new PN movement please do not expect me to change my principles just for the sake of getting back into power. That’s why I now belong to a minority. They claim to be protagonists more like the B team. Lest clean up our house before they do. We set the standards.
Good point, my friend. Marketing has all to do with catering to the lowest common denominator, where all the money is. (Pareto’s 80/20 rule) Or, as you say, the idiots.
How many suits have you seen in MacDonalds recently?
Your ‘bottom line’ is correct, however, the present leaders of the PN would not allow that to happen.
They will hide in the weeds and wait for the reds to fuck up.
Won’t be long. I give them one or two years.
Exactly. Use 20% of your resources to convince 80% of the electorate. It would have been cheaper to give a 1000 Euro cash handout to every “Maltese and Gozitan family” than to fund an election campaign.
Couldn’t agree more. Speaking about the strength of the economy to people who only really want to sing “viva l-Lejber”?
The funny (sad) thing is that there is a large base of Labour voters in the production sector and in Malta it is one of the first to be hit badly when Labour will fuck up…but they will still vote Labour.
Mr. Baxxter, the Maltese have become very European: a cappuccino society with an enormous affection for anything marketable.
GonziPN was acting solely as a government without an political hoohah.
A very good indication of what Maltese economy is: the lack of second hand market and the saleability of gizmos.
I have never ever seen any street sweeper with email/wifi/phone enabled tablet anywhere else in the world. Not a bad thing but then one ought not complain about necessity/utility bills.
So basically LP got voted in because more idiots want more lollipops.
I am still trying to understand when this lollipop economy is going to blow up.
I disagree. Politics is not about marketing a product but all about serving. Is-sewwa jirbah zgur, remember.
Unfortunately the PN was slowly losing this in the last year when it realised it was way behind in the polls. Then yes it became the difference between marketing. This only made the difference more glaring.
Let the truth come out and the majority will realise they have been conned.
Bottom line – A proper marketing campaign will help to bring back voters, however in all honesty the country needed a change. We were sick of seeing the same people taking advantage of the fact that they had political acquaintances on their side.
Let’s hope the same thing does not repeat itself with this Govt. Meritocracy was the buzz word, and makes sense if really applied. So be it……
You’re wrong H.P. Baxxter. As Dr.Gonzi always said “The people are always right”.
It was the arrogance of most of the Ministers that lead to the downfall of the party. It was a pity that Dr. Gonzi had to shoulder all this.
I live in the 4th district and with a Minister that in the first count could only manage half of the votes of the 2008 election and contributed to the party to lose another seat says it all.
In this district the party deserted its followers. When there were Dr. Mugliett, Dr. Cassar and even Dr. Stanley Zammit it was different.
The Maltese people think the sun goes round the Earth, that maggots grow spontaneously out of rancid meat, and that the Earth is 4000 years old. Are they always right?
The Nationalist administration had a list of faults that would take a week to go through. And yet it was still the least worst option.
Its major fault was this blind faith in the fundamental goodness of people. Is-sewwa jirbah zgur and all that bollocks. Il-familji Maltin [u Ghawdxin] huma hawtiela u “prudenti” u jhaddmu sew il-beneficcji li naghtuhom. Baxxter bhac-cuc ihallas is-social security sabiex il-“poplu Malti u Ghawdxi” jgawdi mill-aqwa sptar fid-dinja, wara li jkun ha hsieb sahhtu, wara li jkun informa ruhu dwar l-ahjar trattament mediku, u b’responsabilità, kawtela, u kortezija li ma bhalha meta jsib queue, ghax jaf li l-waiting lists huma l-allokazzjoni gusta tar-rirorsi.
Iva. Mhux hekk nibqghu?
If this sounds like a fantasy world, it is. The Maltese are the most selfish, pig-ignorant, unsophisticated, incestuous, inbred, whoring and thieving people on Earth. Social democracy will never work on them. They need an iron-fisted government of sharp-brained men and women, not bleeding-heart philanthropists.
Left to their own devices, the Maltese would go back to living in caves, pimping off their mothers, wives and daughters, and having sex with their goats.
Bravo H.P. Baxxter….you said it all….
I totally agree. That is the problem with his “Think positive” religion.
Anyone who criticizes the PL is now labeled as negative and should therefore be avoided at all costs. For them anything that isn’t praise for Labour is evil, because they believe in the laws of attraction and don’t want bad things to happen to them just because they opposed the PL.
I personally hope the PN does not follow suit and start dancing to their tune because they will enter a game invented by the PL and the whole thing is rigged.
The principles that the PN maintain are what led it to govern so successfully for the past 25 years. They must not drop them.
This does not mean that I think we should forever be afraid of the PL. I’m for unity as much as the next guy. However, what Muscat has done is nothing short of manipulating people to be afraid to question the PL.
Muscat’s hypocritical apology for the 80s was to a bunch of 16 year olds. It was a self-serving act and one that he used to gain political mileage. There was no sacrifice, no humility or understanding at all. Why didn’t they think about visiting people who were tormented by Lorry Sant and Mintoff to listen to what they had to say? Is facing their past too scary for them?
It is wrong to ignore such a history. It is wrong to deny it ever happened. Surely these are signs of how the party works?
If it is any consolation, that apology meant nothing to my 17 year nephew. When asked who he would vote for, if he could have voted, he said PN because Muscat did not convince him with his arguments.
How true that Muscat just managed to ‘convince’ those who wanted to be convinced.
He convinced those who were afraid of being seen as negative.
The art of illusion bedazzled the many!
A Particular Mentor’s tactic is to do away with adversity and have everyone thinking towards one direction where it is publicly said that every contribution counts.
Amongst these tactics is one this: how do you prevent A from reaching B? hide B? build a wall around B? bury B? no, totally ignore B. Create C. Make it more attractive for A to go to C.
Using tactics such as these, truth and ethics can be redefined along the way. There is more than one truth. Those who are behind you will back you because they too have come to believe that there is more than one truth. Everybody is told the partial truth: that there is more than one truth. For such truths to become established they need to be declared by public persons of some recognised standing, so that nobody could ever dare begin to doubt these.
What is crucial is that any opposing voice is silenced, neutralised, bought out or renegotiated with.
Failing that there are other tactics.
Press must be positive. Interviews will act as PR for future projects. The past is not discussed or publicly analysed since the future is what is created and what is placed in focus. The movement is the stepping stone.
It is important to place people in the expectant realm of the future. The “we can do anything” mindset. No problems but opportunities.
In a truly positive mindset, the tactics are motivators.
Business would normally have a positively oriented code of ethics. Results of all sorts are measured on the outcome of this. Breach of this code is punishable at law.
In politics the code of ethics is blurred. In decomposing each action or result into the elements of its makeup and having the press focus on the negative part of each action whilst totally ignoring the positive, what the public perceive is a picture of recomposed negative fragments that then make up the whole of the presented and perceived image.
Likewise the same can be done by the press and any PR so that the perceived image of an organisation only orchestrates the positive elements to ensure a perceived image which is positive.
In the effort of making C more attractive, by such manner of operation and with a negative mindset, the end justifies the means.
Whether results are strong or weak, whether values are there or non-existant, perceived image is the organisation’s Achille’s heel or winning card.
‘What you^re doing is weird and wrong’, a small voice in the back of little Joey’s head insists.
Sheer lack of morals and a lack of honesty by leftist leaders are two factors that led to the failure of Marx’s Utopia.
I very much doubt that lil’ Joey has a moral and ethical centre that prompts him to see any error of his manipulative ways. Condoning Toni Abela’s cover up of the ‘blokka silg’ episode shows that he has no regard for his own children. I’d send myself to hell to protect my son against the destructive power of drugs.
While Marx was genuinely shocked at the state of affairs with respect to the proletariat, none of his followers gave/give a hoot about workers.
Leftist leaders were and remain capitalists in the sense that they were/are interested in generating wealth. The difference between leftists and leaders openly embracing capitalist principles (e.g., the PN) is that the aim of the former is to amass personal fortunes while letting the general populous squander in poverty. In this sense, I find Marxism to be a very dishonest and inconsistent doctrine.
At least with a Nationalist government everyone stands to gain with a measure of hard work and industry.
Keep in mind: while Marxism is usually defined as a world-view (a set of a priori beliefs about socio-economic reality) and a doctrine, capitalism is ‘merely’ an economic system.
Unfortunately, the Maltese electorate failed to see these (and other) aspects.
As Daphne points out, there is systematic brainwashing since childhood. I also believe that Maltese are generally prone to being controlled by entities that are portrayed as superior or larger than life. We tend to ‘kow tow’ in the presence of religious and psuedo-religious figures.
Aside from the general negativity by the various Pulse students with respect to Daphne’s KSU post, I am shocked to see brainwashing and uncritical and subservient mindset still very much alive in today’s youth.
In this respect, I find that, on the average, the Nationalist administration did not fail the electorate. Rather, these youths failed to extract an important lesson from University – that of being critical and taking everything with a pinch of salt given sufficient warrant. It is these students and, more broadly, MLP voters who have failed the Nationalists and those of us voting with their heads.
Today, I am more proud to have voted for a Nationalist government.
So very well said Kevin.. my sentiments exactly. It is so sad to see that such a large number of people do not use their brains to weigh facts against fiction and allow themselves to be carried away by good play-acting without even stopping to analyse what is being put before them.
What Kevin says is so true. I shudder to remember how an old woman in Msida, during Mintoff’s years, actually lit candles and put flowers in front of the picture of the Salvatur ta’ Malta. If that is not paganism and brainwashed mentality, then I’m from Mars.
“I’m for unity as much as the next guy.”
My, Muscat’s even managed to poison a positive term. His idea of unity is total control over defining what’s right, correct, useful and in our individual and collective interests. If you’re not with him, you’re against unity and that makes you bad, in the wrong, an outcase, someone to be ignored and sidelined.
It is absurd to assume that unity, in and of itself, is a good thing. Without any sort of critical examination, one can never be sure of anything.
A process of critical examination presumes the possibility of differing and opposing view points. That’s as true of assessing government decisions, big or small, as it is of what tie (or expensive handbag) one should wear.
In political life, the structure that enables that process of critical examination is a system of opposing parties, hence government and opposition.
Muscat knows that, of course. When he speaks of unity, he’s just being disingenuous and manipulative. So what’s new?
I’ve just come across this clip from a pre-election edition of Dissett, with Simon Busuttil and Evarist Bartolo as guests. At 2:50 Simon is explaining how Joseph’s oversize cabinet would cost the country a lot more and our Minister of Education, instead of making valid arguments for the choice (not that he has ever been particularly inclined to do so, but anyway), denies the obvious and keeps mumbling int the background and saying “mhux hekk, mhux hekk”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SDx90e4VDt4
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqxO7lW1GtQ
This clip will help you visualize how the Maltese floating voting reacted (and is reacting) to the Labour movement.. Looks very complex. But in reality it is quite simple. Labour pushed each voter to the left by promising everything to each one of them. Once election day is over, the voter is left on his own and he will go back to the starting position.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqxO7lW1GtQ
(same link as above – works better for non-smartphone users)
Muscat uses the tools of dictators of the past — and present, but we hear less about them these days because they are fewer and less close to home.
The whole election campaign was an exercise in the management of perception. Why else would everything have been so meticulously stage-managed (such as the University and MCAST debates; the visits to schools where kids ran around with his hagiography; etc)?
He knew that the PL could not match up to the PN, so he outflanked the PN using every means possible, with the sole aim of vote-catching — hence the secret meetings with, and targetting of, a large number of single issue groups; the re-writing of the PL history; the rebuilding of bridges with Mintoffjani; etc.
In fact he ran not one, but two, campaigns: a ‘covert’ negative campaign (the oil scandal and all the mudslinging offshoots, which must have been instigated by the Labour party just a week or so into the campaign, but which they and MaltaToday denied came from the PL) and an overt ‘positive’ campaign, which was totally devoid of content except for the chanting of ‘Malta Taghna Lkoll’ and loads of meaningless messages of ‘unity’ to a people already brought together by Europe and who only remember they are divided during elections.
Having seen all this, no matter how little we might consider him ‘capable’, JM is not to be underestimated. He and his cabinet (which is so large because he knows he does not have strong individuals, and hence, the more players he recruits into his football team, the more chance there is of scoring a goal) may indeed be incapable of governing, but when it comes to propaganda, you have to hand it to him – he knows what he’s doing.
For sure, no matter how little appeal he might have to people like *us*, he certainly knows how to appeal to both masses and minorities, and to bring the latter into the fold and make them feel part of ‘the movement’ and the majority. This makes him clearly a potentially very dangerous man.
Thank God we are in Europe, as this offers some protection to our democracy.
You’re a fool to think that Europe offers any protection to any democracy.
Muscat’s campaign succeeded because it blocked off the possibility of rational analysis and debate by occupying every available space – quite literally, in the case of the university and MCAST debates.
Protection to our democracy? And in which ways if I may ask? Please provide with some practical examples, since the only way I can think the EU capable of enforcing anything is through cutting of funds, imposing of sanctions and right through chucking us out of the Union; such a situation would make the ginger “prodigy” feel quite chuffed in a I-told-you-so kind of way, and make the bleeting masses follow through in his train of thought hence causing quite the opposite effect…
True. We have the example of Hungary, a mere four weeks ago.
Wara l-intervista ma’ San Ignazju….
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=495902597136648
Jesus – if PN had to think this way it will never win another election ever again.
Besides the fact that the 2008 campaign was a marketing exercise in itself – anyone remember GonziPN rather than PN? That’s talking to the lowest common denominator and it worked – kind of.
Accept it, the same party will never win election after election for an indefinite time – especially after orchestrating a campaign of self-applause and a criticism of the opposing party of its 30-year old ‘sins’ and its subsequent 26 (-2) years in opposition.
If you want a party to win, stop whinging and shape up to face the next election in 5 years. Like, your beloved PL did.
In my opinion, I feel that the best marketing strategy for the PN now is to prove to the electorate that the CHANGE they voted for with all that majority, was nothing but a buzz word, and comments like ‘Malta taghna lkoll’ and ‘Tista ma tkunx maghna, izda tista tahdem maghna’, were only slogans to lure the disgruntled to the ‘MOVIMENT’.
After all one has to substantiate the recently, frequently quoted Maltese adage “Bejn il-kliem u l-fatti hemm bahar jikkumbatti”.
What makes me uneasy is his frequent reference when he meets civil servants (such as the post-Duluri mass gathering referred to above) to the fact that some may not agree with a PL government but all should work for the national good bla bla.
I cannot imagine a Nationalist PM making a similar statement: it is insulting and condescending.
It is firmly understood that civil servants serve the government of the day and are not expected to allow partisan sentiments to colour the quality of their work.
This is the crux of the difference between ‘positions of trust’ and permanent government employees.
If I am feeling particularly paranoid, I could detect an underlying threat here. Is he setting the stage for future situations where it is regrettably noted that an inconvenient individual is not ‘collaborating’ and should therefore be dealt with?
Yes.
I’m sorry Daphne, La Redoubt e’ bella compagnia, but here we have a political party winning an election by an incredibly huge margin, and all the focus is on finding fault with the winners. It’s like Malta getting thrashed 6-0 yesterday in Sofia and blaming the Bulgarians for our team’s dismal showing.
[Daphne – A general election to choose the government is not a football match between two teams, and if you don’t know that, you should. Your reasoning is immature.]
Something else.
I suppose it is only natural that the PN is still reeling from the heavy defeat suffered at the last elections.
But it is time to move on. Labour are running roughshod over established practices (Piscopo etc etc), and nary a peep can be heard from the PN. It is time to start doing your jobs PN, and that is to provide the checks and balances that a democracy demands. Or has the PN been gelded?
Ah, maybe there IS a spark of life left:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130323/local/gonzi-says-speaker-should-come-from-government-benches.462626
the first must-read in regard of the PN elections
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130321/opinion/The-PN-s-long-march.462343
Meanwhile it’s 716 days to the inauguration of the new power station.
X’hin il-Prim wasal ix-Xatt, Ghawdex ghall-Mass Meeting, bdew telghin il-murtali. Ghax wasal The One and Only. Ma nafx kif ghadhom ma bdewx jibnulu xi Arc de Triomphe.
One can easily fall prey to certain types of promotions which depict the common man as being victim to a system which is construed as being corrupt.
So many allegations have been made to sound like undeniable truth even when evidence was being provided to show the contrary to be true. There is no person as blind as one with eyes and cannot see.
There is nothing more appealing than the thought of having a champion to fight the perceived ills and corruption in society. The idea of having a movement gave a sense of belonging to a cause.
There is nothing remotely analytical about choices presented in such a scenario. This kind of thinking where there is an us and them cannot be tackled as long as people are being stereotyped. The profile might be true for the majority of people.
However if you apply the term Laburist or Nazzjonalist to a person you have drawn a line which cannot be crossed due to loyalist sentiments. It would be the ultimate betrayal to go against core values. Imagine a group of people who watch only party propaganda.
Do not tell a person he is a Nazzjonalist or a Laburist , but that you have different views and it is possible to discuss and reach agreement on various issues. People want to know that someone is listening and intends to address their concerns. Trust is the key to this solution. To build trust a sense of belonging has to be established. Sports and entertainment are the common ground where to start.
The concept of different ideologies is often confusing. Base arguments on facts and show a willingness to listen. This is the starting point. How you handle the information you receive will be the catalyst to change in mentality.
Jim Jones convinced almost a thousand people to commit mass suicide, Joseph Muscat has fifty-five percent of the country committing mass suicide towards Malta’s future and economy.
Out of the last 11 governments, 7 were Nationalist. 4 were Labour.
Malta appears to me to be a microcosm of France. France had a flirt with Socialism in the Mitterrand days that went badly wrong and swung decisively to the right until the “boredom factor” kicked in and they swapped Sarkozy for Hollande.
Hollande had nothing to back his candidacy. He was the elected head of the French region that was most in debt and least solvent before he became French President. He had very little experience in real government and his public persona belied his private life. He spoke of detesting the wealthy when he is a millionaire himself. And he cynically dislikes the peasants that form the grassroots of the French socialist party, because to like them would remind him of where he comes from.
South West France, which I often visit, is scarlet. Most people there will never vote for the UMP (conservatives) because they have always been red, for generations, and will remain so. They are ignorant and backward, and very insular.
Sarkozy on the other hand, had modestly good economic and governance results, considering the wider malaise in which the upper-western hemisphere is mostly mired in.
Hollande’s campaign was very cynical aggressive selling of a packaged product that was marketed at a very basic level. You buy us and we give you your solution. We can provide you with tailor-made governance. That is the message sent to the French electorate.
Invariably with socialism, it all ended in tears. There is no such thing as “politics for all” or “agreements with everyone”. You cannot protect the victims of crime by enforcing harsher laws and penalties and aid the criminals by applying lenient sentences.
Shifting southwards on the map, you find Malta. An iconic country with a fascinating history, like France. L’Ile des Chevaliers. The Island of the Knights. But a closer look beneath the marketing schpeel, will uncover disturbingly similar traits and strata.
The French revolution was driven by injustices that needed to be corrected. But its main and subsequent cynical and brutal leaders wrested the reforming revolutionary movement from the architects who dreamt of a new and better France with popular representation, equality and less foreign interference.
Malta’s independence was driven by discontent at British imperial government and Borg Olivier’s independence movement was high-jacked by Mintoff’s socialists who shoved a republic down our throats (there was no referendum, you may recall) and bled the country.
The result, two hundred years later, is of a France that is deeply divided. Indeed, many French speak of two Frances. A conservative, traditional, intellectual and entrepreneurial France also embraces the affluent and successful middle class.
A viscerally socialist and revolutionary nanny party feeds off the sans-culottes. They demand that France should also belong to them. Rhetoric in the main, as many farmers and civil servants feed off the welfare state, through common agricultural policy subsidies, and benefits and allowances and tax breaks that are simply unbelievable.
The face of socialism in France is contorted with hate. They have “issues”, or better, problems, with anything that looks respectable. They dislike the church, the Jews, the wealthy, the entrepreneurs, the factory owners, the hoteliers, the lawyers, the doctors and the conservatives.
The French right (exclude Jean-Marie Le Pen’s party) has always worked for a France that is strong, economically powerful, a force for good and a successful country that helps its citizens up the social ladder if they wish to climb it.
The French conservatives have high level scandals with corruption and are often accused of arrogance. The French socialists are riddled with scandals involving bribery, nepotism and protectionism.
But what the socialists have learnt, after decades in opposition, is that if you keep the money and the jobs flowing into the unproductive part of society and if you look after your own, then you can get your hands on power and hang on to it. And they have also learnt that “les notres sont les nostres”. Only those who belong to us are ours. They will not allow Conservatives in positions of trust and administration if they can help it.
And 200 years later, there are things you simply don’t discuss in public, for fear of ending in a fist-fight. You must never criticise the republic, the revolution or the socialists. You risk a bloodied nose and worse.
But if you want to talk politics, then it’s perfectly alright to trounce the conservatives, rubbish the church and ridicule the president and the Bourbons.
And the socialist party supporters do wear red to work, if “needed”.
France is a socialist country with a veneer of respectability because of its hard-working and highly intelligent and resourceful entrepreneurs and successive conservative governments.
Doesn’t that sound like Malta to you?
There’s a fundamental flaw in the Moviment.
Muscat retrieved those who made a shambles of democracy in the 80’s.
Muscat then went after those whose condition was anyone but those whose legacy was the moviment tal-haddiema.
He promised the first their socialist ideals, the second, a continuation of liberal democrat principles.
In the end, to manage, he’ll have to forego the second to quell the ambitions of the former and will end up establishing a Jacobean republic to pacify the latter.
Problem is the democratic structures formed over the last quarter century belong to the liberal idea.
Taxation, the only legitimate means, remains VAT and the promises made to reduce income tax point in that direction.
The trouble will start as soon as growth slows down and the wealth remains with these. He has six months playing PLPN before his first pre-budget talks kick off.
All his promises carry a reduction in state income, Energy consumption, permits, bureaucratic ‘costs’, healthcare, education.
We’ll see what 25% reduction in bureaucracy means. He has to scrap most legislation to implement.
http://www.maltarightnow.com/default.asp?module=news&at=Franco+Debono+jin%26%23295%3Batar+Kummissarju+tal-Li%26%23289%3Bijiet&t=a&aid=99845766&cid=19
So now they’ve all been paid for their services to the MLP except Mugliett.
This comment made under the Affari Taghna clip with Norman Lowell
Vladmir Cutajar Forte: Robert, bil mod il mod hergin fil berah wehidhom il 50 traditur li serqu l Malta min butna. Memmx ghalfejn nghalquhom serrah rasek ghax il ligi stess ser tiehu hsiebhom. Iz zejza spicala l halib ghal esponenti tal PN. Hudu pacenzja.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130323/local/franco-debono-appointed.462628
Jien x’ghamilt zbaljat fil-karriera? Ma kontx patologikament lunatiku?
I’m sorry for posting this here: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130323/local/muscat-suggests-malta-should-have-two-national-days-before-agreeing-on-a-single-one.462629
I was am speechless – Mintoff and European Institutions?
Muscat has already elevated Freedon Day on an equal footing with Independence Day. For historical reasons, this can never be right.
We have to challenge this re-writing of history.
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/blogsdetails/blogs/Sorry-is-the-hardest-word
Interesting that this MaltaToday journalist admits he is a borderline lunatic . Should he be in this job ?
He’s in the right place.
Compare and contrast.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101101/local/gonzi-not-as-good-as-fenech-adami-in-economic-management-muscat.334190
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21909673
This quote is a classic:
“The fact that in Malta, energy bills were much higher than those in Cyprus showed that the Maltese were not paying more because of the high price of oil, but because of the high price of incompetence, Dr Muscat said.”
With hindsight, who was incompetent Dr. Muscat?
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-03-23/news/franco-debono-to-be-appointed-commissioner-of-law-1239482369/
Good Lord! Haven’t we got rid of this loony yet? I’m sick of hearing one more thing that comes out of his mouth.
I’m sorry Daphne about the expletives, but truly this is too much. Wasn’t he supposed to go bother the Italians instead?
Labour is entering its third week and I’ve already had enough.
The report on The Malta Independent is the most informative:
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-03-23/news/franco-debono-to-be-appointed-commissioner-of-law-1239482369/
I expect two things from Franco Debono:
Franco has to resign from the PN or MLP.The position should be apolitical.
He has to stop writing on his blog and penning comments under various false names like Vincent Williams, mark borg, Cesco di Luigi, Eve Axiak and mary mifsud.
Regarding the appointment as coordinator of the Constitutional Convention, all I have to say to Joseph Muscat is that it takes two to tango.
Franco can look at every Tom, Dick and Harry and ask himself if he can see anyone from the PN with whom he did not quarrel. How can anyone with good intentions ask Franco do any coordination with the PN with whom he burnt all bridges?
He said he voted Labour. He celebrated the election result with Labour.
Zaren tal-Ajkla would do a better job than Franco on constitutional reforms. At least he’s impartial and can get both sides to the same table.
I prefer leaving the constitution as it is rather than having to see Franco gesticulating in front of me for the next five years.
The Nationalist Party should boycott Franco as coordinator of the Constitutional Convention or just leave him alone blabbering with his new-found friends.
At the end of the day we need two-thirds majority in parliament to change the constitution. I hope he will get tired.
So what all you guys are basically lamenting is that Joseph Muscat and his PL engineered a far better strategy than Gonzi and his PN were able to muster! Sorry for the bad news BUT THAT’S what politics are all about.
[Daphne – No, Frank, that is not what politics are about. Fifty years in Australia and you still have the mentality that got us classed as a nation of pimps, thieves and whores for so long that we’re still struggling to shake off the remnants of that legacy.]
Yes and no Daphne. You are right in saying that good governance SHOULD NOT be about party political strategies but let’s face it, that is the unpalatable reality whenever elections are held here in Australia, the US, UK, Italy or ANY other country you care to mention.
Remember the two elections won by George W Bush, the ones in which Obama prevailed, both Tony Blair and David Cameron in the UK – they were all about strategic campaigns. As for Malta being classed as a nation of thieves, pimps and whores – THAT my friend is precisely what the previous PN Government was accused of being by no less than some of its own members and guess what? They were all COMPLETELY vindicated by the electorate – including thousands of former PN voters!
[Daphne – That’s a fine way to turn an argument on its head, Frank. Thieves, pimps and whores vote in elections, you know, as do the rest of us. We’re not talking about strategic campaigns here, but about crossing the line between the moral and the immoral, or perhaps that should be amoral. There are other forms of crossing the line, too: promising what you can’t deliver at a micro-level.]
So now you are telling me that 30 and more thousand Maltese former PN voters were immoral – even amoral, when they elected the PN by a narrow margin five years ago!
[Daphne – No, I did not say that. I said that the methods used by the Labour Party (still being used by the Labour Party) are just that. A great measure of deceit was used to reel people in, with always just the right buttons pushed with the skill of a consummate narcissist or sociopath (this is not necessarily a reference to Muscat himself).And yes, the Maltese electorate does contain a disproportionate number of certain types of people, but they made up the Labour core vote anyway. Why else would they have voted for Mintoff and KMB and even voted for Sant again in 2008?]
Either that OR they have become so since then! Admit the plain truth Daphne – Gonzi and his government – APART from some of their colleagues who had the balls to tell the truth, were all thieves, pimps and whores who did nothing else than look after their own interests and those of their closest colleagues. You must also accept another truth…as much as you may try to deny it. People like Lou Bondi and yourself – through your comments on air and written blogs, DO NOT have a fraction of the influence on the electorate that you would love to think you have. The voters in Malta – including thousands of former PN supporters have proved to be much more savvy and street wise than you and Bondi were prepared to give them credit for. Rest assured Daphne, the 2013 Maltese electorate is more – MUCH MORE, sophisticated than you and the PN were desperately hoping for. Can the PN get back into government in five years time? Doubtful given the size of the majority just won by PL. Maybe in 2013? Possibly but unlikely UNLESS the PN can get its act together OR if the PL simply implodes. Whichever way it goes Daphne, you have many years of wasted time ahead of you, trying to vainly fly the flag for a Nationalist Party which has completely lost its way…possibly even until you get to my age! Good luck.
[Daphne – I am not Lou Bondi’s keeper, Frank, but even I can see that he is not doing his job to influence people. He does it because he loves it and it shows. I am not here to influence people either. You seem unable to understand this simple fact. I am not a propagandist. I am a columnist and a blogger. I write my own opinion. I write for a newspaper because it is my (paid) job. I write this blog because I enjoy it and because I don’t enjoy, for example, playing bridge or golf. It is not through my own efforts that I have a huge and varied readership. I certainly don’t work at it. It just happened (a long time ago). It is obvious that I am not going to have any influence over anyone: by virtue of birth, upbringing, education, personality, interests and IQ I am in the natural minority, the very same minority hated with a passion by the Labour Party since the 1950s – but people who are in the same minority, who feel runover by chavs and half-crazed people talking about being positive, wherever they go, find some solace here and so be it. Apparently, even you find this compulsive reading all the way in Australia.]
So you are vain enough to believe that “Apparently, even you find this compulsive reading all the way in Australia”. Please check where your website hits have come from – as I’m sure that you can, and you will find that I find your blog FAR from compulsive reading. You will discover that I have not visited your blog for months and months until I was curious enough to see what venom you were prepared to spew prior and following the recent thumping that the party you have fought so hard to retain in power received at the polls.
[Daphne – No, I can’t check where hits are coming from unless there is a great big mass of them from a single country. It’s fine with me when you choose to read it or not. It’s your level of engagement that astonishes me. Why go out of your way to seek to engage/form an internet relationship with someone you profess to so dislike? There are a few online writers I dislike. I just never read them. I’m not into masochism or self-inflicted boredom and irritation.]
You also shamelessly admitted that “by virtue of birth, upbringing, education, personality, interests and IQ I am in the natural minority” – as if by being in that kind of minority makes you a superior human being!
[Daphne – I hate to upset you, Frank, but it’s not me who says that it does. It’s civilisation. That’s why, when totalitarian dictators wish to create a new order, they start by going after my kind of person. Your Mintoff was no exception, was he. It happened in Russia, it happened in China, it happened in Hungary, it happened in East Berlin, it happened everwhere behind the Iron Curtain. Prole rule became the substitute. Obviously in Australia things might be different because of its specific history, but old societies are all the same, and China was one of the oldest of all.]
Can you not understand that what you are portraying is precisely the type of arrogance that cost Gonzi and his party so dearly at the polls? That there has been good and valid reasons why “the very same minority was hated with a passion by the Labour Party since the 1950s” as you put it.
[Daphne – It doesn’t bother me, Frank. That’s not my arrogance. That’s the perception of arrogance by people with an inferiority complex. The reality is that I am not arrogant at all, but extremely down-to-earth and factual, which is actually the hallmark of the real ‘tal-pepe’ though you wouldn’t know it. I simply refuse to make any apologies for who and what I am, which is different. I am not about to crawl around town ‘being humble’ or fake and apologising for being alive and for not being a prole or somebody with the IQ of a hedgehog. Nor am I going to take on the trappings, manners and mores of the nouveaux-riches to keep them happy. If the proles and the threatened under-achievers have a problem with that, good luck to them. I survived Mintoffianism with my identity intact, and you can bet your last Australian cent that I can handle a bunch of nouveaux-riches whinging women my age who have never read a book in their lives except Fifty Shades of Grey and who have turned Facebook into the equivalent of the village pump their great-grandmothers stood around, a fact that they are desperate to conceal despite all their talk of being socially democratic. And if that sounds arrogant to you, tough. I’ve seen enough of my peers bullied into submission and being politically correct about people with whom they have absolutely nothing in common and never will. They’ve done Mintoff’s job for him – on themselves. They forget that when Mintoff married, he didn’t pick a girl from the gutter. Socialists never practise what they preach and half the population tries to buy a tal-pepe identity with money, forgetting that it takes not only a few generations but the will to be civilised, and that includes a proper education which is not the sort you get at university.]
Finally, if you have such a distaste for Malta, the Maltese people and their mentality – on whom you so clearly look down upon, please do them all a huge favor and just leave the island. Go to some place where your ‘SUPERIOR BEING’ is more appreciated but PLEASE, stay away from Australia.
[Daphne – Forget it, Frank. Malta taghna lkoll.]
Judas has been paid his 30 pieces of silver..
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130323/local/franco-debono-appointed.462628
Guda.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130323/local/franco-debono-appointed.462628
“They’ve done Mintoff’s job for him – on themselves. They forget that when Mintoff married, he didn’t pick a girl from the gutter. Socialists never practise what they preach and half the population tries to buy a tal-pepe identity with money, forgetting that it takes not only a few generations but the will to be civilised, and that includes a proper education which is not the sort you get at university.”
How right you are, Daphne, how right you are! I move to insert this paragraph in the preamble to our constitution.