Never say die

Listen to Harry Vassallo in The Circle magazine yesterday.

AD’s success has been postponed since 2003. That was a moment in which we had the experience and political maturity and we were instrumental in helping Malta join the EU. The circumstances then were such that we had to campaign to give our votes away. I don’t feel frustrated at all today. Our contribution to Maltese politics is there.

So that’s it. Without Harry Vassallo and AD, Malta wouldn’t have joined the European Union. People were convinced because Harry and his group campaigned in favour, and to hell with the Yes campaign team of hundreds and the Nationalist Party.

Well, what was Harry’s excuse this time? The last election, he said, was “not fought on issues, but on fears and loyalties.” Here’s more.

This was the first election in which we suffered a direct assault from one of the major parties – the PN. It was effective except on those 3,800 people who voted for us. In general, the PN used every bit of its power of incumbency – Mater Dei, Smart Island, letters from the PM to civil servants and businessmen.

The power of incumbency, eh? Now, where have I heard that one before? Apparently, it’s the fashionable excuse for losers. If I read Vassallo right, he’s speaking negatively about the government’s successes as some form of abuse of the power of incumbency. In other words, if you’re in government don’t you dare do anything right lest people be tempted to vote for you again and not for Harry Vassallo or the MLP. It’s not fair that the political party in government has an advantage like that. They should mess up to make for a level playing-field.

Lou Bondi, who interviewed Vassallo for this magazine article, asked him why 30,000 people decided not to vote at all rather than vote AD. Harry kien bir-risposta lesta.

This shows that a vote for AD is not a protest vote. Protest voters stay at home. We don’t have a country. We have two countries occupying the same space. Each of them explains the universe to its supporters. The best example of this is when one protests against one’s party, one takes the step of not voting, but not that of voting for another party.

Ah, so that explains it, then. People don’t vote for AD because they prefer to protest by staying at home. Or they are influenced by the government’s power of incumbency. Or they’re Labourites who can’t stand Sant but won’t vote PN because we’re two tribes.

And if you think you’ve seen the back of Harry Vassallo, you’ve got another think coming. He’s going to be joining the parade of political dinosaurs who won’t leave us alone. Doesn’t the prospect of another five years of thankless political work scare him, Bondi asked? “No. It’s the thought of not being in politics that scares me,” he replied.

He has offered to resign, as opposed to actually resigning, irrevocably or otherwise, and like Sant in 2003 will pop right back into the permanent leadership if AD people do a sufficient amount of palm-frond waving as he rides into town on his donkey. “I see no reason to leave,” Vassallo said.

Well, it’s not up to you, buster. Jason Micallef sees no reason to leave, either – nor did Sant in 1998 and 2003. Michael Falzon sees so little reason to leave that he’s actually asking people to make him the party leader.

And then on the winning side, they’re all leaving. Nationalist Party secretary-general Joe Saliba is waving goodbye in a couple of months. Information secretary Gordon Pisani is doing the same. They’re heading off for pastures new, doing the right thing and leaving on a high, allowing space for the fresh faces that are already part of the plan for a new Nationalist Party come 2013 (that’s one reason why they win elections).

Meanwhile, the Labour Party leadership election is looking increasingly like a bunch of ferrets fighting in a sack.