Enough with the hair-shirts and self-flagellation
My column in The Malta Independent today – read the rest of it in the link below:
The Nationalist Party is not going to get anywhere fast if it carries on parading about in a hair-shirt and ankle-chains, whipping itself and chanting ‘mea culpa, mea maxima culpa’.
At the risk of repeating myself yet again, losers don’t spend their days analysing why they lost. Instead they concentrate on working out why the others won. The two are not the same.
Joseph Muscat did not spend any time at all shredding himself publicly in angst over why Labour lost so many elections in a row. Rather the opposite: he got stuck right in there telling Laburisti what a lot they have to be proud of, which they really don’t. Why do you think they made so much fuss about Mintoff’s government having decriminalised sodomy in 1974? It’s because there was nothing else to boast about, and mountains of cause for shame. But there was no apology, was there? Instead, we got told to move on, stop living in the past, and not be ‘negative’.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-20/opinions/enough-with-the-hair-shirts-and-self-flagellation-1864892416/
Agreed completely. After all the way to hell is paved with good intentions. That is what the PN is doing.
This article is super. I just couldn’t relate to all the apologising.
Excellent article.
PN, please take heed.
On something else altogether.
Watch TVHemm of this evening (20 June 2013) and you will get a good insight of what the government intends to do with the land reclamation project.
There is only one way to describe it… tal-waħx.
Right on John Dalli’s tracks… Neil Harrison is now Head of Central Visa Unit. Didn’t take long.
As Dr. Gonzi said: Meta taqa mhux tghid ajma imma tqum u tkompli timxi!
Totally agree with you – they should stop talking about why they lost and do something about it!
I don’t think that the PN is in some repentant mood, but your article was a good warning.
The major reason why Labour won was ‘fed-upism’ of being governed by the same lot for “25 years” even though we had Sant 15 years ago and an election every five years.
People from all walks of life loved to hate Gonzi (even his backbenchers mutinied) because he had his hands tied with a wafer-thin majority, and he could not hit back.
In France they voted for Le Pen and recently in Italy they voted for TWO clowns.
Yes the majority can be wrong, Simon.
Was I wrong when I voted out of conviction precisely against the will of some of those 36,000 who simply shouted “shame on you” to Gonzi who was building a state of the art campus for them? They looked more like a lynching crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BioHRrUy3Jg
If a party manipulates the media (comments boards, party diehards posing as neutral and moderate on independent media, and stage-managed shows), it will govern.
Brilliant! Prosit a million times.
Why on earth did Simon say that 36,000 people can’t be wrong?
It should be 18,000 people. It takes a swing of 18,000 PEOPLE to create a difference of 36,000 VOTES… still a lot by why on earth perpetuate the WRONG figure?
And yes Daphne I totally agree ….. 18,000 people can all be wrong.
18000 idiots can certainly be wrong.
Wanna bet?
Hitler was voted into power wih more votes than that. I’m sure those voters were all right, weren’t they?
Daphne, thanks for this great article.
I too am totally fed up of listening to the apologies from the PN.
And I ask, apologies for what?
For giving this country and its citizens the freedom which everyone has the right to have but never had under Labour.
For being part of the EU from which our country gained a lot.
I voted PN because I know that it’s much better for our country.
PN, stop with the apologies or you’ll lose me too.
If the majority is certainly not always morally right. If that were the case, we would have capital punishment, and outright discrimination against all minority groups.
I read the whole article because I had expressed the same feeling here. Yours is of course so MUCH MORE ELOQUENTLY ARGUED AND BACKED BY FACTS which anyone can verify if genuinely interested in uncovering the truth as opposed to being nurtured by myths.
I am amazed that no one of the PN officials was aware (at least publicly) of the negative effects their extremely apologetic stance was having on the PN-voting segment of the population.
Besides, it is extremely unfair on Dr Gonzi to be whipped in this way by the same people who were so close to him.
I won’t bother your readers with my own humble meandering. Just click on the link and READ THE FULL ARTICLE and let’s get the MESSAGE DELIVERED TO THE NATIONALIST PARTY, even if by simply saying how much you agree with Daphne’s viewpoint.
Simon already lost me. Simon must start telling people why they need to vote for PN. He must remind people of the success achieved by the PN government.
A superb analysis of why the elections were won by PL (not lost by PN) and a very logical conclusion as to what the PN should not be doing.
Mario Demarco should have apologized to Joanne Cassar privately in PN’s name if he wanted to.
Not mentioning all the good the PN has done to the country and at the same time apologizing for mistakes one by one, is an insult to my intelligence.
Prosit infinitely.
I was struck dumb by the way Demarco appeared to be hushed by Manwel Micallef’s presence on NET TV.
He looked poorest when Manwel asked whether the PN was indicating it would boycott Franco Debono when it comes to constitutional reform.
That was pussy-footing at its most abject. I felt ashamed and humiliated. Didn’t Demarco feel that way, too?
Thanks, Daphne, I agree with you 100 per cent. How I wish the PN takes your advice and moves foward with head held high! And we should really be very proud of Gonzi for the way he moved Malta foward against all odds.
This is exactly what I have been thinking lately.
Ever since I heard the famous “36000 voters can’t be wrong” statement I’ve been trying to bend my mind around it trying to imagine what misguided fever of populism brought it about.
Surely Simon knows better than that – such a claim makes him sound intellectually dishonest.
Of course no one is free from making blunders, but the PN had better stand on its feet soon because 5 years are not such a long time and there is a world of work to be done way before election day.
[Daphne – Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay, which details the phenomenon, using the Dutch tulip mania of the 17th century as an example. Or you can try the more recent Tulip Fever, by Deborah Moggach. It literally was the madness of crowds, literally. That’s why the aftermath was shock as reality set in, rather than the euphoria there would have been had it been a genuine rational decision.]
If 36,000 voters can’t be wrong then it means that 130,000 are. Which makes absolutely no sense. It’s the switchers and stay-at-home idiots who should be apologising, not the PN.
A triple ‘amen’ to that, my friend.
36,000 people cannot be wrong but they could have been led wrong by slogans such as ’tista ma taqbilx maghna imma tista tahdem maghna’ and ‘Malta taghna lkoll’.
You’re so right. Analysis and plans to rise from the ashes are vital BUT INDEED, ALL THIS APOLOGIZING!
The greatest fault lies in the greedy and selfish nature of, unfortunately, the greater part of the Maltese population. As a nation we do not possess selflessness, maturity and foresight in abundance. That is our curse.
Those of us who possess these traits have to suffer with all the rest; I am proud not to relinquish these traits.
Apologize for the sound economy, the life-style we have, the educational and career opportunities?? We can already witness that it was a false claim by PL that they know how to govern and know what they have to do even ‘in the face of the disaster left behind by the PN’ quoting PL before election. (Peppi had asked whether they will bring up the hofra excuse again)
Well, Labour could not be proud of their Tower tea monopoly or those horrible one of a kind chocolate bars that got their friends rich in the golden 1970s, so sodomy legalization had to be what they cheered about.
Thank you Daphne, as always saying what has and needs to be said.
“At the risk of repeating myself yet again, losers don’t spend their days analysing why they lost. Instead they concentrate on working out why the others won. The two are not the same.”
Have you even seen the report? What you say is missing is on pages 22 – 28. It may not be the zenith of analytical technique … but it has been attempted.
[Daphne – I am not talking about the report.]
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-06-21/news/pn-leader-simon-busuttil-attends-epp-summit-in-vienna-1876492289/
He looks happier among his European colleagues than his own PN supporters. Always did. His opponent is the precise opposite.
There’s the rub.
Unless the PN can change Maltese society, it will never again win any elections. Either that or it can change itself to a hamallier version of Labour.
But then it might as well call itself Labour. The useless Peter Serracino Inglott is dead – the ideological shackles should be off.
Excellent article. The article represents, the sentiments of us non-switchers / some of the commentors to this web site.
This is excellent! Keep it up.
We will be back in five years..
I fully agree with you. In fact 3 months before the general election I sent an email to Dr. Gonzi telling him all the things that are written in your column.
I also asked him to explain (bl-imgharfa) to all the Nationalist people what he had achieved and what he will do. Imma bl-imgharfa ghax hadt ma beda jifhem peress li l-Lejburisti hadmu kif hadmu.
He probably replied to your email, didn’t he? That is what’s so galling about the man.
He would listen, true to his dictum about a party that listens, and then he would proceed to follow whatever had already been decided.
Two years of “konsultazzjoni mal-poplu” worth bugger all. Anyone who was consulted felt cheated, and voted Lawrence Gonzi out.
Labour works the exact opposite way. It doesn’t pretend to consult with the people. It holds a press conference and shows us the report carried out by Labour, the decision made by Labour, and an artist’s impression of the finished thing made by Labour.
Between the two, it’s hard to choose which is best.