The Labour Party’s silence in the face of the Nationalist Party’s leadership campaign gives the false impression that it is staying clear of influencing the outcome. And yet, a lot of what is going on in the PN has been, and is being, conditioned by Labour.
This election is a bit like the Crimean War when, for the first time ever, independent journalists embedded themselves with armies and wired home eyewitness accounts of the real misery of war. Those accounts from journalists, rather than mouthpieces of the army or government, cut through the glossing over and the pumped glorification of officially-managed propaganda and bared the ugly underbelly of conflict.
This is the first party leadership election in this country that is outside the control of the party elites. Facebook groups and online spaces show up the general trend of thinking; although, upon reflection, ‘thinking’ may be overselling the process: ‘blurting’ and ‘vomiting’ would be closer to the mark.
This may or may not make it a more transparently honest political process, now that thought bubbles are as legible as speech bubbles on what is playing out like a comic strip. For better or worse though, it is definitely changing the dynamics of the election process, rubbing salt in old wounds and slashing new wounds that Labour will poke for decades to come.
There are some concrete examples of this. Take, for example, how many of these pundits and some of the candidates they support have completely bought into Labour’s notion that Daphne Caruana Galizia is a component of some old regime that has for long controlled the PN and wants to continue doing so.
When Labour says it, it is cheap political propaganda and a betrayal of Labour’s pathological hostility to independent journalism. When PN leadership candidates and their fans spew it all over Facebook, it is a tinfoil conspiracy theory that has taken a life of its own. Outside The X-Files, no one would take seriously the notion that a cabal of white-haired faceless men are pulling the strings behind the scenes.
No, I am not being naïve. I have witnessed first-hand the frustrating inability of party leaders to produce the outcomes they desire and to exercise sufficient discipline to herd cats and march them to a single tune.
Party politics has no wizardry. It is old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears focused on persuasion, negotiation and sometimes a little coercion folded into cooperation.
When Caruana Galizia’s reports into the affairs of two of the leadership candidates were greeted by the farfetched notion of control from a rump central command, Joseph Muscat awarded himself another medal: for selling his most hostile customers yet another bag of bullshit.
Years of hatred and vilification exercised by Labour towards the independent press have nullified its credibility with Labour supporters. That was startling enough in a world of free and open access to information. But it is truly extraordinary to witness entire chunks of PN militants and, quite possibly, the future leadership buying into this conspiracy theory.
Widespread acceptance that Muscat’s recent formidable victory has persuaded even his detractors to adopt his methods wholesale
Muscat’s crusade is motivated by entirely different reasons. He aims to cripple and crush the source of so many revelations of his and his team’s secrets. And now he has help from the unlikeliest of sources: deep within the PN.
Muscat has acquired the status of a formidable nemesis, and his reluctant admirers have adopted the mantra that he must be imitated in order to be beaten. This is misguided and unjustified. Imitation is extreme flattery and reluctant admiration.
There is no reason to admire Joseph Muscat.
When it comes to running the economy, we are enjoying the current glut in spite of him. These good times would not have been available to us without EU membership, infrastructural funding, economic diversification part-funded from EU aid, the euro, and freedom of movement of people and capital. These are all buildings blocks Muscat spent his career warning us against, predicting calamity should they materialise, and sabotaging at every opportunity.
What’s worse is that he has taken no discernible initiative to safeguard tomorrow. Selling passports does not count. Firstly, their value is bound to reduce considerably after Brexit because passports were being sold to unsavoury types seeking unrestricted access to the UK. Secondly, beyond cutting a cheque to the government (formally, and it would appear with a little extra in commissions under the counter) and inflating property rental costs, this activity contributes nothing to our economy.
Otherwise, beyond an appeasing breakfast with the Betsson CEO to calm frayed nerves, Muscat has not lifted any of his incompetent fingers to plan for our economy in future, when he will have retired to some EU job secured for him by his Socialist buddies.
Also, as a hectoring Dom Mintoff so loudly reminded Muscat’s predecessor, you cannot measure economic success through aggregate top line figures. Higher rents are making the rich richer and the poor poorer. We are having to resort to charity and soup kitchens to sustain the very basic needs of people who cannot afford a roof over their head. Nothing to be proud of here.
This is a prime minister who won an election while dodging investigations into corruption, illegal and undeclared accounts in secretive and black-listed jurisdictions, transfer of illegal funds quite possibly in exchange of public procurement. Winning two elections does not guarantee consistent public support, particularly as more facts emerge to illustrate this government’s greed and corruption.
An opposition party that soft-pedals criticism of the crumbling pillars of the economy will have to take the fall as an accomplice to the government’s mismanagement when the inevitable catastrophic blow strikes. And for playing down criticism of the ethical and moral foundation of public administration, it will also have to pay the price.
For this, you see, is Labour’s biggest legacy. Even the most cursory analysis of the discourse on Facebook, whether by those leading the leadership campaigns or those following them, demonstrates the widespread acceptance that Muscat’s recent formidable victory has persuaded even his detractors to adopt his methods wholesale.
People do not switch parties because they are similar. They switch allegiance because of their differences. If political parties become too similar, and the time comes, as it must, to reject a government, an opposition that is in awe and trapped in trying to imitate that government will also be rejected.
Italy: 1992. Greece: 2008. USA: 2016. Entire political classes have been wiped out in favour of populist alternatives that stepped in to clean out the swamp and replace it with a personal politics that panders to hate, prejudice, envy and anger.
If the PN wants to outlast Labour, the last thing it should be doing is rushing to follow it down the chute of history.