Our political landscape keeps bewildering me. I wonder if the opinion polls are heeded by the people who sit or aspire to sit on the velvet chair?

Let me spell it out. The citizens are losing faith in politician genuineness and their political parties. Go on, just look up some polls and studies if you do not believe me!

... the PN is not bereft of good quality people who can take the bridles- Andrew Azzopardi

People, granted, are overly curious about what is happening in the political arena, take note and follow blogs and newspapers in grand numbers when the title says Il-Politku Qal... (The politician said...) but, let me burst the bubble: they are curious and not in awe!

Episodically, we have twisted the political agenda into a marketing exercise that has nothing different from selling a can of peas, except for the peas, maybe! It’s all about projecting the leader, billboards, pretty people asking questions during the Sunday morning debates and the orchestrating of how to say it and who is allowed to say it.

It’s bedlam. Lately, we’ve had MPs who have been courteously lobbed out of the party because they represent a different moral position. Others have been calling the kettle black and some have never come to terms with the fact that they have been put on the back seat because it’s good for them and good for us!

The latest act of political shrewdness was the election of the already elected.

Now let’s try to look at this objectively!

The leadership contest for a party leader is always full to the brim with polemic and trade. Needles to mention, Dom Mintoff pushed Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici to the front seat for his own “good” reasons. Alfred Sant wanted himself, so he kept at it. Eddie Fenech Adami was pretty clear in his preference and so it was Lawrence Gonzi. Now for the latest of these debacles – Dr Gonzi faces the leadership ballot, allone!

Dr Gonzi and his collaborators knew at the onset that nobody would contest him, so it’s either one of two things: “gaining time” or else “the Prime Minister badly needs a foothold”.

If it’s the second option, I would have told whoever is disturbing the peace: It’s either me or the ballots. Simple. I may not agree with the way a number of matters were managed by the Prime Minister in his term but, let’s be fair and call a spade a spade, on a number of fronts there were substantial positives.

The Prime Minister is either being advised badly or else it’s the fear of admitting that the final lap is about to start and he knows he will be carrying the baton and coming second is not exciting at all, believe me.

But, decisions have been taken and the election for the electable is on. So the way I see it, this is going to be a big challenge nevertheless and no tongue in cheek here!

Dr Gonzi, the candidate, has to persuade the grassroots that have been supporting him these last years that he is the right man to guide them in this infamous last lap. Let’s face it, try as the Nationalist Party may, the odds are in favour of a Labour Party victory in the forthcoming election and coming up with an efficacious GonziPN trump card is, I believe, far-fetched and highly improbable this time round.

Naturally, the PN will be working hard to get the delegates to tick “a very good” near Dr Gonzi’s name. Still, he needs to persuade that all that was going on in these last months is not of his doing and that he was on the right side of history. In this ballot, he needs to persuade the representatives to bother voting for “him” or “him”.

Yet, if I were in the Prime Minister’s place, if I were affiliated to the PN’s strategy team, I would have used this political impasse to start grooming a designate leader who can take the PN through the next stage of their notable political history, a phase the PN has not really known for almost 25 years. Being on the losing end is not something the PN knows how to deal with. Then again, the PN is not bereft of good quality people who can take the bridles.

Malta has hardly known such a strange situation as we have at the moment. Yet another long wait to see how it will all come together but, hey, bring it on!

www.andrewazzopardi.org

Dr Azzopardi is a senior lecturer at the Department of Youth and Community Studies, University of Malta.