I find myself at a loss to know where to begin on the tragic saga of the Nationalist Party leadership election, still unfolding as I write this column. In seeking a way out of the PN’s current quagmire, I wish to focus on three unrelated general reflections: the Labour Party’s recent election of a Deputy Prime Minister; Jeremy Corbyn; and the qualities needed in the next PN leader.
What was so remarkable about the recent election of the Labour administration’s Deputy Prime Minister was the quality of the three candidates who stood for that post. Any of the three would have made an excellent deputy prime minister. Any of the three could in due course have shown the qualities to be the future party leader. Moreover, there are probably two or three other possible Labour leadership candidates-in-waiting.
What is it, therefore, that has attracted leadership potential in depth within one party, while leaving the PN woefully bereft of talent? This is where the post-mortem on the party leadership farrago must begin. It must not simply be about process, but overridingly about how a once great party led by politicians of heft and substance has come to such a pass � with no proper succession planning and no high-quality heir-apparent in sight.
Simon Busuttil had none of the guile, judgement, experience and bare-knuckled fighting qualities so necessary for success in Maltese politics. But the issue of the dearth of quality leadership in the PN runs far deeper than Busuttil. As one looks at the 2013 and 2017 cohort of Nationalist members of Parliament and compares them with those who emerged as potential leadership material in 1987 and 1992 two or three decades earlier, the huge gap in sheer political talent, experience and hunger for power becomes patently clear.
Politics is an art which has at its heart a commitment to public service. The PN has failed to attract people of calibre to its ranks. The Labour Party has produced a swathe of individuals committed to public service. The PN has not.
It may be that as the country has become more materialistic and money-grabbing, those potential candidates in the PN - who should be the seed corn of any party and might once have been ready to stand - have decided that the commitment and sacrifice of public service no longer holds any attraction for them. The renaissance of the PN must begin by changing that attitude and once again attracting people of high quality and public service commitment to its parliamentary ranks.
As to Corbyn, I throw this name into the ring to offer hope. Many are writing off PN as a lost cause – a party which will not achieve power for another ten or more years. But politics is more fickle and unpredictable than that. We have only to see how Corbyn, the Labour Party leader in the UK - offering left-wing politics which would take his country back to the 1970s and deemed unelectable six months ago - has risen Lazarus-like from the dead, to understand that the PN under the right new leader may not be a lost cause in 2022.
How do we continue with our current burst of economic growth without entirely losing the values which have made Malta a pleasant place to live?
Those who are aghast at the unseemly civil war which has broken out in the PN, should understand that all great political parties consist of factions. The PN is a party which has always had its pragmatically ‘liberal’ and deeply ‘conservative’ wings. The resentments caused by the recent, woeful general election campaign have exposed divisions and animosities.
But the divisions have always existed. The unwritten understanding between the PN and the Catholic Church in Malta - at a time when the Church still wielded influence and power over an uneducated and deeply religious electorate - enabled it to harness the Church to its cause, delivering electoral victories in 1932, 1962, 1966 and 1987.
The deep philosophical differences between the two wings of the party were papered over and have only been exposed with the demise of Church power and a more secular society.
The party under a new leadership must rediscover those qualities of unity in the cause, good organisation, self-discipline and a thirst for power which enabled it to become an election-winning machine for 25 years.
What then is needed of the new leader? I would highlight three qualities above all at this political juncture in the life and survival of the PN.
The first is vision. The PN has lost its way. The new leader must inspire an agenda that chimes with what the country wants for its political and economic future. He must find a mantra which can unite the party and the country behind it. Vitally important though it is, “good governance” is not in itself a vision, a rallying cry, which will unite the country – or win an election on its own.
The new leader must address a vision of the kind of legacy we want our children and grandchildren to inherit. What kind of physical environment do we want them to live in? How do we continue with our current burst of economic growth without entirely losing the values which have made Malta a pleasant place to live?
All the evidence points in one direction. If the PN is to come through the rocky road ahead, it will be because their new leadership crafted an agenda that speaks to the country’s long-term needs and provides a national strategic vision.
Second, there are two key personal attributes in a leader in any walk of life, but most especially in politics: decisiveness and good judgement. The importance of these qualities in politics cannot be exaggerated. But the ability to take a decision is closely wrapped up with that of good judgement, which stands supreme.
The way in which the PN leadership has dealt with blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia is an object lesson in poor judgement. A wise leadership would have kept its distance, not jumped at her every bidding and allowed its agenda to be set by her. Caruana Galizia is a first-class journalist. Her sources are excellent and she has the courage to follow her own instincts. But those instincts which are hate-filled and intrinsically nasty have dragged down the PN brand to its present nadir.
The third essential quality in the new leader is good communication skills. The power of persuasion and good communication to rebuild the battered PN brand is now paramount. The political art of persuasion requires a leader capable of communicating effectively.
He must be able to articulate his aims in a language which ordinary people can understand and with which they can identify. In short, he must be able to inspire people’s support by thinking like a wise man, but expressing himself like the common man.
The PN leadership election on September 16 is crucial for this once great party. But it is equally important for Maltese democracy for the PN to recover from the shambles of the last few weeks.