Beyond simple rivalry

It had to come sooner or later. John Dalli is not known to take swipes lying down. And many thought he was on the way out, through the force or cunning of some intelligent "family" strategy - which has now been reduced to a little whiff pretending to produce great noises. Mr Dalli's slow, assisted disappearance was just wishful thinking or nightmarish fear transformed into a self-deceiving mirage by some mysterious entity called "strategy group" of legendary, epic gaffes but identity of whom "the boss does not want me to reveal".

I have not seen much intelligent strategy coming from the Nationalist Party for a very long time. Until Mr Dalli's article in The Sunday Times last March 28. This was carefully planned, sagaciously thought out and effortlessly delivered. I could imagine him chuckling amused at himself while sitting in all tranquillity enjoying the devastating effect of his project.

At first glance it seems as if the author just put together the opinions of a few friends regarding the present political situation. The first impression Mr Dalli's article gives is that he did not have much inspiration of his own and made use of the opinion of others, with a few comments of his own. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the quotations from e-mails he received are very genuine and reproduced as received. That Mr Dalli must have selected the most effective is his right. He is, after all, a politician and if we were to censure all politicians who use political opportunism there would be very few politicians left.

I am not necessarily an admirer of Mr Dalli but my interests and my work make me indulge in the mental pleasure of linguistic analysis. We all know that Mr Dalli is not lacking in writing or speaking inspiration. He thus did not require to fill in blanks with the opinion of others. His strategy was intentional; so was his timing. Above all, the very style of his article goes far in satisfying his purpose. By comparison, I have to say, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's replies and explanations in the interview, carried in the same issue of STOM, did not come close to Mr Dalli's accomplishment by a very long shot.

I will come back to Mr Dalli's article later. But let me first deal with certain aspects of Dr Gonzi's answers to the direct and no nonsense questions of journalist Steve Mallia.

One of Mr Mallia's questions was: "The Sunday Times carried out a survey recently and 60 per cent of the people said they didn't believe this was the best way forward for the country. Do you know better than them?" This was a very tricky question and is to Mr Mallia's credit.

Dr Gonzi apparently thinks he is being dynamic when he is spontaneous. He probably believes that hesitation is a sign of weakness and thus shoots out a retort on the volley: "No, I don't think it's an issue of me knowing better than them. I think it's an issue of identifying consistently what the best interest of the common good is".

To me this answer means exactly what Mr Mallia's question implied. It is the same as saying: "Yes I know better than them".

Mr Dalli would never have fallen into this one. He would never have made such a terrible mistake of putting his foot in the omelette like this! Which does not mean I agree with Mr Dalli or his opinions. It only means I see him as a stronger, sharper strategist.

To another question, Dr Gonzi answers: "...measuring the cost of living and the increase in the cost of living indicates very clearly that what we went through last year and our rate of inflation was not something out of the ordinary".

At this stage one wonders what the definitions of "ordinary" and "out of the ordinary" really are. Other answers in this interview prove there was a clear attempt at reducing any anxiety-provoking problem to a matter of "ordinary" occurrence.

Dr Gonzi goes on to explain that: "True, the measures that have been taken (of course, not 'that I have taken' - a lovely passive voice) have led to a sort of shrinking of the money that's available in people's pockets for them to spend. But this is logical, it's natural".

Being no financial wizard, I was happy to read this, as I discovered that there is a difference between the shrinking of my money and its "sort of shrinking". I am impatiently waiting for the next interview with Dr Gonzi to find out how I can allow my money to shrink only in a "sort of" fashion.

Neither do I understand why one should add "for them to spend" when talking of money in people's pockets. Unless it is there only to caress.

The above "ordinary" is now reinforced by the other reassuring expressions "logical" and "natural". At this rate of reassurance, one will end up feeling quite euphoric in the worst of personal situations. The word "natural" will indeed come back to haunt us in another part of the interview. This almost conditions me into believing that my skepticism about strange government measures makes me an unnatural person.

I liked the part in the interview declaring that: "We have opened ourselves up in all senses", which convinces me that democracy can also suffer from diarrohea. Also, I do not wish to dwell on this, for I have seen - even in this paper - opinions expressed by many "natural", as opposed to "virtual", Nationalists declaring that the party has actually closed itself up in secret "intelligent" planning and arrogance. The "natural" reappears in the interview with a reference to the internal struggles within the PN: "There are natural currents". So there you have it. Do not worry too much if the currents feel like tsunamis. They are only natural!

I cannot let Dr Gonzi off without quoting a last part from his interview: "...criticism levelled at the government is that it is doing too much". To convince the reader that I too am democratic, let us here stop for a minute of silence and answer in our hearts the question: "Of what is the government doing too much".' Vulgar answers, even in thought, are obviously not journalistically acceptable.

In contrast to the above, I wish to quote also from Mr Dalli, or his e-mail correspondents, in Talking Point: " ...the select process the party management has embarked upon in placing friendly faces in positions that would determine internal elections". This is an obvious accusation of lack of meritocracy and democracy inside the PN coming form a person who has worked in it for decades.

In addition to this, an e-mail Mr Dalli received states that "it is tragic to see how the current party leaders are alienating everybody who had worked so hard for the party" and "speakers are somewhat uneasy lest they say something which is not in conformity and so do not speak their mind". Upon reading this, I wished there was some mistake here. I do not wish any party in Malta to behave like this. It is certainly in sharp contrast with "opening up the party in all senses".

It seems to me that Mr Dalli is here to stay and that his political energy is as strong as ever. He is not anywhere near abandoning the political joust inside his party. I do not exclude a growing impulse of challenging spirit in him as arrogance within the "family", and decreasing unpopularity without, push him on to increasing political defiance.