I.M. Beck - quote, unquote

In 1998, he stuck it out by ignoring the reality of his making Labour lose power over a blinking yacht marina. In March 2003, he toughed it out. In April 2003, he went, finally, with a whimper. He went not without piling on the spin, because once a spinner always a spinner, but at the end of it, he went because he had to go.

And when a man's gotta go, a man's gotta go. Or maybe he doesn't...

Even in the manner of his going or not going, Doctor Alfred Sant (remember him?) had to give the thing a final spin, naturally, managing to put a gloss over his "resignation" by making people say that he was doing the right thing. No doubt we will now get his fan club telling us how this confirms his democratic credentials.

Of course, when (if) he goes, he would indeed be doing the right thing, just as he did when he conceded defeat, but what else was he expected to do then? Say that a 12,000 vote defeat was actually a victory? Call out his supporters to celebrate?

Of course not, why would Doctor Alfred Sant do such a thing?

Why? I really can't think why - it's not as if he has a record of having done anything like that.

Or a record of performing a U-turn, as E(MC)'s peculiar callers-in (not to mention his Bookend Brincat) are suddenly pleading for him to do. It occurs to me, is the gentleman for turning, after all?

Were you listening?

With a disregard for reality that still surpasses that of the sadly no longer with us Iraqi Minister of Information, the Let's Make Sure the Leader has a Chance to Stay On team thrown together by Super One on the evening of Doctor Alfred Sant's humiliating third whipping at the hands of Eddie Fenech Adami, expressed some surprise that the electorate seems to have chosen to vote for Europe.

Leaving aside for the time being the almost obscene glee with which these pundits, such as they were, predicted the doom and gloom that would befall the country now that we've said we are going to join the EU and leaving aside as well Dr Mario Vella and Ms Pauline Miceli, who clearly believe that they know what's good for us poor inferiors, one just has to ask if these people have been living on a different planet for the last five years.

Let me elucidate.

In 1998, the electorate told Doctor Alfred Sant and his policy on joining the EU to take a hike. He and his apologists might not have noticed it, but joining the EU was the main item on the agenda even then and had the MLP not been so taken with its own leader, they might have noticed that that was where the nation's heart was beating, if I might be allowed to appropriate a phrase from Maltese.

Then, just a few short weeks ago, the MLP having gone before the electorate with a totally weird set of directives on the matter of voting in the EU referendum, the country again made it more than somewhat clear, just in case Doctor Alfred Sant hadn't got the message (which obviously he hadn't) that it was time for us to take our rightful place in the EU.

What did he do then? As we all know, he effectively made sure that the PN won the election, as the only party with an agenda that ensured that the wishes of the majority of the electors would be fulfilled. Thanks, mate, all you had to do was say you would respect the referendum result but instead you behaved scarily enough to ensure that your party got thrashed.

Again.

At this point, one is to be forgiven for asking "Oy, Fred, how many times do we have to tell you? We want to join Europe. Got it now?"

His wisdom notwithstanding

Even though he gave us three reasons not to vote PN (er, that was before we did vote for PN) and even though he has dispensed wisdom on a weekly basis, generally on a Friday but sometimes on other days as well, Alfred Mifsud failed to be elected last Saturday. His relatively poor showing won't have helped his aspirations for the leadership that may have become vacant.

Whether the said poor showing was the result of some whispering in Labour ears by people struggling (uselessly it turns out - or not) to save Doctor Alfred Sant's skin is another discussion altogether, and I won't go there.

As a piece of nostalgia, let's have a look at the three reasons Mr Mifsud proposed as being the ones that should have persuaded us to vote for his lot.

Reason No. 1 for not voting PN, according to Alfred Mifsud - the EU. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? After a referendum, five short weeks earlier, where the majority of the country (I think we can all agree on that now) voted for the EU, one of the MLP's gurus thought it would be a vote-catcher to exhort people not to vote for the PN because they (the PN) would get us into the EU.

Reason No. 2 - Arrogance. Now this is where it gets more interesting: on virtually the same day as the bulk of your humble scribes had chastised the now almost departed leader of the Labour Party for being arrogant with them, Mr Mifsud comes out with the spectre of arrogance as a reason not to vote for someone. Was he trying to tell us something a bit more obliquely than usual? Was the subliminal message "vote for PN unless you want to ensure that arrogance remains a way a life"?

Reason No. 3 - Collapse. He said he was talking about the country, but one wonders whether he was looking a couple of days ahead. Collapse of what and who, it has to be asked. Whose collapse was he foreseeing if the country were to vote PN?

He then closed with the immortal words, even if with scant regard for copyright, that "Labour will just do it!" Do what and to whom, we've not yet found out, though the writing seems to be on the wall. I think Mr Mifsud was quite clear where he stands on that, as according to him (last Tuesday) they (the voters) looked at Labour and its leadership and decided, in their own unquestioned wisdom, that they (the leadership) do not have what it takes to deliver the strong leadership that Labour's option required in order to succeed.

Quite a snappy epitaph, don't you think?

Not their fault

Dear oh dearie me, it seems I've been responsible for making sure that Labour's message didn't get through to the voters, thereby depriving them (Labour) of their rightful place at the helm. Please accept my humble apologies, people, because it was frightfully remiss of me to prevent you from getting the full benefit of the Malta Labour Party's message.

Actually, I am very proud to have been of service in ridding the country of the spectre of being managed by Doctor Alfred Sant and by so doing helping to make sure that we get into Europe.

This reason for their thumping was proposed for public consumption by Mr John Mary Magro, at the time of writing the secretary general of the Malta Labour Party. It doesn't seem to have occurred to the dear fellow that just maybe the electorate got the message loud and clear and were scared witless by it.

Or that the media made a value judgment of the said message and found it wanting.

Of course, the fact is that Labour got thumped but it was not the media's fault, as you well know. We of the media reflect opinion, not make it, and it is akin to paranoia of the worst kind to go around saying that we have the power to make or break political parties.

The fact is that the electorate didn't fall for the misinformation and gimmicks churned out by the skip-load by the MLP spin machine. That's it, pure and simple, nothing more and nothing less. Labour was rumbled, big time, and their habit of assuming that they can fool all of the people all of the time got them left out in the cold again. Cool and relaxed they may have been, but look where that got them.

Oh do shut up

Over the last five years or more, (E)Manwel Cuschieri and his like have been spewing venom against anyone and everyone who had the temerity to voice some opposition to the MLP.

Not having listened to him for months (my ulcer not being what it used to be) I had forgotten his dulcet tones but (I confess with a degree of triumphalism) I tuned in and found that the man hasn't changed. Scaremongering, innuendo, spin, spin and more spin and incomprehensible and threatening-sounding phone calls filled his programme to bursting point.

If the Malta Labour Party goes on like this, having to depend on E(M)C (wasn't it ironic that it was he who received Doctor Alfred Sant's sort-of resignation, incidentally?) and people like Toni Abela and the other sofa cushions who seem not to have left Super One's studios since Labour got whipped, then the PN are going to remain in government for five more years after these.

And that's not healthy for any democracy.

bocca@waldonet.net.mt