When one looks back on past experiences, one tends to compare these with present day occurrences. My first encounter with autocracy was on a playground, and I am sure that many of you can relate to this childhood character. “It’s my ball, my rules, my teams”.
The game would usually end when it was time for him to go home but, more often than not, it was because his team was on the losing end of the game.
Result: he would throw a tantrum and we would give in to him because we wanted to continue playing football.
On Tuesday evening, the executive committee of the Nationalist Party convened to discuss the petition signed by 200 council members.
The pressing matter at hand was the precise wording of the question that general council members shall be voting on.
The media reports that trickled out during the executive meeting took me back to the autocratic boy on the playing field. Like that boy with the ball, Adrian Delia reportedly threw a tantrum, telling fellow councillors that if he was the one calling the general council, then he would be the one to choose the question and to choose who should be fired.
With this, Delia has made it very clear that he will only play by the rules he sets as he pleases. There was no consideration toward the 200 council members who signed the petition nor to the party statute.
This nearly prompted the resignation of Alex Perici Calascione, the newly-elected president of the executive council, who – rightly so – wanted the statute to be followed, namely that the question to be voted on was the one proposed in the petition. Thanks to the maturity of some of the executive committee members who extended the hand of compromise, the terms were set for the question to be put to the council on July 27 to ask whether Adrian Delia should continue heading the PN until the next general election.
When Delia was president of the Birkirkara Football Club, faced with serious suspicions of match fixing involving a member of his team, he played by his own rules. Only this time we are not talking about football. This concerns each and every one of us, no matter who you are or which party you follow. Without the Leader of the Opposition we can’t have a functional democracy.
This is a decision that will not only shape the PN but the democracy of the country
Our democracy is not in a healthy state. It can never be in a healthy state if the Opposition is not functioning. We can’t have a party administration protecting its own seat and pay cheque, an Opposition knocking on the door of the owner of 17 Black for sponsorship or that forgets to discuss, let alone oppose, a 65-year concession given by the government to a casino with a loss of millions for the country.
The buck has to stop here and each and every one of us has a duty to stand up, no matter what our political inclination may be. This is about the love of our country.
We need a modern opposition to offer an alternative, headed by a leader who can be held to higher standards. An opposition rebuilt on the strong values that shaped its history for the last 140 years. Delia cannot offer this opposition.
The answer to the question is le – no.
Why should a party be led by a losing horse? Why should we keep on wasting precious time? Why should we keep on alienating more people within the PN? May’s MEP results showed that Delia is unelectable and that many are disassociating themselves from the party. If it was not for David Casa and Roberta Metsola, who ran circles around the Delia-backed candidates, the result would have been far more devastating.
On Xarabank, when asked if he would step down should he lose the next general election, Delia responded in the affirmative.
That brings us to another question. His statistics are at an all-time low. He only commands the trust of those around him, those whose own political future depends on his.
Why wait for the inevitable to happen?
He demanded trust from the rest of us yet failed to earn it. You do not demand trust and respect, you earn trust and respect.
Times are changing: the voting population and people’s standards are changing. The PN is regressing, it has lost its lustre and its youths.
One might argue that Delia is not to blame for all this, that these problems have long been building up. Possibly. Yet it is Delia who is at the helm of a ship that is sinking faster then ever.
I urge the council members to vote with their mind rather than their heart. This is a decision that will not only shape the coming three years of the PN but the democracy of the country.
Just place yourselves in this scenario: if you were a director of a company and your CEO keeps on losing money, would you honestly retain him?
Jeremy Gingell is a paid-up member of the PN.