The Nationalist Party has always been on the right side of history, defined by core values and sound principles. The PN returned Malta to democracy, led us into the European Union and prepared us for the new millennium.
After Eddie Fenech Adami’s retirement, Lawrence Gonzi’s lead was battered by selfish individuals wanting to control the party themselves.
Their bad faith emerged with the easy switching of loyalties to a new Labour movement, with commensurate personal rewards resulting in their sudden silence.
Where is the evidence of the “corruption” they claimed? Why has the new government been unable to unearth any such evidence, even with unshackled access to the previous administration’s records and documentation? When will we learn not to believe simplistic propaganda and to question the motivation of egoistic politicians with an intensely personal agenda?
And yet, there is now another group of Nationalist politicians who are again rebelling against the party. Yet again, the attacks are against the leadership and the party’s core principles.
For, make no mistake, the problem is an ideological one. The Labour Party has successfully operationalised identity politics in Malta. A controversial hot issue is identified. People are coerced to identify with one side or the other of a political or ideological divide. One group is identified as the oppressor, and the other as the oppressed. As the voice and champion of the oppressed, one group seeks to dominate the discussion and control the loyalty of those defined as oppressed.
As if any complex issue has only two opposing aspects or solutions! Whether it is women’s rights, immigration or the environment, the common game is the division of opinion, to then champion the oppressed against the cruel oppressor.
Muscat’s government has been successful in implementing this re-invented class war, a redefined communist/socialist model. In doing so he has opened the party doors to the middle class, and appeared to be a paladin of liberty.
The charade lasted until the Panama Papers threw light into the darkest shadows. The price of this new “class war” is a divided population, continuously negative campaigns and the need to find a new “war” to fight every few months.
It is hoped that the next war on abortion will be a final stumbling block for such political mediocrity.
Until recently, the PN reaction was just short of disastrous. After 2013, the party leadership stated that it needed to open its doors to the people and truly act as their voice. It then did the precise opposite, becoming more elitist and detached from its grass roots.
Absolutely no efforts were made to counter the charges of past PN corruption, now evidently eclipsed by the corruption of “new” Labour. The failure became absurd, with allegations of the personal involvement of the Prime Minister made in the middle of Malta’s presidency of the EU, based on the most flimsy of evidence. The allegations became the cornerstone of a weak electoral campaign which failed catastrophically and crushed the PN to unprecedented depths.
Adrian Delia came to the limelight as one of the sceptics of the Egrant saga, having publicly identified the error far before many others. He dared to challenge that course of action, making enemies who plague him to this day. He was proved right, but at the cost of an unprecedented barrage of personal attacks.
The cavallo di battaglia of the hate campaign was an accusation of having a client who broke the law by ordering funds to be diverted, allegedly, to avoid tax. This everyday financial transaction was used to link to a London red light district property and make the same “nudge nudge, wink wink” style of allegation which had just failed so miserably in the election campaign.
A logical analysis of this storm in a teacup would firstly conclude that tax evasion only becomes such when the client does not declare his income, and secondly that lawyers are not criminally or politically responsible for their clients’ actions or inactions. How many lawyers in Parliament today have not ever defended a guilty client or not ever been paid their honorarium by a criminal?
Let us unite to form the Nationalist Party’s values and defend them against those who would destroy them, both from without and from within
Delia’s centre right message has resonated very well with party grass roots. So well, in fact, that the effect of the crusade against him has been negligible to slight.
In the recent MEP elections, PN suffered a slight to modest worsening of the already disastrous showing of 2017. It is evident that the vote haemorrhage has stabilised, and that the trend was reversing.
The results would have been far better with a united party, pushing people to vote for all, and not just two, MEP candidates. However, this is not the message you will read in the post-Hillmangate English-language press, which is pushing a very centre-left political message, based on the same identity politics which favour Muscat’s government.
When Manfred Weber came to Malta just before the recent MEP elections, he spoke of the European People’s Party traditional Christian values in a loud and clear voice.
He spoke of the need to close Europe’s borders to economic migration and not give the key to human traffickers in Africa.
In the EPP political manifesto, the text reads: “We protect Europe’s borders against illegal immigration. Effectively protecting Europe’s external borders is a precondition for securing our citizens and the trust in our Union. It is also a precondition to ensure borderless travel within the Schengen area. This is why we will make sure that no one can enter European Union territory without the knowledge and explicit approval of our authorities. At the same time, we assume our Christian and humanitarian responsibility to help those in need and to improve living conditions in their home countries.”
Everyone at the PN headquarters applauded, including all MEP candidates and all PN parliamentary group members (present in full number, exceptionally, for this event). So if Delia states the exact same message, why do the same people tweet “#NotInMyName”? Why do cartoonists depict him in a Ku Klux Klan cape? Shame!
Delia was proven right by the Egrant case judicial outcome. Such a judgment would have forced the resignation of the newly-elected Nationalist Prime Minister, in an alternative world with Simon Busuttil winning the 2017 election.
However, those responsible for the error continue to refuse to accept responsibility, continue to burden the party with the worst political error of recent history, and contributed directly to the narrow failure to elect three PN MEPs.
They are now calling for a new leadership election without majority council or PN membership support.
If one implements a system to elect a new leader through a wider and more inclusive electoral process, how can one reject the result?
The Nationalist Party has selected a respected and experienced ex-parliamentary representative and ex-general secretary to help reform party structures and the party message after the recent MEP elections. I have no doubt the reform will allow the party to better embrace and serve all its members and the wide electorate, will enhance and strengthen of the party’s centre-right identity and values, and will create new policies which will emerge to refine its traditional values.
Its message will be delivered with a clear and united voice.
Those who wish to collaborate are welcome. However, those who want to divide the party into a confusion of diverse opinions orphaned from any value framework should not be allowed to do so.
Let us unite to form the Nationalist Party’s values and defend them against those who would destroy them, both from without and from within. Malta needs a strong and united Opposition.
Independent of your loyalty to individual party members, it is time to come together. Unite, or be damned.