Recent events have pushed Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando temporarily off the national stage. For a couple of weeks we do not hear or read anything much about him; his divorce bill, his relationship with the Prime Minister or the Nationalist Party parliamentary group.

For a brief spell, we were not regaled with his informed articles about sending migrants back to Libya to Muammar Gaddafi’s waiting arms and hospitality. And then – as if to spare us from suffering the pangs of withdrawal symptoms – Pullicino Orlando resurfaces in print and we are treated to an interview with the man himself in The Sunday Circle, published by Network Publications.

He beams serenely from the professionally-taken photos accompanying the text. In fact, he practically glows – perhaps smiling at the title of the piece – ‘Rebel with a cause’. Pullicino Orlando’s opening declaration makes it quite clear that he quite fancies himself as this James-Dean-like persona, the outspoken rebel who’s not afraid to speak his mind or to flout convention. He’s mentally turning up the collar of his leather jacket as he speaks.

“Do you know the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes?” he asks his interviewer, before going on to compare himself to the little boy in the story who is the only one sincere enough to point out what nobody else does. According to Pullicino Orlando, he’s that little boy. He is the one who sees things which are staring at everybody in the face. He points them out while nobody else does.

When I read his words, I felt sorry for the interviewer. If I were in her place I would be biting my tongue, trying to stop myself from pointing out that self-praise is really no praise at all, and that perhaps a little less self-aggrandisement would be in order.

Because the truth of the matter is that Pullicino Orlando has not made any observations which have not been made by many others before. His divorce bill and the need to legislate? We’ve been discussing the topic for over 20 years now. The ball has been in the Nationalist government’s court for most of that time. The reason for the government’s inertia has nothing to do with the lack of a perceptive Pullicino Orlando to tell the Emperor what to do.

It has everything to do with the fact that the government is very wary of scaring off its conservative voter base. And the PN has not yet thrown Pullicino Orlando out on his ear, for the very simple reason that he holds that all-important seat in a one-seat majority. I very much doubt that he will still be playing the role of the little boy pointing out the Emperor’s buck-nakedness come next election. It is more likely that he will be cast into the role of the gingerbread man who was snapped up by the fox, after running around thinking he was too clever by half. I wonder if he knows that story.

• I don’t know whether it’s down to mid-term doldrums, the local council imbroglios, or perhaps its less than stellar performance, but the government seems to be undergoing a popularity slump. There is a feeling that it’s not living up to the promises made in the glitzy electoral pamphlets.

But more than that – there’s the creeping sensation that this lot are just as inept and just as compromised as the other lot they’re trying to keep out.

The PN’s fudging and foot-dragging about civil rights, the BSWC power plant saga, its attitude towards censorship, its insistence on not biting the hand that feeds it (the anonymous donors) and its desperate appeasement of lobby groups such as the fireworks enthusiasts lobby… well, it makes it quite difficult to distinguish from the Labour Party. It’s six of this and half a dozen of the other, isn’t it?

No wonder that the most fervent former Nationalist cheerleaders are sensing that the popular feeling is to the effect of “a pox on both your houses”. This is what comes of voting for the lesser of the two evils or on the mistaken assumption that one is voting for a prime minister and not a party.

The supposedly pragmatic solution of voting for a prime minister in the vain hope that he is the least damaging of the two options is not a long-term strategy. Voting for someone whose stand on important issues is not clear, or who has a shaky track record, simply because he is tagged as the lesser of two evils, provides no incentive for improvement.

The candidate in question knows that he can rely on the voter’s fear of his opponent to maintain his electoral support. The result? A stagnant political ­situation punctuated by much hand-wringing about voting with a gun to one’s head and the occasional critical article about government long before election.

Then the moaners switch back to full sycophant mode and start swooning about Lawrence Gonzi for all the world as if he was the Maltese embodiment of Lady Di. It’s enough to put you off politics altogether.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt