Friday, 6th June 2008
THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING
It's half-past midnight and all is well, for Joseph Muscat, in any event. He's come
up just a couple of votes short of getting an outright majority. Barring a
dignified withdrawal by George Abela, which is entirely on the cards given the
manner in which this gentleman conducts himself, Muscat is poised to become Leader
of the Malta Labour Party, though as yet not Leader of the Opposition, because they
still have to sort out who - if anyone - is going to make way for him in the House.
I say "if anyone" because I'm under this impression, utterly misguided as it may be,
that someone somewhere said that Muscat would be keeping his MEP seat. I can't
believe that he would show such contempt of the country, so I must be labouring
under the wrong impression. In fact, a swift Google didn't bring anything of the
sort up, so there's an end to it: the Oracle has spoken.
Well, you have to admit I called it pretty darn close, don't you? I got Coleiro
Preca and Bartolo in the wrong order, but I was accurate enough in predicting a
pretty miserable showing by both of them and I had Falzon in third place, which is
precisely where he figured. That Report sure worked, though, because he got a
pronouncedly low quota of votes, considering he is a former Deputy Leader and the
brains behind the electoral effort, up to a point.
The point at which his brains stopped being used, incidentally, was the point when
Labour started to get ploughed, which didn't stop fingers being pointed at Falzon,
with the result he got on Thursday being evidence of that.
George Abela fetched up second and The Anointed One, The Special One, The
Wunderkind, soared above them all, just failing to get through in the first round
by, what, 3 votes was it? Something like that.
So my precociously prescient prediction practically proved to be of premiership
probity, when I reported that the smart money was on Muscat getting in straight off.
It will take a polling miracle of epic proportions for Abela to unseat Muscat now.
All the people who voted for Bartolo, Coleiro Preca and Falzon (not too many in the
case of the first two, but quite a few in the case of Falzon) would have to vote for
Abela and the chances of that happening are about as much as Sant admitting that he
was ever wrong about anything.
So there you have it. The guy who, according to some reports, had said he wouldn't
ever contest a local election is poised to take up an office which demands that he
does exactly that. Given that this is a bloke who campaigned mightily to keep Malta
out of the EU and then promptly sought to get elected (and actually got elected) to
the European Parliament, this minor inconsistency probably won't worry him. Since
when has inconsistency worried any politician, anyway?
One can't help but goggle at the marvellous workings of the collective Labour mind,
though. It's as if the sheer, stark fact of Sant's leadership never existed at
all. The Maltese electorate has consistently rejected a Labour Party led by a
euro-sceptic, technocratic, relatively youthful economist who seemed to delight in
jabbing the re-set button of his computer when playing around with our lives.
So what does the Labour Party elect, the euro-sceptic, technocratic, relatively
youthful economist having taken his leave? Yep, that's right, it elects as Leader
a euro-sceptic, technocratic, actually youthful economist, with a track record that
demonstrates that he has no problem with saying one thing ("I wouldn't contest an
election") and doing another (having to contest an election, presumably, when he
leads the MLP into the elections in five years' time)
When you think that the delegates had available to them a candidate who could only
have gained them votes, you really have to shake your head in awe.
Think about it. The MLP got within a whisker of getting in last March. They failed
(yet again) because of the way they are perceived by enough of the electorate to
make them unelectable. Abela would have appealed to that segment of the electorate
which would have swung the balance. It's always been pretty obvious to me that if
the MLP had told Sant to take a long walk on a short pier after the EU Referendum
and appointed Abela to lead, the Nationalists wouldn't even have bothered to call an
election. They'd have just handed the keys to Castille to him and told him to get
on with it.
The MLP had the chance to remedy that fundamental error last night.
Did they? Did they 'eck! A campaign characterised by shove after shove after
shove in favour of Muscat by the party machine, both here and abroad, with nasty
little whispers about the opposing candidates surfacing in the comments sections
from time to time, culminated in the young gentleman being, as of 01:05 on Friday,
as I put the finishing touches to this piece, on the brink of taking up the legacy
left him by Sant.
As they say, though the fat lady hasn't sung, she's limbering up her tonsils as I
write. George Abela, I have to imagine, has spent a couple of minutes weighing up
the odds of every single man-jack and woman less two who voted for the other three
voting for him on Friday evening. Being a realist, he no doubt came to the obvious
conclusion and has gone to sleep, serene in the knowledge that he had a good product
on offer and it was no fault of his that the delegates failed to take it up. The
MLP's enormous loss is, to be honest, his gain: to misquote Marx, would you want to
lead a party which has those members in it?
In a way, I suppose I should be thankful, as Muscat will give me more grist for my
mill than Abela would have, but in another way, the prospect of a preciously
precocious prince proudly preening fills me with an almost crushing "good heavens,
more of the flipping same" feeling of ennui.
Still, no doubt I'll get over it.
RSS
Comments
1960? You did not go far enough. You are probably from Zurrieq or from nearby. I forgot to keep news papers of the time. You should have reminded me then, or you where not yet born. I am referring to Sliema if in your town it did not happen then you were lucky. The late Dr.C.Caruana, without disrespect for the departed, had his ways of acting differently. There are a lot of things I do not remember and you do remember, but is your memory faultless?
If you don't remember that is nobody's fault, if you where not there is still less nobody’s fault.
I am still seeing the water tap sealed rudimentary with a wire. It is not a lie because you don't remember. It would be a lie if I remember and say it is not true. No need to take it so hard. What is passed passed but some people do remember. For example I remember long time ago a teacher taught us that 0 X 0 does not equal zero but something else, he proofed it brilliantly and he was right. Funny! I still remember his proof.
...and I hope that for once you do get that straight in your face. And I do not mean the usual 'face stuffing' by that.
Perhaps if your friend and buddy Dom Mintoff didn't put us back under Colonial rule we would have gotten there much earlier.
It's so nice to be liberated from vile PN propaganda. As somebody said - the truth sets us free!
no democracy, - was there democracy in the early 60's? or now, when all good posts are given to the chosen few, all tenders are given to the chosen few? Or when it was allowed that Chruch bells be rung during MLP meetings or that MLP families had their children sent out of churches, or when MLP supporters were laid to rest in the MISBLA. These too were times I lived in.
unfree broadcasting - today is free - the PBS is run by Where's Everybody and these are truly independent (or don't you agree?)
violence, no violence under the nationalist except for maybe a Tarciso Mifsud, who got a beating with a chain with the culprit being charged by the courts Lm15!
alliances with North Korea and Rumania, there were meetings but alliances are strictly an invention of the nationalists.
Of course there were faults during MLP - What is being told is that the sun rose in 1987 and everything went well under the Nationalist. I can assure you I lived through late 50's and 60's.
I was never happy with the water situation.
The Korpi served as a temporary measure to eradicate the unemployment left by the Nationalists in 1971, where because of this workers were exploited and worked for next to to couple of liri with no conditions at all.
a wrecked university, - well at the time of the Nationalist in 1971 the balance was strongly in favour of the PNs. At my time at University I was the only labourite in my course. While university was in theory free to all it was not accessible to the workers.
foreign doctors, - there are still foreign doctors now and with all the money spent on the new hospital the situation at the Mater Dei hospital is scandalous - ask John Dalli
Alfred sant needed no help in demonising himself. He did a pretty good job at it to.
For MLP supporters all thier Party's ills are the Fault of the PN. I suggest that you first look within before you start looking outside to blame others. I will guarantee you that you will find the answears in that red glassed building at Hamrun.
Obviously, your father was never suspended from work for 7 months for following a very mild union directive - when he had 6 children of school age to feed/clothe - by the Saviour of the Workers.
Of course Social Housing and the minimum wage are good things but a) be big enough to admit the bad and b) Housing/Min. wage/Benefits etc. have IMPROVED under PN, not gone away.
For everybody's sake, let us wish him beginner's luck
It was bad bad bad under the labourites ... how could they let working class young couples have a house and not letting property developers earn their bit and prosper - they should never have given land and housing to young couples. They have ruined the availabilty of workers at pitiful wages like we used to had before 1971 .. that's a shame too. You cannot make a penny nowadays .. workers have such a high salary! The Nationalist have at long last let the country run free - and businessmen are free to do what they want.
Read my lips: I intend to carry on expressing my opinion. If you don't like my column or my blog, that is your right and it is equally your right not to read it. You have the right to comment on it, too, which was not a right many of us enjoyed in the days when your beloved MLP was in charge, at least not without the risk of a good beating.
W Sammut, in closing. Your comments about my blog are welcome, but please read my stuff before you comment about it. Otherwise, you'll just sound like an arrogant, knee-jerking Labour elf. Oops, sorry, too late.
mill than Abela would have". Taken from ABC contribution copy and paste.
ABC uncovers that to show his versatility in journalism he must have someone to debase-"grist for my mill". What a character
@Dr JGA - with the greatest respect, MLP "policies" reduced Malta to a 3rd world country (cf Zimbabwe now), So much so, that since 1981, they were only trusted with government once, on the basis of a false promise (VAT removal). I cannot agree with your equivocality. MLP only changes for convenience and has so far falied to convince that the change is genuine.
Anyway, as I said, a genuine "good luck" to Joseph - the more serious he is, the better for Malta. I hope we all agree to want what's best for her.
Perhaps you can make a write up about how can a Nationalist Government run the country when the majority is tightly kept in place by JPO? We all know how it will end! Poor taxpayer and the taxes he pays!
Truly, i didn't even bother to read through the last one ... but tell me, why are you so bothered that joseph muscat is leader? Are you a very close friend of Abela? Do you owe him anything? What's so wrong about muscat, apart from it being not your business ... well, swallow it! Write about food - I like eating out too.
By the way, hasn't there ever been any of your favourites that were not MPs when elected leaders? Joseph is not an MP but an MEP ... how about that?
@ John Smith:
I too am English living in the UK but interested in Malta where I was brought up and educated, served there in the RAF and until very recently was a regular visitor.
Special considerations must be made for a couple of islands with an unique geographical and historical situation but I cannot pretend to give an explanation of the Maltese psyche.
I love the place and its people and am fascinated by its politics but no way can I understand
them. Then again I do understand the Maltese reaction to criticism for they can rightly point out the odd political situation in other European nations-including our own- that have not had to go through the trauma of achieving independence from a colonial power that only perceived the islands as a base.
Italy, for instance, is on about its sixty second government since the end of the Second World War!
Thank you Dr. Abela ... we will not forget this in 5 years time. Unfortunatly we will have to wait that long to make our voices heard again.
Now I will tell you a short story told to me by an elementary state school teacher; she asked her pupils who recycled their garbage at home and one girl raised her hand. One other pupil quipped that this proves this girl was a Nationalist. This is the type of mentality Joseph Muscat has to erradicate from his supporters and he must also start by eradicating il-Brigata Laburista which is a reminiscence of dictatorial regimes.
First it was simply hatred towards hunters and trappers and now to the newly elected Dr. JM. Stop boasting about Abela, I am sure that the PN would have done everything to assassinate him as well 1 day after his triumph!
JM will bring not only a change within the party but also to the peoples minds. Simply by looking at him, you get the sense of triumph, energy and determination. When you look at Gonzi yuo only see a stressed and lies-tired man!
@Chris Ripard - Agreed. So BOTH parties change attitutdes and policies. Why not? This is my argument. Circumstances change and so do policies. After all it's the gist of dialogue. Why is it with most gonziPN supporters that only the MLP is the disgraced one for doing so? We are nicknamed elves......I believe many people know what nickname is suitable for such honourable gentlemen.
point. Gonzi is PM. Not your forgotten hero and not your new hero. I
know, it's hard to accept, but accept it you will have to, as otherwise
you'll be running the risk of becoming sour and bitter and twisted. Come
on guys, it's only five more years ... or is that going to be five more
again?
Don't be one of the PNs little elves. You should be above being a cog in the PN's character assassination machine. After all I'm pretty sure that had JM remained adamant in his previous anti-EU stance you'd still have criticized him for that.
I'd rather adopt a wait and see approach, and see what kind of opposition leader he makes - after all he's done pretty well as an MEP: the maltese language incident showed he has guts, while the irregular car registration tax-regime incident showed that he has technical acumen as well.
Of course I would have liked to see George Abela as leader, who'd have been a level headed and refreshingly soft spoken leader - but JM doesn't look too bad either. We should see whether he delivers the goods in the near future, and not condemn him a priori, like blind PN minions.
@Dr JGA - talking of U-turns, MLP of course was always a model of consistency: Integration, VAT, EU (?), Free Trade, desalination, majority rule, liberalised broadcasting, local councils, private health, education & banking, stipends, the environment, student-worker schemes, MCAST . . . pull the other one, it's got bells on!
@ A. Charles
Jean-Luc Godard is reputed to have said,
"Je suis Marxiste, tendance Groucho"
The one who from his own lips came the remark that 'he had to be nuts to contest for a seat in the local political scene' will be crowned Leader of the Labour Party and no less Leader of the Opposition dumping DNA Charlie from his high chair, if that is, someone is willing to vacate his/her seat in the House. Needless to say, il Dottore Sant is considered to be the prime donor of his nicely warmed seat.
Fear not Dr. Joseph Grech-Attard, I will be one of the first to congratulate Dr. Joseph Muscat once he makes it on the second try, but please warn him to stop feeding grist to the mill by making funny quotes (to be reversed later) so that gonziPN will not criticize him.
Yesterday's General Meeting gave the MLP another chance to make itself more marketable but as it turned out (maybe) it just kicked opportunity in the teeth.
A solitary 'Gonzipn safe hands' myth is inadequate to face the challenges hanging over us. Muscat’s professional, moderate, proven track record in the EU will test the NP’s claim of togetherness. Muscat represents Malta’s professional youthful energy that stimulates our potential as we do away with the doom and gloom of grumpy old men who kept spinning the old wheel into old age with such boring predictability. These grumpy old men can become young at heart bringing to our challenges their hibernating wisdom that we can look ahead with confidence. NPs Robert Musumeci is one of this young generation who embraces a positive spirit. His overview of Labour's future was indeed refreshing and progressive. '...the Labour Party will make history: It will elect a liberal social democrat, possibly the most progressive of all five candidates, who will invariably appeal to a much wider audience than his predecessors. Contrary to what is being purported, the newly-elected MLP leader, despite his young age, will emerge as a leader who is distinguished from his predecessors and, before long, the various party factions will resume track...' Everyone can join the young generation irrespective of age and chips...
Your predicitons were nearly 100% right (but not 100%). Others managed to bring them right to finishing point; extremely wise because, unllike Nostradamus and many other prophets, your and others' predicitons have been proved right during your lifetime. Well done!