Even Stevens

Fellow Indy columnist Stephen Calleja has penned an obituary and death sentence in one on today’s edition of the Malta Independent. Calleja introduces his column (“Too weak too be called a force”) with the inspired sentence “Another tiddler has called it a day”. For those among us who have little or no knowledge in the jargon of the sea, a tiddler is a fisherman’s term for the three-spined stickleback – in other words “small fry”.

Calleja’s article contains observations that are very similar to the post-electoral observations as such political savants as Pierre Portelli who famously dismissed the “small fry” irritants in a bout of overenthusiastic euphoria when the PN had just scraped into government with a 1,500 vote relative majority. For my sins I will once again point out this twisted mentality that resurfaces at moments of truth: the ideas of “wasted votes”, “experimenting with voting” and “irritant alternatives”. I point them out because since I believe that alternating mediocrity is not beneficial for the long-term outlook of the nation then I must defend the potential third way. I will of course be linked once again with AD but that is the problem of the observer, not mine. My interest is third (fourth, fifth etc) way politics that offer a window of opportunity away from the mediocrity driven mechanisms of today.

Calleja’s article is peppered with the arrogant rhetoric that has dotted the (mostly nationalist) political spin ever since the first EP election scare. While using the excuse of AN’s demise as a ruse his real target is AD. They are wasting people’s time and their own. Those are not exactly Calleja’s words but the rhetoric he borrows from the “wasted vote” spin is there for all to see:

“(…) Alternattiva Demokratika is still struggling to make an impact on Maltese politics, in spite of having been around for more than two decades. Its best result remains the near miss at the first EP elections in 2004, at a time when the Maltese experimented with their vote – just as they do in local council elections – because they knew it would not affect the running of the country.”

There you go. The first clue for AD’s failure is in fact the idea of “experiment”. People will only vote AD when voting AD does not translate into voting for someone else. An inconvenient truth? We’ve been over it time and time again. Fausto will bleed his fingers dry typing an answer to this as his mental processing goes in tilt at the mere mention of the subject. The rules of the game are such as have been drafted to favour alternation – yes it is an added obstacle, yes it is real but it is no reason to give up trying. I believe next time round their is an even stronger reason to cock a snook at the Wasted Vote argument. Given the options – PL or PN, a third party liberal vote would definitely not be wasted. At least not in terms of getting a message across.

AD has taken part in five general elections, always with miserable results. Their best performance, in fact, remains their first ever participation, when the party was seen to be a novelty and included several candidates who were well known and rather popular as well. In spite of this, the party obtained a meagre 1.69 per cent of the votes. Since then, its share has dwindled in consecutive elections until it slightly rose again in 2008, reaching a still poor 1.31 per cent. If AD could not make an impact when it had the likes of Wenzu Mintoff, Toni Abela, Peppi Azzopardi, Arnold Cassola and Harry Vassallo, then I believe it will continue to crumble even more the next time around.

And then it gets personal. People either voted for a “novelty act” or for the faces behind the party. I guess Calleja means better the devil you know. Look at the list of candidates PLPN offered you over the last ten years. Now look back at Calleja’s argument. See? Better the JPO you know than the Vassallo you don’t. Innit? Calleja would have us believe that AD has “offered little to Maltese politics”. I beg to differ. With their very presence they have offered a constant reminder of the world outside the box. The shenanigans of the PLPN crowd in order to preserve their mediocre alternation would not stand out so ugligly if there were no third party against which to measure them.

Calleja’s article brings little to the discussion than an extension to the nationalist rhetoric on the Wasted Vote.It is a sad confirmation that such ideas are still alive and kicking today and that the obstacles ahead to breaking the mold are huge. I agree with Calleja that AD are not equipped to face this challenge. Where we disagree is with the prescription. Calleja would love for AD to admit they have no future to look forward to so he could return to the game of zero-sum mediocrity. I would advocate for stronger independent ideas. I would advocate for that movement that had been gathering momentum for some time and that could see an opportunity in the next elections to begin the opening up to different ways of thinking. I’d hate to stay in a world of Evens Stevens – black and white politics scraping off the bottom of the intellectual barrel.