This was the week of tsunamis, earthquakes and missile tests. It was the week when an EU inquiry finally found that Georgia was to blame for starting the Georgia-Russia war (and that Russia over-reacted). It was the week in which the Chinese People’s Republic celebrated its 60th year of communism, the G20 summit ended with a commitment to create a global framework to balance economies and the week in which the people of Guinea and Honduras respectively rose against their governments.
These were the seven days in which Christian Democrat Angela Merkel (Germany) and Socialist José Socrates (Portugal), with their watered-down policies, were returned to government with a weaker position than the one they occupied prior to the elections. They were the last few days for Irish voters to decide whether to vote yes or no (again) to the Lisbon Treaty. They were also the days of the last Labour conference for Gordon Brown before next year’s June election. It was in an interview with The Telegraph that Labour’s Business Secretary and former EU Commissioner Lord Mandelson conceded that he would be prepared to accept a job working for the future Conservative government.
Lord Mandelson’s claim to be willing to work for the interests of his country in the future, even if the party in government might not be the one for which he is a main canvasser in the forthcoming election, did cause some raised eyebrows. Some evil, evil wags might even imply that Mandy might be sniffing the wind of change (or the inevitable punishment to be meted out to a dry Labour government, bereft of ideas) and be preparing to jump ship. Weirdly enough, nobody explored Lord Mandelson’s sexual preferences, marital status or economic situation. Nobody in the English press stooped so low as to speculate whether his possible ‘defection’ would be fired by a dire economic situation due to the financial crisis.
Significantly, Mandelson DID say that he was too ‘tribal’ to work as a minister in a Tory cabinet but he would not rule out serving his country by taking up a public office under a Tory government. Mandelson is not an uncontroversial figure and is often pictured as a king-maker within the Labour fold – it was Mandelson who switched his backing to Blair in the original Blair-Brown tussle and it is Mandelson who is touting rising Labour star Ed Miliband, but more of that later. What is interesting is the reaction to this potential ‘turncoat’ activity by a high profile Labour politician and strategist.
Marisa the Mercenary?
It was impossible to avoid the news this week, coming as it did like the proverbial lightning strike in calm weather. Marisa Micallef’s employment as a sort of advisor to Labour, and more specifically to Joseph the Decision-Maker, even managed to eclipse the news of the temporary reshuffle in Labour’s personality circus. True, Jason Micallef had been shunted from his post as SecGen to head of One Productions, whatever that can mean. True, Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi continues along his contradictory path that is both anonymous and meteoric towards the tip of the Labour Food Chain. There was also the not too astonishing resignation of SmartMalta CEO Claudio Grech that should have been another scalp in the hands of the critics of political appointees across the board.
There was all that to talk about and more, but the world and its brother chose to focus on Marisa Micallef’s move to the open arms of ‘Inhobbkom Joseph’. There were not many facts to hide and in case you are out of the info loop, here is the J’accuse Cup-a-Soup summary:
Marisa Micallef was closely associated with the Nationalist Party, and particularly the Gonzi fawning clan, for quite some time. During her honeymoon period with GonziPN, Marisa got to contest an election on a PN ticket (a miserable failure) and was politically appointed to the post of Chairman of Housing. In her time as chairman of aforesaid Housing, Marisa Micallef also dabbled with the arcane art of opinion columnistry. These columns featured an alternation of articles related to housing with others peppered with the cause of beatification of Lawrence Gonzi as well as an embarassing, personalised version of feminism that would have sent Miss Pankhurst rushing for a burqa and a mind-numbing “Ahna Sinjuri” style assessment of Maltese society that would make even J.J. Camilleri weep.
Somewhere along the line, Marisa (I apologise for this first name business but, thanks to Jason, the Micallef bit was already taken) also worked for 15 years in the UK for a Labour council. Back to her chairmanship; depending on who you read, this was either abruptly ended, terminated due to resignation or cut short prematurely. As we shall see later, various theories abound among the informed that Marisa did a runner when she asked for better pay conditions or, as she would have it, she resigned in a dignified manner. In an interview with Zillah Bugeja (Malta Today) back in July 2001, Marisa Micallef (then Leyson) did admit that her job in Malta was paid 10 times less than it would be in the UK – but also added that the little perks and the power to wield the mighty pen at the same time compensated for this economic loss.
That was the same Marisa who would conclude the interview by saying how she would advise her daughter in the future: “I never imagined I’d have to maintain myself financially. I hope she’ll realise that a lot of money doesn’t make you happy, but it does give you the luxury of choice.” A lot of water has passed under the bridge and since then there seems to have been a falling out with the political appointers in government. Whatever the case may be, we next heard of Marisa when Joseph Muscat informed us that she would henceforth be labouring for Labour.
Beggars, Choosers and Losers
It was very soon after the announcement that all hell broke loose. Most interesting of all would be the interpretation of the two tribes ever plagued to rake mud at their adversaries. It was not long before a provocative comment was thrown at the mother of all Nationalist-leaning blogs. Daphne was asked her thoughts on Marisa Micallef Leyson by one of those insipid anonymous troublesome muck-rakers and she did not hesitate to comment thusly:
“I think that when a twice-divorced woman has a daughter to raise, she is sometimes forced to make uncomfortable decisions to pay the bills, decisions that she may not have made otherwise. Mrs Micallef Leyson asked the government to create certain jobs for her, after her search for permanent employment in Britain did not work out, but was told that this was not possible. She may have believed that she was owed allegiance in return for her own allegiance; she may have been wrong or right in this – I don’t know. It’s not how I see things, so I can’t understand that way of thinking. But I can see the reasoning behind it in a way. She may have found herself in a difficult position financially. Knowing what it’s like to pay the considerable bills that come with running a household and raising children, I must say I find it difficult to pass judgment. Thousands of otherwise decent women the world over resort to being paid for sexual services to pay the bills when they’re really on their uppers and have children to raise, and even then I find it hard to judge. e40,000 a year is a lot of money for a single mother to turn up her nose at, and we’re not all lucky enough to be able to earn our living using our own initiative.”
To begin with, it is hard to ignore the “I find it difficult to pass judgement” bit but, if you do manage to read the reply without feeling sick, then you will note the not so subtle undertones: Marisa needed the cash so she rushed to whoever could cough it up. As if the implication of mercenary was not enough, we have the second bait thrown speculatively: some women end up prostituting themselves in order to pay the bills. There you have it: financially despondent Marisa (who to boot does not fit into the ”Happy Family” model) is a mercenary who responds to the same instincts as a woman driven to prostitution in dire circumstances.
It is interesting to note how this philosophy of the “mercenary” in need is as contagious as swine flu and before you know it, we had some breaking news featuring PBO who is gingerly reacquainting himself with the right buttons to press. Here is Paul Borg Olivier’s comment to The Times when asked about Marisa’s move:
“Nationalist Party defector Marisa Micallef is a ‘victim of the financial crisis’, according to the Nationalist Party’s general secretary, Paul Borg Olivier…“I understand she was unhappy the government was not able to provide her with a job but the government is not an à la carte restaurant or simply contributing to ‘pocket money’,” Dr Borg Olivier said when contacted. He claimed that Ms Micallef returned to Malta after becoming a victim of the economic crisis in the UK last year, implying that she basically lost her job and needed another one. “Ms Micallef’s acceptance of a job with the Labour Party should not be taken out of its context,” he added.”
You might have some reservations about the government not being an à la carte restaurant for some people, but you sure have to admire the way in which the character assassination of Marisa Micallef ex-Leyson has begun in earnest. The PN line has been spun: Marisa Micallef is a victim of the financial crisis that does not exist. She is desperate for money and people who are desperate for money will sell their soul to the devil (or invent ingenious ways of not paying VAT for 13 years and codename those ways “No Johnny Cash” while becoming Vice-Mayor for Swieqi on a PN ticket).
‘Marisa the Mercenary’ was born within a few hours of the news of her “defection” and the nationalist party line had been forged – desperate people, victims of the economic crisis will turn to Labour. The government had run out of à la carte menus (it was still dealing with the last order) and could not afford more “pocket money” – incidentally, is “pocket money” the noughties word for “cejca (pre-electoral handout incentives)”?
Turncoats, Abjurers and Apostates
The Nationalist reaction was just the beginning. While Marisa debuted on the scene with the most childish of metaphoric letters (see my blog post entitled ‘Tony Blur – Marisa’s Metaphors), the web and press were alight with different interpretations of what this move ultimately meant. J’accuse dug further in the media archives in order to understand what Marisa could mean and discovered a gem of an article, penned this time by Labour-leaning Marie Benoit. This was in June 2004, just after Labour’s European Election “victory” and Marie grasped the opportunity to take the nationalist columnist to task. You will find the rest on my blog but you have to see the conclusion:
“For the sake of the Nats, for the sake of our readers, for my sake I hope her column on Mondays is but an Indian summer. There are enough columnists in English-language journalism who stoop to personal abuse that is ignorant, nasty, stomach-turning and brutal. I say give her, this woman with a mixture of obsessions, a desk at party headquarters and get her to address envelopes in the Nationalist cause. But perhaps Marisa has as yet to understand that ultimately what matters about human beings is not their politics but their goodness.”
Swing it back, Bring it Back
It’s lovely isn’t it? There will be much more to write about since this is just the beginning of what J’accuse has to say. The Nationalists have shown that they can turn mediaeval on a party darling as quickly as you can say “exit poll”. Labour has spent e40,000 in order to entice “one of the others” into its fold. I hope I am mistaken, but if Muscat’s idea of being electable means becoming the Nationalists’ then he has a big, big surprise coming. At the end of the day, and this is my opinion and my opinion only, judging by Marisa’s articles on the papers, Labour has not added much think-tank value to its arsenal.
We are still heading towards what up to now seems to be an inevitable Labour victory at the polls in a little more than three years time. Whether that will also mean a change in the way politics are made beyond the politics of mascara and marketing is far from being a dead certainty. The two tribes are still at it and some people will be bound to switch sides for one reason or another. There is only one immutable constant, no matter who gets elected to power, and that is that you and I will have to face the music, the bills and the consequences of the directionless planning by spineless parties.
There are interesting times ahead; unless both parties clean up their act and search for their real soul instead of engaging in empty bickering, they might end up being the wrong sort of interesting times. I’m off for a weekend in the Vosges in France, since Luxembourg threatens to be super-boring this particular end of week. Terry Pratchett’s latest creation Unseen Academicals has just landed in my letterbox… oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen.
Jacques is following the latest swinging developments and commenting on http://www.jacquesrenezammit.com. Even people who tend to change their mind are allowed to comment on J’accuse.
