Author: Jacques René Zammit

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Campaign 2013

Vote AD, get AD.

So it begins. It was inevitable that the moment the PN would start to see a tiny sliver of hope it would turn on alternattiva voters like there’s no tomorrow. It has happened before and it will go on happening with the timing of a swiss clock (did I say both swiss and clock in one phrase?) so long as the current rules of the game apply. Potential AD voters are targeted and accused of being irresponsible or of not knowing how to work out the math because it is obvious that if AD did not exist they would be voting anything but the dangerous, dangerous labour. But that is not the point is it? Here is what you should be thinking.

PLPN don’t own your vote

It’s the whole point of a campaign. At the start of a campaign it is assumed that no party has a guaranteed vote. It is supposed to earn them  with its proposals and plans. It is supposed to convince you. So to begin with your vote is not owned by anyone. If you chose to vote AD then no other party “loses” votes since it did not have them in the first place. Only arrogant parties who believe that the world is divided between partisan hotheads and “switchers” (the new floaters) believe that votes are “lost”. Voting AD means sending out a number of messages. It means that you have seen what the party has to offer and that you believe that you are best represented in parliament by that party.

It’s not about governance stupid

Oh. They will tell you that one of the two main parties needs a clear majority to be able to govern with stability. You are irresponsible if you let AD get in the way of the stability. But what does stability mean currently? It means that the PLPN can “govern” for five years and steamroller over the minority. Remember we had a relative majority government – 49% of the people for the last five years. That government failed to change the laws relating to electoral representation notwithstanding the fact that it had used and abused the flaws of representation last time round. Yes, five years back we had the same issues – party flag waving opinion columnists accused ad voters of setting themselves up as objects of hate right before voting in the stable government of JPO (number one in Bidnija), Franco Debono and Jesmond Mugliett. We were told then (remember Dudu?) that we should give priority to keeping Sant out then the PN would magically reform the electoral nonsense and give the world a fairer system. Ha!

Five years on

Voting AD is a statement. A positive one. It has nothing to do with tribal politics and everything to do with it. Right now AD carries the sole responsibility of being the third alternative. Ideally you would be voting AD because you found their proposals convincing. Another reason would be your refusal to be an accomplice to the PLPN hegemony – and that is becoming an important reason too. This campaign has shown us more than ever the true colours of the PLPN. Both parties are deeply indebted to wider circles of power prominent among which are the business community. They are parties that can shrug off a quarter of a million load as though it was everyday business, they deal in bartering and they seem to be inexplicably able to fund multi-millionaire campaigns.

You might have an inbuilt sympathy for one of the two parties that might come from an upbringing within a partisan milieu – the kind that the Labour Courage video tried to tap – but that does not make you a nationalist or labourite. It might help you find it easier not to vote for one of the parties and a little less easier not to vote for another. It’s a bad habit though nothing more. Remember nobody owns your vote. Your vote needs to be deserved. It cannot be won over on the eve of an election with the usual fear-mongering.

You reflected. You saw the rot that the PLPN have given us and the rot they are promising to propagate. You chose to vote AD and are determined to vote AD come election day. Nobody is losing your vote. Your vote goes towards making history. Towards change.

Nivvota AD. Ghax ma nibzax minnek.

Categories
Campaign 2013

L’antipolitica

Italy’s election result was not a great surprise insofar as Grillo’s M5S movement was concerned. By the time the election came round it was clear that the Grillini (though not all would be happy to be called so) had managed to garner a significant portion of the vote and that they would have an important impact on the final result. The Movimento 5 Stelle represents the first huge European movement that posits itself in direct opposition to the old style of doing politics. It is not a political party but rather an anti-political party – a movement that is combatting the old style of doing politics.

So far so good. The M5S has catapulted itself to the position of largest party insofar as number of votes go. Its leader (or image man), who cannot himself run for office because of the movement’s self-imposed strict rules (Grillo was charged with involuntary homicide over a car accident in 1981) is taking a side-role which he has enigmatically compared to that of Lucius Quinctus Cincinnatus. The movement cannot and will not govern. Without any experience in managing a nation, the M5S probably sees this situation as a best case scenario – in a protagonist’s position that can observe, learn and where necessary filibuster or block. The M5S may have been vociferous about the ills of the nation but proposing solutions beyond the cleansing of the political methodology was never within its style.

The Italians or at least a good third of them voted once again for il Cavaliere. It says much of an electorate when a good part of it still views a convicted tax evader (among other things) as a proper option for representation and governance. On the other hand Italy’s left (the moderate centre-left variety) has proven once again that it finds it ever so hard to send out a convincing rallying call that wins a sufficiently large chunk of the vote.

The election result turns out to be a mix of anti-politics and investment in the two old post-92 blocks with Mario Monti’s group registering a disappointing figure. Was austerity on people’s minds when they voted? I’m not too sure it was the primary consideration. A vote for Berlusconi meant voting for a figure who has made no secrets of his disdain of European or German plans for facing the economic crisis. A vote for Bersani would have been a vote towards the Merkel way. The M5S is a popular movement that gathered around the immediacy of the net in a sort of post-modern proto-communist method of aggregation. Admirably it survived the dangers of infighting sufficiently to face the election as a unified force. It is not too strong on policy and is mostly a mani-pulite reprise that is more directly active in the political sphere. Monti’s group represented the measures taken until now and the electoral result clearly shows what the italians think of that.

Where does antipolitics take us? First of all this is the beginning of the concretisation of the fact that a sufficiently large number of voters recognise the need to do away with the old-style politicians who have taken us for a ride. Antipolitics and its representatives are not the final solution or the antidote to old style politics but rather they are a provocation – a catalyst for the need for change that comes from without and not from within. It would be mistaken to judge the success or failure of antipolitical movements such as M5S by whether or not a government is formed or whether or not stability is guaranteed.

Their mission is not governance or stability. Their mission is to force the hand of the nation to change. It is Lampedusa turned on its head:

Se vogliamo che tutto cambi, bisogna che tutto cambi.

Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus.

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Campaign 2013

More J’accuse in Oz

Another interview with Marlene Cassandra Galea on SBS Radio in Australia. This time we discuss “tribalism” among other things.

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Campaign 2013

The Barrel’s Bottom

Did you ever wonder where we got the expression “scraping the bottom of the barrel”? Why the barrel? What’s wrong with the bottom? Well it comes from the time when fruit – apples for example – were stored in barrels and the apples that would be left at the bottom of the barrel would be bruised and not the best quality. Hence “scraping the bottom of the barrel” or choosing from what is left. Choosing from among the worst because you have no other choice. Yep, you can see where I am going with this but I cannot help it can I?

Here we are getting ever closer to E-day (that’s election not ecstasy) and the level of political discourse has descended into predictable levels of exchanges of circum tauri (that’s bullshit in the vernacular). Do you remember those early halcyon days when we all yearned for political programmes/manifestos to be published so as to see what the parties have to offer or criticise? Well they came and went in a flurry of billboards, buzzwords and bull. We are now left with the dark side of politics doing the works.

The gullibility gene is not very common in my family and therefore I insist on looking at what  the parties have to offer with a critical eye that is above any partisan impulse – much to either side’s chagrin of course. So, at this point, what do the parties have to offer to the arms-length observer? Nothing. Well, not nothing really but an exchange of accusations and finger-pointing that are meant to point out to us that “the other side” is up to its neck in corruption.

Joseph’s Labour is high on a wave of enthusiasm. It has mastered the “unity” con to perfection. Hi party spent five years spinning the yarn that Malta is the pits and practically in need of salvation with half the country (or more) living in appalling conditions and who cannot afford the slightest bit of distraction let alone luxury. Built on the platform of the expensive utilities, wrought around the eccentricities of Franco Debono’s earthquakes and decorated with the stucco of “the face of change” complete with new logo and the  practical disapparition of the political party, Joseph’s movement spun it’s own fairytale where the inevitable conclusion would be a brighter future under what would supposedly be a government for all.

Underneath all the rhetoric lie a ramshackle set of populist measures and a team that is far from promising for the future. Yet the plan sells. It sells mainly because the build up fed what Maltese know how to do best and that is be generally dissatisfied and grumble. It also sells because the other lot have proceeded down the slippery slope to mediocrity and have become an easier target than ever.

In fact, speaking of the other lot, what were they thinking? The blue and red faces from the latest billboard must win the prize for the worst premeditated electoral gaffe ever. The nationalist don’t only seem to have lost it but they are also forming committees trying hard to find out what “it” is and how to possibly bring “it” back. For one time too many they have fallen in this false trap laid by Joseph’s minions – playing into the role of “evil divisive party”. They don’t even seem to understand the fallout of this “blue or red face” business in real terms. “Look beyond the rhetoric” they tell us. Sure. We’re trying but there’s nothing, nowhere.

The truth is out there but nobody seems to be bothering to look for it. The panem et circenses of the parties’ criminal spin has reached new heights of popularity. Labour are trying their damnedest to link the PN (and particularly Minister Gatt) to the oil scandals. Joseph keeps dropping hints that are supposed to “raise eyebrows” but end up being intellectual demi-farts that can only be fawned upon by a journalistic class that has been trained to ask “How high?” whenever he says “jump”. Truth is there is nothing linking the PN or government to the oil commissions. It is definitely a corrupt web that has been uncovered but a web that could have existed under any government.

Then the PN comes along and brings out its undercover recordings. Sure we have documented evidence of dirty business in party clubs being covered up by high level party members – a deputy leader and now possibly a leader to boot. It’s bad. Very bad. But something tells me that party clubs across the island are not exactly hosting M.U.S.E.U.M. meetings as the nationalist party pole dancing club proved back in 2010. Then again there’s another point to be made here. Why did the PN bring out 2010 recordings now? Was it ok to sit on them for so long?

The tired spin is now going to extremes. We are in what I call a Magritte moment – you are slammed with a pipe right in front of you and then you are told “This is not a pipe”. What I find is that the more time passes the more the enthusiastic carcading voters are willing to believe the words that are being channelled into their head and not the big picture that is being painted so clearly before them.

In a normal world the picture would tell them a very clear message: that not everything (if anything) is right in both the houses. Yes, I will take the arrogant position and judge voters by accusing them of ignoring the possibility of an alternative vote. While both parties scrape the bottom of the barrel we should be dismissing them as an option. At least those of us who refuse to have our intelligence insulted. We should not be carried away by the simple puerile motivation of “they’ve been too long in power” or “they haven’t changed one bit”. Instead of letting the filth cancel each other out and returning to our instinctive partisan bias we should be rejecting the idea of abetting the return of the PLPN hegemony to power one more time.

There are no more excuses not to vote different. No amount of baseless accusations about “wasted vote” or “responsible voting” should stand in the way of a nation that desperately deserves much more than this barrel-bottom politics that it so gullibly accepts every five years or so.

This time round you could really make the difference. It’s either that or more of the usual shit guaranteed.

 

 

Categories
Campaign 2013

Truth be told

The Eagle Party held a mass meeting this morning in Zabbar and it turns out that there were more than a handful of people who were willing to go along with the farce. I wouldn’t worry much about all these people voting for Nazzareno when push comes to shove, they were just there for the fun of the outing and for doing what Maltese do best: make fun of the village idiots. Tomorrow the village idiots will be out in force at the respective mass meetings of the two parties who are currently embroiled in a battle of scandals and finger pointing.

Which is where we left them. The parties I mean. In my last post I complained about the surreal obscenity of the fact that every election campaign will peter out into a series of scandals and counter-scandals. All that promise at the start of this campaign what with saving money on energy bills and tablets for all soon changed into mud-slinging of the highest order. The charade unfolds as I type and it’s like seeing the Emperor’s New Clothes – only this is the whole political establishment prancing around naked and ugly for all to see. Recordings? Ministerial Swiss accounts? Oil? Enough. Really. Enough. And here’s why.

Truth be told I still believe that Austin Gatt did not touch a penny of whatever was  going on in the procurement business. Truth be told I believe that there really is a web of corruption surrounding the oil procurement but I also believe that this was a group of persons taking advantage of a loophole  in supervision that was as wide as a house. Truth be told I believe that the Labour party knows that and does not want to admit it because it is politically convenient to “raise eyebrows” about Gatt’s involvement.

Truth be told I cannot digest Austin Gatt’s excuse that he “forgot” to declare his family accounts in Switzerland since 2005 – inherited or not. Truth be told I find the double standards in this respect to be glaring when contrasted to the treatment of AD’s chairperson in 2008 for having forgotten to pay some VAT dues over a defunct company.

Truth be told I find Joseph Muscat’s ridiculous throwing of “leads” to his former work colleagues with regards to a Minister who supposedly freed someone from a chip or a lock up disgusting. Truth be told I would prefer that if  he had such information he would be the one to bring it out. Truth be told it turns out that the alleged act was never done by a person qua Minister but earlier in his career – which means that Joseph Muscat was lying when he implied that a Minister used his powers to free someone from the lockup (also not necessarily from prison). Truth be told this is not the first time that Muscat has been economical with a lie in order to imply an inexistent truth.

Truth be told I find the nationalist party’s assault on Toni Abela yawn-inducing and so blatantly a diversive tactic from its moment of panic. Truth be told I do agree that Abela should be responsible for his actions, particularly covering up of illicit activity in Labour’s kazini much the same way as I expect those responsible in the nationalist party to take the hit for any illicit activity in their kazini. Truth be told I still ask the most important question with regard to the PN’s recordings: Why now? Truth be told the nationalist party sat on this information for three whole years and only now felt sufficiently indignant to do anything about it.

Truth be told I have had enough of watching valuable pre-electoral debate time wasted in this battle of “your scandal is bigger than mine” or “oil purchasing is more important than drug trafficking” when it is blatantly obvious to anyone strong enough to wash off partisan blinkers that our supposed political elite is one big mess that is long past its sell-by date. Truth be told I have had enough of hearing snide comments about the hard-working folk at AD who can never yell about their presence loud enough so long as the village idiots are busy with their partisan banging and yelling about the inadequacy of the other side.

Truth be told this campaign is now expecting its final “election bomb”. It will be another “scandal” from each side announced close enough to the election date in order to hinder any possibility of throwing light and clarity on what it really is all about. It will be the mother of all messy mudballs slung by the mother of all slingshots. It will be as useful to our informed election of a proportionally representative parliament as a swimsuit in Alaska and yet the village idiots will indulge the parties with their Oohs, their Aahs and their chest beating.

Truth is, truth will never be told.

 

Categories
Campaign 2013

Teleakkuza

In this time of accusations, double crossings and other such events that tickle the fancy of amateur sleuths and conspiracy theorists across the island J’accuse has decided to go retro and introduce a series of musical clips that we feel are related in one way or another to the hashtag from hell – #malta2013. We take our cue from a programme that would not be familiar to anyone under the age of 30 but that was all the rage in the early eighties. Superclassifica show with the famous gatto “Oscar” was our introduction to the musical scene… so let’s begin with the signature tune…

We’ll move on swiftly to a classic from the early nineties. Given all the finger pointing there’s bound to be someone denying the accusations so what better tune than this one by Shaggy – it’s all about the refrain innit?

Cool tune huh? Well we it seems that this is also the election of the snitches and of those who got busy recording conversations in order to spice up our conspiracy pages. Where else to look then if not towards that unintelligible one-hit faux-jamaican wonder snow?

See? A lickybombomdown eh…. inyerface Tony and Austin. Then there are the exes you know. It’s Valentine’s day so not a good day to mention them but hell… this one goes out to Anglu Farrugia… as they say on the radios this side of the world “special dedicasse”…

Still there? Well the dedicator gets a dedication. We know, we know, they were reeboks but it’s not our fault if Dear Leader don’t choose what’s cool and what’s in (though, of course, he’s in)… here’s the Kings of Rap extolling the virtues of Mr Daschler’s shoes…

Scratch… one more before we go. This is all about the parties’ flirting with the LGBT community. Expecting YMCA? Boring. We’ve got better, much better and it includes the lyrics we’d all love to yell at out politicians… (at least the first part)…. P.S. Is that Sheldon Cooper in the video?

We end with another retro throwback. The recently adopted national anthem of the highly successful satirical page from j’accuse – Bananarepublic…. good night and good luck.

Bonus Track.
Just because we like it.