Author: Jacques René Zammit

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Campaign 2013

Trolls and Elves in Hamrun

We always say that we are not particular to conspiracy theories and that we’d rather concentrate on substance than waste time with the mud slinging war. Having said that a few comments coming in to J’accuse recently got our attention. It’s not just the fact that the comment writer disagreed with what we said (may the lord send many of these dissenters to our pages) but how he said it. The comments feel forced and scripted, almost as if the author(s) was busy repeating the same stuff here, there and everywhere in – how shall I say it? – a propagandistic fashion.

Was there really a hall of elves busy assaulting comment boards? Has J’accuse been definitely pigeonholed into the “nationalist sympathiser” category as seems to be the trend and effort to date? Well seems so. We did a quick check on the IP address and low and behold the commentator was situated bang in the middle of Hamrun. Now it’s either someone using the free wi-fi at Borg Bonaci in High Street or…

ipelves

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Campaign 2013

Promises and Plans (II) – Gozo

Simon Busuttil penned a good article in yesterday’s Times (Gozo on the parties’ agenda). This article is a clear illustration of the difference I have mentioned between empty promises and concrete proposals. Simon says (tee-hee) that the PN has concrete options for Gozo that can be contrasted to Labour’s vague promises of “increasing jobs and increasing tourism”. The difference lies in the fact that the PN is saying HOW it will bring about jobs. I know because I can list the promises here – so that should be proof enough of their existence:

  • tax breaks of up to  €200,000 over a three-year period to any new business that opens in Gozo employing a minimum of two people.
  • slash administrative fees of all Gozo businesses down to just 10 per cent of their total.
  •  efforts will continue to be made to incentivise cruise liners to berth in Gozo.
  • new measures will be taken to entice some of the more than half a million cruise passengers arriving at Grand Harbour to take a trip to Gozo.
  • to stimulate further investment in five-star hotels and to offer schemes that will help upgrade lower star hotels as well as farmhouses in Gozo.
  • Financial support will also be given to public events, typically opera, carnival and traditional events that can stimulate tourism in the shoulder months.
  • On their return, people spending at least one night in Gozo will pay the same ferry rate as Gozo residents.
  • Gozo will take a further step forwards in its devolution with the establishment of the Gozo Regional Council through an ad hoc law that will also formally establish Gozo as an island region in Malta.
  • a commitment to financing a final study on building a permanent link between Malta and Gozo with the intention of proceeding with the project subject to the outcome of the study.
  • There are other proposals too, such as further investment in road infrastructure, the establishment of a Business Park for crafts businesses and the completion of the Eco-Gozo initiative with a further focus on renewable energy and water catchment projects.
  • Committing 10 per cent of Malta’s share of EU funds to Gozo. This would be the third financial package for Gozo since we joined the EU in 2004. I reckon that, since then, EU funding in Gozo must have topped the €100 million.

I agree with Simon. It’s a mouthful. The proposals are there to be criticised and improved. Labour has not given us anything of this sort other than a show of hands about whether or not people want more work to be created in Gozo. There are some proposals above that need further analysis – how is the PN going to justify the tax breaks under EU law? It is important to read the difference between “to stimulate further investment” and “to invest” – they are not the same thing and the former depends on third parties. The Regional Council is a case of better late than never – it would be  good to see Labour adopting the general idea too (last time round Labour saw fit to even abolish Gozo’s ministry).

The point remains though. Concrete proposals vs managerial hogwash. Will Labour show us the money insofar as Gozo is concerned or are there “commercial interests” that need be protected here too?

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Campaign 2013 Rubriques

Promises and plans (I)

In “the power incumbent” we saw how certain projects are best presented and put into effect once a party is elected to government and not before. The “best” in that sentence is of course referring to the advantage gained by the party in question and does not necessarily reflect any benefit for the electors. That is not to say that parties should be allowed to get away with superficial promises and sweeping statement. A case in point this week has been the declarations by the leaders of both the PN and the PL that (I parapharase here) they would not be averse to the idea that gay couples could adopt. The mainstream media took this to mean that both the PL and the PN have a clear position in favour of gay couples adopting.

They don’t. The only party to outrightly state that it is in favour of legislation for LGBT rights to include marriage, adoption and IVF is alternattiva demokratika. That is a fact. What Lawrence and Joseph stated was simply their personal opinion. We are far from an explicit promise to enact legislation in that sense by either of the PLPN duopoly. Having seen the dramatic protests and opposition to gay marriage in France I can only begin to imagine what would happen in Malta once the parties are finally forced to discuss possible legislation on any of the matters (gay marriage – not union or partnership, adoption by gay couples – on par with adoption by straight couples, and access to IVF for gay couples).

The electoral newspeak is switched on. You’ve been warned and remember – everybody lies.

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Campaign 2013

The power incumbent

Not many people have pointed out a particular aspect of the Labour party’s grand plans for energy and the utility bills. Scratch that “not many” and think “nobody”. Beyond the partisan exchanges fuelled by marketing vs marketing, beyond all that the voter wishes for (irrespective of, and notwithstanding any critical reasoning) there is a peculiar characteristic of how this particular electoral bomb has unravelled. Let me tell you what that is.

In traditional PLPN discourse, Labour’s major “flaw” in its presentation has nothing to do with the lesser (though not less important) flaws of planning and detail. The major flaw is that this is the kind of project that is normally announced, embarked upon and bungled AFTER a party is elected to government. How is that a “flaw”? Well it would have been a flaw in strategic terms because under normal electoral circumstances Muscat would have got away with his tired phrase of “Inrahhsu l-kontijiet” plus a few clues about new power sources &c &c. Instead, also thanks to the dynamics of this particular election, we got the pre-project plans (yes, even if they are desktop plans) as a taster while in full election mode.

Labour is not in government. But imagine the PN had presented its White Rocks Sports Park project, SmartCity or Arriva plans with a Manuel Delia instead of Konrad Mizzi. Imagine Delia’s powerpoint on Xarabank with all the aiding and abetting of Peppi or Lou. Would things have been different? I doubt it. Political parties do not go into detail about their plans and projects before they are elected to government for two reasons:

(1) Because they can. They can afford to be superficial and speak in glowing marketing terms while burying any serious criticism under the carpet because this is a zero-sum game. It remains US vs THEM and reason has nothing to do with why they will get the ultimate voters preference. Labour can yell all it likes about efficiency and cancer but the truth remains that no matter how many technical flaws are found in its plan many many voters have already decided to go for them – because it’s either Joseph or MorePN.

(2) Latent Incumbency. I know we normally speak of the power of incumbency BEFORE an election. Government makes use (abuses) of its powers to favour the gain of potential votes. In this case the incumbency is useful for projects once you are IN government. MEPA permits? Directives? Seveso? It’s all relative. When it’s a plan for an aspirant governor that’s one thing but when you are in government you can conveniently play around these issues. Take the much touted SEVESO Directive on safety. It’s all ok for Miles Seaman to come and tell us about the need of insurance and strict safety compliance (more than ok actually) but then where have the PN consultants and experts been when we have had firework factory after firework factory blowing up in our faces?

Had Labour been elected (or once it is elected, to make the flag waving Historians, Musicians and Porta-Pundits of the world happy) many of the serious objections to its plan (and by that I mean security, safety, environment even before I start counting Euros) would be brushed aside because once in government YOU CAN. That’s the point really that should be drummed into all the asthma sufferers in the South. Once in government MEPA permits can be pressured into being, once in government a few “managerial” words about “one-stop shop permits, fast tracking, efficiency” will easily mask lax controls and the bending of the laws to the incumbents needs.

Need more proof? Ask the birds (or better the conservationists unless you meet some particularly intelligent Myna). Sure I am scandalised when I hear Mizzi dismissing legal requirements with all his talk about focus groups, expression of intent and roadshow politics but isn’t Mizzi just giving us more of the same? Same, same just different.

There is no real control of government and its power unless you get a fluke situation like the Franco Debono / Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando trap that GonziPN and its spin friends walked into in 2008.

This blog has recently faced an increased assault of being “nationalist” or “passive” simply because it has never wavered from criticising the criticisable. At this stage in the electoral campaign we still believe that both mainstream parties are pushing gimmicks rather than policies in the most populist of manners.

A concrete, long-term energy plan in the national environmental and economic interest will never be the bastard son of this election. Instead whoever is elected will soldier on with their particular version of energy plan basted together out of god knows what interests and god knows what political point of expediency.

And guess what. You’ll be voting them in. Thanks. But no thanks.

 

Categories
Campaign 2013

Manifestly Political – a zolabyte

AD’s PRO André Vella has submitted this post as a Zolabyte. In this piece and accompanying infographic Vella compares how the three parties square up before all the manifestos were published. 

A political manifesto is the official seal of approval of a party’s agenda when (and if) in power; but the truth is that certain policies and positions are already lauded in public before approved by any party executive or general meeting.

For any political party, there are two types of issues. The issues you want to avoid, and the issue you can’t stop to talk about. Then there are the not so clear issues which are somewhere in between. Let’s take gay civil rights for example. PL want to flaunt their stance of civil union (which is more liberal than PN) but they do not want to focus on their contradictory inequality of what they are proposing (by not granting gay couples full rights). PN want to talk about gay rights as well, to regain that conservative base by scaring them with the image of a little child having two daddies, doing so knowingly that they might risk alienating the few pink votes they have. For the Green Party, at least, this issue is not in the middle as they took the clearest path towards gay marriage, being the only party fully endorsing MGRM’s proposes.

Somehow, the bigger parties always have the greatest challenge to appease as many people as possible, a task which fails most of the time as you cannot bind a long-serving successful party to populism instead of an ideology.

So while we all wait for the three manifestos to be officially approved, here is a little Infographic, shedding light on some party positions depending on public remarks passed by party officials or press releases. If it looks biased, it is because it is. Until the manifestos are publicly available, this is the pre-manifesto showdown of Malta Elections 2013!

The author is the PRO of Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party.

andrevellapic

*****
Zolabytes is a rubrique on J’accuse – the name is a nod to the original J’accuser (Emile Zola) and a building block of the digital age (byte). Zolabytes is intended to be a collection of guest contributions in the spirit of discussion that has been promoted by J’accuse on the online Maltese political scene for 7 years.
Opinions expressed in zolabyte contributions are those of the author in question. Opinions appearing on zolabytes do not necessarily reflect the editorial line of J’accuse the blog.
***

Categories
Campaign 2013

Voting for Spiridion

You would not believe me but this election has many many echoes of 2008. This government is bending over backwards in order to show the voters how much change it has already brought into place and there is no doubt that some sort of progress has been achieved. On the other hand this blog was pointing out the deficiencies of an outdated electoral system, of an outdated election rules system, of ridiculous plans for voters abroad, of the race to emptiness and of the victory of relativist thinking back in 2008. In 2008 we pointed out the dangers of anything goes appeasing promises and also in 2008 declaring a vote for AD meant that you would be labelled a vote waster (at least that).

Well it’s 2013 and short of being told “we’d have loved to change things” (and should we believe them?) nothing much has changed. Forget AD and its nine candidates for thirteen districts (where there really no other possible candidates in Gozo?) for a minute. Just concentrate on the roadshow with which we have been regaled until now. We are stuck in the”energy” point of the agenda right now and yesterday’s Xarabank is as good a measure as any for the sort of discourse we are facing. I watched the first two debates and I must admit that the wrangling match of harridan yells vs confused tired metaphors between Marlene Farrugia and Beppe Fenech Adami destroyed any will I had to soldier on. Earlier we had to watch a reprise of Mizzi vs Fenech. It was anything but a debate.

It is evident by now that Mizzi (and Labour) have exhausted all that they have to say about their plan (I won’t call it magic). We will not get any more details notwithstanding the fact that the few level-headed individuals who dare brave the partisan mire to find anything more about the idea will only be regaled with a power point presentation that skims the surface and very blatantly omits details. Don’t ask Marlene about them because like Anglu (the other Farrugia) she is not technical and she will just yap away like a baritone chihuahua about “il-Maltin jahdmu”, “il-kancer” and other soundbites that are nothing more than rabble rousing. Mizzi – the techinical chosen one – is nothing better. He is like a roughly  prepared student who for a moment thought he found a short cut through the exam. Once you try to delve further he comes up with a million and one shenanigans from the “Shame on you Mr Minister” to the “Don’t Panic” (what’s with the panic fixation on both sides anyway?). His face twitches like a cross between Gollum and Wally  and his last resort is again populist rabble rousing.

Not that the nationalists inspire much confidence either. They are experts at rubbishing plans and character assassinations (hence Joseph’s “Let’s be nice to each other ” ploy which when coupled with his constant historical revisionism makes one want to retch violently all over a billboard) but have obviously got too many skeletons in their cupboard when it comes to energy. Thank God for a holistic European Energy programme that perchance requires a pipeline connection to Malta (to increase access) otherwise if it were for them we’d be moving with the painful slow conservative pace to which they have accustomed us in other fields (Cirkewwa terminal? Mater Dei? Social Rights? Electoral Reform?). no amount of arrogant scaremongering should be able to deviate the attention from the fact that the only party that has consistently and constantly had clear policies and objectives on energy and Malta’s plans for the future is the one that is given eight minutes per programme on PBS.

I say SHOULD though. Because from what I am noticing viewers are wired otherwise. The Energy plan by Labour has been greeted by the disgruntled with enthusiasm that just falls short of the flag waving jews who greeted the donkey riding Messiah on his way into Jerusalem. Even those who eventually smelt that this could be a rat waved the suspicion away with a worrying nonchalance. Their reasoning? Even if Labour’s plan is flawed it is better than the status quo. Donkey riding Messiahs wept.

I don’t give two hoots about the Nationalist criticism of Mizzi’s plan. I was ready to listen. I did my research and reading online trying to understand what he was on. Glossaries of terms became my bedside reading for a night or two. Then he looms onto a Xarabank podium and when questioned he comes up with “google it” or “fittex fil-pagna ta’ Puillicino” or worse still he quotes a comment by a retired professor on a blog on an online newspaper. So much for “intom sibtuh fil-Yellow pages”, this one does most of his research in social media. In the end the impression I got over a couple of programmes was that Mizzi had a script that was short and unprepared and that when he noticed there would be other questions he panicked. His failure to delve deeper reminded me of a forgotten politician.

But there are many who are convinced by his show. So I have a question… mainly for these people… would they vote for Spiridione Sant? Who? Spiridione. The great Spiridione Sant. Independent candidate of past elections who passed away recently. Spiridione, the one who loved to speak about Malta Taghna Lkoll (ta’ Malta u ta’ Ghawdex)  is probably busy singing the Innu Malti in heaven. Have a look at this clip (particularly from 3 minuites onward and more particularly from 4 minutes onward) and see the poor man shooting number and concepts in an evident attempt at impressing (he probably found “average” quite a managerial word). After watching think… would you have voted for Spiridione Sant? Then think. Why don’t I ask the same question about Konrad Mizzi and his plan? Am I entitled to ask for more proof?

Don’t worry though. If you really want the nationalists out of the way (or the status quo to be bettered with a faulty plan) then go ahead… Vote Spiru!