Author: Jacques René Zammit

Categories
Politics

Summer siestas

It’s sizzling hot (apparently). August’s heat approaches with the certainty of a sunrise and the last events of the political season are being played out. Let’s not fool ourselves. There is going to be a break – a pause – as the politicians scramble to the safety of the seaside… or like mercenaries they will find some earthly form of hell where to regroup. In the meantime though the last notes of this particular act are being played out.

As I blogged earlier today, the Nationalist party is keen to have the last word on all things leak and Mistra. It’s not about Mistra they will tell you but about Joseph Muscat being a blabberer – a peċluq – as we would have it in the vernacular. The Labour party rightly retorts by focusing on a totally different point and reminding “GonziPN” that Dr Sant was right about the geezer who favours Earl Grey. That geezer marched off for his summer holidays in a huff having notified the PN that he is no longer one of their own (like they needed it in writing) and having informed the Speaker of the House that he is henceforth to be considered as an Independent. His cohabitation having been clarified he will now apparently be off and wed so, unless he takes the matter of wedlock lightly, that should keep him out of the news for a while.

The grumbling has started. It’s become a catchphrase of sorts now. “Oh how they have bored us.”, “Enough already”, “Why don’t they just resign and call an election”… and more of the same. You cannot really blame the electorate for having sussed out that most of these theatricals are to nobody’s benefit and that they can be more boring than spending an evening watching Musumeci Robert put up aphorism after aphorism on Facebook. Then again I have the niggling feeling that this is the usual thinking “sal-ponta ta’ l-imnieħer” as the vernacular would also put it.

Why? Because while it has become stylish to feign a lack of interest and to sing-a-long to the “bored with politics” and the “politicos” (a new word that, that has entered the collective vocab) few seem to understand what actually lies behind the corner. While everybody claims to no longer be intrigued by the squeakings of officials and spinmasters the truth is that their urge to “call an election” and get it over and done with turns out to be more of an emotional impulse than a thought out reflection.

And the reason is simple. When the curtain finally falls and the electoral campaign is in full swing we should be finally seeing two parties displaying their wares and what they have to offer in terms of governance for the new season. Mr Voter would be choosing from among these wares and therefore should be expecting to see a bit more than slogans and mud. Are the parties ready for that?

I have a strong feeling that the timing of PN strategy until now points clearly to a summer of preparation for an election. As I type slogans are being hatched (or copied from French campaigns), manifestos are being hurriedly beefed up and a strategy based on what the party can offer (and what new guarantees it can promise) is probably being brewed. The PN elected in 2008 is split and a good target for derisory facebook statuses or smartass expressions of surprise. The PN2012 team will be making damn sure that the new team has none of that.

And Labour? Well, once Muscat has recovered from the spumante he will return to the island to find that his provision of ammo is running dry. He has spent the last nine months honeymooning with the man who he now calls the second Prime Minister and has concentrated exclusively on the “iggranfat mal-poter” theorem. Once the relevance of that whole issue is officially declared passé, Muscat will find that he has very little time to reinvent a machine that he has groomed to produce more of the same old comatose opposition by default. It may be too late.

Four to five  weeks. That’s approximately how much time the parties have to get it together and regroup. I’m betting that the PN will attempt to use the summer pause for a Janus effect. One face looking back and another decisively forward. Will Labour manage to do anything other than the obvious and the predictable?

More importantly will the electorate prove to be a sucker for cosmetics one more time?

Categories
Mediawatch

Mistra Matters

The nationalist party had promised to present proof that it was Joseph Muscat who had given the game away about the PL’s targeting of JPO for the Mistra affair. We’re still waiting for concrete proof- if there is any beyond the words of PN officials. In any case though the whole story of Joseph’s blabbing away the news is not entirely new since Joe Saliba had in fact mentioned it in an interview four years ago. It explains why the whole business kept ringing a bell.

PN Secretary General Paul Borg Olivier told us all this in a press conference this afternoon. He showed a clip of Joseph Muscat warning of the hot news that would be out in the forthcoming days. Not exactly proof of blabbing in a party.

Well, the Mistra Leak saga goes on but J’accuse is interested in one particular bit of information. Towards the end of the Times article reporting the press conference we find the following:

The issue now was not Mistra itself, Dr Paul Borg Olivier said, but how Dr Muscat was now trying to hide his actions.

A very telling phrase that. A Borg Olivier slip I would add. Why? Because it betrays an eagerness to shift the focus of what actually happened at Mistra back in 2008 to the nonsensical charade of leak accusations that really gets us nowhere. In actual fact shifting the focus away from Mistra means shifting the focus away from the fact that JPO’s dealings were not exactly kosher – whether with or without the knowing connivance of PN officials.

That same non-kosher JPO was part of the team that won the right to govern (and he garnered over 5000 votes). That same JPO of the shady Mistra dealings now sits in an uncomfortable cohabitation with the PN government. Of course PBO would love us to think that the issue is not Mistra itself.

Otherwise we would be forced to realise that this government is now making pacts with an Independent MP who still has a lot to answer for with regard to his dealings in Mistra Valley.

Earl grey anyone?

Categories
Mediawatch

It’s not a coalition Mister Speaker

The heat continues. The Times reported JPO’s latest dramatic act with the following headline: “JPO tells Speaker he considers himself in coalition with the government.” My first reaction was something to the extent of thinking that JPO can call the relationship whatever he bloody well likes. Then I read the article and found the letter that JPO had written to the Speaker.

“Mr Speaker

I would like to inform you that I have resigned from the Nationalist Party. I have informed the leader of the party Dr. Lawrence Gonzi that, while I still consider him to be the Prime Minister of Malta, I no longer form part of his parliamentary group and do not consider the PN parliamentary whip as having any form of authority with regard to my actions in the coming months. I intend to continue serving out my term in the House of Representatives as an independent member.

Yours,

Dr. Jeffrey Pullicino Orland M.P.”

Nice isn’t it? Jeffrez informs the Speaker that (a) he no longer forms part of the PN parliamentary group, (b) that he does not consider the PN parliamentary whip as having any form of authority over him, and (c) that he will serve the rest of his term as an independent member.

The Times then asked the Speaker’s office for more details and someone at the speaker’s office said that “Dr Pullicino Orlando explained that he considers himself as being in a coalition with the government and he will continue to support the government in parliament unless he declares otherwise for some specific motion or bill. ”

So Pullicino Orlando said, presumably over the phone, something that was clearly not specified in the letter. I’m guessing the term was used loosely because – as has been exhaustively explained before… IT’S NOT A COALITION. What really jars is that the Department of Information throws in this addendum conjuring up the ghost of coalitions. Here is how MaltaToday reported it:

“The statement, issued through the Department of Information, added that Pullicino Orlando is considering himself to be in coalition with government.”

It’s not irrelevant. This is a concerted attempt to denigrate the idea of a coalition. It is obvious to anyone who cares to invest a little time in informed research that the situation has nothing to do with a coalition. It is a crying shame if the Department of Information and/or the Speaker’s office has joined the idiots engaging in this kind of misinformation.

It’s cohabitation, stupid.

Categories
Satyre

Famous Cartoonist gets Memed

Yep. It’s the Wizard of Id. One particular clip of the famous cartoon has been used in electoral campaigns around the world. It has now found its way to the island of milk, honey and side-splitting political gags. It’s the classic quip about voters not necessarily being intelligent but the final speech bubble has been altered (photoshopped/treated) with different text according to convenience – implying each time what would be the consequence if there were more stupid people than intelligent voters. Thusly the Runs got their hands on one where the final speech bubble was made to say “Labor wins”. The original toon had the following words in the final bubble: “Then the best liar wins”

J’accuse has given its own “shtf” style twist… we opted for the corollary of “the best liar wins” bearing in mind the local political scenario. Click on the image below…

 

Categories
Satyre

One for the hits (ghax trendy)

Roll up, roll up. J’accuse throws in a token video to keep in touch with the trends on the pinker side of our internet. Have you checked out Tina “you’ve bin lookin’ at my boobies” il-Maltija yet? Doing the rounds on facebook:

Categories
Mediawatch

Cohabitation stupid.

Over at the Runs there seems to be some backtracking about whether or not the JPO-PN arrangement is actually a coalition. It would seem that someone more competent than Daphne wrote a guest-post upon invitation clarifying why the JPO and PN arrangement is not a coalition: An Independent-Nationalist, not a ‘coalition’. Well there’s nothing new there that we have not been saying before (More Lessons in Irrelevance – 19/07/12)) or that has not been said clearly by James Debono (This is not a coalition – 20/07/12).

There is an effort though to shoot down the term cohabitation:

So, please, let’s use political terms properly and correctly. ‘Cohabitation’ has also been floating around on the internet. But that only happens in France – and the United States, without the term being used as such – when a president with executive powers does not enjoy the support of the majority in the National Assembly, or in the case of the United Staes, of Congress.

Which is stretching things a little bit isn’t it? The anonymous guest poster does point to the UK example of a Conservative MP resigning the party whip and being called an Independent-Conservative. Bollocks. That’s not true. They are called nothing of the sort. They either resign the party whip and become independent or resign the party whip and cross the floor. Here is a list of British politicians who have done so since (hold your breath) 1698. There’s no such nonsense as an Independent-Conservative as there is no such nonsense as an Independent-Nationalist.

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando famously “felt liberated” after resigning from the Nationalist Party. He is no longer a member. He is not an Independent-Nationalist. He is an independent MP who has opted for cohabitation with the nationalist MPs on the strength of a number of terms. His vote is conditional on the PN adhering to the electoral manifesto.

He reiterated that he would continue to collaborate with the government on the points listed in the electoral programme but said it would be a mistake by the prime minister if he did not consult him on a one-on-one basis as agreed, on matters which were not specifically mentioned in the electoral programme. This also included the Budget.

There you go. It’s not a coalition. He is not an independent-nationalist.

It’s cohabitation, stupid.

How’s that for a snazzy t-shirt?