Category: Campaign 2013

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Campaign 2013

Snapshot #1: Busuttil – the gaffer from Europe?

When the John Dalli musical chairs finally came to an end the Nationalist Party thought that it had found itself a new champion. Simon Busuttil, the new party deputy leader was supposed to help start lifting the party out of the doldrums and more importantly he was to be the projected face of change. This blog took all this with a pinch of salt and even after the other new addition from Europe (Grech) was added on the Labour side of the equation we remained cautiously observant for one simple reason. We did not take the “new style from Europe” as an automatic given.

Simon had taken to stressing his lack of experience in the local way of doing politics and was a ready accomplice in the implication that he had developed a “european” style of politics in his stint at the EP. At the time J’accuse stopped short of applauding and simply asked: Show me the money.

Well by now we can definitely say that the nationalist party has been short changed. From his first exhortation to the PN masses to take their message to the grocer’s (did someone mention the moonies) to the latest slip regarding Deborah Schembri’s supposedly nationalist face, Simon has betrayed a knack to slip incredibly on all sort of contrived bananas. There’s something more than these obvious warts underlying the former EP star’s foray into Maltese politics. His reported interventions are still straight out of the partisan textbook – an us and them approach peppered with the kind of style typical of PN politicians that has often attracted the “arrogant” label. If change was meant to be then Simon did not deliver.

What seems to be at work here is the effect of the chasm between Brussels and the various locations of PN’s Tined ta’ Djalogu (Dialogue Tents). As a friend put it, Simon is suffering from the effects of on-the-ground politics that is ever so different from the detached picture he could have received in his time in Brussels. The EP after all is an (important) talk-box that cannot afford to work on partisan lines in the same manner as our “winner takes all” politics does. Simon would have liked to reap the benefits of his success in the EP and bring them over to Malta but he ignored one important factor.

The EP ambience creates success stories of MEPs across the political spectrum. There is no “winner takes all” in the EP, rather there is an institution working in its interests and (sometimes) in the interests of those who elected its members. The mere fact that so many political formations are represented proportionally in the parliament obliges MEPs to engage in reasoned discussion on real issues. Simon left that fertile ground and mistakenly assumed that he could achieve similar results in the Maltese environment.

What he did find is the antagonistic bipartisan system engaged in yet another nihilistic electoral campaign. Auctions for gimmicks, personality clashes and the media wars leave little space for Simon to practice what he had appreciated and benefited from in a European environment. So Simon switched to his instinct. He may deny having been active in party politics before leaving for Europe (even though he claims to have written the 2008 manifesto and programme) but he managed to adapt very quickly back to the old style partisan style.

Once the sums are made up it will probably turn out that the PN’s Simon gambit has not really paid out. The direst verdict is on our political system – the fields in which our politicians are allowed to flourish – it has proven to be much tougher and much more resistant than any supposedly “European” style that could have been imported.

Once again the greater losers are the voters. That, at least, remains an immutable universal truth.

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Campaign 2013

The J’accuse roundup on SBS

Yet another appointment down under with Marlene Cassandra Galea. J’accuse’s comments on the week in the campaign are once again available for streaming on the SBS site or by clicking on the link below. For some reason I feel obliged to explain to whoever reads (or in this case listens) to my blog that all opinions expressed in J’accuse are mine and mine only and are expressed in my personal capacity. They are in no way attributable to anyone else – particularly to anybody who works with me or (quite obviously) to the institution where I work.

 

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Campaign 2013 Satyre

A week in the Bananarepublic

This blog has had to slow down with the posts due to pressures beyond our control. We will be back over the weekend with a few summaries and reflections. In the meantime enjoy a slideshow of what the satirical facebook page Bananarepublic had to offer.

There’s more to politics than satire – no doubt about it but as a friend of mine (at least a fb friend) said: “today idealism has been thrown outside the window and we get messiahs to follow. Welcome to American politics in a British parliamentary system.” (That’s you Manny).

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Campaign 2013

A second republic on transfiguration avenue

Joseph Muscat is doing his damned best to impart a sense of history and gravitas to whatever grandiose plans he wants to unveil to the public. We are half way through the official election campaign (not to mention the fact that we have been in election mode for over 12 months) and the Labour party is calmly approving its election manifesto this evening. Idiots (that’s you the voters) have been told that the reason for this delay is that they could never cope with understanding all the proposals at once. As the idiots grovel at the pedestal of Muscat’s porta-podium he continues to shower a concoction of non-sequiturs replete with the ingredients of flimsy business jargon, spurious historical references (and misinterpretations such as the homosexual liberation of the 70’s) and sweeping populist statements.

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It works. God how it works. The idiots at large (please don’t be offended, I use idiots in the same way Dilbert would) just love it. Now they also have a mantra to repeat while Joseph shoots tautologies at them like there’s no tomorrow. “Uliedna …. Taghna Lkoll”, “Il-Bzulija… Taghna Lkoll”, “Il-Haddiema… Taghna Lkoll”. You’d only wish you had the time and the sort of financing parties get and you could attend one of these meetings with a huge sign – and just when Joseph is getting all het up again in his ill-fitting suit standing on the podium you could lift a board of your own… with just three letters: WTF.

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He’s gone to Lija this morning. At Transfiguration Avenue (how apt) or Belvedere (how not) he linked his next step to the 1919 assemblies of those audacious forefathers of ours busy fighting for self-government and a constitution. You see he had the setting in mind and he needed a grand achievement of the past as a background to make whatever he wanted to say sound as pompously grand. Then he let loose. He spoke of a Second Republic (given this was Transfiguration Avenue it’s a surprise it was not a second coming). He was giving us his own idea of a metamorphosis. He’s obliterated Labour and it’s history (which was not a bad idea if you needed to change it) but has given us this new “movement” that is all emptiness and nothing. It’s only redeeming factor for most idiots (that’s us again) is that by voting for this mess we will get rid of the other mess that has been in government “too long” as they say.

What was this second republic? He wants a Convention so that people other than politicians could take part in drafting what will probably be a Kostituzzjoni Taghna Lkoll. Given his party’s track record on piecing together a recognisable plan or document I should be forgiven if I don’t hold my breath. Joseph must have been inspired by the EU’s Constitutional Convention which met around the time he was rabidly and vociferously explaining to all why the EU was nothing less than the result of an infelix coniunctio of the spawn of satan. Now he claims that he wants a Convention to make the Constitution a European (not post-colonial) constitution.

The pillars of the second republic? Electoral reform – this from the party that has contrived (together with the bunch of macchiavellian populists across the parliament floor)  to engage in all forms of filibustering techniques à-la-maltaise to block any form of sensible change: from electoral reform to party financing. And if you believe the electoral calls for this kind of laws then I’m sorry you qualify for Prime Idiot (that’s a new award here at J’accuse).

Next pillar: neutrality. Labour is still struggling with this one. It’s all the heritage of Mintoff’s dearest insistence. We have found ways to go around it though there would be no harm in redefining this obsolete clause – not exactly Second Republic groundbreaking material.

Then Joseph went all Orwellian. He probably sat up watching the sad show that was Bondi+ yesterday and when for the umpteenth time Lou could not hide his blatant partiality Joseph must have done what he always does: Spontaneous Bullshit Idea Generation. I know what we’ll do…. we’ll push for more regulation and entrench it in the constitution. The new constitution will strengthen the Broadcasting Authority by making it responsible for ALL media. We’ll then get the phenomenal rules inspired by idiot numbing exercises applied across the board.

That’s his Second Republic then. Cosmetic touch ups of electoral reform, a little tweaking of the neutrality clause and of course back to an Orwellian nightmare tightening controls  on freedom of expression. But so long as it is government by the idiot-elected, for the idiot-electors then it should be ok.

What Joseph Muscat’s sad intervention on Transfiguration Avenue ignored is that in order for our nation to really enter a Second Republic what is really needed is a tabula rasa – the stranglehold of the PL and PN on politics and how we do it must be broken. The prelude to a second republic would be the dismantling of the two parties or the breaking of the bipartisan mold with the election of a more representative democracy.

In our dreams. Il-Holma Taghna Lkoll.

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Campaign 2013

Funding Fundamentals

For my sins and for want of anything better to do in this snowstorm ridden evening I watched tonight’s edition of Bondi+. It’s been harder than usual getting down to write posts at the usual pace . There’s something about this campaign that is mind-numbing and I think that it is a combination of campaign fatigue and the shock of being constantly barraged with quips and propaganda that insult the average man’s intelligence.

I don’t know what Beppe (Fenech Adami) and Chris (Cardona) were supposed to be talking about and I suspect that Lou Bondi more than half hoped that the programme would be juicily concentrated on that new Nationalist protege and star Anglu Farrugia. Poor Anglu cannot help still being a political football and his repartees at Joseph Muscat have provided new fodder to the cliche-ridden PN campaign insofar as jibes at the Labour camp are concerned. What the two (and later three with the arrival of Arnold) did end up talking about was party financing and the links that each party has to big business.

Idiots – that’s you the voters – are supposed to be carefully measuring the different proofs of liaisons that each party has with big business and throwing onto their homemade scales the various calculations as to who spent how much and where the money has come. Idiots (that’s still you) will then be expected to vote for the lesser evil. That, I guess (but I’m no idiot myself), will be the one with less ties to business and less I.O.U.’s hanging around in the pockets of various contractors and other men who can practically foot a blank cheque in times of need.

You do have to be an idiot though not to see past the protestations of both parties. On the one hand you have the ridiculous nationalist party “barter” concept. You see, the PN barters with companies like MFCC and in return for the use of their tents it gives them…. erm… See I’m stuck there. What the hell could the PN be offering to barter? It’s not like air time on its debt-ridden stations is free? Allocating a million euros of air time (in exchange for a tent) would mean perforce that that air time is lost from other who might have actually paid for the service.  Cardona also presented Beppe with a court case – Europrint vs MediaLink. Now that’s sweet. MediaLink owes Europrint half a million. Where will they get that from?

Labour on the other hand also have a hunch that we are all idiots. Their campaign CANNOT have been funded by the telethons. Igloos don’t grow on  trees Chris and you can have many many volunteers with ideas that you think are great but you cannot barter ideas for material in much the same way that Borg Olivier is not bartering ideas for tents. And while we are at it enough with this bullshit about the parties publishing their accounts. First of all Labour walked out of the committee for democratic reform that not only put an end to the hope of electoral reform but also to any issue on party financing.

If you really believe that either the PL or PN will ever actually enact a law that shoots both of them in the foot then you are a prime idiot. Lawrence Gonzi was unable to answer questions about Paul Borg Olivier’s barter methods – it might after all be a trade secret you know. Labour has been known to hide behind sensitive commercial interests too. As for publishing expense accounts – how about we don’t wait till the end of this election and simply ask the PN to publish the expenses of each candidate for the European Parliament elections. They actually swore about that on oath you know…. and some candidates went on record about how ridiculous the whole business was (was it Georg Sapiano? – it’s a genuine query).

Which brings me to the matter that Arnold Cassola brought up. We had been regaled with a crossfire of bull between exponents of the two parties and an impartial show host then Arnold asked a simple question about something they could not really wriggle out of with lies. He asked a question about our money. My money. Your money. Everybody’s money. Taghna Lkoll as some would fart out robotically. He asked how the whole parliament – that’s 67 members from both sides –  unanimously approved a land concession to Nazzareno Vassallo’s MFCC while removing a guarantee clause that amounted to over one million euro. That’s your money. My money. Everybody’s money.

They voted it away. Vanished it. To help a businessman. They are the parties who either barter or spend their way to kingdom come safe in the knowledge that they cannot be caught by the laws they refuse to write. Safe in the knowledge that they will be back whether in government or in opposition.

Why will they be back? Because they count on a bunch of idiots voting them into parliament after having paid their bills to get in there.

Reap. Sow. As the hilarious Times headline went – PL/PN to give the people what they deserve. (I added PN for par condicio).

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Campaign 2013

Mistura

Jista’ jkun li l-qasam tas-satira fil-politika Maltija ħa spinta kbira waqt din l-elezzjoni. Li ma tantx naraw (jew aħjar nisimgħu) f’Malta huwa kummentarju ta’ tip ieħor li jmur lil hinn minn dak tal-kummentarji professjonali u/jew amatorjali. Qed nirreferi għall-influwenza dgħajfa tal-media mużikali bħala għodda ta’ riflessjoni. Il-mużika tintuża iva bi skop politiku biżżejjed insemmu l-aħħar kummiedja medjatika tal-PN li ħarġu bl-idea tal-karaoke tal-innu elettorali. Kull sena ukoll ikollna il-Festival tal-Indipendenza li diffiċli tieħu bis-serjeta u nimmaġina li hemm xi ekwivalenti Laburista ukoll.

Pero il-kantawtur – dak li jaqta’ feles mill-immaġni popolari u jdawwarha f’rima u mużika li taf tagħti immaġni daqs l-aqwa poster satiriku – jekk mhux iktar – huwa kważi assenti mix-xena mużikali Maltija. Diffiċli li tqiegħed ix-xogħolijiet ta’ Joe Demicoli fl-istess keffa għax jekk xejn huwa komiku u anki slapstick. Kellna il-one hit wonder ta’ Bundy li madanakollu kien laqat il-likk. Xi gruppi oħra li f’mumenti iktar kwieti tawna kliem u mużika miżgħuda b’temi soċjali forsi ma jħossux l-urġenza tal-kontribut immedjat.

Sieħbi Antonio Olivari ġibidli l-attenzjoni għal din il-biċċa mużika tal-grupp Mistura. Nieħu pjaċir noffri lil J’accuse bħala pjattaforma oħra biex tixxandar din it-tip ta’ mużika. Nittama li jkolli okkażjoni nagħmel hekk għal oħrajn ukoll. Inħalli lilkom tgħarblu l-kontenut.