Prime Minister Gonzi’s letter to the Times is a rarity by local political terms. It takes quite a provocation for a PM to put pen to paper and express his thoughts in a letters page on one of the local rags. Foreign leaders are wont to this kind of behaviour although more often than not it is a representative from the government leader’s office (the cursèd spokesperson) who will perform the necessary duties or clarifications. On several occasions, foreign leaders have been known to take up column space in reputable papers with their wisdom or in their own defence. From Sarkozy to Blair to most Italian leaders it is quite a normal act to follow.
What was strangely interesting about Prime Minister Gonzi’s letter was not simply the form (a letter not an article) which could simply explained by the concept of answering like with like but the reason for this foray into the letters pages while wearing the hat of prime minister. PM Gonzi had been disturbed by a badly constructed accusation in a previous letter, or so it seemed if your attention was alerted to the issue by the PM’s letter.
If like me, you worked backwards – checking out what caused our PM’s foray – you discovered firstly that there were actually two letters using the title referred to by the PM (Upholder of Values or Downright Bigots). The first was by a JBB (Joseph Bonnett Balzan – and not the regular j’accuse reader) and the other by the erstwhile scourge of nationalist writings Mr Eddie Privitera. You needed further clues as to who exactly PM Gonzi was referring to since he had omitted to distinguish between letter (1) and letter (2).
Which led you to the quote lifted from the letter. Dr Gonzi had taken umbrage in particular to this phrase: ““… taken of the law into his hands with fatal consequences…”. Which is more of an unfinished phrase and a misquote to be honest. The full quote, not to take things out of context should have been:
The rebel boy must thank his lucky stars that we are living in a somewhat more enlightened time than two decades ago, though occasionally the news reaches us that an estranged husband has taken the law into his hands with fatal consequence for the adulterer
Now Bonnett Balzan’s letter is an illustration of anything but the “enlightened times” that he refers to and the author is a perfect example of conservative, ignorant bigotry (how’s that for heavy language). Had I been the PM I would have found many more phrases to object to than the one I just quoted – particularly the veiled references to Islam at the end of the letter. Apart from that Bonnett Balzan’s lingo is astonishingly similar to much of the crap that passes for intelligent discussion on blog comment boards nowadays.
The curious incident of the partial quotation waters down the import of Gonzi’s reaction. At the end of the day what the PM actually quotes can mean a myriad other things and is not really a jibe at “means justifies the end for politicians” as Dr Gonzi would have us believe. Bonnett Balzan, speaking from his stylite pulpit, is simply reminding us of the not too infrequent recourse to violent means taken by husbands who have discovered an adulterer in their midst. Stoning anyone?
Bonnett Balzan’s condescending bullshit is just that. All the “rebel boy”, “adulterer”, “honorable” lingo makes Bonnett stand out as a miserable version of Malta’s conservativism without the need of a Prime Minister going out of his way to point that out. So what was Gonzi’s point I hear you ask?
Well. It is baffling. Why react? More importantly why misquote? After all Bonnett B is a fervent (never a more appropriate word) admirer of the “job-creating Prime Minister” and not your average Eddie Privitera. The title of the letter should give us a clue: “In favour of mature debate”. Really? Where has the PM and his office been the last few years? Something must be on his mind now. He was quoted by Maltatoday as having said that “political discourse is degenerating” to which the J’accuse facebook reply was “about time someone noticed”.
Then there is the business of the misquote. It is deliberate. It is deliberate because the PM then leads on to the catholic lesson of the day: “Whatever the circumstances, I will never endorse an approach where “the end justifies the means”, even when the end is a noble cause.” Presumably he would never backstab political allies on the eve of an election after a pro-EU campaign conducted hand in hand. Or presumably Dr Gonzi is reminding people like Bonnett Balzan that he will not participate in pontificating bigotry.
Then PM Gonzi went on to issue a blanket condemnation. A sort of veiled fatwa from the state’s head:
I condemn all hatred expressed in all circumstances and reiterate my appeal to all concerned to keep political language within the bounds of what should be acceptable in a mature democratic society.
Which should really get some blogs thinking. Mature? Now where have I heard that word before.
