Tag: Joseph Muscat

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Mediawatch Politics

Political prestidigitation

So they set up a Foundation to organise national festivities. So far so normal. This is after all the Malta of Saints and Fireworks where every raħal worth its globigerina limestone has at least one Kumitat tal-Festi. This is the country of the xalati and illum il-festa tagħna so the setting up of a Kumitat tal-Festi Tagħna Lkoll was just waiting to happen. No surprises there. It was even less of a surprise given how Joseph Muscat has been harping on emptily about some kind of breaking of barriers insofar as the “us and them” is concerned. The fans of the PLPN crowd have long obsessed about the greatest national holiday and about how divisive their respective celebrations can be. In truth the approach to each of our nation’s dates with history simply betrays a shallowness bred out of partisan ignorance and stereotyped fallacies.

Back to the Foundation though. The news causing greatest ripples across all the media was the appointment of Where’s Everybody main man Lou Bondi to the same Foundation. Oliver Friggieri would be chairing the committee and one sincerely hopes that his current health  situation will allow him to provide a decent input, whatever that may be, given the already limited (and doomed) remit of the Foundation. What really I found really jarring at the moment of the announcement of the committee members was the importance given in Malta to a new kind of professional – “the TV personality”.

Back to Bondi though. The net – especially the net – exploded with expressions of dismay bordering on angst as many a hardcore Labour supporter expressed his disdain that a member of the EvilGonziClique had been given a place in the wider court of this government’s workings.Everybody knows that Lou Bondi would  feature close to the top of a Labour hate list – trumped only by the one they refer to as the Witch from Bidnija and a close competitor to Lawrence Gonzi himself. And here he was – Lou Bondi – entrusted with the organisation of the nth anniversary of Jum il-ħelsien. Horror. Surely Dom would be turning in his grave.

The beauty of it all was also the reaction from the nationalist side of the national whinge fest. Apparently Bondi had just lost his credentials as a decent journalist. Really? Caruana Galizia even attempted to twist and turn the argument on its head by affirming that Bondi was not a partial journalist and that it was his impartiality that was being rewarded. In a world gone mad it was only another hapless voice to add to the chorus of dismayed and angered oohs and aahs.

The real winner in all this? Joseph Muscat. Not only has he set up a Foundation that is basically there to perpetrate the mental masturbation of an idea that is “reconciliation through celebration of all our national days”. Not just that. He has appointed one of the most hated personas in the Labour, chip-on-the-shoulder based, psyche to the very same Foundation that is supposed to be a stepping stone towards the breaking down of the “us and them” barriers. Chapeau. Really. A magician’s hat from which to extract the rabbit.

 Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”. – The Prestige

We all saw the object. The object was the inherent contradiction. “What? Lou Bondi appointed onto a board by the Prime Minister himself? Had we missed his billboard where he expressed blind belief in everything Joseph does?” We were supposed to be awed. Stunned. The wizard behind the curtain had his eyes on a bigger picture. Most talk and criticisim in the first 100 days of Labour rule has been about the way meritocracy was thrown out of the window. Merit was scratched from the vocabulary as billboard folk were appointed to government posts and most of the Super One workforce shifted to ministerial salaries. What happened next came as a surprise. All of a sudden you had the most nationalist of nationalists – a hated journalist, friend of the witch, cousin of one of the most disliked Ministers – elevated to a government appointed position.

It’s one big distraction. The biggest yet. While everyone and everybody complained we would forget the Marshalls, the Testas, and the Micallefs of this world. Muscat became the magnanimous. Too magnanimous. Under Muscat EVEN Lou Bondi gets a blessing. We even forgot to ask what this committee is really about and how important it really is. Prestidigitation took care of that. Just like the idea of building a bridge to Gozo. Now that’s a project that could only be conceived or supported by a Baldrick or an equivalent turnip. Muscat has not built the bridge and I am prepared to wager that it will not be built. What we have is the prestidigitation – the signing of contracts with the Chinese and the illusion that “we are thinking about it”.

All you needed to complete the magic trick was the couple of hired hacks who would sell the tenuous argument that all the unmeritocratic change that has been happening is normal and should have been expected. Give them the chance to look shocked and slightly angry that Muscat went so far as to appoint Bondi – it gives them an amount of cred doesn’t it?

The truth? The truth is that a wave of politically motivated appointments should not be normal and is not to be expected, no. That’s bullshit – particularly coming from supposed pundits and ex-columnists. When combined with all the talk of reconciliation and new way of doing politics, the wave of appointments simply confirms that the Labour government is one big magic trick that only needs a not too particularly alert audience to notice the scam that lies beneath the surface.

So while you whinge and whine about whether Bondi should have been appointed to a post by Muscat, or whether he should have accepted, remember that you are wasting your time.

Try to stop looking at the rabbit and the hat or at the magician’s eyes… look at his lips instead… that smirk on his face will speak a thousand words.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”


 

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Politics Uncategorized

The nonsense of politics

When the party in government fails to notice that it is actually in government after more than hundred days that it has been warming the seat of power then what you have is a bomb that is ticking away waiting to explode. While the nationalist party’s Rapport tat-telfa (Election defeat report) was published last week, the future Labour party’s report is actually a work in progress – being drafted daily by the government, the party and its apologists.

The ethics of convenience

The Franco Mercieca affair was a perfect litmus test to illustrate what is going on. The red lights flashed at so many levels that it was impossible to keep up. First of all, and most importantly, was the blatant disregard of the concept of a Code of Ethics and how it should work. A code of ethics, by its very nature, works only when there is no waiver. A “waiver” – whatever that means in Taghna Lkoll talk – flies in the face of the very purpose of why a code of ethics exist. [Note: I do not question whether the waiver was justified or not. I question whether the power of the Prime Minister to grant such a waiver does or should exist. It should not.] A code of ethics needs to be applied in a blanket manner. Should the need to apply a “waiver” arise then that should set the alarm bells ringing because what that really says is that a person appointed to a position within the cabinet has an ethical conflict of interest. The question is not whether he should get a waiver but whether he should still hold that position.

Much has been made of the unique healing qualities of Franco Mercieca. Even if it were so and this Gozitan turns out to be more efficient than the Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary votive section that should only mean that Franco Mercieca’s place is more valuable in his clinic than on a seat in the patchwork cabinet  formed at the Taghna Lkoll horse-trading market. Joseph Muscat can glare at the questioning press all he likes and qualify his Imperial Waiver with all the postillas and caveats that he may invent on the spot. He may even come up with witty retorts about past deeds of the Evil Gonzi clan. None of that lessens the fact that this cabinet’s operation insofar as conflicts and interests are concerned seems to be fast requiring a Manuel Mallia Amnesty – or better a box of amnesia pills. Thank god that the Taghna Lkoll Pills seem to still work on the general congregation.

Before you accuse me

There’s a story in the Indy this week. It’s a follow up to the saga at San Vincent de Paule residence where the order of the day seems to have been a series of musical chairs and “politically motivated” transfers. SVDP is not the first, nor the last, of workplaces where “meritocratic” moves are being put into effect. I know of a particularly jarring story of a career diplomat in the foreign affairs who found himself plonked on a desk rubber stamping papers from one day to the next – you know because in this case meritocracy means: “if you run for a local council on the PN ticket then you deserve to be demoted to nothingness”. Back to SVPR. The botta e risposta by the two parties is interesting if only for the manner in which it throws us back aeons in political development. The race to  mediocrity is still on ladies and gentlemen.

Having first transferred some workers then returned them to the original job after reactions from Unions (UHM of course – we’re back to the blue and red union delineation) the Labour party issues one of its Newspeak reactions peppered with TaghnaLkoll talk. The useless transfer and re-transfer were apparently made because “the government listens” and “is working to find solutions”. The TaghnaLkoll release continues “The decisions taken were all in the best interests”. Really?

It all makes sense now. “Jiena nemmen f’Joseph ghax hu jemmen fija”. You’d be surprised how many people there are out there ready to believe the shoddy explanations coming out of TaghnaLkoll HQ. The nationalist party better pull its socks up and stop flirting with the marketing politics of Joseph Muscat. Forget the TeamPN cock and bull and get down to some real team building. The country has had enough of rhetoric…  in fact it is drowning in it and risks becoming a lost Atlantis.

 

The Nationalist Party has called on Social Solidarity Minister Marie Louise Coleiro Preca to apologise to workers who were transferred and later returned to their original job, rather than boast that the decision was reversed because the government listens. In a statement, spokesman Mario Galea said that the transfers were withdrawn after pressure from the UHM and the Opposition, and some are still to be reversed. On another matter, Mr Galea said that the government should stop the clique who had taken over the running of the hospital. It is a shame that the home has been turned into a political football with employees working with fear and tension. In a reply, the Labour Party said that the PN has not learnt the lessons of the election and is still a negative party. The PN had left the situation in shambles and was now criticising the Labour government for working to find solutions. The decisions taken were all in the best interests and agreed to with the union, the PL said. (The Malta Independent)

 

 

Categories
Campaign 2013

Snapshot #2 : Muscat – the Cheshire Cat

Muscat is another of the supposed “European” graduates and the Labour party will never cease reminding us that fact. Has the Labour leader delivered the revolution he had promised when he boldly stood on the stage and put his hand on heart stating “Inhobbkom”? We’ve been documenting the steps of this Labour party since the ex-Super One hack was proclaimed leader. Remember Labour in Labour? Remember all that hope and promise of a new direction? Well the product is there for all to see now.

It is evident that, unlike Simon Busuttil, Muscat quickly realised that there was not really much of the EP heritage that would really be useful in Malta. Sure you could bluff and boast about having sat shoulder to shoulder with an international mix of politicians and representatives. You could even have had your great moment when you refused to proceed unless Maltese interpretation could be provided. Beyond that nothing. Look at what the smiling and smug Muscat has produced in these election days and you will find anything but a European or Europeanist party.

Muscat’s solution was two fold. First of all Labour had to divest itself from being Labour. Hence the “Moviment” (they quickly dropped the progressiv business when many inherent contradictions became glaringly obvious). Muscat had learn the lesson from the PN spin team in 2008 – and the keyword here was taste. Voters are very particular about this and behind Muscat’s middle class promises lie a sensitivity to this particularly hypocritical self-assessment. A corollary of this cosmetic intervention is the apparent abolishing of “us and them” confrontational politics. This in itself was a double-sided coin. On the one hand Muscat’s movement needed to be seen as all inclusive (the magical Obama Chant Taghna Lkoll) while on the other hand if there was to be any “us and them” left it would have to be The Movement vs The Oligarchy/Clique/GonziPN leftovers.

So there was no longer a Labour party. Just a movement headed by one figure in a very presidential style approach that worked so well for GonziPN in 2008. Then came Muscat’s second part of the solution. This involved a heavy dose of populism and opportunism in policy framing that would be dished out in a breathtaking blitzkrieg approach that would not allow those who are supposed to assess it any time to think. The movement’s strategy is based on impressions – gay-friendliness, supposed green credentials and an infusion of hope that is really simply a polite way of saying “let’s get those bastards out of castille”.

You never get enough time to assess Muscat’s grin he’s already shifting and morphing to please someone else. To the seasoned political observer it is all plastic, inconsistent and very very evidently short term planning. It is also very dangerously a winning tactic. The problem with the Cheshire cat in the end was the fact that it could not be beheaded because there was no body to behead. Muscat is very much the same. His public appearances mean everything to everyone who really wants to believe that there is an alternative to that motley crew that is on it’s last hours of life. Look beneath the appearances and promises though and you find that there is nary a policy that can be holistically assessed beyond being the result of a “focus group generated policy” – which is only politispeak for “just promise whatever that particular segment wants and then we’ll deal with the consequence later.

Muscat is a star. He has fit perfectly with the Maltese way of doing politics by concocting the combined formula of cosmetic blitzkrieg and bandwagon hopping. He’s very very good at that. This will probably win the man the premiership of a country. Having seen the how of his enormous success at the polls should lead many to the obvious conclusion that he will not be so comfortable with the next step. it appears that even that conclusion is not enough to make voters change their mind.

I’d hate to see their face the moment the Cheshire Cat vanishes and we are left with an annoying grin hanging in the air.

Categories
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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Categories
Campaign 2013

He cannot be serious

Joseph Muscat’s reaction following the budget must qualify as one of the most unpredictable reactions ever. You’d expect him to state that this budget was a bloated cornucopia of pre-electoral gifts. You’d expect him to state that he did not believe the government would take it seriously given that Franco Debono’s (and don’t forget the Birthday Party man’s) threat loomed ominously behind it like a badly scripted haiku. You’d expect him, on a normal day, to dig into whatever he perceived as the flaws of the budget and (if there were any) the contradictions to be found therein.

But not Joseph. What does he do? Well he basically says that there is nothing wrong with this budget (he had already hinted that he would keep the “good bits” – that’s right I hate the blue M&Ms too) and then proceeds to say that the best government to implement this budget would be his labour government.

In the words of the tennis champion: “You cannot be serious!” After months upon months of faffing and foot shuffling about giving away an iota of a plan as to what labour would do once it is in government we now get the leader of the opposition seriously informing us is that his plan to come first in class is to steal his friends’ homework.

In un paese pieno di coglioni, ci mancano le palle.

Categories
Campaign 2013

Elephants, rooms and budgets

This budget is as much about the elephant in the room as it is about financial measures and planning. We came to the budget after almost a full calendar year of “will he, won’t he” insofar as Franco Debono was concerned and we had the extra leverage by the man who will henceforth be called The Birthday Party. We assumed that the PN would use the summer to pull its act together and prepare for the inevitable arrival of elections. Summer would allow PN to go into top gear and to stop playing second fiddle to the Labour party’s constant taunts – as well as to the opposition from within the party.

The battle has not been without attrition. Along the way Lawrence Gonzi publicly “lost” one of his greater generals (although there is no doubt that he is operating in the sidelines). Then came the Dalli tsunami. Convenient for the conspiracy theorists, it rid the PN of what most of the current crowd consider to be inconvenient baggage. That gave rise to the musical chairs that we are all familiar with. Tonio Borg was moved upstairs. Whatever blows that would be dealt to the PN with regard to the “conservative” label were considered to be fair game. The PN is cocksure enough to believe that the “liberal mass” can still be thumbscrewed into involuntary submission with the usual endgame formulas of “wasted votes” and “responsible government”. The social rights agenda will eventually be trumped by down to earth contrasts of the “old hat” type.

Tonio the homophobe will be replaced by Francis Zammit Dimech in a sort of prize for past performances – a Ministry for at most six months. Nobody’s kidding anyone. Zammit Dimech may be affable and loyal but under other circumstances he would be anything but top choice for the job. He is being trusted to muster that part of the ship until the elections (and yes, for the punctilious, a little after). Meanwhile the post of deputy leader is the subject of a trumped up battle between old and new while other stalwarts chose to sit back and watch. Will Simon or Tonio F. do the job? That remains to be seen. They still remain distractions from the final target.

Which brings me to the budget. Franco Debono has long called dibbs on the right to bring the government down by voting against the budget. Everybody knew that but the PM and his crew have been acting as though the elephant is not in the room. Which leaves an ugly sort of damocles sword on the whole business. How credible is a budget plan if we know that they knew it would not be approved? What is to stop the PN from promising the earth. Joseph Muscat tried to call the bluff by claiming he would keep the “good parts” but of course he will vote against the budget. Let’s leave him to his contradictions for now and ask the question: what is this budget for exactly?

Well the Pn obviously thinks that this budget will be an integral part of their pitch for a new mandate. They don’t care if the PL and Franco will not vote in its favour. They want to take it to the people. And the people as we know are not easily swayed.

Back to Joseph Muscat. He is displaying an amazing level of shortsightedness in this business. It is all about parliamentary custom and tradition. First he gives us the contradictory message of wanting to vote the government out by disapproving the budget but promising to keep the good parts. That was very much what the government wanted from him – to be able to expose the opportunist, power-hungry man that he is. The second, more important, mistake lies in Joseph Muscat aiding and abetting the lone rebel backbencher.

If Muscat were half the statesman he wishes to be then he would be operating differently. The interest of governance and governability would trump his greed for getting into government. He should not be reinforcing Franco Debono and that parliamentarian’s hara-kiri. At the end of the day the election is months away in any case – budget or no budget. Muscat could use this opportunity to pull the carpet from under Franco’s legs and be in command of his own party’s destiny. His best move would be to instruct two or more of his MPs (how many are necessary) to abstain in the budget vote. The budget would pass, without the vote of labour who would go on record as having voted against.

What would NOT happen is a backbencher being the cause of the downfall of a government. That is an important precedent for parliament. It would be an important precedent for Muscat’s party too. The PLPN would be sending out the message that they would not aid and abet any backbencher who suddenly develops a god complex. It is another important element for our constitutional democracy. Something that the progressive labourites should be able to understand without too much of a struggle.

Is Joseph Muscat capable of such a groundbreaking constitutional manoeuvre? I doubt it. His every act ever since he was made leader of the party has been directed to getting into Castille. Many would argue that that is his business. It may be, but it is not the primary duty of the leader of the opposition. That duty is to constructively oppose and contribute in the development of our fledgling democracy. But Joseph is too busy dealing with the elephant in the room.

In un paese pieno di coglioni, ci mancano le palle.