Tag: PLPN

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Politics

Broken Bad the second

“We may be broke but we are not broken”. I may be paraphrasing Beppe Fenech Adami a little here but that was the thrust of his address on the granaries last night. Well, that’s too bad Beppe because I’ve chosen the title for this little series about the PN quandaries and it’s there to stay. Obviously I do believe that the party is pretty broken besides being broke and I will not deny that the not so subtle reference to one of the greatest series ever written for TV made the choice of this title much much simpler.

Having got that off my chest let me now turn to the PN Leader’s speech last night. Simon Busuttil switched away from reminding us how Joseph Muscat has lost his map and for one night seems to have focused on his own house that needs setting in order. This is the right time of course in which the PN can engage in a little introspection and the granaries is the right forum for such introspection to be given the seal of approval. Busuttil told the crowd that the PN has always had vision and has had vision for 49 years and he added that the PN still has vision now. But does it?

Some readers will hopefully forgive me for another reference to Guy Ritchie’s movies but all that talk about vision reminded me of a Vinnie Jones speech in Snatch – he had an idea about what exactly it is that has drive and clarity of vision, he was not too impressed about its cleverness though. The thing is I have an aversion to party conference/mass meeting/staged event rhetoric and that aversion is deeply rooted in the fact that most times the basic building block of such rhetoric is good old bull. The point about having vision is not that you talk about it but that you act upon it. You see Simon, to people like me your talk about having vision is not very different from Joseph Muscat’s talk about having a road map.

Six months have passed since the ignominious thrashing at the polls for the PN. During those six months it was supposed to go through the inevitable “sackcloth” moment that involves a diet of humble pie and much (very much) introspection. During those six months we did not expect the PN to renege on its constitutional responsibility to act as an opposition and guardian. The latter work comes as second nature of course but its importance should never be underestimated – the opposition has a very important role to play within our constitutional structure and an important part of that task is keeping the government in check when it comes to seeing whether it is delivering what it promised.

But that’s not what the “vision” bit is about. The vision bit is directly linked to what I spoke about in the first part of this series. The PN is supposed to be asking itself what kind of party it wants to be. In a way it needs to be reinventing itself to a certain extent – particularly if it does not want to fall into the same ruts of the past. It is encouraging (very) to see Simon Busuttil distinguishing between the politics of salesmanship and the real politics of values. What is not really credible is the assertion that the PN has already found its vision. Really?

Unless this vision has been cloned from some outside source there have been little clues to show that the PN is reforming its forma mentis and that it has developed a new basic building block upon which to build a real plan that can be pitched to the voters eventually. Nobody is expecting the PN to come up with an electoral manifesto as of yesterday and to be honest we would even be prepared to wait a little longer than six months given the structural deficiencies (administratively speaking) within which such intellectual revival needs to take place. In the meantime though I would dare suggest that the PN undertakes an exercise of intellectual honesty with its closest members as well as with the more discerning of voters.

“We have worn the sackcloth, we repent, we recognise where we need to go and we are beginning to work to get there” would have been a splendid start. Throw in an appeal for involvement that does not smack of a recruitment campaign for billboards and yes-men (and women) and you might just be on the right track.

Returning the nationalist party to the value-driven movement that is built on the value of the human being and his potential does not have to be a step back. It can be a step forward (as they like to say). It will take a bit of discipline to ignore the instincts and bad habits that have developed over the past.

It will mean that they don’t need to bother much about a few misplaced boos here and there.

Sticks and stones.

 

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Politics

The riot acts

It’s all happening in Rabat it seems. At is-Serkin to be exact. Rabat pastizzi and tea places have long been the rage for an after hours sobering up. There was a time when you would throw in the Tarxien doughnut guy – that was when the guy would go to the doughnut before the doughnut began to come… everywhere. Turns out that at 5 a.m. this morning there was some form of altercation between an employee of PN Dar Centrali and the two renegades Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and Franco Debono. Depending on which news source you read there was some form of provocation from one side and the Taghna Lkoll appointees who had shot to stardom under a nationalist administration are on record to have directed a barrow load of invective against anything “nationalist”.

Five a.m. in Rabat eh. We’re not exactly back to the Raymond Caruana drive by scenarios (God rest his soul) but by the look of it this morning you get the feeling that the PN side of the equation are dying hard to portray this event as a prelude of such things to come. (I mean we DO have a monument to Mintoff in the making – and displayed at Labour HQ to boot – Ghax Taghna Lkoll means tal-Lejber). On the other hand my facebook wall is already witnessing mocking comments by Labourite “supporters” of the young nationalist stalwart whose description of the action makes him sound like some Harry Potter being attacked by Death Eaters.

The tableau remains the same. Two politicians long past their sell-by date have engaged in yet another public performance that should in normal non-Banana Republic countries spell the end of their public commitments and engagements. A reluctant opposition still insists on referring to JPO and Franco without reminding the public of their roles – you get the feeling that the PN is (1) painfully aware of its limitations at this current junction and is not too eager to rock the boat and (2) quite tellingly the PN remains even more painfully aware that it was the springboard for JPO’s and Franco’s claim to fame. It was after all PN votes that got JPO into parliament (spin and all). And Joseph? What will he do this time round? Surely not another quip about something that ‘also happened under the nationalists” (it didn’t by the way).

These are the politicians of this Banana republic of ours. Now it’s down to brawls in nightspots. Oh yes J’accuse will express sincere solidarity with any victim of senseless violence. If punches were thrown then the aggressor must not only be condemned verbally but must be brought to justice. Things might be about to go out of hand thanks to the persistence of our dichotomous way of thinking. I look at the scene as it was reported and I do not see Nicky Azzopardi, Franco Debono and Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando brawling outside a pastizzi and newspaper joint.

I see the continuation of a race to mediocrity that is far from over.

Ghamilli te vojt u tlieta irkotta. Le… x’gazzetti? Ma tafx li ilni ghomor ma nixtri gazzetta?

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Politics

Grabbing the iced buns

Iced buns are quite the talk of the town thanks to Muscat’s very unique interpretation of meritocracy. Norman Hamilton’s appointment as High Commissioner in Britain is the latest in a long line of appointments that have absolutely nothing to do with merit and much to do with “partitocracy”. Taghna Lkoll’s labour are not reinventing the wheel, we’ve been there before but never with such brazen partisanism. It’s as though the only reason Labour wanted to get elected was to dig its teeth in a huge cake and there seems to be a sense of urgency in all this – as though the cake might finish tomorrow.

It’s across the board. Across the boards actually. Nothing is spared. Justice, environment, diplomacy, culture… you name it the’ve got a board, directorship, charimanship or some other magic chair to fill. There is absolutely no direct correlation between the person nominated and the job in question – which is where Labour is actually going out on a limb. There is no attempt to colour the nominations with any semblance of competence or adequacy, the only justification spouting from the acolytes of the TaghnaLkoll creed is that “now it is our turn” or that “you can only trust our own”.

Such a parody of a political system defies comment through its very existence as a real life caricature. Everyone can see how naked the Emperor is it’s just that they still cannot get over how brazen he is about his nudity. Meanwhile the consequences of a more subtle iced bun distribution network gone wrong are being felt among the opposition. The horse-trading that went on behind the scenes in the nationalist party camp had already been partially exposed thanks to the Borg Olivier gaffes about his “barter” system. Businesses and commerce would have been quite happy with preferential treatment and a rather generous credit system “mal-partit” if their workings were facilitated by the party in power. Lose the power, lose the credit.

Before you know it l-istamperija is history. You know, the stamperija is the kind of place that allows the PLPN parties to conduct multimillion print and poster campaigns without batting an eyelid. Obviously right now the Labour side of credit must be basking in sunlight. No closing time for the Labour equivalent of stamperija yet because Labouris now in the driving seat of the iced bun business. Sure, Labour will bumble it much faster than any amount of PN sugary pastry scheme could – simply by way of the inability to moderate its hunger for power – but yes we are still very much in the field of same, same but different.

The biggest problem with Labour’s idea of managing the iced bun business is that Labour seems to have even less of an appreciation of the fragility of the whole power system. The Labour Horde of pretenders to iced buns have been unleashed on a Castille Palace that must seem to them what the witche’s Candy House seemed to Hansel and Gretel. The tentacles of the Labour orgy have spread into sensitive areas such as justice and diplomacy. That is very dangerous territory. Meanwhile a civil service that was very much constructed to work the EU machine is being slowly dismantled to allow inexperienced pretenders to take their places in various directorships… expect a ticking time bomb there – not because of any sabotage by nationalist civil servants but simply because the lock stock change being imposed by the iced bun brigade is simply unsustainable.

In short, the Iced Bun system is simply a progressive increase on what was already there in another form. That does not make the new Iced Bun system any more acceptable than the previous one. But it seems that in the world of PN vs PL all that it takes to be ahead is to be “same, same but different”.

Thank you very much PLPN.

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Politics

Minority reports

If it is up to the victors to write history then the losers are busy writing reports. That is just what the PN has just finished doing and it has published an executive summary of this analysis of the 2013 election result. Chaired by the papabile Anne Fenech the committee produced a litany of reasons divided into three parts: Why the Nationalist party lost, Why the Labour party won, and a part that includes suggestions for the future. Unlike the trend in Labour documents the executive summary does not have an obsession with numbering (check out the Law Commission’s latest report for a veritable OCD of numbering) but contains a list all the same. In the words of Eco “We like lists because we don’t want to die“.

In actual fact the first two lists are just a survey – a sort of vox pop  the likes of which could have been obtained by any kind of survey company operating on the market. They are not in themselves the reasons why the nationalist party lost the election (or why Labour won) – they are the reasons why people did not vote for the PN and voted for the PL (sometimes, but not always, “instead” could fit at the end of that sentence). It might seem to be the same but it is different. A survey company would only have omitted those grating praises of the outgoing nationalist party and its achievements (the truth is hard to swallow indeed).

As a political party (and for heavens’ sake don’t give me the movement crap), the Nationalist party is duty bound to look deeper into its soul than simply listing the ills of the people in a quasi-maniacal manner. Idiots without a clue about politics had come up with such lists and polluted the facebook pages with obsessive statuses much before the commission could even start applying its enigmatic PESTLE approach (Ghallinqas kelli ragun fuq din). Worse still the report falls short (but only just) of blaming an ungrateful electorate for not rewarding a highly successful administration – admittedly the temptation is always there (just look at AD).

The report also risks glorifying Joseph Muscat’s “success” notwithstanding the jibes and qualifications that are present at every point in part two. The two lists  – the anti-PN grievances and the analysis of the carrots that Labour distributed for its success – are dangerous in that they seem to push the PN into the ugly ground of emulating the Taghna Lkoll formula. That formula is not about politics but about marketing and building on dissatisfaction. It is the push towards the most mediocre of “political” methodologies represented by a manipulation of people’s needs in order to get into power (promising Turkeys to abolish Christmas) followed up by a display of ineptitude, abuse and lack of direction once such power is achieved.

The PN is in a much luckier position than AD in that it holds the lucky seat of alternation and the dice are seriously tricked in its favour when it comes to having to convince a Labour voter to switch back to itself. The committee is aware of this and has grounded its third part on that type of recommendation – of bringing voter into the fold of this “familja nazzjonalista”. J’accuse has always found this hermeneutic apartheid that grounds our political thinking both distasteful and counterproductive. The labour backlash in government is also a result of this way of thinking.

What the PN needs is to think different. To think outside the box. It risks wasting lots of precious time falsely “rebuilding” by thinking in the same terms as its Commission. What the PN really requires at this point is a look within itself – a hard thought evaluation about what the party means and what it wants to achieve for itself but more importantly for the nation. it needs to ask important questions that define its value and ethical make-up and build upon that block. As the Golden Circle goes it needs to be asking less about what it does or how it does it and focus much, much more on Why.

Once that message is clear Chris Said’s horses and men can begin to put Humpty together again.

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Politics

The Emperor’s Purse

Much like what happened in the case of his new clothes, the emperor’s purse and his dealings with it tend to be talked about in a very circumstantial manner. The norm is either that of criticising the corrupt wastage or applauding some genius plan – much depends on which side one’s bread is buttered. There are a few reflections to be made as to recent developments in matters relating to the Emperor’s purse.

First up, the Emperor in government. We read that the Commission has recommended the opening of an Excessive Deficit Procedure against Malta and that Malta is the only EU state that will be facing this predicament. What it means is that since Malta has exceeded the 3% deficit threshold it will have to succumb to recommendations and suggestions by the Council as to how it could reduce that figure to below 3%. Still geared in “opposition” thinking, the Taghnalkoll government is eager to put the blame on its predecessor – insofar as the existence of the excessive deficit is concerned (and this even after Muscat claimed that he did not want to make a political football out of it).

There is a contradiction that was identifiable early on – while cost-cutting measures such as creating the world’s first part-time eternal flame were still being announced  (and less than 10,000 euros will be saved by the cabinet that is costing the citizen 60 million 6 million euro more than the previous per year) we heard this absolute gem from the government in reaction to the Commission’s assessment:

Although Malta is the only country set to be placed under fresh EDP, the Maltese government insisted that the Commission’s recommendations were a positive sign for its own economic and fiscal plan in its reaction to them this afternoon. It pointed out that the Commission did not impose additional measures on the country’s budget, stating that this showed its confidence in the new government’s plan.

Which is great no? Only there is one big flaw. Everybody who is anybody knows that the budget referred to in this quote is the same budget that was first voted against by the current government (disguised as a constructive opposition) then approved quickly once it was in government (disguised as a progressive government). Whatsmore that budget is the very same budget devised by that devious and scheming ex-Minister Tonio Fenech – yep, the Nationalist Party In Government Budget. So the emperor is lying… because if anything the fact that the commission did not deem fit to impose additional  measures on the country’s budget only goes to show that the previous stewards of our financial ship had steadied it in the right direction.

Which brings me to the stewards’ current predicament. The appointment of Ray Bugeja to head the PN commission on party finances has been hailed as excellent because the commission is supposedly full of competent people. The whole hand clapping and back slapping exercise might still prove to be futile because what many people are failing to see (or to want to see) is that this is not the case of a company with a profitable product needing tweaking. This is a political party that operates very much in the PLPN tried and tested system of bartering that is only another way of trading in influence.

Short of recommending a complete meltdown of debt-carrying party “resources” there is little that any bunch of King’s Men could do in an honest fashion to put this particular Humpty Dumpty together again. Though the work of Bugeja’s commission is shrouded in economic terms (Sibna sponsor!) the truth remains that it is an issue of party finances and financing – one that has recently been pushed to the discussion table without any particular happy ending in sight. It is a political and maybe even a constitutional issue that will only be solved superficially by an internal party committee. Bugeja’s work seems doomed to be a rubber stamp for more bartering systems, more trading in influence… in short more of the same.

Unless of course the PN gets serious about the business of politics and abandons that very damaging route of politics of business. Int taf x’ifisser!

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Values

Parties crossing the threshold of faith

If René Descartes and Anselm of Canterbury met in a fictitious room in some other dimension we cannot be sure what the resulting conversation would be. Provided they overcome linguistic difficulties of sorts (but heck, if we create the fictitious room we can create a Douglas Adams Babel Fish – or they could just both revert to Latin, simples) there is a high probability that at some point they might bring up the two maxims with which they are closely associated. For every “Cogito, ergo sum” shot by René we would have a “credo ut intelligam” from Anselm. Then again they might end up talking about something else altogether – like for example whether the fact that they were together in a fictitious room was proof enough of the existence of a God.

Leaving René and Anselm to their conversation, we could take a quick look at the Maltese political scene from a philosophical and sociological point of view. This blog’s fate is irreversibly linked with the “PLPN paradigm and theory” that links the hegemonic performance and presence of the two monoliths of Maltese politics to a general degradation of quality and value in political thought. The latest step in the evolution of Maltese politics – the Taghna Lkoll/Joseph Muscat phenomenon – has opened a new chapter in this saga and I’d like to think that it is one that confirms the general trend of dilution in quality.

In a way we are witnessing a delayed confirmation of sorts of the Fukuyama “End of History” notion that however takes into account new circumstances such as the forced abdication of ideological trends in favour of populist scenarios. Not only was the political game rigged to confirm the careerist mechanisms of the few (witness the semi-failure of the M5S in Italy to usurp the throne from the old system) but it managed to adapt further by eliminating any qualms of rigorous policy and adopting il qualunquismo (populist ideas that please everyone and everything).

Revolutions whether Orange, Silk or Arab seem to have only served to change the actors but not the methodology. Potestas omnia corrumpit? Not only. Do not forget the concurrent revolution in systems of communication – the massive power of tweets, facebook and direct marketing. The irony is that the democratisation of the media has been accompanied by a post-9/11 adaptation of Orwellian Newspeak – witness the shift of the hegemony to the new methods of delivery – and the consequent blatant violation of data protection and rights in the local scenario.

The most shocking aspect of this all was not the adaptation of the hegemonic forces to the new ways of promotion, nor was their unabashed abandonment of principled policy in favour of pragmatic manoeuvring. What shocked was the unquestioning acceptance of their methods by the larger part of the population. “Jiena nemmen f’Joseph ghax iwettaq dak li jwieghed” (I believe in Joseph because he delivers what he promises”) went one of the pre-electoral ads. Even if we were to cast aside the blatant fallacy that was underlined by the fact that Joseph had hitherto never had any occasion to deliver anything we are still left with an important groundbreaking statement – one of belief. Faith.

“I believe in Joseph”. Sure the vocabulary was not new to the Maltese political scene that linguistically crosses the borders of emotions (pain, suffering, glory, guidance, shepherding) but this time there was an even deeper pronouncement of faith. The profession of faith was transformed into a mantra – the Taghna Lkoll – of words, words and more words. Meanwhile Joseph divested the party of its very essence – this was no longer a party, it was a movement. If you believed in Joseph then you were part of the movement and this would include apostates from the other big religion in the country.

The party had transformed itself into a sect of unquestioning believers attracted on the back of various emotional baits such as anger, promises of merit, undeliverable plans of solving the energy dilemma as well as individualised packages such as free for all for hunters or those crazy campaign moments when tablets were promised to all. If you needed proof of this you had to wait no longer than 50 days from the movement’s ascension to power. Gone was the meritocracy, the promises on energy were teetering and amended while the true cost of bandwagon promises began to be seen as in the case of the hunting farce (and Galdes’ infamous loophole jibe). Did the acolytes protest? Hell no. At least this government was not the previous one. It could commit the same indecencies, it could vote itself more expensive costs but so long as it was not the devil incarnate as announced by Joseph in his book then it was AOK.

It’s dangerous, this sect business is. It is far, far worse than a political party abusing of its relative majority to create a wider gap from the people. Meanwhile on the other side of the dichotomy there do not seem to be signs of an abating of the trend towards relative nullity. Sure, the pomp and circumstance of Nationalist camaraderie was respected through and through in the leadership election and the “look no backstabs” performance might have gone down well with the general public still finding it hard to digest the Franco Debono indigestion. Still though, was so much politeness and mutual deference really necessary? (L-aqwa li “well behaved”).

The eagerness of the nationalist milieu to anoint a leader with as little acrimony as possible does not bode well. “We are all behind Simon” is not necessarily a good thing given that in more ways than one Simon Busuttil remains a virgin to local politics barring his stuttering performances in the last general election. The early signs of a “solution” within the PN fold stinks very much of the sectarian option that Labour has so successfully adopted. Less critique and more monolothic acceptance seems to be the order of the day – allowing parties to spout nonsense wrapped and packaged in propagandistic bling.

If the PN really does go the PL way then we have the two parties finally crossing the threshold of faith. Less cogito and much more credo. The Maltese have a saying “iwiegħed l-ilma jiżfen“(literally “to promise dancing water” best translated as “to promise the moon”).

Our parties have long shifted to promises of moons and dancing waters. The danger is that instead of questioning them and their policies more and more of us are preferring to believe.

Amen.