Reconciliation, ho ho ho

Still, for those who may have forgotten, this is roughly what we were promised in the Nationalist Party manifesto ahead of the May 1987 election: "that the Maltese shall once again live together as brothers and sisters".

Or words to that effect, anyway. The 'sisters' part, I admit, was a small addition of my own... English being slightly less hermaphroditic a language than Maltese. But the idea to couch the same concept in such obviously Biblical terms did not come from me. It came from whoever authored that manifesto; and while I'm not at all sure if this was their intention, the ultimate effect is to lend the same electoral promise the venerable aura of an Old Testament prophecy.

Hardly surprising, then, that it so spectacularly failed to ever come true. Quarter of a century later, it is more than evident that we are NOT 'living like brothers and sisters' at all. Unless, of course, the sort of 'brotherly relationship' they had in mind was also lifted from the Old Testament: specifically, that little bit about Cain bludgeoning his brother Abel to death.

Meanwhile, just in case we needed further reminding of this primitive "Me Labour, you PN" mentality that has so seriously stunted our growth... a certain 'Dom Mintoff' (you may have heard the name) had the unmitigated temerity to shuffle off his mortal coil this week: you know, just in time to precipitate a predictable avalanche of online bile and sheer, unadulterated smut.

And thus were we reminded that good old-fashioned Maltese political violence - verbal, on this occasion, but no less dangerous for that - clearly did not die along with the man so many people still seem to think invented the entire concept in the first place.

Which brings me back to that same forgotten promise of 'national reconciliation'. What went wrong, people? Why are we still so clearly chained to the past all these years later... with some of us still openly talking in such archaic and quite frankly idiotic terms as "Mintoffjani jintnu" and "Nazzjonalisti patentjati" - as if one side were composed of human beings, and the other side of... oh, I don't know... something manifestly less? And perhaps more pertinent than any of those questions: whose interest does this national culture of political hatred and violence really serve, anyway?

On the rare occasions I do ask such questions in conversation, I usually regret it pretty damn quick. I have heard people I previously considered 'intelligent' arguing that it is an inevitable consequence of being 'from the Mediterranean'... as though such things as 'pathological ignorance' and 'prejudice' are somehow fused into our genes as a result of having been born in one part of the world, as opposed to any other.

Apart from the sheer scientific implausibility of an explanation whereby behavioural traits would be passed on genetically from one generation to the next (I believe it's called 'Lamarckism' in biological circles, and has been dismissed as a fallacy for years), this explanation falls at the first practical hurdle, too.

If being 'from the Mediterranean' also means being primitive, ignorant and incapable of breaking the chains of a tribal bond that simply no longer makes sense in the modern world... then why are we the only European nation in the Med to still suffer from this disease? 

Let's take Italy for starters. There is no apparent demarcation line dividing Italian politics into two, like there is in Malta. Oh, sure, they have their 'destra' and their 'sinistra'... as do the Spaniards, the Greeks and so on. But in all these countries, the two ideological hemispheres are in turn subdivided into all manner of offshoots... from 'communists' to 'social democrats' to 'economic liberals' to 'centre-right social conservatives' to 'hardcore anti-immigration xenophobes', and beyond: each with a corresponding political party or movement to match.

Malta's political divide does not enjoy anything resembling that sort of complexity or sophistication. Not only is there a marked absence of any tier-system separating different gradations of 'left' and 'right' - but there isn't even any tangible 'left/right' axis anywhere to be seen. In terms of policy, there is nothing at all distinguishing the two polar extremes. The only political distinction that still retains any form of currency at all is... yes, you guessed it... 'Nazzjonalisti patentjati' on one side, and 'Laburistu jintnu' on the other.

Never mind that the 'Laburisti' occasionally act and sound every bit as outrageously rightwing as Lega Nord's Umberto Bossi: sometimes using the exact same phraseology, too (look under 'Michael Falzon' for further details). Never mind, too, that listening to Lawrence Gonzi at any given 'Taht It-Tinda' meeting, you'd be forgiven for assuming you had just stumbled upon the Annual International Marxist Convention, just as it was being addressed by Fidel Castro's slightly more radical cousin.

None of this is in any way important. What's important is that, come election time, both sides will turn to you for your vote, and when pressed for a reason - something that doesn't happen 99% of the time, by the way - they will look at you as if you just fell from another planet... and if they do say anything at all in reply, it will probably be something like: "Because - DUH! - if WE'RE not in power, THEY will be instead! I mean, HELLO-o ...", etc.

And I suppose it attests to the sheer extent of Malta's political sickness, that the above answer seems to work... every single time.

Coming back to Mintoff's passing, and the festival of sheer desultory triumphalism this seems to have automatically induced... well, I think I can supply another, slightly more convincing reason why neither the PN nor Labour has ever lifted a finger to elevate Malta from this ghastly political quagmire. It is the same reason why both sides have in their day (Labour's day having been some time ago now) clearly made it their mission to artificially exacerbate and aggravate existing tensions... each hoping against hope that their provocation will indeed precipitate an act of retaliatory violence - and the bloodier and deadlier the reaction, the better.

It works (roughly) like this: if the Nationalist and Labour parties will one day no longer be able rely on automatic support for the reason outlined above (i.e., if WE'RE not in power, THEY will be)... well, then they would actually have to work to achieve the same level of support.

That's right, folks: inconceivable as this concept is to the mindset of the 21st century Maltese politician: they would have to actually persuade us all to vote for them on the basis of their ideas... their policies... their general vision, and the direction they would like to take this country. And that, folks, inevitably translates directly into something called 'HARD WORK'.

Can you imagine? They would have to devise policies; come up with real solutions to existing problems. Propaganda would have to aim to persuade through reason... rather than simply try and frighten or threaten us all, as is so evidently happening today.

Reduced to its bare essentials, Malta's entire culture of political hatred and violence is really nothing but a shortcut for lazy political parties - and even more so, for the lazy people who depend on government handouts for their survival - to drum up instant electoral support which would otherwise have to be EARNED.

But then, what used to work in the past is now very clearly beginning to crack... and there are reliable surveys to prove it. So what do the political parties do, when they feel they can no longer automatically rely on support for purely tribal reasons?

Let's look at some recent examples, shall we? The pre-87 Labour Party's tactic was to cook up a national atmosphere of hatred and violence, encouraging the 'US vs THEM' mentality to unsustainable proportions... and when all else failed, they resorted to thuggish behaviour to frighten people into submission.

Today's Nationalists? They do exactly the same thing... mainly through the blogs that they pretend to have nothing to do with whatsoever. And the pattern works exactly the same way, too: first they spend weeks, months and years patiently demonising every aspect of the Opposition (not just the party, please note: oh no, the voters, too). They invest all their energy into creating a nationwide culture of hatred and violence, stepping up the intensity the closer we get to an election.

And as we all saw this week, they will capitalise on the death of a much-cherished former Labour icon - Dom Mintoff, no less - and vomit copiously upon his corpse before it even has a chance to get itself safely buried. And all along, they will be hoping against hope that some hot-headed old Mintoffjan somewhere will finally lose his cool, and, unable to withstand the provocation, give vent to a little old fashioned political violence of his own.

Then, predictable as an Old Testament prophecy, the desecrators of the dead will turn to us all, wide-eyed and horrified, and bleat: "See? I told you so. They haven't changed one tiny bit. Ma, jaqq, x'hamalli, etc, etc, etc."

Honestly: with that sort of vileness in motion, every single minute of every single day... what hope did 'national reconciliation' ever realistically have?