Something’s gotta give

Take a close look at today's MaltaToday's election survey.  Before you even read the first words, be warned: MaltaToday surveys are far more reliable than other surveys. 

In this survey, the thing that struck me most were the number of 35 to 54-year-olds who support Labour.

It has taken over quarter of a century for those people who were deeply overwhelmed and impressed by Eddie Fenech Adami to cross the border and say: damn it, I'm going to give Muscat a chance.

Working on my book, I could not help but retrace the steps back to those ugly days before 1987, where any good brought about by the Labour government was undone by the corruption and violence perpetrated by the same party's thugs and cronies.

Watching YouTube clips of Fenech Adami addressing parliament after the Tal-Barrani and Raymond Caruana incident in 1986 I couldn't help but cringe at the memory of that terrible moment in Maltese history. I could not help but feel that those times should never be forgotten.

Fenech Adami looked young compared to the ageing members of parliament on his side. But behind him were the young faces - with heads full of hair -who would eventually become ministers: Louis Galea, Michael Falzon, Pierre Muscat and Ninu Zammit.

Facing him the ageing faces of Old Labour: Wistin Abela, Joe Grima and John Dalli (not the same Dalli who would go on to become a Nationalist MP) and of course Lorry Sant.

In 1987, the PN was elected and when it did happen we all imagined that the Labour party would disband.

We sort of believed that the things that are intrinsically bad cannot live on. That something else will be born. I was so angry then that the new PN administration did nothing to confront the horrors of the previous years that I set up - with others - the newspaper Alternattiva.

***

There was no new Labour and we kind of just let things take their own course.

The PN took the initial steps towards changing the country but somehow stumbled along the way - and it has never looked back since.

The blue-eyed boys who were once virginal began to grow more and more arrogant and irascible.

The politicians who had stood for what we understood to be the right thing suddenly began to rot, or at the very least, they started to make serious miscalculations and mistakes. They also promulgated nepotism like the Mintoffian times had.

Fenech Adami on the other hand conveniently forgot to come down on many of the offenders who committed crimes within the police or in the civil service.

Prescription of crimes committed allowed the more corrupt to get away with incrimination and judiciary procedures. Old injustices: The National Bank, the Bical bank and countless expropriation orders were shelved and never seen to.

But perhaps the worst offence in this quarter of a century of PN government was the inability of the Nationalist leaders to open up and kick-start a new style of politics based on meritocracy. There were attempts, but they were quickly disbanded after the Rottweilers at Pieta barked that reconciliation was a buzz word, not a reality.

Everything from the choice of an ambassador to the designation of a public lavatory attendant was tainted by political nepotism.

And in the past few years, the PN departed from the conciliatory politics of Fenech Adami and was usurped by the Gonzi doctrine.

Instead of focusing all his attention on the Labour opposition and a blueprint for the future, the Gonzi cronies used up precious time to eradicate any form of 'opposition' to Lawrence Gonzi.

The end result is the omnipresent siege mentality that you find in the PN for anyone who dares question the leader.  

This has led to widespread dissent in the PN, to the extent that most of Dr Gonzi's time is dedicated to saving his ship from foundering or sinking.

To the common folk, the other very significant factor is the sheer arrogance and hypocrisy of this administration.

People are simply no longer impressed with the PN's negative marketing... to such an extent that attempts to magnify comments by Muscat simply do not stick.

People have apparently decided - or else come to the conclusion that Lawrence Gonzi cannot be taken seriously anymore.

That has come about because of bad politics.

The PM cannot, realistically, blame the media for this 'image'.

Malta's strongest marketing tool - which happens to be State TV - is completely controlled and dominated by Gonzi apologists.

Add to this the spin campaigns and the dirt that has been unleashed - with masterful  precision - against who that need to be 'silenced', through the internet.

The link between these and Castille is difficult to deny.

The power of incumbency is also shocking. Transfers, appointments, consultancies and contracts are used to bring lost sheep closer to the fold.

It has simply not worked.

It starts from the issuing of tenders and more bizarrely to the smaller things such as the appointment of new staff at TVM (Mario Xuereb and Norman Vella are a case in point).

And from the MT survey, the most significant concern, the utilities bill is exactly what drives the campaign for the Labour Party.

The Labour Party - like the PN in the past - bases its campaign (however superficial it may be) on real concerns. The PN, unlike its adversaries, bases its campaigns on its own prejudices.

If the Labour Party has not learnt anything since their long sojourn in the opposition benches, surely the fact that they have emulated the PN style of campaigning is proof that everyone can learn and change.

The PM continues to mention the past.  But if those 35 to 54 year olds have no interest in looking back, the negative campaigning that seems to have overshadowed all his thinking is a big waste of time.

It also reconfirms one observation: that Lawrence Gonzi is a very stubborn man who does not change his mind.

Which means that the only thing that could reverse a swing has to be something dramatic or drastic.

And really and truly, the only spectacular step that could reverse and turn things around would be a change in leadership. One that will prevent all those 35- to 54-year-olds from saying: "Perhaps there is a chance after all."

But this will not happen.

Simon Busuttil and Mario de Marco will not be contesting against each other for the moment.

The Times will continue to play to Mario De Marco's tune and Simon Busuttil will continue to wait.  But no one will question the leadership post before the next election.

Not until the PN loses.

And it will lose, because there is not one step, one sign which indicates that they have learnt a lesson.

Possibly the best example is the way TVM has been hijacked by Where's Everybody?, the company run by individuals who, no matter what, will never convince anyone that their journalism is independent. Pity Owen Bonnici, Justyne Caruana and Marlene Pullicino have - idiotically - chosen to endorse Xarabank.

The only tool left in the PN's arsenal now is to hit back with all they have got.

TVM is one, and negative marketing is another. But people see through TVM and negative marketing is simply making middle-of-the-road people angrier.

The bile and vitriol from the usual bloggers will not change anything. They are so contaminated that nobody really takes them seriously anymore. 

I go back to Fenech Adami's debate with Karmenu MIfsud Bonnici before the 1987 May election.

Here, Fenech Adami was at his best. He turns to KMB and tells him to remember the days they worked together in the Catholic Guild, and to work together and to stop all the insults and bad-mouthing. He calls on KMB to stop the way TVM "ixxandar il-ħniżrijiet" (transmits vile reporting).

Fenech Adami is today, of course, not at the centre of the political campaign. Neither is there anyone who can rival him. Not even his son Beppe, who strikes me as someone who is 'inward looking,' 'not inclusive' and politically stunted.

It is about time the PN realise that the worst thing to do is to engage in more of a negative campaign and to resort to more mudslinging. 

The writing in no longer on the wall, it is now inculcated in the psyche of most Maltese. Gonzi is simply not working.

Something's gotta give.