Hell hath no fury… like a barman scorned

It is said to have started when a former barman of the Labour Party Attard club, told a Court - where he faces charges following a fight he had with local councillor - that there was a recording in which Labour deputy leader Toni Abela explained that he tried to quash a police report on the incident so as to avoid bad press.

Part of this recording was then released on YouTube. In this recording, Abela was heard saying that he had asked a Labour-leaning policeman not to take further action after an incident at the Attard club. It was obvious that this was just the beginning, with the PN media machine using this recording to accuse Abela of undue pressure on a police officer. On his part, Abela insisted that his comments on the recording did not refer to the incident that led to the criminal case that was still 'sub judice', but was about another incident that led to the barman having reporting to the police that someone from Labour's Attard Local Committee had change the locks of the bar and deprived him of access to his property. Abela insisted that this was not a criminal case and any report on a civil issue could be withdrawn.

The fuss made by the PN media on this small incident provoked Abela to reply so many times that it was possible for the PN media machine to quote him selectively and show him to be in contradiction with himself.  Amongst other things, Abela said that he had not reported the Attard club incident to the Labour leader as he had borne the responsibility of taking any necessary action himself.

It was a classic pre-planned strategy that was intended to lead to the undermining of the credibility of Toni Abela and eventually even of the Labour leader himself.

A second excerpt of the recording was then released, again on YouTube. This time, Abela was heard mentioning another incident when 'bad press' was avoided after an allegedly illegal substance, referred to as a 'blokka bajda' (white cube) was found in a club kitchen and subsequently thrown in a rubbish bin. Abela is heard saying he did not report the incident to the police because the evidence had been disposed of, and the filing of a report would have got the club committee in unnecessary trouble.

Once again, the PN media machine pounced on this second excerpt of the recording, asking Muscat whether he was aware of the drugs incident: Muscat replied in the negative.

The PN then released copies of a letter that a former barman of the Safi Labour Party club had sent to Muscat, showing that the Labour leader was aware of the allegations about drug abuse in Labour's Safi club at least one month after it happened in 2009.

Muscat was branded a liar by the PN propaganda machinery and Labour was declared to be 'morally bankrupt and morally corrupt' by none other than PN deputy leader Simon Busuttil.

The whole mess is the result of two barmen in two different Labour Party clubs resenting the disciplinary action taken against them and resorting to giving information to the PN - information that would be stored only to be used during the electoral campaign.

Muscat defended himself by saying that when he had said he knew nothing about a club incident, he was referring to what had occurred in Attard and not to what had happened in Safi.

Whether the two barmen are devils or saints is irrelevant to the PN media machine, as is the possibility that the two barmen are simply wreaking vengeance on those who did not let them do whatever they wanted to do, as most club barmen (of both political parties) unfortunately tend to want to do.

Toni Abela and Joseph Muscat can never justify their not reporting to the police any possible criminal activities in Labour clubs, but can the PN justify abetting those who were allegedly guilty of these activities and who want to get their back on those who disciplined them?

One possibility is that the two scorned barmen were 'prima facie' in the wrong and hence Abela was correct in taking internal disciplinary measures but wrong in omitting to report the cases to the police. On the other hand, if the two barmen were innocent and they were wronged by the Labour deputy leader (and hence they deserve to be defended by the PN) there was no alleged crime to be reported to the police. The PN cannot stand on the fence and attack both sides at the same time.

Abela cannot justify taking action internally without reporting to the police. At the same time, the PN cannot justify attacking Abela for refraining from reporting the barmen to the Police while taking the side of the barmen who must have supplied them with the information.

There are no two ways about it: neither Labour nor the PN spin can avoid the contradiction in which both parties have found themselves in. Whichever is the correct version, one comes to the same conclusion: both the PN and the Labour Party are at loggerheads not only with each other but also at loggerheads with common sense.

This is the level to which the current electoral campaign has degenerated.

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Mudslinging galore

When the dust is settled and Malta goes back to normality after the election results, political analysts who will attempt to find a reason justifying the extraordinary length of the current electoral campaign will find it very difficult to conclude that this was a brilliant move by whoever thought of it.

I am constantly getting the impression that people have decided which way they want to vote and the electoral campaign has hardly impinged on this decision. The real positive aspect of the campaign has fizzled out and the discourse has degenerated into a shameful mudslinging contest. People are not being told to vote for whoever has the better ideas for the future but the tacit intimation is that they should vote for whoever is the least unreliable.

Many are fed up of this disgraceful farrago and they are not even bothering to follow the arguments, generally switching their television sets to foreign channels while the two parties keep on preaching to the converted who wallow in the supposed short-sightedness and moral bankruptcy of  the other side, little realising that both sides are in the same foundering boat. 

I understand that both parties have even more lumps of mud at their disposal and that these will be 'utilised' in the remaining 12 days of the campaign. It is incredible that our political leaders have not realised that what will remain in the minds of the people when this puerile aspect of the contest is over is the impression that all politicians are necessarily and essentially irresponsible, dirty and power-hungry.

And this is a big disservice that our country and its political class surely do not deserve.

Unfortunately, it is going to get even worse before it stands a chance of getting better.