What's worse than being in denial?

Denial is a coping mechanism that gives you time to adjust to distressing situations –but staying in denial can interfere with your ability to tackle challenges. 

Well, that’s the official medical explanation, anyhow.

This week we had our fair share of slicing up Simon Busuttil and concluding that his appreciation of the situation is detached from reality.

No sooner had the PN lost another humiliating defeat than it was back to its usual habit of thinking that nothing had really changed. Hitting out once again at the fact that the Henley contract, was symptomatic of this all-too-common tendency within the Nationalist Party. 

Simon Busuttil, it seems, has no remorse, and he was back to blaming Labour’s victory on PBS – claiming the national broadcaster was controlled by the state – and the fact that Labour had complete supremacy in billboard marketing.

Now, I’m making a deliberate effort to empathise with the PN’s arguments. But to fully comprehend them, let’s take a closer look at each and every one of them.

On Henley, yes… they are right in asking for the publication of the documents in question – though when in government, the PN refused to divulge any contract. Does it then make sense to continue harping on this? 

Most of their leading members, including newly elected MEP Therese Comodini Cachia, are directly or indirectly involved in legal firms which are actively seeking attempting to entice foreigners to buy Maltese citizenship.

Worse, as far as Comodini Cachia is concerned: she represented a company that was in direct competition with Henley & Partners, and which is now claiming discrimination.

When it comes to interpreting the election result, Busuttil’s arguments are weak and somewhat puerile.

He blames the billboards. 

Yes, I would agree that there is no control over where and who puts up billboards – in fact, for some absurd reason the Nationalist administration always refused to establish a policy on billboards. And the Labourites apparently have no intention of changing anything on billboard policy.

But really, does anyone know of anyone who voted for Labour or PN as a direct result of a billboard?

Busuttil goes on to say that PBS is in the hands of the state.

But even this is unfair. Is the newsroom under Natalino Fenech and Reno Bugeja the same? 

Does Busuttil really believe that Reno Bugeja is doing a bad job, and that Natalino Fenech used to do a great one?

Is Simon Busuttil arguing that the PBS of today – having on board such a varied line-up of programmes which includes Reporter, Times Talk, Andrew Azzopardi, Reno Bugeja and Peppi Azzopardi – are controlled by the state?

Does he by any chance recall ever seeing that weather vane by the name of Lou Bondi, who was keen to espouse his one-sided and viscerally anti-Labour Party programme? 

Simon Busuttil is simply clutching at straws.

He blames the financial woes of the PN, which somehow cannot match the liquid nature of Labour’s finances.

Again, who is the blame for the PN’s financial state? Surely it was not the public or the Labour party. In 25 years of government, the PN had every opportunity to create commercial opportunities for itself. It certainly created plenty for its top officials and sycophants, who were recipients of countless contracts, direct orders and by tender.

None of them it seems cared to donate a fraction of their income to the party they love so much.

In the end most people enter politics less out of love for any political party, but rather because of their huge ego.

I am past sweating for a political party. I did my little part 25 years ago with the Greens, which I co-founded. I think that even here it is time for the Greens to reinvent themselves and start thinking about occupying a different segment of the public’s concerns. Perhaps Michael Briguglio – with all his problems of vanity – can return to do some mending.

But in the case of the Nationalists and more importantly in the case of Simon Busuttil, there is a more serious concern. Because if the PN fails, our democracy will be weakened. 

We need a strong opposition, one that offers an alternative.

Interviewed by Jurgen Balzan in MaltaToday last Sunday, Busuttil did not even have the humility of insisting to ask for a vote of confidence from the PN counselors. Instead he said that he would not chicken out and that he had received many messages of support. Since when do we gauge confidence by the number of text messages received?

Likewise, we are all aware of the torrent of discontent by Nationalists, including a very direct message to Simon Busuttil: to leave.

I could be wrong, but I believe I’m not. Busuttil’s refusal to change tack will only mean that his party will suffer another humiliating defeat.

I have this funny feeling that trying to convince Busuttil otherwise is next to impossible. Perhaps he should be read out the words of philosopher Lao Tzu: ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.’

That noble step could very well mean moving on and allowing someone else to run the show.

***

On the flip side, the landslide victory for Muscat should not only serve to bolster his ego. Never before has a Maltese prime minister and a political party been in such a dominant position. 

This would an opportune time to address those major themes that would make this administration different from any other. I have taken the liberty of noting them:

1)        To make state school education better or at least on at par with private schooling. Suffice to say that government ministers and the prime minister should feel self-assured enough to send their children to a state school.

2)        To provide a national health care system that does away with our dependence on the private clinic for a quick, efficient and caring system.

3)        To bring civil service and government departments in line with the private sector and ban summer half-days.

4)        To lengthen school hours in state and private schools so as to allow children to finish their schoolwork during school hours and to enjoy quality time with their parents.

5)        To introduce a hoarding tax on secondary properties to encourage sales, or renting and to redirect the building industry in renovation projects.

6)        To give this country a greener look, by establishing more green zones in cities and pedestrian areas, and address the shabbiness of many of our town centres.

7)        By addressing the traffic gridlock by injecting new money and concepts in public transport with innovative new ideas which may include the use of metro or underground transport.

So there goes my little manifesto for change. Guess it’s nice that I’m an opinion columnist, not a politician.