Blame it on Gonzi and the sleaze machine

An early election is not what the country needs, but Debono has given a name to the sleaze machine that replaced official party media.

Jurgen Balzan 11 January 2012, 12:00am

4 min read

Something rings true of Debonos claim that Gonzi was surrounded by some evil clique, giving a name to a largely unnoticed problem which has characterised Gonzis reign.

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When Lawrence Gonzi and Joseph Muscat took over the leadership of their respective parties, both promised a new way of doing politics. Since their coronation, both leaders and their faithful have given us a brand of politics as new as the New Testament.

And the past days' events have shown us that the only person doing things differently is Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono. His outburst may bring down Gonzi's government, but the reasons behind his abrupt eruption are far more complex than they may seem.

Gonzi's New Year saw him holding two very hot potatoes. The first was to appease Franco Debono and split the justice and home affairs ministry without giving the impression he was giving in to Debono's threats. The second was to regain total control of the situation without burning any bridges.

In his rapid reshuffle, Gonzi followed Debono's advice and split Carm Mifsud Bonnici's ministry, and appointed Chris Said as justice and social policy minister. Gonzi hoped Debono would applaud his decision and finally toe the party line. Instead, he lambasted the reshuffle and declared that Gonzi should resign.

It seems Debono has lost hope in his party altogether. The PN and Gonzi are now trying to isolate Debono further, if that is possible, by calling for his resignation and blaming his outburst on his childish and irrational ambitions to become minister.

But beyond his arrogance and ambition, Debono's outburst is not down solely to his ego-centrism and protagonism. Debono is right about Gonzi and his clique, as he was right about the justice and home affairs ministry, Austin Gatt, Constitutional reform, the administration of justice, party financing and public broadcasting. The blame lies plainly and squarely with Gonzi.

Debono is not the first Nationalist MP to cause a stir since Gonzi's election as party leader in 2004. Gonzi has demonstrated the bad habit of burning bridges. Since taking over the party in March 2004, the party has isolated or soured its relations with a number of its prominent exponents. A Prime Minister should not inform seasoned ministers that they are no longer ministers by SMS. A party leader does not lose control of his party by allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to stand as candidate. He repeatedly committed errors in judgement and demonstrated an inability to read the signs, as in the case of divorce.

But something rings true of Debono's claim that Gonzi was surrounded by some 'evil clique', giving a name to a largely unnoticed problem which has characterised Gonzi's reign. For Gonzi is not only responsible for his actions, but he is responsible for the actions of his chosen few.

Gonzi not only surrounded himself by incompetent 'technocrats' but he also allowed and probably gave his blessing to what the Italians call 'la macchina del fango'. Who dares to oppose government will be delegitimised and have mud thrown at them. The sleaze machine has silently replaced the official party media. Opponents within and outside the party are attacked, ridiculed and torn apart in subtle and less subtle ways. The messenger is delegitimised. The message is ignored. The messenger is left for dead whilst the message is forgotten. Information is manipulated. The sleaze machine obtains private details illicitly and also uses false information to attack the opponent. The machine never attacks the opponent's thoughts or ideas. Irrelevant details on the opponent's personal life or appearance are used to discredit and destroy the opponent's public activity.

This 'new' way of doing politics has nothing to with journalism or democracy. Journalists seek the largest number of details and facts to form an opinion. The sleaze machine only needs one detail, which may be true or false, to destroy its chosen target. The machine is a threat to democracy. The machine creates fear.

Everybody can become an opponent of the sleaze machine. Doctors, academics, criminologists, priests, business leaders, public officials, teachers and politicians live in the terror of being pinpointed as an opponent. They are terrorised of speaking in public or carrying out their job freely. The sleaze machine does not let spectators and citizens make a difference between bona fide errors and premeditated criminal acts. The sleaze machine does not want the people to make a difference between human imperfection and acts of greed and deceit. Indifference is the machine's biggest enemy. Only by defending the attacked and saying we do not care what you are saying can we stop the sleaze machine.

An early election is not what the country really needs right now, but a comatose government is even more useless. Snap elections are not only unnecessary for economic reasons but for political reasons too. The agenda will be heavily distorted by the Franco Debono saga. The country will not be able to make an educated choice between the two parties. Policies and ideas will be overshadowed by anger and resentment.

Now an early election is inevitable and imminent. The sleaze machine will go in overdrive. Labour will probably win. The PN will probably end up changing its leader. The Greens will probably miss out again. The only certainty is that however tumultuous the next few months will be, in reality very little will change.

MORE David Friggieri - The mud-slinging machine

Jurgen Balzan was a MaltaToday reported from 2011 to 2017.

More from Jurgen Balzan

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The thing is in order to get a majority any Tom Dick and Harry will do as it is the first count votes which determine who will win and govern. Both parties have now recognised this as a fact. SO the more candidates you have on each district can only get you a bigger chunk of the votes. In order to stop this status quo we need to act and not just inparlaw fil vojt. Action is needed to help reform our constitution, enable the greens and maybe a new liberal party to flourish and have representation in Parliament . I'm generally a Labour supporter but would like to see a more colourful and a more democratic parliament. Our tiny Island deserves better.

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@Jurgen Balzan. Then why not present a ficticious scenario of an election of chistmas future. The PN agrees to Dr Debono 10 point reform. The PM resigns and takes his clique with him. The no confidence vote is overturned and Joseph Muscat ends up with the egg in his face while a new PN rises like a phoenix out of the ashes and initiates a major restructure of our constitution... and win the next election wtih an overwhelming majority. Oh, I almost forgot...the AD is represented for the first time in history.

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@Skocciz. Nothing is set in stone. However, if nothing changes it is not symptomatic of Labour but of the Maltese political class.

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Good article with an unexpected anti climax in quoting the usual bla bla bla of nothing will change under Labour. How can you be so sure of this?

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FTakru li taħt Gonzipn u taħt l-UE big brother qiegħed jissemma kull telefonata, jaqra kull e-mail, fax, sms li tibgħatu u l-komunikazzjoni kollha li inthom tagħmlu. Hekk ordnat l-UE u hekk qiegħed jagħmel Gonzipn. Tridu tibqgħu taħt il-ħakma dittatorjali big brother ta' Gonzipn u ta' l-UE?

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@not amused. There is always no better time than now to hold elections and sort things out. And at this point there is no way back. A government in deep coma is no good for democracy and the economy. So elections have to be held. Whether things will be sorted out or not is another thing. @HalfEUCitizen. Very much like the 2008 election, in the absence of an overshadowing issue such as EU membership, the forthcoming election is an opportunity to hold a mature public debate on which parties have the best policies and which is the best party or parties to carry the country in modernity. Instead of discussing reforms in broadcasting, the electoral system, party financing, migration etc we will discuss Franco Debono, Gonzi’s and Muscat’s responsibility and opportunism and the customary last minute scandal. Ironically for the sake of democracy now is a time for stronger political parties, closer to the people and with proper internal debate.

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Interesting article but the conclusions do not convince. I cannot think of a better time for an election in view of the amount of controversies surrounding the present administration. Instead of getting things sorted out, new conflicting issues keep emerging and this administration is more concerned with trying to ride the storm rather than to tackle the important issues facing the nation. When the situation gets that far, turning to a new chapter becomes absolutely necessary. The Franco Debono Saga is simply the catalyst of a chain reaction, which has been bubbling to explode ages ago. I cannot recall an election which wasn’t distorted by some issue or other while anger and resentment has been pack and parcel of our political scene since time immemorial. Unfortunately, the Parties sleaze machines have always been a reality in our way to do politics but with more sophisticated communication means, they have become more potent and destructive. After all, the reputation that Politics is a dirty business is no coincidence and has been steadily fuelled by all political parties with the media contributing its fair share. Of course GonziPN is a concoction of a small select group which dictate policies and pull strings. A bit naive from Dr Debono when he believed that he was dealing with just a person i.e. the PM, but at least he realized just in time that one needs to cut the head of the medusa to win the day.

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The circle of friends so dominant in the EFA regime has now, under GonziPN, turned into an 'evil clique'. Thanks EFA and Gonzi for your very strong Chritian values. EFA you have left and Gonzi you are leaving behind you a legacy of sleeze like this country never experienced before.

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I beg to disagree on this comment: "The country will not be able to make an educated choice between the two parties. Policies and ideas will be overshadowed by anger and resentment." If anything election campaigns are used to whip up emotions, distort facts and make people forget what they have been through - all the deceit and lies and corruption and broken promises. This approach has been the stock in trade for PN for many years. I agree that PL have nothing to offer - but GonziPN needs to go to hell in the meantime!

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A network of evil - using the country to carry out illegal but lucrative business without any risk of punishment. Using undemocratic and illegal methods to spy and destroy on anyone who stands in the way.

Alex Grech •

spot on! i also thought of this. all this saga is a result for the over-reaction of Gonzi and his 'sleazy machine' following Franco Debono consistent critisism throughout these last months. i've heard Franco Debono said once... we are a party that won the general election with only 1,500 votes, lost the MEP with over 30,000 and also lost the divorce referendum, do you expect no form of critisim within the party?! that's the question Gonzi and his 'sleazy machine' should answer!

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@maltese i prefer Pijunieri and dejma than ETc, part timers and cut off the registry. With Dejma and Pijunieri they had a decent wage , decent leave , sick leave, with todays being a part timer its a job.LOl, at ETC as supposed to do a course is just little pay for hard work, and what about if an unemployed being does not turn up for a course or to register , si quickly cut off the unemployment list, we have i bet 40% more people as unemployed,If labour goes in power I bet Pn starts saying that there is plenty of unemployed people and would include ETC and partimers as unemployed , Dejma people and Pijunieri all have pensions now, part timers would not, they cannot even buy a house

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Your article is spot on. Thank-you for rekindling my belief in the Maltese.

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@drinu, not only the electoral law but also the party financing law which upset Franco Debono so much. PL has for years on end clamouring for a law to be formulated, discussed and applied but for obvious reasons PN/gonziPN have procrastinated about it until it surfaced recently.The draft that they proposed was refused and criticised by the EU. For knowledge sake, the draft was not the one Franco Debono had worked on.

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While I would say it is a good article I cannot understand why you mention JM in your first paragraph.If by sleaze machine you had in mind TYOM it is not a PL sanctioned blogg unlike others you mentioned whose authors even happen to be in the strategic propaganda machine of gonzipn.I hope you know what I mean.

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Your article is spot on. Thank-you for rekindling my belief in the Maltese.

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The sleaze machine, whose President lives in Bidnija, has offended Christian sentiment with her latest on her Running Vomit and Diarrhea by using and making mock the Crusifix. Where is Gonzi's conscience now? It pricked him badly when discussing divorce - so much so that he voted agisnt the will of the people- but is ok with the the desperate -plate- throwing -houswife from Bidnija making fun of the Crusifix- dear to many Catholics - in order to get back at Franco Debono. The means justifies the end for Gonzi. The sleaze machine will stop at nothing to cling to power. I do not think that Franco Debono called them 'evil'for nothing.

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@Mr. Jurgen Balzan: Once every so often, I come across a piece here that makes me sit back, focus on what I'm reading, and really appreciate the synthesis of the argument brought forward. This is one great piece.

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Its useless comparing the PN to the PL. WIth all its defects PN has always managed the economy better than the Pl. History shows this. The PL created the 'korpi' in the 80's - that was their best result.

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Hopefully the PL will try to get round a table and change the much required electoral law!

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The PL is still untried and untested in this regards. Hopefully when the PL replaces the PN as the 'establishment' it will not recur to the same tactics.

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Jurgen, you are being very unfair with the PL. One cannot even start to compare the sense of team work within the Labour Party compared to the mess the PN is in. So how can you get the PL into the equation? Only PN apologists use the phrase that 'they are all the same'. We know that we are different!

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Well written. But maybe what Dr Debono is doing know will change both parties for the better and your last part of the article "The only certainty is that however tumultuous the next few months will be, in reality very little will change." won't apply. And maybe when Dr. Muscat opened up his speech with "Everyone is welcome" he was referring to what Dr. Debono is so angry about. We maltese have to learn to see GREY, accept critiscm and work out differences.

Joseph Sant •

A very brave, cogent and accurate reading of the situation. However one must not be so pessimistic. I don't think the majority of people are any longer prepared to take any nonsense and I think they will demand a new brand of politics. They already did so in the Divorce Referendum. It is up to the media to reinforce this new public desire. Things can change if each and everyone of us works for that change. It only takes so many individual steps to bring about the much needed 'revolution'.